CPR-3, a cooperating ministry of the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches which was founded by Dan O’Deens, is featured on the Catalyst blog today. Catalyst is a conference for young leaders of churches and ministries. A portion of the post, written by Dan, appears below. Click here to read the complete post.
CPR-3 Director Dan O’Deens
I was simply a ‘next generation leader’ looking to make a mark on my world. I was ready to step into the mysterious journey of pursuing Jesus by embracing; courage, danger, adventure, mission and calculated risk. The Lord would use Catalyst to change my world or more accurately His World, forever. Someone other than Jesus believed in me. That was all I needed.
I was pastoring Gateway Church, a church I had the opportunity to plant from scratch. I was sitting in my office when 9-11 rocked our world. That evening I was in New York City and I would serve there for the next 3 weeks as a first responder with the Salvation Army.
Another crisis would awaken my soul as it flooded our media. Katrina! I was now trained by the American Red Cross as a First Responder. I was deployed. Catalyst had etched a ‘key’ word into my brain. LEADERSHIP. I was in Baton Rouge and overheard the need for leadership. I stepped in. I had no idea what was about to happen to my life. I ended up leading 10 counties in Louisiana with 8 large mass shelters under my leadership. It would become the classroom of my greatest leadership experience.
A well-intentioned friend spoke some hard words into my life, unknowingly. He said, “That’s great that you get to go to all the ‘BIG” crisis’, but do you take the Church with you?” That was the birth of CPR-3. I believe in the Church. I wanted to be a catalyst for ‘the RED cross’ the cross that cared for both the physical (the American Red Cross) and the spiritual (the blood stained cross of Jesus) needs of people.
An earthquake in Haiti would be the final ‘catalyst’ to move me into the full time arena of crisis, catastrophe and extreme poverty. CPR-3 is a faith-based organization with a driving passion to ‘Breathe Life and Hope into our World.’ CPR-3 supports relief, rehabilitation and development initiatives.
