Yesterday I had a meeting with another pastor friend of mine with the intent of catching up a bit, but also with the intent to talk about the future of Catalyst & the future for Kristin & me (he knows that someday we want to plant in Indianapolis). But as we sat there talking, I started to think about how fast this year has gone by.

Honestly, it’s gone by as fast as any other year, the days are just as long as they as always are, & it wasn’t even a leap year so it actually went by quicker than some years. That’s all beside the point though. What I’m getting at this past year has been a year full of new experiences & growth which has makes it seem like last Christmas was 6 months ago.

In the last year, my responsibilities at Catalyst have changed & I’ve stretched myself in nearly every area. I’ve gone from co-leading the creative team to also leading a group of volunteers that make our Monday night Friendship Bible Study class possible. In leading that group I’ve learned how to effectively lead people who may not be as bought in as I am & who may cause loads of frustration at times. It’s all part of leadership & I’m thankful I’ve been given the opportunity to stretch myself in this way.

When it comes to other areas where I’ve been stretched, the clearest is taking Catalyst video production to the next level, particularly with the videos we produced for our HEREAFTER series that was all about heaven, hell, & the end times click here for videos.

As quickly as the year has gone by, it’s amazing to look back & see all the growth that I’ve experienced personally as well. In the past 12 months, my relationship with God has grown to a much deeper level where I’m falling more in love with the scriptures & also the person of Christ.

The past year has been a great year for Kristin & I, & for Catalyst, & I firmly believe that the growth we have experienced in every area has come from your faithful prayers & encouragement. We cannot thank you enough for all that you sacrifice in order to bless Kristin & me. We are more grateful than I could express in words. Thank you so very much for the investment that you’ve made in us & in the work that God is going through Catalyst here in Madison County & all over the world.

Merry Christmas.

If you’ve been staying up to date with what’s going on at Catalyst, you know that we’re experiencing an incredible amount of blessing right now when it comes to both spiritual & numerical growth. In fact we’re experiencing such a great amount of numerical growth that our kids’ areas are bursting at the seams, & the amount of space in the auditorium isn’t too far behind. So because of this, we’ve been having talks about launching a second service or trying to find another space that will be more suitable for then numbers we currently have & future growth.

So, with excitement, I would like to tell you that this coming spring, we are going to make the move to the middle school here in Pendleton. The auditorium will allow for substantial growth as will the kids’ areas. Because this new space allow for us to grow by greater numbers,=t it will also afford us to opportunity to stay here until we are ready for a permanent location. With a larger area for a lobby & larger environment spaces, meeting at the allow us to grow for years to come. Now, as exciting as this is, one of most exciting parts about it is that the cost for renting the middle school as opposed to the elementary school where we are right now, is only going to be around $20 more a week.

Clearly, God has had his hand working in all of this. Nine weeks ago, there was another church meeting in the middle school, now they have their own building in Fortville. Nine weeks ago, we were beginning to realize just how important it was that we figure out what we were going to do to accommodate the growth we’re being blessed with right now. It’s amazing how God works for the good of his people as we continue to follow his leading trusting that he is going to work everything out for his greater plan.

I ask that as we figure out just how we’re going to make this move that you pray for all of Catalyst & the leadership specifically, that you give us the wisdom & discernment we need to make this move happen in the most effective way possible. I cannot thank you enough for your support encouragement. Everyone one of you is a great blessing to both Kristin & I, & to Catalyst. I thank you from the depths of my heart for your partnership & sacrifice.

Blessings.

This past Sunday night, we had a Catalyst staff team meeting where Chris told this story.

There is a woman who attends Catalyst who has been a Christian for most of her life. This woman, is a very mature Christian. One day, she was having a conversation with her mother, who is a public high school teacher, & told her not only about a devotional she had just finished, but about the generosity that we practice at Catalyst.

If you’ve not yet been to Catalyst, then you probably don’t know that we give Bibles away. We offer them & give them away each week because we believe that in order to help people take the next steps, sometimes the first steps, that mean putting materials in people’s hands. So we purchase Bibles, good quality study Bibles, for the sole purpose of getting rid of them.

