Catalyst - Session 3

Session 3
Matt Chandler
Family Traits

The church is doing to much and isn't building it's muscles where it needs to. It's like the muscle man who is pumping iron and building his upper body, but doesn't pay attention to his legs. You gotta do some squats sometimes, otherwise the heavy upper body will just topple. Looks great on the outside, but the inside is lacking. Matthew 5:13

Matt Chandler is the head pastor of a church that has grown from 160-some people to something like 5,000 in just a few years. The numbers are great, but that can't be what we're satisfied with. In fact, numbers growth like that can really be a detriment - especially that fast.

Our culture is preoccupied with information. Too much information leads us only to mechanical growth. Sometimes no growth at all. Such a simple statement, yet it really struck a chord with me… maybe because it's my current profession? His point is that we spend so much time acquiring information, but that we don't really do much with it. How do we put it into application. Nor do we process it enough. The point of information is transformation.

"We don't need a new revelation, we need to understand what's already been revealed."

He also pointed out the obvious, but it's good to hear again, that every Christian stumbles and falls. And when we fall, there is grace from God. "He doesn't love the future us, he loves us right now!" It's really good news.

Another issue we got as Americans is that we live in a culture based on speed. But spiritual growth and transformation is not fast, it's a CRAWL. Matt likened spiritual growth to a traffic jam. It is so slow that you can't feel it, but you can measure it over time. The same thing with spiritual growth. Most of the time you can't feel it