Pastor Nate Sweeney has been described by more than one person as authentic.
“That’s probably what struck me most about him,” said Daniel Alexander, an elder at Catalyst Church in Bentonville, noting that, when it comes to Sweeney, what people see is what they get.
Alexander added that Sweeney, who is lead pastor at Catalyst Church, has a big heart and is the same guy at home as he is in the church.
“He challenged me as a person, as a husband, as a father,” Alexander said.
Sweeney said the vision at Catalyst Church is “to know Christ and make him known.” Everything the nondenominational church does revolves around that. Some churches are about many different things, but “the goal at Catalyst is to get people close to Christ,” he noted. This can be done through a worship service, Bible study or salvation -which Sweeney said is the moment when a person feels moved by the Holy Spirit, gives his heart to Christ and calls him Lord.
People who reach salvation then go into the “grow” process - described in the Bible as the point when Jesus was told to make disciples, Sweeney said. He noted that part of the process is healing whatever that person needs to grow. A person learns about who God is and who he is in relationship to God. If people grow in who they are in relation to God, they’ll share the love of Christ in practical ways. Sweeney and the church members preach and teach this every day, he added. Along with worship services, the churchhas outreach programs, small group gatherings and programs called “gateways or on-ramps.” He added that they also have missionaries in Arkansas and across the nation and world.
TRANSITIONS
Sweeney came to Northwest Arkansas from Illinois in 2007, with plans of starting a business and planting a church. Instead, he joined the staff of this church - which was then called Christian Life Cathedral. He was associate pastor for three years, and when the lead pastor resigned, Sweeney decided to plant a new church. He kept the building but changed the name, the vision, the bylaws and obtained a 501(c)3 nonprofi t status.
The church lost half its congregation, going from 250 down to 150 members with the change, Sweeney said. He noted that making disciples doesn’t happen in Sunday morning worship, but instead, Monday through Friday in homes and in small groups. The church nownumbers about 670 traditional members, about 500 people who attend Sunday services and 300 people who are disciples involved at the church at least twice a week.
Alexander said working alongside Sweeney has been fantastic. With a lot of decisions that go into running a large church, to know that it’s being done right is “a blessing to be a part of,” Alexander said.
Chip Jackson, a teaching pastor at Fellowship Bible Church of Northwest Arkansas in Rogers, has known Sweeney since 2010 and said he is a compelling leader. Jackson added that it has been a joy to watch the transition that has taken place at Catalyst under his leadership.
“He did it as a servant leader. He didn’t come in and demand his way or the highway,” Jackson said.
In Jackson’s position, he works with churches all over the country, some of which have undergone transitions,and he said it is always a joy to refer other leaders to Sweeney for them to hear about his experience.
“He’s serving other leaders around the country now as a result,” Jackson noted.
‘SEASON OF HEALING’
Sweeney has always loved the Lord.
“I always knew I would be in the ministry,” he said.
When deciding to go to college, Sweeney thought about police work because a family member served in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. However, Sweeney felt in his heart that he should go to Bible school. He attended Rhema Bible Training College in Tulsa, Okla., graduating in 1997. He became director of youth at a church in Peoria, Ill. However, after two and a half years, he decided to leave the ministry and went through “a season of healing.”
Sweeney said he loved Jesus, but he hated the hypocrisy and criticism sometimes seen in the church. He said he was breaking down the walls of the traditions in which he grew up. He noted that there is religion and then relationship.
“I consider religion as things that we’ve added to the Gospel,” he said.
Sweeney said the relationship lies with Christ and Jesus calling people to be in relationship with God. For three years, Sweeney processed what was God and what was man. He did a lot of journal writing, prayer and repenting for things he did that were not godly.
“I was very harsh in ministry. I used the word of God totear people up,” he said.
In the environment of Sweeney’s youth, there was no grace or seeing that “we’re all sinners, and we need God’s grace.”
What came out of this season was “The Abiding Church” (Next Century Publishing, 2013). Sweeney didn’t write this book until recently, but a lot of pieces of it were in the journals and notes from that three-year period, he said. The opening quote is one he came across a few years ago generally credited to St. Augustine:
“The church is a whore, but she is my mother.”
“Despite God’s mandate for the church, we see examples throughout human history of the church being unfaithful to God and prostituting herself out to false gods,” Sweeney writes in his book. “St. Augustine painted a blunt picture in the quote above on church history. No matter how defiled she became, God was always pursuing his bride to regain faithfulness. He has never given up on his church, and neither should we.”
Just because she is not perfect does not mean the church is not the bride of Christ, Sweeney said.
The book asks what the church is supposed to look like and begins with a chapter on abiding and Christ. Sweeney said people abide in Christ as they learn how to self-feed. They also have the word of God, the prayer life and the Holy Spirit, he said. He thought this is what the church world should look like.
“If I abide in Christ, if you abide in Christ, if the person across the street abides in Christ, we have an abidingchurch,” he said.
Sweeney loves the concept of an abiding church - the most simplistic way to spread the gospel, he said. No matter if a person is in or out of church, “we all need Jesus,” he said.
“You look your sins square in the eye. You confess it. You accept Christ as Lord, and you begin your journey of abiding,” he continued.
Sweeney never smoked or drank, noting he seemed to do “everything right biblically, but my heart was hardened, so I still needed Jesus.” Even though he felt he did everything right, Sweeney wasn’t an abider in Christ. During his season of healing, he discovered it doesn’t matter how much a person does right or wrong pre-Christ; it has to do with “Am I abiding in Christ?”
Along with recently releasing this book, Sweeney also serves as president of the Benton County Ministerial Alliance. This organization prays in local schools, prays at quorum court meetings, has local events for National Day of Prayer and holds a religious service for high school seniors in Bentonville to give thanks for the graduates.
Sweeney has been married to wife Monica since 2000, and they have three children: Emma, 11; Jillian, 7; and Nathaniel Joseph, 6.
“I grew up in a broken home, so it’s a big deal to me to have a strong, healthy family,” he said.
MINISTRY LOVES
One of the aspects of ministry Sweeney loves is “to watch people translate from darkness to light.” He has seen lives absolutely transform when this happens - for example, seeing people who have no point of reference with God, feeling that they’re hopeless and so far from God, make countless changes in their lives.
“They were living hopeless, and now they have hope,” Sweeney said.
Sweeney said he also has a passion for encouraging people and helping them discover who they are inChrist and “the gifts God’s placed in them.”
“We want you to fi nd your passion,” he said.
Margo White, director of children’s ministry at the church, said one of the things that stands out in Sweeney is his great love and appreciation for people and “seeing where people are gifted and drawing those gifts out of them.” She said Sweeney helped her realize her call to children’s ministry, helping her plug in to that as a volunteer and then eventually vocationally.
“It’s absolutely changed my life, and I’ve never been more happy and utilized job-wise - ever,” White said.
“I think that Nate’s been able to lead Catalyst Church to truly be a catalyst - which is a change agent - in Northwest Arkansas and in the lives of the people that go to Catalyst.”
Religion, Pages 10 on 12/14/2013