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Yesterday I watched a brief interview with Larry Osborne, pastor of North Coast Church in Vista, CA.   The webcast was hosted by Linda Stanley of Leadership Network and was designed to help promote and publicize the upcoming Innovation3 gathering later this month in Dallas, Texas.  I’ll be blogging from that event.

Dr. Larry Osborne, who is the author of Sticky Church, a book about “closing the back door” at church, elaborated on the book’s premise.  Sticky Church helps leaders remember that getting people to attend church or visit periodically isn’t really the goal.  If we really want to fulfill the Great Commission, then we must be mindful of our discipleship strategies and keep people around long enough to disciple them.

Additionally, Larry has a new book coming out entitled 10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe that looks at spiritual cliches and misinterpretations and gets specific about the rules & regulations we often believe that really don’t have a base in scripture.

Larry is one of nearly a hundred featured presenters at Innovation3, to be held at Bent Tree Bible Fellowship.

If you missed it, check out the other Leadership Network webcasts this week with these innovative leaders:
Dino Rizzo — Tues, Jan 6, 4 PM EST

Dave Gibbons — Wed, Jan 7, 4 PM EST

Dave Ferguson — Thurs, Jan 8, 4 PM EST

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“Communication technologies change, but the fundamentals of good, true, and beautiful communication are age-old.  How can we communicate better with one another—along with or sometimes in spite of new technologies?”  These are the thoughts of this week’s media scholar and Blog of the Weekend, Dr. Quentin J. Schultze.

Dr. Schultze (the “e” is silent) is a professor, writer, and speaker who earned a Ph.D. in communication from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois.  He is the Chair and Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  I was fortunate enough to participate in a devotional he presented at the now defunct Internet Ministry Conference several months ago.

Dr. Schultze’s scholarly publications have appeared in several dozen journals.  He has also written over a hundred articles for general-interest periodicals.  He has been quoted in most of the major media, including The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Fortune, the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and many other publications. He has been interviewed by CNN, CBS Radio, NBC TV, National Public Radio, and dozens of additional radio and television stations.

Professor Schultze received the Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching at Calvin College in 2000.  He has consulted for a wide range of non-profit and for-profit organizations on communication-related issues and opportunities.  And he mentors communication scholars and practitioners across North America.

His  book Habits of the High-Tech Heart addresses some of the issues surrounding the new media and Christianity. I highly recommend the conscientious & prudent mindset of Dr. Schultze.  He says, “much of my research has focused on the impact of communication technologies on groups, corporations, families, schools, and religious institutions.  I am particularly interested in how new communication technologies such as email, blogs, twittering, and podcasting are affecting society and individuals.  Are they making us more responsible and compassionate?  More effective at work?  Do they improve our communication?  Are we more patient and empathetic because of new technologies?  Or are we more prone to gossip and snap judgments about others?  How can we use the new technologies wisely and well?”

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Jollyblogger Prayer Updates

by Cynthia on December 25, 2008

in Ministry

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Just a reminder that the well-known Presbyterian blogger, David Wayne, loved by many as JollyBlogger, could use our prayers this Christmas.

David underwent surgery performed yesterday in Baltimore after a sudden cancer diagnosis.

This will be followed by additional treatment.

His daughter is currently updating his blog.

Prayers, comments and updates can be found at his blog, his Facebook page, twitter and his friendfeed.

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In terms of leadership combining a scholarly approach to the evaluation of new media and the church, Dr. (to be) Mark Brown stands out.  His personal website, Brownblog, provides fresh thinking about Christian ministry.

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Mark, who was the National Director of the Scripture Union in New Zealand for three years, is now the CEO of The Bible Society in New Zealand.

He is an Anglican Priest and holds the role of Priest Assistant at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Wellington.

I first became aware of Mark’s ministry in mid-2007, when he founded an Anglican Church in the virtual world of Second Life.  Since only a handful of people have accomplished Second Life congregations, Mark’s ministry caught my attention.

His innovative approach to ministry has also included many Facebook experiments including the Status Bar Sermonette Movement.  His articles, like The Digital Revolution and the Church, can be downloaded as pdf’s here: Dr. Mark Brown’s Downloads.

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As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on Unifyer & Montrose Church, I’m adding this video into my archives.  Although I’ve had access to this particular for a couple of weeks, I didn’t know I would be at liberty to share it until now.

