scotthodge.org

Ladies and Gentlemen....

Catalyst has been crankin' leadership inspiration and innovation for ten years. 

Ten years. 

Dang.  And a lot of lives have been impacted because of it.  Including mine.  As a matter of fact, it was at the very first Catalyst Conference that my world was turned upside down as a young leader who was longing for something new and different.  It jacked me up BAD.  And I'll never forget sitting in the balcony at Northpoint crying my eyes out....knowing that I would never be the same.

Catalyst 2010 is coming up in five months - October 6-8 in Atlanta.  If you've never been, you need to go. 

Two speakers that I'm proud to announce for this year's lineup are two of my favorite guys - Mike Foster & Jud Wilhite.  

Those are two reasons in and of themselves to get to Catalyst in October.  Seriously.  I love Mike and Jud's hearts. God's hand is on them.

If you're not familiar with their movement called People Of The Second Chance, go check it out and catch the beautiful spirit and heart behind it. 

The new Catalyst website is now live.  Go check it out.  Oh.....and they are giving away an iPad every week between now and Catalyst.  Dang.  I hope I win one.  (Do I quality Brad?)

Book Recommendations: CHANGE

 
Was asked in my Exponential session for a few book recommendations on the topic of church and organizational change. I've created an Amazon a-store where you can browse and purchase any of my recommendations.

LINK

Congrats....Catalyst ONE DAY winners!

First of all - a disclaimer...  I did not personally select the winners for the Catalyst ONE DAY tickets.  Had some help from a couple of Orchard staff peeps, who chose for reasons beyond my knowledge.....

Jason Petermann (@JasonPetermann) from Witchita, Kansas

Bliss Spillar (@BlissSpillar) from somewhere around Virginia (I think??)
 

Congratulations Jason & Bliss!  Hope to meet up with you at Catalyst ONE DAY in March!

Special Mention to Dru Fess, who I almost offered to purchase a ticket for as long as he would promise to never do anything like this again.  ;-)

Don't forget to register for Catalyst ONE DAY here.  And oh yeah... Early Bird deadline is THIS Thursday, January 28th!

Thanks to everyone who participated! 

UNLEASH 2010

Pastors....church leaders - it doesn't take very long to slip into "comfort" mode, does it?  Believe me, I know how it is.  If we're not careful, we get pulled too much into the day to day "stuff" and before we know it, our thinking and dreaming begins to decline....we gradually slip into maintenance mode.....and next thing we know, our focus has become more about micromanaging and maintaining than it has about the things that really matter most.

The solution?  Well for me, one of the things that always seems to help me regain focus and vision is getting AWAY from the familiar and getting around people who are thinking....dreaming....and doing things that are bigger (and different) than what I'm doing.

So here's an opportunity to do that.  Unleash.   

It's hosted by my friend Perry Noble and his team at NewSpring Church.  (If you don't know much about  NewSpring or their story, you need to.  It's evident God's hand is on NewSpring.  He's blessing it and people's lives are being changed.)

Unleash is NewSpring's dream of sharing what they're learning on their journey with fellow pastors & church leaders across America.  And pastors, listen...this isn't about you or your church becoming a "NewSpring" clone.  This is about seeing first hand how a local church is doing an incredible job of being who God has called them to be for the people God has best positioned them to reach.  And seeing that done really well....is worth a trip - especially if you and your team need to be yanked out of your comfort zones and given a fresh dose of inspiration and encouragement. 

Here's the link.  Check it out.  It's happening on March 4th, 2010 in Andersen, South Carolina. (BTW....it's only $59/person.)

I'm calling it SHOCKTOBER.

Ok, so there are around 2.4 billion things that I'm excited about right now.  And I seriously feel like I need to pinch myself just to make sure this is all real.  Here's a taste.

STORY - It happens next week!  Can't wait.  Around 1,700 pastors, communicators, church leaders, writers, speakers, etc will converge for two days to learn and be inspired by an amazing line up of storytellers -   people like Dave Gibbons, Ed Young, Donald Miller, Nancy Beach, Mike Foster, Stacy Spencer, Chris Seay, and others.  The first day happens on Wednesday, October 28th at the beautiful Paramount Theater in downtown Aurora.  The next day will be workshops (sold out!) happening at The Orchard.  Honored to host and be a part of STORY!

