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Top 3 Innovators @ Innovation3 | Catalyst

Matt Carter, our Senior Pastor, was named as one of the top 3 innovators at Innovation3 by CatalystSpace.  Good stuff!

Top 3 Innovators @ Innovation3

January 30, 2009

The Innovation3 conference was this week and it was cool. Did you go?

There were over 100 speakers, but here are my Top 3 picks for most interesting/innovative (no offense if you’re not on here!).

1) Dave Browning – leads Christ The King. It’s a church that focuses on simplicity and multiplication. They spread around the country and around the world by starting a small group in an area, and grow that group and multiply. Once they have enough small groups in an area, they start gathering together at a “worship center.” They’ve been doing this for almost 10 years, they now have thousands of groups, mainly in the NorthWest and foreign countries = tens of thousands of people saved and being discipled.

2) John Bishop – God’s doing cool things at John Bishop’s church up in Vancouver. 3,000 have been baptized in the last 5 years, I think. And he’s all about people, talking about the unbridled truth, and being real. I love his heart.

3) Matt Carter – Pastor of The Austin Stone. They’ve also grown really quickly and admit that that’s been a problem for them. While they were growing quickly they were struggling to get people assimilated and into community. They got people in groups and were hoping community would result, but they just got ingrown and selfish groups. But they’ve learned that when they give the groups a mission, community comes as a byproduct of the group members being on mission together. Just focusing on community, you get neither mission nor community. But focusing on mission, you get both mission and community – they propose.

via Top 3 Innovators @ Innovation3 | Catalyst.

By Todd Engstrom

Although I was raised in the church and had a knowledge of God, I didn’t embrace Jesus until I heard gospel preached and lived out by some Young Life leaders. God has proven faithful and good to me since that day, even in great suffering and loss. I have learned to treasure Romans 8:28 as a wellspring of hope and truth.

God has blessed me with an amazing wife (Olivia), three sons (Micah, Hudson and Owen) and a daughter (Emmaline). Growing up in the northwest, the thought never crossed my mind that I would have four children who are native Texans. Despite landing in the south, I still watch Notre Dame games with my children every Saturday in hopes they will land at my alma mater.

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