I had an interesting conversation with John MacMurray after he spoke at the Story09 conference last week.

With him being a nature photographer and theologian I thought I'd ask him his take on the death of nature, and why we still seem to find it beautiful on some level.

My personal belief is that there was no death in the Garden of Eden. It was perfect in every way. Animals didn't eat each other, plants didn't die and there were no seasons with temperatures making it difficult for humans to survive.

Mr. MacMurray doesn't necessarily share this belief, but was kind enough to engage me in the conversation about the death of natural elements like trees, and how we can still find beauty in them since they are inherently beautiful works or art from a loving Creator.

I enjoyed the conversation. Over the next few days I had time to ponder the fact that it's typically nature that remains beautiful in death and not things we make ourselves.

Case-in-point: Websites.

I love looking at photographs of snow, dead trees lying in forests, moss and algae eating away at things and the lines left in rock from the eroding effects of water. But there is NOTHING beautiful about a bad website.

Why? According to John, it wasn't inherently beautiful to begin with.

Don't get me wrong, humans can create beautiful works of art. But everything man creates is not beautiful just for the sake of it's creation.

I guess that's why our website is a constant work in progress...

Day 2 of the Story Conference has definitely been more workshop than conference.

More intentional in offering presentations focused on a specific aspect of our "stories" and how they fit into the greater "Story."

Quick Summaries:

• Skye Jethani: Summarized the difference between teaching and preaching - suggested that it may be more appropriate to preach on the vision of Christianity vs. all the practical life application stuff - which tends to reinforce the understanding that God is the way to fix everything about your life here and now.
• Thomas Fluharty: AMAZING story from an illustrator that draws/paints for top magazines in the country. He shared his salvation story - very encouraging.
• John MacMurray: Nature photographer/theologian that helped paint the picture of the Trinity and how nature is the "natural" overflow of the beauty that exists in heaven. Interesting thought that nature is the one thing that people understand to be beautiful no matter what their background.
• Tony Morgan: Stepped in as a guest speaker since the speaker in his slot was unable to make it to the conference. LOVED hearing from my boss (from a few years ago) about leadership principles to keep us from Killing Cockroaches instead of doing what God designed us to do.
  
• Ron Martoia: Transformational architect - painted the picture that the Bible has been inaccurately called our "owners manual" when it might be better viewed as a: Classic, Score or Script. Suggested that the stories of the Bible may be better suited for round table conversations with a wiki approach to understanding the cultural relevance. Radical and interesting but the potential for misuse is definitely there (my thoughts).
• Phil Cooke & Dawn Baldwin: Interesting discussion on branding in the church world. Presenters had thoughts - but also took numerous questions from the audience on branding dilemmas currently being experienced. Good discussion as to why the cross is used as an iconic symbol for the Christian faith.
  
• Brad Abare & Michael Buckingham: 8 Lessons in NOT sucking:
  1. Find your soul: Hershey PA example. Know your internal DNA and allow it to guide you as you interact with your community.
  2. Connect the dots: Work on your flow, and connect it for people so the experience matches the promotion.
  3. Stop dwelling in what doesn't exist: Tell people what has been done and what you are doing - not what's coming up.
  4. Don't just say "NO!": Bad ideas are often springboards to good ideas. Ask questions and talk through it. You may find something amazing in the thing you were going to toss out.
  5. Your vision shouldn't need glasses or contacts: Vision is key to the to the inner workings of any organization. No vision leads to stumbling and bumbling.
  6. Just bringing the "pretty" is not enough: Don't elevate "art" over the story. Use words AND imagery to tell a compelling story.
  7. Don't get too familiar with the story: Familiarity decreases passion. How do we stay "in love" with Jesus and the Story?
  8. Don't discount yourself or people's abilities: We were created to be creative. Creativity is in everyone - just in different ways.

It has been a great three days of teaching, preaching, and the arts. Now to head home and rest.

My thoughts on Day 1 of the Story Conference in Aurora, IL will look vastly different than those from Cultivate the other day.

The main difference is that Story was for me experiential more so than instructive.

From the arts to the media to sessions filled with passion and encouragement - I was only able to sit and soak it all in.

