Catalyst West Coast. Labs. Opening Session.

Author and New Testament scholar Scott McKnight opened up Catalyst West Coast with the Catalyst Lab’s Opening Session. McKnight, with his older-college-professor Dockers and tucked-in button-down oxford shirt, certainly didn’t fit in with the skinny-jeans and big glasses of the younger crowd he was speaking to, but that in no way prohibited him from connecting with them. And though he connected well and had lots of great things to share, his message to the 900 leaders gathered for the Lab sessions of Catalyst West Coast seemed a little disconjulted and somewhat hard to follow.

Here is what I took away from his message, and what I understood to be the main points he was trying to get across:

McKnight, using illustrations from his conversations with his college students, challenged leaders to ignite a dream within the hearts of those they lead.

He said that when our dreams become Jesus’ dreams (when we give them to Him) that, then, His dreams will become ours (as He gives us His dreams). McKnight stated that the reason Jesus told parables was to ignite a dream into the hearts of His followers; pressing them to “imagine a world like this…”

McKnight suggested, that, Jesus showed through His parables that realizing His dreams for your life comes through doing the little things in life well so that you will then get better at what you want to do. He said that often times people want to write books (do big things with their lives), but do not want to write sentences (doing the little things well that will culminate in the book we want so badly to write.

He encouraged us to let go of the idea that we always get to do what we want, and instead to submit to what a Jesus wants in the everyday areas of our lives. And in doing so, following Jesus will trump all of our dreams.