The weirdness of Catalyst 2010

I'm at the Catalyst conference for the first time, and I have come all the way from Norway to be here. And there is very much I like and enjoy! The energy, the people, much of the teaching etc.

But there's also some things that I have trouble with. I feel tension, and I'm not sure if the tension is good. So here's a couple observations (but be graceful with my English, I haven't written much English for years):

Sometimes I feel like being at a sales convention. I'm not sure if I'm at a conference that has the purpose of lifting up the name of Jesus, or if I'm at a marketplace for "christian" stuff, gadgets and books.

It looks like everything has an moneyagenda (mammon-agenda?) to it. Every speaker has a book to promote (even though there's been a few that hasn't been promoting them their selves), every band has a CD to sell, and "The Pastors lounge" is not just a place for pastors to hang out and get a cup of coffee and meet others, it's for someone to sell you a lots of resources for your church.

There are so many stands that wants to sell something to you. They actually throw things at you when you walk by. Free giveavways that in many cases ends up as thrash under the seats in the arena. The bag we got when registration is full it, an it also included 3D-glasses so we all could see the announcements (that contain a lot of integrated commercial, "messages from our sponsors") in 3D. In some way it's funny and fascinating to see how big the churchindustry over here is, and to see all the things and stuff that's out there, and how many companies who makes a living out of the Kingdom. But oftentimes it makes me sick.

And then there's all the competitions where you could sign up and win iPads, iPods, Kindles, bikes, a trip to Africa etc. (Is Apple a sponsor of Catalyst? It looks very much so.)

• Be a sponsor for a child in Africa, and win an iPad or a all-inclusive trip to se the child. Why not just sponsor a child without getting anything in return?
• "By coffee from us - and we'll give water and medicine away to others. Brew for a better world". Why not just give water and medicine away to others?

What's the motivation for what we do? What drives the thing?

I won't accuse anyone behind Catalyst, or anyone of the companies or organization at the stands for having bad motives (even though all of us have a mix of motives all the time, intentional or not). But something seems is wrong with the culture. It's to much.

I took one session of today and went swimming at a nearby fitness-center. I said to the guy in the registration that I where a pastor from Norway, and he understood that I attended Catalyst. And the young guy said: "I was at Catalyst a few years ago. They had a lot to sell, but I didn't have much to buy for". That was the one sentence he wanted to share from Catalyst. They had a lot to sell. So it's seems that you don't have to be from Norway to see this.

Some years ago I attended a church leaders conference in Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids called "Isn't she beautiful" (hosted by Rob Bell) and the difference between that and Catalyst when it comes to this is huge. There where no advertising. No stuff sold. They gave out a bible and a book of Shane Claiborne for free ("from our friends at Zondervan"), but that was everything. And all the surplus (150.000 USD minus 40.000USD) was given to a project in Rwanda (here's a blogpost I wrote in Norwegian from the conference). That's more like it. At least thats more like how I like it.

Francis Chan ended the first day at Catalyst with an amazing talk. He talked about what will look weird about how we do church now, when we look back at it fifty years from now. And if we had put what we do now in the bible, would what we do make sense? Would we see it as biblical?

"For none of them needed anything, because all who had land or houses would sell them and bring the money received for the things sold and lay it at the apostles' feet. Because if they did, they could win an iPad."

I think some of the things that I have mentioned here, can very well can be some of the weird stuff that we will be embarrassed about in fifty years from now.