From the antics of Ed Young to the pure transparency of Donald Miller I simply sat in awe and wonder.

Such diverse backgrounds with unique stories, ministries and passions.

I loved every minute of it. And I'm tired. But there is one more day to go.

I have so many things going on right now I can't see straight. I guess that just means I need to pull back for a few days and regenerate.

And there's no better way than going on a road trip with the Communications team.

First stop: Cultivate09

Here are my notes, chicken scratches and takeaways from the day. Overall a great conference. Met some new people and definitely left with stuff to chew on.


Phil Cooke
Creating compelling content in a media-driven world

2 Things are happening:

1. Our content has become shorter
2. We spend more time communicating + less time creating each message = Time Suck
   

Four questions to ponder:

1. What are you really trying to do? "Remove obstacles/barriers (smooth the path) for people taking their next steps on the web.
2. How do you deal with ambiguity? NOT providing the perfect answer to difficult questions when there really is NO perfect answer.
3. Are you asking the right questions? Jesus is God - but so what? How does that impact my life?
4. Stop focusing on: How much will it cost? And: When will it be ready?
   

Developing a web strategy
Drew Goodmanson (cobblestone software) & Gabe Taviano (Digital Disciples)

SEO (importance of - added numerous visitors/members the weeks following the optimization)

Online evangelism as a strategy is 1% or less successful. + side is that church members forming relationships in the community use the website as a connection point to get people into church.

Theological issues exist in the understanding of online church and if it's even possible for people to connect that way.

Must be PASSIONATE and PROFESSIONAL in order to be successful online.

Use of website for visitors: Visitors can send message online letting people know they are coming to church so you can meet them and welcome them at the kiosk.


iCampuses
Tony Steward (Lifechurch.tv Digerati) & Rhett Smith (counselor)

How does your pastoral responsibilities translate to the web?

How much are you responsible for? Do you have to answer every inquiry? Do you have to provide all services to all people?

So many books out there to grow social media - but are there resources to shrink and better manage your use of social media?

"Batch" your online usage. Check email/Twitter every hour or so rather than the minute it comes in.

Boundaries are huge when faced with the new onslaught of online communication. AND it's not really up to the leadership to set boundaries (work schedule and time nanagement) when they are God's boundaries from the beginning (Sabbath).

Matching space for space (people on computers are rarely standing) (Book: 4 hour work week)
Native to the environment (making the experience feel native to the user - what they would expect and want to see/feel)


Clint! Runge
Archrival Creative in Lincoln, NE

Differences between Gen X and Gen Y

• Xers ask how can I be different. Yers ask how can we be different
• Xers = exclusion. Yers = inclusion
  

Generation Y

• Attitudes: "we" (as in Wikipedia).
• Peer to peer approval most important thing. Branded to death so they tend to trust peers more than advertising.
• Success = good life, good job with purpose and meaning.
• Huge belief in causes: Environment (easy and no one is really against it), economy and education.
• No Brand Loyalty.
  

Mobile devices are the "First screen"

Future of social media: 15 minutes of fame is an expectation rather than an aspiration.

• First screen - "Social mobilization" GPS socialization.
• Creation of smaller social networks based on interests and not the global collective.
• Virtual world - Second Life.
  

Let people in on your "secret" and who cares what everyone else things. Marketing plan similar to that used by Red Bull, "We just want the 14-20 somethings drinking our drink so we'll cater to them in marketing - who cares what everyone else thinks..."

What's the next generation going to be known for? Those born in 2001 or later - Gen Y x50 or something to that effect. Born with the thought that they have all the answers and want
family cohesion.

Trends seen recently

• New politics: Skepticism. People want change but not sure that change will occur. "Apple will have more impact on them than the government will."
• The modern guy: What does it mean to be a guy these days? Free to explore things they are interested in. Things like dance, creativity, arts, starting different businesses, etc.
• Life tracking: adding content to social media and even medical outlets so that it can be tracked and the collective data used for personal development.
• Do the right thing: Too many ethical dilemmas. This generation gets very worked up over this stuff and there is a sense of relief when their decisions are seen as right or ethical.
  

