Catalyst - The Geek that I am

In Atlanta for the Catalyst conference. I would reccommend attending for anyone who loves innovative leadership sort of things. Nothing earth shattering in the information yet, but lots of good reinforcing nuggets. When I get back, as promised, I'll share my notes.

Aside from feeling a little old around a bunch of younger than I am, trendier than I could ever be people, I felt like a huge super geek today. About 4 or 5 years ago, while reading The Disney Way by Eisner, I found a reference to a book called The Experience Economy. It revolutionized my thinking of what it was to be an usher in a church, and provide people with an experience, not just a seat and collect the offering. I still use the book to change the way we do all helps ministries at church. The book is not light reading, and in fact reads not too much different than an economic text book. It uses quadrants and trends, four syllable words too. Well I was excited to see that the authors of the book would be speaking at the conference today. I had tried to explain the concept of the book to my senior pastor who is here with me, but could never effectively do so, while at the same time, knew I wouldn't want anyone to endure the hardship of reading the book just because I said to. Well, as they began to speak, they lectured not that dissimilar to my college econ professor. Dry, boring, bland, blah, blah, blah. When they asked had anyone read their book, I quickly looked and saw absolutely no one raise a hand. I quickly returned my 1/4 raised hand to my side and decided I was a looser geek with nothing better to do than read their book. The agony continued as I gleaned from their dry lecture to add to my knowledge of the book and looked to see one or two out of every ten nodding off, doodling, talking to a neighbor or just plain spaced out. I don't need a motivational coach, I need a cool coach. But in all fairness, the book, if endured is highly revolutionary and challenging to modern thought of how we spend money or want service, whether from a resturaunt or a church.