The Vision of Catalyst University
When I became the lead minister at Lake Michigan Christian Center, the Lord prompted me with the following charge: “If you help your people understand and fulfill their calling and purpose, I’ll do the same for you.” Thus began Catalyst University at LMCC, a ministry leadership school developed to launch catalysts, or change agents, into the marketplace and local church ministry.
One of the first sermons I preached when returning to Lake Michigan Christian Center in March of 2016 was “Quitters, Campers, and Climbers,” as I felt impressed by the Lord to challenge our church family to move beyond plateaus and start climbing toward the summits of God’s purposes for their lives. Of key importance was the idea of discerning the call of God to become an ascending Christian both personally and in ministry.
These two paradigms framed our ministry and set the standard for all we were about as a local church as we discipled believers in Christian foundations, membership, spiritual formation, personal ministry, and evangelism.
However, God has now added clarity to this calling.
In the fall of 2023, I asked the Lord: “What two or three endeavors should LMCC be doing that would make the greatest difference in our world?” In October of that year, the Lord impressed upon me that Lake Michigan Christian Center should pursue two key objectives: renewal and reproduction in the form of marketplace ministry and church planting. Since then, we as a church have turned and pivoted toward this sense of calling, designating these mountains respectively, 300 and 400-level summits.
Drawing upon the mountain analogy and integrating it with Christian discipleship, long before people attempt to climb mountains of high elevation, they must bridge the gap between their present capacity and what is required by physically training and acclimating on lower-level summits. We now term this requirement our 200-level “bridge discipleship” summit that will be offered to our fellowship in September of 2025, twice a month following our services.
The picture and the following curriculum reflect the vision of discipleship we are pursuing as a church family that will forge within us a climbing mentality, whereby we step out in faith toward God’s upward call upon our fellowship. We are excited about this new season and trust that you will avail yourselves of these critical resources.
Erik Gustafson