Small Explosions
Bobby Gruenewald & Terry Storch (Digerati - Lifechurch.tv)

Creating small but sustained explosions that can stand the test of time rather than huge explosions that make a big impact that then fizzles out quickly.

Digerati Team: In the development of something like Youversion you start with the big picture in mind. But in that you must also check in each week to ensure the right steps are in place in order to move on to the next week's tasks. In these meetings you may only look a couple week's down the road rather than revisiting the big picture.

New York Cab Driver example: Keep moving forward and don't look back or to the side. Everyone knows his or her role and as long as the meeting up front does well at setting the expectations and framing the roles then everything works.


The 3 T's: Text, Twitter and Thumbs.
Tim Schraeder & Michael Forsberg

Park Community Church uses Jarbyco during all services to elicit feedback from participants on the messages and what they think. Also used interactive polling during a service to help drive the service.

Facebook, Twitter and Texting each hit a niche area and can be used in different ways. Nothing wrong with using all three.


Jon Acuff
Author of the Blog: Stuff Christians Like

"Booty. God. Booty." Description of being all about God only on Sunday mornings...

"Satire: Humor with a purpose."

The Devil tries to destroy your story and get you to discount your story.
Our response: Give your story to God. Don't forget why you tell your story.

Innovate09 came and went, but left a lasting impression on me.

I'm going to divide this post into two sections: My Role and My Experience.

My Role
This year I was part of a few teams looking into and implementing the following:

1. Live streaming: A first for Innovate. It went off without a hitch and was definitely a big hit. We partnered with LightCast to provide the stream. Setup was a snap and the stream was steady and consistent. People were able to watch all main sessions along with the Innovate Film Festival. We averaged 260 viewers over the 6 sessions.

2. Twitter Feed: We used ParaTweet to pull a feed from the hash tag #innovate09 and presented it on the big screens during breaks and as sessions began and ended. Simple web interface for account creation and tweet moderation along with an Adobe AIR application for presenting on the screens. Worked like a charm.

3. Text Voting: During the Innovate Film Festival we partnered with Jarbyco to offer text in voting for the films (medias) entered in the festival. Worked like a charm as well. People are getting more used to texting every day so the number of people participating was even more significant than it was last year.

A special thanks to those that worked on these projects with me and helped make them a success during the conference. You know who you are :)

My Experience
The great thing is that even though I was nervous and "on call" throughout the conference related to the three projects above, I was also able to fully engage and enjoy the conference as it unfolded.

This year took me places I didn't think I'd go. Collaboration was the name of the game. Never before has there been such synergy between our teams and those attending the conference. The Arts Mashup and the Storyteller sessions brought an exciting new flair to the conference and infused it with the blood, sweat and tears of other churches.

I left feeling part of something bigger - a brotherhood of churches all pulling hard for the Kingdom.

There is definitely momentum building behind this type of collaboration and I can't wait to see where it takes the church.

It was good seeing all of you at Innovate09 - we should do this again sometime...

Don't forget to check out the main sessions on the Innovate09 site if you missed the conference or even if you just want to relive the experience!

Our annual conference at Granger Community Church is fast approaching.

Each year we look forward to meeting with hundreds of churches and over a thousand leaders in the church world to share innovative new ways to reach people for Christ.

This has been a hard year for everyone. Because of this, "Exposed" is the backdrop in front of which we'll discuss the failing economy and how it has impacted us at Granger.

Enjoy great teaching and incredible arts along with targeted Breakout Sessions and Casual Q&A sessions where you can sit down with Granger staffers and ask your questions.

If you're as excited as I am you'll want to keep up with the buzz by subscribing to the Countdown2Innovate Video Podcast. Tim Stevens and Kem Meyer will keep you in the loop and will keep you rolling at the same time with their short video interviews about the conference.

Other fun stuff: Visit the Who's In? page to see churches that have already signed up. Grab badges to put on your site or blog. And find the links to our Twitter and Facebook accounts.

See you all there!

It's that time again.

WiredChurches.com workshops are being held June 25th and 26th.

There are many options to choose from but those reading this blog would probably be interested in the Less Clutter. Less Noise. workshop which will help you develop a cutting edge Communication Strategy. Come on Day 1 for the meat of it and then stay for Day 2 where you'll get hands on training and work through questions specific to your setting.