As this woman told her mother about the generosity that we practice, her mother made a decision. She decided not only that she was going to look into this devotional that her daughter told her about, but that she was also going to buy 5 copies to give to others. So, she took these 5 copies of this devotional to school & simply put them on the shelf in the back of her classroom, & at the beginning of class she told her students that if anyone wanted a book for free, “they’re on the shelf in the back, feel free to take one if you want it.” Before her class was over, to her surprise, all the books were gone. That night, she decided to go buy more copies & the next day, she showed up with 20 more copies of this devotional & she offered them to her class again, & again, the students jumped on the opportunity.

Not only did her students jump on the free devotionals, they asked if they could spend the rest of class reading them. So, she agreed & told the students to just finish out the period reading quietly. After she finished saying this, her students said, “No, we want to read them out loud.”

As Chris told this story on Sunday night, everyone in the room was simply floored. Not only at the fact that a public school teacher offered these books to her students, again the students only took them IF THEY WANTED THEM. As I’ve told you more times than I can count, God is doing great things at Catalyst every Sunday morning, & through Catalyst in the communities of southern Madison County. But, God is not limited to working with specific distances from the church because the church, is not a building, it’s the people of God.

God has started to use our basic practices to inspire his children in other places to do what they can to partner with God wherever they are. God has been doing great things from the very beginning of Catalyst & he continues to surprise us by what he is using us for.

Thanks for stopping by & for all your support, encouragement, & prayers as Kristin & I, & Catalyst, continue to follow God leading. I ask that you continue to pray that we will remain open to his leading & his word.

Also, I want to remind you that I pray for each of you on a regular basis. All of you are a great blessing to Kristin & me.

Blessings.

As you can probably guess, from recent updates, my life is a little crazy right now. Catalyst is growing like crazy, our Monday night FBS class is back up & running, plus I’m working on support raising for this upcoming year. Needless to say, there is a lot on my plate right now. Anyway, in the midst of all of this, God saw that I clearly needed a reminder that he has called me to all of this, that he has called to be a part of something great & that he meant this for me from the very beginning.

The way he’s been reminding me of this recently is both through his word, Jeremiah 1.^5-10 in particular, & also through a specific Greek word.

Now, I took two semesters of Greek in college & that was it, so I’m no Greek scholar by any means. But if there is one thing I can, it’s look up a word read a definition. And the word that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately is the word ἅγιος” (pronounced: hagios). This word literally means, “set apart to or by God, consecrated; holy, morally pyre, upright”.

It’s a word that God has constantly been using to remind that I’ve been designed & called for something greater.

Greater than what I think I’m capable of.

Greater than what I think I’m called to.

Greater than the best life I could possibly live without him.

Here’s the thing though, each of us are called to this kind of life. Each of is called to something great in our own right. For some it’s raising kids to be world changing followers of Christ, for others it’s to be business executives that refuse to sink to dishonest business practices & are committed to giving to God a portion of what he blesses them with.

For me, I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God has called to exactly where I am right now. And while I only have an idea of where he has called me to in the future, I can take comfort in the fact that he has called me to something specific. He has called me to something great. And when I go through seasons of doubt; doubting my call, doubting my giftedness, or doubting my understanding of God’s call I can take refuge in the fact that I have been set apart by God. From the very beginning he has has plan in place for my life & for yours.

I may be taking some liberties with the definition I shared with you, but I don’t see each of us as being “set apart to or by God.” The way I see it, when this word is used to describe God’s people anyway, is that we are set apart both for & by God.

He is the master author of eternity. And in the end, there is no other outcome than what he has set his mind on.

So, that’s what God is communicating to me right now, relentlessly.

