Last week I had the opportunity to attend the first Catalyst West conference with some good friends. For those unfamiliar with Catalyst, here’s their self-description:

Catalyst conference is the largest gathering of young leaders in the country, but it pains us to call it just a conference. Catalyst is more than just a three-day event – it’s a movement, a convergence, an experience where you find yourself fully immersed in learning, worship, and creativity. Catalyst brings people together – the influencers, the do-ers, the cultural architects, and the change agents who will reclaim our communities and culture for good.

The conference lasted 3 days, with 2 days of main sessions and a day of labs with a variety of different leaders. It was by far the greatest multi-day event I’ve ever attended. The list of speakers was arguably the most complete list of top church leaders you could pack into 3 days (though it certainly wasn’t exhaustive). Here’s an partial list of speakers and their topics:

Andy Stanley – Uncertainty
Ravi Zacharias – Pillars of Apologetics
Brian Houston – The Church as God Sees It
Erwin McManus – Helping Others Find and Fulfill Their Dreams
Craig Groeschel – I Was Taught and So I Thought
Rick Warren – Interview by Andy Stanley
Perry Noble – You Can Do This

I’ve been sharing nuggets randomly on Twitter (follow me here) this week and will continue for the rest of the week. There were so many takeaways and nuggets; it’s hard for me to pick any one thing as the most impacting. If I had to pick, the most inspiring speaker had to be Nick Vujicic. Nick was born without any limbs (arms or legs). The theme of his message was “you can do anything”. Chew on that for a bit. It blew my freakin mind.

Every trip, I try to pick a Kodak moment. Sometimes it’s an event, a conversation, a site etc. This time, my Kodak moment was meeting Erwin McManus. I admire him so much. His books have challenged me to live my most heroic life by helping others live their dreams.

This post could go on forever. I felt like dry cracked soil that was saturated beyond capacity by the end of each day. I’m still digesting things.

Special thanks to Mariners Church in Irvine, CA for hosting the event and to all the speakers who see the benefit of developing others and who took the time to speak into my life.