:::jonathan herron:::

Ten Years Ago Today...

Ten years ago today, something magical happened.

We went to see "City of Angels" at the movie theater.

We strolled through Davenport's large park observing the swans.

I got fired via phone for missing work to be with you on this special day.

We had reservations at The Dock Restaurant overlooking the Mississippi.

I asked.

You said yes.

And 3 months later, we said, "I Do."

I love you, Amber.

CataBLOG

One of the new features of our relaunched Catalyst site is the CataBlog.  For those interested in the inner-workings of our 20-month-old church plant, you may want to bookmark CataBlog.  It's the source for news & info for those who call Catalyst their home church...

Evolution of Branding

Catalyst is blessed with a large number of digital graphic designers for a church plant our size.  One of them, Jerry Brownell, took on the gargantuan task recently of overhauling our entire branding. 

Jerry accurately created a branding geared toward our target of a 20-something guy disinterested in church.
Jerry completed this project exactly on time.
Jerry did this while also completing his college finals.

The journey of "telling our story" in a concise, clear way looked something like this...

April 16, AM: Jerry sketches out these initial drawings after our Staff Team zeroes in on the Catalyst rhythm of "Celebrate, Connect, Contribute":

April 16, PM:   Based on notes I email him, Jerry vectors these potential logos:

April 22:  At Starbucks, Jerry & I face the fact that the emerging branding looks like a male symbol.  We scrap the circle but keep the idea of arrows to communicate the Catalyst rhythm.  These sketches emerge:

April 29: We lock in the scribble look.  More potential arrows take shape as well as website ideas:




May 1:  Through a series of events, our good friend Casey Ross gifts us with the domain name CatalystChurch.com. Extremely generous!  Jerry comes up with what will be the finalized Catalyst text branding:




May 6:  Jerry emails over the finalized branding while juggling Catalyst html code & KSU finals:


May 11:  Finally, at 3am, CatalystChurch.com goes live.  Exactly on the due date.  As a volunteer act of service to our church plant. And then Jerry passes out!

dotCOM

Good News: It's up!  Check it out here.

Bad News: It's 6.45am.  Jason Bonham just called - - he hit a deer going 70 mph on the way up here from Dayton.  He's totally ok, but his truck's undrivable and he's waaaay far away.  But you know what?  Praise God. It just means we're going to re:think WORSHIP today! 

Mother's Day

First, I want to wish my own Mom a happy Mother's Day.  My Mom rocks.

Second, I want to wish Amber a happy Mother's Day.  She is a tremendous mom to Josiah.  Tremendous.

Third, whether you are a mom or not, I want all my female readers to feel affirmed today.  There's a reason God created women as the grand finale of His creation.  You are wonderful and loved. 

Blogging Benefits

Blogging has its benefits.  Sometimes people send you free stuff to blog about:

I haven't been to the Catalyst Conference since 2005.  Their new '08 promo materials are fabulous (my son LOVES the orange Catalyst ball!).  With speakers ranging from Billy Graham to Matt Chandler to Perry Noble, I'm looking for a way to bring a truckload of our leaders to the ATL this October.

Brian Jones sent me a copy of his new book, Getting Rid of the Gorilla.  It's focused on the struggle to forgive.  I love the stick figure pages!

re:think church

Exciting week around these parts...

Catalyst’s fresh new series that re:charts the course forward launches this Sunday at 10:30am.  It's shaping up to be a pivotal message series:

May 11: CHANGE
“Lord, I have heard of Your fame;
I stand in awe of Your deeds, O Lord.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known…” - Habakkuk 3.2

May 18: EVERYTHING
God doesn’t want anything from you.
He wants everything.

May 25: NOW
Guest Speaker: Jason Bonham

Check out the hot-off-the-press series video opener - I've been emailing out the link to friends throughout north-east Ohio who might be interested in what we're up to.

You can also help us get the word out on Facebook…

Change

I'm currently re-reading An Unstoppable Force: daring to become the church God had in mind.  Love these words from Erwin McManus:

"We must never forget that we serve the changeless God of change.  God is not satisfied with the status quo.  He is not trying to keep up with culture.  His greatest ambition is not for the church to become a great imitator of generational trends.  He is the God of creativity, the God of imagination, and the God that chose - through his Son - to ignite a revolution...

"From Moses to David and Elijah to Jeremiah, a fundamental requirement of following God has been leaving the secure and predictable in order to follow God into a world where only He is unchanging."

catalyst :: 05.04.08

>>>FridayRewind

- - Should I be concerned that for 2 mornings in a row now, our 19-month-old has woken up without a diaper on?

- - A new biography with a website full of free extras: The Chris Farley Show.

- - $2.5 million.  That's the amount being invested this year in downtown Kent to face-lift the buildings directly across from The Kent Stage, where Catalyst gathers.  Gets me pumped about our 125 renovation project.

- - Ed Stetzer on church planting:  "Most new churches don't break 100 in average worship attendance until after the fourth year."

- - Via AVClub: IfStarWarsWasReal.com.  Very smart site.

- - Hard to believe we've been journeying through EXODUS since September! This weekend we wrap it up with Moses' words to God, "Show me Your glory." 
Next week: re:THINK church.  Can't wait.