Something else I would like to share with you is this. Tuesday is usually my day off & this past week, I needed to be a bit of creating for myself for the sake of my own soul. I needed to create something that had nothing to with church & that was completely me. So I sat down at my computer opened up Photoshop & started to create, & this is what came out of it. Don’t ask me to explain how it all came to be, but as I worked on it this is what emerged & when I was done (almost done), the only thing missing was the word in the lower corner. Take it for what it’s worth, but this was something that God clearly needed to communicate to me & I think maybe others need to hear it too.

As always, thanks for you constant prayer & encouragement. I was reminded this morning how greatly Kristin & I are blessed to be surrounded by such a great support structure.

Blessings.

As you’ve probably gathered from recent posts & from the inconsistency in how often I post, things at Catalyst are keeping us all pretty busy. We’re growing like crazy & we’re seeing God do great work in the lives of people every week.

Now, I know the title of this post seems to be a little audacious in its claim, but you’ll see what I mean in a little bit. That being said, let me say this as well…I do not claim to understand the way God works in every situation; what I’m starting talking about here is how God has been working in my life the past few weeks.

Over the past month, I’ve been dealing with more & more stress simply because of timing, the timing of multiple things needing my attention all at the same time. Things like: a special worship experience with nearly 400 people & making sure that everything went off without a hitch, a vision casting series where I put together 3D projection graphics & videos & building an 8ft x 24ft wall with a total of 768 holes cut in it for light to shine through for the same week, our Monday night Bible study kicking off for the fall semester, Chris being out-of-town for two consecutive weekends giving me the opportunity to take the lead for Sunday (fortunately we’ve got great volunteers who know exactly what they’re doing…at least they do even if I just have to fake it), & while all of this is happening I’m working on support raising for my third year as a full-time staff member with Catalyst. Needless to say, I’ve got a lot going on right now that has stressed me out, pushed me closer to edge of my sanity, but has forced me grow in my leadership ability.

So, how does God work in the midst of all this that’s going on?

Does he make it easy for me?

No.

Does he take some of  the biggest things off my plate so I can focus on everything else?

No.

What does he do?

He takes the first week of our new series & tells me that I need to worry less & rest more.

To which my response is, “Seriously? That’s what you want me to do? You want me to slow down & not worry about how everything is going to get finished on time?”

To which I imagine him responding, “Uhh…yeah…yeah I do.”

So the way I came to realize all this is through the lack of sleep I’ve had because of worrying about some of this & also through the fact that I often find myself thinking about one of these aspects while I’m working on other things. Every time I caught myself worrying about it though, I thought to myself that worrying accomplishes absolutely nothing, other than keeping me from what I need to be focusing on at the time. Well, now that there is a light at the end of the tunnel with all this extra stuff I have going on, I finally learned what I think God was trying to teach me, this past Monday night.

This past Monday night, we re-launched our Friendship Bible Study, the Bible study I head up for adults with developmental disabilities. So, while I had been stressed about this & several other things I had on my plate, I knew that there was nothing that I could really do about it, I just had to accept that the time was coming for it to get started again & prepare the best that I could for it. So that’s what I did.

Then we get to the facility where this class meets & everything started to fall into place. Set up went just how it was supposed to, students showed up early because they were so excited about getting back to class, the new volunteers took to the class like champs, there was great energy in the room the entire night. As I sat there running the projection during our worship time, which is quite a site to see all these adults up dancing & singing to a few songs, I realized what God was trying to teach me: that he’s got it taken care of, all I can do is prepare to the best of my ability & he will fill in the rest.

I sat there observing everyone as they worshiped & the only thing I could think about was how amazing it is that God takes the things that cause us stress & worry & shows us how futile it is for to focus on that part of it rather than focusing on how he will receive glory through what we’re stressed out about. Apart from that, I was thinking about how great it is to have to opportunity to be reminded each week that the problems I think I have aren’t problems at all in the hands of God. I talked about this a lot last spring when we first start our Friendship Bible Study class (FBS), but to see nearly thirty adults that much of society would classify as broken, useless, & nothing but a burden to those around them worshiping God with reckless abandon & not only that, but offer prayers for everyone but themselves. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard them ask for prayer for their family members (some of which haven’t seen their families in years), for their friends, & for people they don’t even know (people in the hospital & people who are less fortunate than our students are).

