This article was covered by Red State’s & WSB Radio’s Erick Erickson on The Erick Erickson Show. Click here to listen.

Catalyst, a conference started in 1999 by Andy Stanley, the leader of North Point Community Church, along with Reggie Joiner, John Maxwell, Lanny Donoho, and other young leaders, was created to focus on the “next generation of church leaders.” Their goal was to build a conference that would appeal to the younger generation, and encourage them to become leaders in their church and communities.

In October of 2000, one thousand five hundred church leaders came together for the first Catalyst Conference in Atlanta, GA. Since that time Catalyst has grown tremendously. Over 100,000 leaders have attended this annual conference. This coming October over 13,000 young, up and coming, leaders are expected to attend the Catalyst Conferences that are now taking place in Orange County, CA and Dallas, TX.

According to the conference website,

Catalyst is a powerful gathering of young leaders, a movement of influencers and world changers who love Jesus, see things differently, and feel a burden for our generation. We seek to learn, worship, and create together with a momentous energy passionately pursuing God. We are Catalysts… Kingdom ambassadors, change agents, influencers, and cultural architects seeking to change our churches, communities, and cultures for God.

Catalyst is not viewed as “just a conference,” but as a convergence of the next generation of leaders, or a movement.

Catalyst is more than just an event. It is a movement founded in the hearts of young leaders who see things differently and feel a burden for the fate of an entire generation. Catalyst attracts the leaders and change agents who are making a major difference; the influencers and cultural architects who have the power and influence to change our communities and culture, and lead with a new set of lenses.

The mission and vision has always been about leadership, and specifically addressing and supporting the unique needs of Next Generation Leaders- their vision, desire for authenticity, community and revolutionary spirit. Leaders from all over the world count themselves as part of the Catalyst community. Catalyst is personal- it is your story. This movement of leaders is more than what. It’s who. It’s you.

In a struggling economy where young adults are graduating into a limited job market, young leaders are going to be important. We need innovative, motivated individuals who won’t wait for someone to give them an opportunity, but will create their own opportunities. Bringing like-minded, hard working young leaders together to exchange ideas, discuss the challenges ahead of them and gain encouragement from spiritual leaders and leaders in their community is an excellent way to facilitate these young leaders in their quest to make a difference.

This year Catalyst Atlanta includes keynote speakers such as:

Andy Stanley – Lead Pastor of North Point Community Church

Joel Houston – Songwriter & Worship Leader, Hillsong UNITED, and Co lead Pastor, Hillsong, NYC

Dave Ramsey – Best Selling Author, National Radio, and TV Host

Jim Collins - Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall

Jim Daly - President, Focus on the Family and Author, Finding Home

Anthony Bradley – Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics, The Kings College

This is just a select few of the speakers who will be featured at Catalyst this year. Two other well-known names that will be featured are Josh Dubois and Dr. Cornel West.

If you know these names a red flag should be waving in your head. For those who are not aware of these names here is some background information.

Dr. Cornel West, a professor at Princeton University, Best-selling author, Race Matters, cultural commentator and activist, is about as far left as they come. If you are engaged in the political atmosphere, Cornel West is a name that should jump out at you. He is a frequent panelist on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher, a frequent CNN contributor, a frequent guest on Travis Smiley’s PBS TV show, among many other public roles.

In Dr. West’s book, Prophesy Deliverance, West conveys his belief that by working together, Marxists and black theologians can spearhead much needed social change for those who are victims of oppression. In a country where anyone, no matter what race, religion, or ethnicity they come from, can become wildly successful through hard work and determination, Dr. West decides to side with Louis Farrakhan on what being successful means in America.

 

Louis Farrakhan is not someone most leaders in our country would want to publicly associate themselves with. Why? Watch here to hear one of many examples of why 9/11 truther, Louis Farrakhan is a red flag connection to Cornel West.

Is this a good example of church leadership for our youth?

An infamous friend of Dr. West’s who ascribes to the same theology is Barack Obama’s former long time minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. View here.

Is this a good example of church leadership for our youth?

For Dr. West’s racist thoughts on 9/11 watch here. Cornel seems to have forgotten about the Black Panther Party, as he equates “white folk” of today to slave owners over 100 years ago and 9/11 terrorists

 

Is this a good example of church leadership for our youth?

Is the United States special? Not according to Dr. West. Watch here.

 

Is this a good example of church leadership for our youth?

Dr. West’s opinion of the police – Watch here

 

Is this a good example of church leadership for our youth?

David Horowitz published an insightful piece on Dr. Cornel West in May of 2010 for National Review, “Hurricane West: Cornel West and American Radicalism”

Dr. Cornel West also has public relationships with radicals such as Francis Fox Piven, who has called for violent revolutions, and is well known for the “Cloward-Piven” strategy.  The “Cloward-Piven” strategy called for overloading the U.S. public welfare system to cause a crisis and collapse the system. That collapse would cause the “end of poverty” through a new system of guaranteed income, jobs, etc. In other words, collapsing the capitalist system into a system of communism.

 

There is a wide selection of leaders across our country, and this is one of their selections for a keynote speaker? A man who paints minorities as victims? Dr. Cornel West has certainly worked his way to the top, and instead of empowering and encouraging others to follow in his footsteps he paints those of similar backgrounds as victims. In a conference that is supposed to be about Godly leadership, it is important to point out that in John 15: 18-20, Jesus points out that the world will persecute his followers, but that we are to stay strong in our faith. Jesus did not paint the persecuted as victims, but instead taught them to rise above their persecution.

So I ask again, is Dr. Cornel West one of the best example for my generation to seek insight from on the subject of leadership in our communities and churches?

Josh Dubois is a Special Assistant to President Obama and Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. It is his job to direct the Obama Administration’s engagement in faith-based and other nonprofit organizations.

Putting aside that there is supposed to be a separation between church and state according to our First Amendment, for an organization to be nonprofit aren’t they supposed to be a private, nonpolitical entity by law?

I want to be clear about the fact that I have no issue with Mr. Dubois personally and that this has nothing to do with my personal politics. My problem is that by inserting a member of the current presidential administration as elections approach is inserting politics where it does not belong – the church. Mr. Dubois, a leader in the Christian community, is supporting the most pro-abortion president in this nation’s history who as a Senator, not only was a detractor to a bill that would ban partial birth abortions, was the only Senator to speak on the floor against it. As a man who, in his own words, wants to fight injustices, the President should want to stand strong in opposition to the injustice occurring against the most innocent among us.

In an article printed in the Boston Globe, Dubois was not shy to talk about his goal of pushing for Obama through infiltrating the church with politics.

This is not a freedom of speech debate or a right vs. left debate. If this is who the leaders of the Catalyst Conference believe is best fit to give a keynote speech on leadership, empowerment and faith to the young leaders of Atlanta, put him on the stage. I feel responsible to let my peers know more about the man on whom they will be spending their money this fall. I for one will not be attending.

 

 

 

How does marxism or liberation theology fit into the message of this video? It doesn’t.