Look forward to seeing you there!

There are numerous conferences available each year. Some are straight technical, some focus on leadership and still others help renew and refresh your faith. There are those driven by marketplace professionals and those driven by Christians doing marketplace stuff...

I attended SXSW last year and got a taste of what it is like to rub shoulders with Adobe, Google, Facebook and Flickr folks. And while it was fun, it was also a bit overwhelming.

I recently saw an advertisement for the Dirt Conference. I visited the website and quickly became excited. I know it doesn't compare with the firepower of a SXSW, but I'm not sure I even want that fire power right now.

What I'm looking for is a smaller venue with less people. And I'm even good with the fact that the majority (if not all) of the speakers are from the Christian community.

I love what's going on in the church right now and I love the future we have ahead of us.

I haven't booked my flights - though I'd love to. It's on my short list for sure.

List of Topics and Presenters.

I just posted about the workshops happening at Granger Community Church through WiredChurches.com and what happens?

I get an email letting me know the new Specific & Practical magazine is finished! Also called the S&P for those in the know :)

This sweet little mag gives you the down low on all things WiredChurches. Everything from articles, to event dates and descriptions for workshops, forums, conferences, etc.

Get an electronic copy here!

And I better see you at a workshop - or at least at Innovate09. Look me up - I'd love to meet you.

Just a quick post for those who attended my Casual Q&A sessions during Innovate08. I promised you some information so here it is:

Web Streaming

• Video encoding software (see list of tools below)
• Vendors for streaming video (see list of tools below)
• Our current Streaming Video Settings: 640x360 | Deinterlace on | 750kbps max stream | 15 frames per second | 80kbps stereo (audio)
  

RSS / Podcasting

• Blog software (see list of tools below)
• Blog readers (RSS aggregators): Bloglines, Google Reader, Modern browsers like IE7 and Firefox3, Outlook 2007

Good Info for Both Groups

• List of helpful tools
  

I'm sure this isn't a complete list so hit me up for more information if you need it.

"Tis' the day after Innovate and all through the house, not a creature is stirring, especially my mouse.

All work and all websites are put out of mind. Now rest and relax and try to unwind.

Yes take a deep breath and make sure you're fine. For on Monday we start planning for Innovate09."

Okay, it's not that bad - just thought it was funny.

What I really wanted to do is just post to say Innovate08 was awesome. It felt like one of the best yet in terms of the amazing arts, the quality drama and media presentations and the way all speakers presented individual messages that seemed to have a common thread of truth and consistency woven through them.

There was no big draw this year like Guy Kawasaki of Innovate07. But I don't think we skipped a beat. Shawn Wood, the Lifechurch.tv team and Steven Furtick each hit home runs. Not to mention the incredible messages put forth by the Granger team. Mark Beeson began and ended the conference with "Stop Talking..." and "...Start Doing." Tim Stevens popped the church and Rob Wegner went mission critical.

I love just sitting back and taking it all in - even though as an attendee of Granger Community Church I've seen much of what's presented during the conference. There is just something about the energy during the conference. The music is louder, the medias more meaningful. Not sure how else to describe it.

I can't wait until we do it all over again.

Innovate09!

Another year. Another Summit.

But the minute you start thinking that way it sneaks up and slaps you in the face.

This year it started early. Bill Hybels began with a compelling message on how leaders make difficult decisions and then transitioned into 'axioms' that leaders create and eventually begin using to help shape culture in their environment.

Here are some of those he put to paper (many more in his new book called ax.i.om):

• "Vision leaks."
• "Get the right people around the table."
• "Facts are your friends."
• "When something feels funky...engage."
• "Leaders call fouls." (both on others are on yourself)
• "Take a flyer." (risk)
• "This is church."
• "Get your butt off the fence." (Okay...I added that one just because he said it about people who can't make up their minds for Christ and I loved it.)

But the speaker that really hit me with content straight from the heart of God was Gary Haugen, CEO and founder of IJM. There is just something about people that are fighting injustice in the world head on. His stories were both painful and inspiring. A few quotes:

Are Jesus and I really interested in the same things?