Every time I hear this it makes me think about how I pray, how I view my own issues. These are people who some of them are in wheel chairs, some of them can’t read but carry their Bible with them everywhere they go, some them speak in nothing bur grunts & groans, & some of them can’t even eat a chocolate chip cookie with out it being broken up & softened, & yet they think to pray for others before they pray for themselves. I can count on one hand the number of times anyone in class has asked for pray for themselves, & never is it the first thing they ask for prayer for.

So, this is how God works…or least how he worked this time.

He lets me get all stressed out & worried about everything (allowing me to get almost to the very edge of my sanity), & he still finishes it the way he intends to because I would probably screw it up. Then he uses a group of people who no one would think twice if they focused on their own issues, to show me that I’ve got nothing to be stressed or worried about. All I can do is prepare & work to the best of my ability & he will fill in the gaps.

I’ve learned this lesson several times over, & I’m sure I’ll learn several more times through my life, if not just the rest of this year. Fortunately, God is far more patient with me than I am with myself, & he has placed the people in this class in my life to teach me lesson after lesson about trusting him & about putting other people first.

So, there you have it. It wasn’t so much a Catalyst update as it was a Dan update (& a long one at that), but I think that anything God is teaching someone is worth sharing because you never know how he is going to use it someone’s life.

Thanks for all your support & encouragement. Your prayers keep us going & keep our sanity within reach. We really can’t thank you enough for your faithfulness.

Blessings.

Here is what’s been happening & the stories that we’re hearing:

I told you that a few weeks ago, we had a record-setting attendance on a special Sunday of nearly 400 people. Some great stories came out of that Sunday about what God is doing in & through the life of Andrea Velliinga, none so great as the story of the woman who actually committed her life to Christ during the welcome. That’s right after an intro-to-service video that was 35 seconds & one song, she decided that this was going to be her church & that she wasn’t going to put off following Christ any longer. Proof that God can work through any part of a worship experience whether we think it’s the part he’ll use or not.

Since that Sunday though, we’ve had people sign up to serve in areas that desperately need as we continue to grow at a somewhat alarming rate. In fact, just this past Sunday we had four new volunteers sign up to help out in the kids’ environments…five if you count Chris’ commitment to back there six times in the next twelve months.

But, also out of this past weekend, which was a vision casting weekend, yet another person entirely new to Catalyst decided early on in the worship experience that she was not only going to take that first step to follow Christ, but also that wanted to get plugged into a group as soon as possible & that she was interested in learning more about baptism. God is clearly doing amazing things in the lives of the people who are connecting him with through Catalyst.

These aren’t the only stories we’re hearing though. We’re hearing stories of LTG (Life Together Group) members who have been pretty quiet for most of the time they’ve been part of a group opening up all of a sudden & sharing what God is doing in their life & what they need in their life.

So, in short, what’s happening at Catalyst is that God is moving in great ways in people’s lives by bringing them to the point where they can no longer resist following him, by challenging them to take the next steps in their faith, & by opening them up to the idea that this is a safe community where we can explore God together knowing that there will be no judgement.

We’re hearing stories like this almost every week now & we believe that God is going to continue to these things & greater things in the time to come.

I ask that you continue to pray with us that God will continue the work he is doing through Catalyst, & also that you pray for Catalyst so that we will stay grounded in the truth that God is the one who is bringing people to himself, not us & not our efforts.

Thank you for your willingness to partner with Kristin & I as we have continued to follow God’s call to serve the people of southern Madison county. We are truly blessed to be a part of Catalyst & to have each of you as part of our lives. We are more grateful than I could ever express for each of, & for the encouragement each of you are to us.

Blessings.

It was an atypical, & yet very special day for us. This past Sunday, we held a special worship experience (that’s what we call our services) that was built around the work that God is doing in Andrea Vellinga’s life. If you don’t know who Andrea is, she was one of the people severely injured at the state fair accident almost 7 weeks ago, not only was she injure in the accident, but she was a regular face around Catalyst. And this past weekend an entire week of fundraisers devoted to Andrea and her family culminated with a worship experience at Catalyst.

