Catalyst Life Group
02.11.06
Catalyst once was only a vision. It was the image of a movement of people in a place called Humboldt County transforming their community. This was all a few years ago. Since then, God has made this dream of people a budding reality. Over the past couple of years I have witnessed God’s hand moving, orchestrating, and preparing a group of people in Orange County to act. A group that will step out in faith and join in the movement in Humboldt that is about to gain momentum.
The people I am speaking of are from all walks of life. Catalyst will be a place for business owners, shopkeepers, activists, mill workers, parents, students, husbands, wives, and friends. It will be a movement of diverse people. This is part of our DNA and was represented even in this life group we started to help us plan. The life group consisted of about 15 people from ROCKHARBOR Church in Costa Mesa, CA. We are a community of people very different in many ways. Our group ages range from teens to forties, has married’s and singles, business owners and college students, men and women, and a handful of ethnicities. We all meet on a weekly basis to minister to each other, learn, pray, support each other, and hang out together. We are very different but share a common passion to follow Christ. In addition we also have a calling to be a part of starting a movement in Humboldt County.
The vision for Catalyst had been shaped by many of these people over the past couple of years. People had been hearing about this vision that Dan and I had. Slowly we began to notice people starting to ask questions and take interest in what God was doing. So, Dan started our life group. He asked Rich, Craig, Samantha, Amanda, Linda, Andrew, Roy, Paul, Melody, Bethany and I (Jason) to charter a group with the purpose of helping map out the plan to plant a church in Humboldt. This started in August of 2005.
Our group meets every week. There are four purposes to our group. First is to earnestly seek God’s direction for Catalyst. Second, is to grow in friendship. Third is to support the team relocating to Humboldt. Fourth is to learn the process of planting churches. Also, our group can be broken up into three distinct seasons over the past 8 months. First was the season of prepping our operations and marketing plans. Second was our first fundraiser and a prayer day to ensure that we were keeping God ahead of all our planning. Third began the season of final preparations.
During that first season we decided that we needed to break our group of 15 into smaller teams that worked on 3 specific projects. The first projects were to start design on the identity pieces [logo & web], gain non-profit status and incorporation through California, and build a prayer support network. Time was tight and we had a lot of work to do. Dan led the identity team thinking through web and logo development. This consisted of weeks brainstorming web content, design strategy, funding ideas. After a few weeks they found a web and graphic designer, Jacin of Harness Media, who brought the expertise to go through all the layers of this project. Months later, after countless meetings and hours of work, the website was ready to launch. The second team’s project was to take Catalyst through the 501c3 nonprofit status. Our objective was to gain non-profit status for Catalyst, so we could begin our fundraising strategy. We spent weeks gathering people, resources, and created a map to reach our goal. This proved to be long, technical, and tedious. We consulted lawyers and finally hired a company to help us file. The third team’s project was by far the most important. It was a prayer group led by Rachel Davis. There were three elements to this group: weekly prayer, a group prayer journal, and e-blast prayer requests. Every week the group would pray together for 30 minutes. The purpose of the prayer journal was for the whole group to write down our thoughts, prayers, vision, and requests to God so that we could look back over the course of weeks and months of prayers to see what God had done. There are many pages of written prayers in the journal and is inspiring to reminisce over.
The second season was about sharpening our vision for the region and attempting our first fundraiser. Dan and I would spend hours, days, weeks, and months talking about what Catalyst was going to be like. We would pray about something for days and then come back and wrestle through the tough realities that we would face in Humboldt. We visited the area a number of times. Our whole group did demographic research on the stats of each of the cities in Humboldt. We even sent teams up there twice to scout, observe, and interview local people. Through this process the vision would get clearer and sharper. Dan would regularly take time to speak vision and ideas to our group. There was one night in particular where I could feel the presence of God in the room. Our group was focused and I could see the hearts of everyone stirring. Dan spent an hour really articulating the movement that God was about to unleash. I remember walking away completely energized and ready to plant, ready move with God. This night was a mile marker for me.
Following this marker of our group, we began our first fundraiser. This was the Catalyst Hike. The hike was a 12.2 mile excursion through the treacherous mountains of El Moro Canyon. There were hills, canyons, streams, sand, and rocks all around us. The purpose of the hike was to raise $8,000 dollars by getting twenty people to hike 20k with each kilometer sponsored by $20. The excursion was a success. We are still getting donations coming in but are about to break $7,000 at the moment of writing this.
We are now approaching our final season before our team relocates. This is a season of preparation and training. During this time we will take our entire group through Catalyst Training. This will be a 3 month intensive training that will cover a holistic framework to continue growing in our faith in Christ. We will wrestle through tough questions and ideas, look into our own hearts and lives, and try to understand the roles God has called us to in ministry. This training will then be adapted and improved upon so that a working draft is ready when we take it with us up to Humboldt to use there. This final season marks a time change. Half of our life group will relocate to Humboldt County in a matter of months and new people will be added to the group in Orange County. A new season is dawning. Adventure awaits…
by: Jason Cseh