If you want your leadership to matter, lead in the things that matter to God.

Something is wrong when Jesus' yoke is light and mine is heavy.

Not too shabby is the work being done by Wendy Kopp, CEO of Teach for America.

And what a rockin' end to the day as Efrem Smith of Sanctuary Covenant Church finished things off. My favorite line:

In case you haven't been paying attention I'm black. For those of you watching on black and white televisions, I'm the darker one. (my wording since I couldn't type fast enough...)

Last night our team breathed a sigh of relief as the final pages were saved, all apps connected and the last button pushed to publish the Innovate08 site and make it live.

For the first time we developed a mini-site from the ground up. Not just pages in a folder on WiredChurches.com, but a fully functional site with it's own domain name, hosting, navigational structure and registration component.

The entire process began in brainstorming sessions with the arts department. At that time we picked stop motion photography as the theme that would be used throughout the conference - from print to web to media/transitions during the conference.

Specifics
From there it was creating a dark web backdrop and UI that incorporated some of these images. Dump in all the necessary content and you have a website. I was lucky enough to work with a great team that put together the following elements:

• Stop motion photography
• Graphics for website
• Print elements (example: 2008 Brochure)
  
• Facebook Page
• Twitter Page/Feed
• Funny FAQ Videos
  
• Forms for Innovate08 Registration and sign-ups for Casual Q&As
  
• PayPal integration
• And much more that I'm forgetting...

This project was hammered out in less than a month and only happened because each person took their specific area of expertise and made it happen.

Great job guys! I love this stuff.

Task List
Go register for Innovate08 right now - I'll see you in September.

Day two had the bulk of the content and day three was the wrap up final session. Here are some specifics:

Opening Session (Curtis Simmons): Curtis did a great job walking us through both newly released functionality and what is right around the corner. It was good to hear about the architecture restructure that will allow for increased access to data through the coming API and CMS features. Ftech is wanting to be 'all things technical' for churches and yes, that includes managing and hosting their websites. With CMS a church will be able to develop templates and pull content right out of FellowshipOne and present it on the page. We're definitely heading in the right direction.

F1 Roadmap (Curtis Harris): Much of the same stuff presented in the opening session just with more detail and timelines.

LifeChurch.tv - Here, Now and the Future (Terry Storch): I love sitting in on session with this guy. Terry's heart beats for 'kingdom technology' and he shared a few of the projects currently underway at LifeChurch.tv. Internet Campus, OnePrayer and SecondLife are three of the biggies. Looking forward to hearing more from the LifeChurch.tv Team when the OnePrayer series hits.

CMS in FellowshipOne (Tim Hardy): Tim was great at walking us through the future CMS feature in F1. He not only described the idea and the way it would work, but also demonstrated by walking us through the process of editing pages and navigation. Sounds interesting for smaller churches. We currently use a CMS designed for us from the ground up. However, I look forward to the possibility of pulling in content with the RESTful API and presenting it on our pages. All sorts of applications come to mind...

Customizing Weblink with CSS (Tara Coulson): Simple and to the point, so why haven't I got in there and messed with it? It's called laziness. I just need to put it on the list and make it happen. FellowshipOne still uses an archaic css stylesheet to style their popup windows. So it will take a little work to find the right selectors, make the changes and then make sure that it hasn't completely destroyed the look of another popup using the same selector. Shouldn't be too bad though.

Evenings Activities (Friday): P.F. Chang's and a quick stop at IKEA.

Closing Address on Saturday (Randy Draper): Excellent choice. Randy has heart, humor and passion for church work. He encouraged us to NOT be the negative, angry tech person sitting behind the scenes. But to find the passion we need to laugh, love people, serve and find purpose in everything we do. Sobering and encouraging.

Saturday's Activities: Spend the next couple days with my beautiful wife (who decided to come on the trip with me). No solid plans, but I'm sure we'll find something to do in the big State of Texas.

Day one has come and gone in Dallas. Yesterday we did the following:

Presenters Meeting: Quick and to the point. Thanks for coming. This is where the computer will be. This is the clicker for your powerpoint. Now go and do a great job.

