We took our leadership team to Catalyst Dallas last week. In conjunction with our gardening discussion, we've been talking a lot about being intentional about everything we do as a ministry. You can argue a lot of things about the folks at Catalyst but their conference is one of the most intentional, thought-out, deliberate conferences I've ever been to. They think-through everything from the promotional box of Wheaties they sent pastors inviting them to the event to the way they say goodbye to people as they leave. I took our team to Catalyst primarily so we could observe that level of intentionality together.
But coming away, my very favorite thing about Catalyst might just be the fact that they took a couple of intentional fliers that didn't go well at all. They handed out snap-pops (the old party favors that pop when you throw them at the ground) as a way to illustrate a fear people have, but mostly just to liven up the crowd. The byproduct of the intentional silliness was a billion snap-pops on the floor of Bent Tree Bible Church that popped under the feet of every person who got up to go to the bathroom for the next two days. It was a horrible distraction, and I'm sure a nightmare for the facilities crew to deal with on Friday evening.
I love it when people take calculated risks, even when they fail. Those are always the fliers that get noticed because they end badly, but there were a host of fliers at Catalyst that worked brilliantly. If you don't give yourself the margin to fall, you'll never take a flier that works.
Obviously, you want to calculate the risk of a flier. You want to be wise about the odds. But life is too short not to take a flier from time to time. Even if it doesn't pan out for you.
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