We expected there to be loads more people than we usually have, but when we realized just how many people were there (about 375) we realized that God had something in mind for what he wanted to do. And he did, I don’t if anyone committed their life to Christ for the first time on Sunday, but I can tell you for sure that the Holy Spirit was moving in ways that most people have never experienced. From the moment we arrived at the school around 6:00 to the moment we left around 12:15, God was clearly present with everyone who gathered.

As Andrea’s brother, Tyler, spoke there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

And as Chris gave a clear articulation of the Gospel through his teaching, there wasn’t a single person who wasn’t hooked.

There is no other way to say it than that the Holy Spirit gripped each person in the auditorium & did not let go for about 70 minutes.

It was one of the best worship experiences I have ever been a part of. Even though I was constantly moving to film what was going on, I was moved by the Spirit as well.

Numbers aside, this was an amazing Sunday because of the way the God moved among his people.

Thank you for your prayers about this past Sunday & for Catalyst in general. Without your prayers & the encouragement we receive from simply knowing that you’re praying for us, none of this would be possible. You are every bit as much of a piece of Catalyst as anyone else who serves. Thanks again.

Blessings.

P.s. If you would like to see the worship experience in it’s entirety it will be up here later today.

This past Sunday at Catalyst we did something we’ve not before. The message was presented in a team teaching format where I was interviewed for the last one-third or so of the message. The message was all about getting involved with a group of brothers & sisters in Chris who often go neglected or without a thought from most of us. I’m talking about our Monday night Bible study for adults with developmental disabilities (mental and/or physical). While the teaching went longer than we usually shoot for, there was still a good response from those who call Catalyst home, a response to get involved.

As the guest speaker & I talked about the format of the class & how the class has affected me, I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit & see that people were engaged with what we were talking about by nothing more than the looks on their faces. People responded to the call to get involved & we’ve got about 10 more volunteers who are going to take a step closer to some great brothers & sisters & thereby take a step closer to loving the way Jesus does & closer to Jesus Himself.

Now for the part I didn’t want to forget.

This coming Sunday (9/25) we are having a special worship experience, & while it still fits very much with the current Family Portrait series we’re in, it’s going to be very heavily focused on the work that God is doing in & through Andrea Vellinga. I know most of you reading this won’t know who she is, but is a regular around Catalyst who was very seriously injured in the accident at the State Fair about 6 weeks ago. She is still in the hospital, but God is clearly working through the prayers of everyone to restore her health. This weekend we are expecting loads of people on top of the already growing group that has been connecting with Catalyst over the past months.

We are praying that God will move in a way that is unexplainable this weekend, in the lives of all who come to Catalyst & in the lives of Andrea & her family.

I ask that you join us in praying both for this weekend & for Andrea (& her husband (Mike) & their 4-year-old daughter (Lydia).

As I already said, God is doing great things in Andrea to restore her, but He is also using her circumstance to unite family & to bring others closer to Him & back to Him. Andrea’s brother, Tyler, posted a story on a blog that was setup for all of this about the fact that a woman actually knelt by Andrea’s bed & prayed with a long time friend who is a pastor to commit her life to Christ.

This goes to show that God can work any out for good & that He will be glorified through any circumstance.

Thank you for your constant prayers, encouragement, & support of Kristin & I as we continue to serve God the best way we can in Pendleton. Thank you also for join us in prayer for this weekend, & if you would even like to come, feel free…the more the merrier.

Blessings.

This week, the update will be at the end of the post. Instead of giving you all details of yesterday’s worship experience, which wast great, I want to just take a little time & reflect with you how my entire world has changed in the past 10 years.

Now obviously, this is inspired by the 10^th anniversary of 9/11 yesterday.