Opening Address (Jeff Hook, CEO): Jeff opened the conference with another summary on Fellowship Technologies history, place in the market and commitment to the vision of the church. He gave a short overview of what's coming in the life of FellowshipOne and offered a new (modified) version of the graph depicting the operating needs/processes of the church.

Data Integrity (Marie Armitage): Marie offered many best practices on how to maintain data integrity and elicited similar tips from attendees. Good to hear that we're on the right track.

Super Team (Granger Team): We presented on the development of our Super Team and how it has helped us with the use of F1 in our environment. The team outperforms the individual every time...

Weblink Integration (Curtis Simmons): I returned to this presentation in part because we have semi-integrated weblink on gccwired.com. Last year it was considered a waste of time to attempt such a thing. This year it was discussed as being the preferred method because of the control it allows over the user experience. Exactly why we put the time and energy into doing it in the first place :)

Evenings Activities: Cheesecake Factory and IronMan.

This week a group of us will be making the trip to Texas for the annual Dynamic Church Conference.

Six of us went last year and quickly found that your FellowshipOne (church management solution) knowledge can go from 0 to 100 in two days.

This year we've been asked to present on what we call the 'Super Team' - a select group of people that help to keep FellowshipOne running smoothly at our church. If you want to hear more about the team concept, meet us on Thursday and we'll try to fill in all the blanks.

It should be a good time. I'm looking forward to hearing more about the recently added features and what is on the roadmap for future enhancements.

See everyone there.

For those of you dedicated to all things tech at your churches or places of employment, I have the perfect event for you. WiredChurches.com is offering the Technical Arts Forum again this May 30th.

Led by my good friend Adam Callender, the forum is a round-table event with discussion topics guided by attendees. Discuss how to effectively use audio, video, lighting and auditorium technology in services or presentations. Conversations also touch on needs, components, systems and how to find and train volunteers.

If you get geeked by tech you really need to check this out.

It just occurred to me today that even though I didn't know many if the panelists, these are top players in the field and are from leading technology companies and design firms around the world.

So I thought (for laughs) that I'd go back through the entire list of panels I attended and show you the companies/firms represented by the panelists. So here we go in the order I attended the panels:

• jasongraphix.com
• Art Institute of Atlanta
• Adobe
• Global Strategies
• AKQA
• Google
• hauntedcastle.org
• geocaching.com
• Skyhook Wireless
• areacodeinc.com
• Digital Roam
• MIT Comparitive Media Studies Program
• 37signals
• Further Ahead
• Facebook
• Preloaded
• Ekton
• Climb to the Stars
• flickr
• Worldwide Lexicon Project
• iStockphoto.com
• Postsecret.com
• W3Conversations
• NetCast HD
• armidatechnologies.com
• Polycot Consulting
• RipCode
• iTaggit
• invodo.com
• NC-soft
• Avant Games
• hackdiary.com
• DOPPLR
• CSSzengarden
• mezzoblue.com
• Quarterlife

Day 5 was a tremendous wrapup to a long week. Great panels with very helpful content and cutting edge stuff to look into for future versions of the stuff we're doing back home.

Panels today:

• Crunching & Streaming: Online video distribution challenge and opportunity (Various)
• Following the lifecycle of an idea (Various)
• Keynote Address (Jane McGonigal of Avant Games)
• Creative Collaboration: Building web apps together (Various)
• Quarterlife: A wild journey from internet to TV (Marshall Herskovitz)

Great Takeaways from Today:

• Principles of Happiness: 1) Satisfying work to do 2) Doing something you're good at 3) Time spent with people you like 4) Chance to be part of something bigger. Jane McGonigal
• Why gaming can be more desirable than real life: 1) Better instructions than in life 2) Better feedback than in life 3) Better community than in life. Jane McGonigal

Excitement for the day:

• Ran into Guy Kawasaki in a hallway. He was sitting for a short interview so I waited and then said hi. I think he remembered me...
• Jane McGonigal somehow managed to work the Soulja Boy dance into her talk (actually demonstrating after Q&A). I thought it was the most real and brilliant Keynote Address of SXSW 08.

Tonight's meal:

• Carrabba's Italian Grill: An old standby.