CULTIVATE - Seriously, Chicagoland is the place to be in October.  Cultivate is a highly interactive, conversational, collaborative un-conference that's all about church communication.  It's happening the day before STORY.  And the lineup of facilitators is just sick.  Wow.

DAVE GIBBONS - We are honored to have Dave speak at The Orchard's gatherings the weekend following STORY.  Not only is Dave a good friend, but he's someone God has used to impact my life in some pretty significant ways.  I'm thrilled that our church community gets to hear and learn from him!

THE NEW & IMPROVED....ORCHARD - The Orchard has had an extreme makeover!  Through the amazing "pro bono" generosity of fellow Orchard tribal members, Dawn & Keith Baldwin (Aspire One), we have a new logo and amazzzing new website that will go live later THIS WEEK.  I'll talk more about this in a later post...  STAY TUNED!

LOVE.SERVE.GIVE. - It's The Orchard's GLOCAL outreach opportunities this winter.  More about this later as well... But just know that we are going to have some amazing opportunities to bring beauty and hope to people locally in our city and globally in places like Uganda, Thailand, and El Salvador.  

ORCHARD ART INITIATIVE - Too much to type, but The Orchard is turning into an art gallery starting this month.  Our campus will be filled with art from local artists.  Huge dream come true, but only the beginning...

Ok, there's more, but I my fingers hurt and I need to study.  OUT.

The Nines - SCHEDULE

Just noticed that Leadership Network released a preliminary schedule for tomorrow's Nine's Conference. 

Love that I get to share the first 9AM slot with four friends - Troy Gramling, Mark Beeson, Anne Jackson, and Dave Ferguson! 

So far, there are over 9,000 people registered.  If you haven't registered, you still can here.

It's going to be quite a day.  Over 70 speakers scheduled.  Can you say FIREHOSE!?!?

Here's the schedule (all times CST):

9AM — Troy Gramling, Mark Beeson, Anne Jackson, Dave Ferguson, Scott Hodge

10AM — Perry Noble, Stacy Spencer

11AM — Dino Rizzo, Nancy Beach, Steven Furtick, Reggie McNeal

12PM — Craig Groeschel, Leonard Sweet, Greg Surratt, Jon Tyson

1PM — Margaret Feinberg, Larry Osborne, Matt Carter, Pete Wilson

2PM — Neil Cole, Reggie Joiner, JD Greear

3PM — Mark Batterson, Dan Kimball, Mark DeYmaz

4PM — Jud Wilhite, Brian McLaren, Bob Roberts, Rick McKinley, John Ortberg

5PM — Alan Hirsch, John Bishop, Toby Slough, Ed Stetzer

6PM — Mark Driscoll, Darrin Patrick, Brad Powell

7PM — Darrin Whitehead, Brian Bloye

8PM — Eric Bryant, Nancy Ortberg, Rick Warren

09.09.09

September 9th, 2009 at 9AM (CST)

Almost 9,000 Registered. 

Are you?

Driving Discussion About Story

Driving. Story Chicago from scotthodge on Vimeo.

StoryChicago.com

a short story about story

Story Chicago - Paramount Theater, Aurora from scotthodge on Vimeo.

Story Conference

August!

What the heck happened to summer!?  Holy smokes...  It's August.  But that's ok because this is going to be a great month!  Here's a few things coming up that I'm very, very excited about!

First....there's the Echo Conference.  It's this week in Dallas.  Mike Jones and I are headed there tomorrow.  And not only am I excited to be a part of the media/church/tech panel with my friends Bobby Gruenewald, Carlos Whittaker, and Cynthia Ware but I'm also look forward to hearing & learning from people like Phil Visher, Mark Steele, Phil Cooke, and Ben Arment! 

 

Then next week, I'll be heading to Orlando where I'll be helping host the Influence Conference!  Speakers will include: Mark Batterson, Reggie Joiner, Beth Moore, Keith Craft, and Ed Young.  We are also going to be having post-session Q&A's that you can be a part of.  More on that later...

After Influence, a couple days with the family at Disney World....and then........the thing that I'm MOST EXCITED ABOUT.........

The Orchard's annual BBQ & BAPTISM happening on Sunday, August 9th!

And here's a taste of what that's all about in case you missed it a couple weeks ago...

2008 Orchard Baptism Video from The Orchard on Vimeo.

Want to sign up to be baptized?  Go here!

It's going to be a great August!