Ten years ago, when the first plane hit Tower 1, I was coming in from playing flag-football in freshman gym, in high school. To this day I remember the weather, the smells in the air, & the exact place I was standing when I heard another teacher tell my gym teacher what had happened. After that I remember sitting on a desk & seeing what turned out to be the second plane hitting Tower 2 & initially thinking that it was just a replay. But, then I saw the horrifying image of smoke billowing out from behind Tower 2, & that is when I realized, just before the news anchor announced it, that we were not watching a replay.

It’s clear that the something changed that day.

The entire nation changed that day.

There was a binding agent that came out of that day & all of us are different because of what happened.

And, as gut-wrenching as it is to think about the fact that nearly 3,000 people lost their lives that day in a matter of moments, I find it comforting to think about the fact that ten times that number of people were saved who could have died. In what some call evidence that God either doesn’t exist or has abandoned the U.S., I see God’s faithfulness. Even though so many died, there were thousands more who lived. God clearly has not abandoned us.

Since that day ten years ago there have been drastic changed both in the world & in my life personally.

Ten years ago cell phones were just becoming readily accessible & did nothing more than make phone calls; now, I can check email on my phone almost no matter where I am.

Ten years ago people thought the U.S. economy was unstoppable, now we’re slowly climbing out of a major recession.

Ten years ago, I was 15 & only had a driver’s permit; now, I’m 25 & I’ve got not only a diver’s license, but high school & college diplomas, a marriage license, & a mortgage.

The past ten years have blown by.

As a side note, we’ve done this song a few times at Catalyst now during our worship experiences & it was very fitting yesterday. I recommend you check it out, it’s called “Never Once” by Matt Redman.

Now, on to something a little more uplifting.

Yesterday, we set a record attendance for a non-Easter Sunday with 136 people in attendance. Clearly, all of this is happening because of the work God is doing in lives of the people in Pendleton & the surrounding communities. In the past few weeks, we’ve had about 40 first time guest, most of which who have continued to come back the following weeks, because they are connecting with God in great ways. Chris email the entire leadership team yesterday afternoon about an upcoming meeting & in closing the email he made a comment about the several stories he is hearing about people who are connecting with God in new ways & taking the next steps in their relationship with Christ. Again, God has clearly not abandoned us.

With the growth we’ve experienced this year, we’re trying to figure out what it will take to go to 2 services or if it will be better to move to another location, still in Pendleton of course. I ask that as we try to navigate these new waters, that you pray for us (the Catalyst leadership) as we seek what God is leading us to.

I cannot thank you enough for your constant prayers for Kristin & I, & for Catalyst. We feel greatly blessed to have such a great support structure behind us as we follow God’s leading.

Thanks again.

Blessings.

Well, with Labor Day having come & gone we are not quite officially back into the fall, which means people are getting back into their school year routines. And that means that people are going to be connecting with Catalyst on a regular basis.

That being said, we had an amazing summer & God clearly connected more & more people with us throughout the entire summer. And with the growth we’ve been experiencing this year already, we’re actually almost to the limits of what the school can take, without making the jump to 2 services. In fact, Chris made the announcement this past Sunday that because of the growth we are currently experiencing that a team was put in place to look into all our possibilities of dealing with this growth; whether it’s starting a second service or moving to a different location in Pendleton.

Now, I don’t say all that to talk about the fact that our numbers are constantly growing, but to say that God is obviously doing a great work in Pendleton. As we have striven to follow God’s leading in what He wants us to do, He has blessed our efforts, as meager as they may be.

One of the lessons that I’ve learned throughout this year is simply that my best efforts are not good enough to produce the results that God has produced in these past eight months. All I can do is simply do my absolute best & trust that God will show up & fill in the gaps.

Before I finish, I have a special request that you pray for us (Kristin & I, & Catalyst) as we start up our Monday night Bible study for adults with developmental disabilities. It seems to have fallen at a time when we will both be very busy.

Also, I want to thank you all for your constant prayerful support & encouragement. I’m certain that without each of you lifting us up in prayer, that we would not be able to do this & that in all likelihood we would have gone crazy by now. Thanks again.

Blessings.