One of the keys to exponential growth, decentralizing communication, happens organically when you create online small group communities.  You can see for yourself what Montrose Church (400% growth for the last 5 years) is doing by checking out the site: Life Changing Community.

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Montrose Church, located in Montrose CA, has become masterful at innovation.  Workarounds are second nature to this well-established, yet dynamic congregation and when it comes to innovation, they lead.

For example, what do you do when your church parking lot has a whopping total of 25 parking spaces and you serve hundreds of people at your weekend services?  You heard me right, hundreds.  You have multiple services, of course.  And you put 60 lifegroups in place so people get their personal needs met.

Likewise, how do you attract the non-religious?  Equally simple, don’t overdo the gospel.  Check out their web page and you’ll notice that instead of using an overtly religious vernacular, they convert the message into engaging language that those without years of “christianese” can understand.  Wise.

And lastly, how do you connect the folks who all attend different services into an authentic community with cellular connections that facilitate organic depth and growth?   Use a product designed to do just that. 

Unifyer to be specific.  Here are just some of the things Unifyer can do for a church congregation:

  • connect individuals in real communities like home groups, special needs groups & small groups
  • enhance the relationships people have with a safe & simple, instant communication tool
  • get people excited about volunteering with need specific connections
  • provide an instant set of hubs for communicating and sharing needs
  • decentralize communication

Did I also mention Montrose has attached their flickr stream to their landing page just under their RSS feed?  Just another couple of my personal measurements of currently innovative ministries.

What tools inspire innovation in ministry for you?

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I’ll be keeping you informed about the January gathering in Dallas hosted by Leadership Network called Innovation3.    You’ll hear much more about the event in the next month and I’ll be there live blogging along with my friends Carlos Whittaker, Rhett Smith & Tony Morgan.

Among the nearly 100 innovative church leaders presenting at the Innovation3 gathering, there are 12 next generation leaders I’m looking forward to hearing:

  1. Chris Seay
  2. Darrin Patrick
  3. Dave Gibbons
  4. Matt Chandler
  5. Mark Driscoll
  6. Dave Ferguson
  7. John Bishop
  8. Troy Grambling
  9. Dino Rizzo
  10. Dave Browning
  11. Matt Wilson
  12. Craig Groeschel [via video]

Each of these leaders could be a reason for the attending Innovation3, but to get them all in one room and  hear from each of them should be quite interesting.

If you haven’t booked your calendar for next year, better get on it and add January 27-28, 2009 in Dallas!

Check the site for more details and register online.   Bring your team so you can share the experience & get best rates!

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More open source, freely distributed church resources coming in through my emails.

This website is for churches worldwide to download and use an entire library of creative materials - absolutely free.  You heard me right.  Cost = 0.  Materials include sermon audio, countdowns, promotional design graphics and opening videos from a wide variety of message series and churches.

Login or create a free account to begin downloading files. Merry Christmas.

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There are growing numbers of people taking a scholarly approach to studying ministry & technology.  I have a larger and larger list of scholars appearing on my reader these days.

So I’ve decided that over the next few weeks, you’re gonna meet some of my brainest friends and check out what they’re studying, evaluating, testing, hypothesizing, and just, well, all that kind of stuff.

Kicking off this “blog of the weekend” series, let me introduce you to Dr. Dave, as he’s called around here, aka Dr. David Bourgeois, a prof. at Biola University who blogs at Lessons from Babel.  I’ve observed Dave’s work for a long time, had the privilege of hearing him speak and even shared a meal with him.  He is an absolute pioneer when it comes to studying online ministry data.

His newest course involving Internet ministry launches next semester and in preparation, Dave recently contacted me asking if I had access to any online ministries who are pioneering corporate prayer on the internet.  Specifically, he’s looking for people praying together online, via text or voice.  In exchange for the info, the good Dr. is allowing me to audit (I mean crash) his course, so I responded.

Do I?   How about this example from the LifeShare online challenge hosted by LifeChurch.tv where I got to pray with people from all over the world.  Unfortunately, although you can get the live mogulus stream you won’t get to see the saved chat with visitors from across the globe.

You’ll be hearing more about Dr. Dave’s upcoming class here soon.  In the meantime, he’s also asking for other examples so if you’ve got links, post ‘em here.  He’s looking for options where there are interactive prayers going on (i.e. not like great services like Kindle where you can post a prayer.)

Who do you know who’s pioneering the work of online interactive prayer?    And while you’re thinking, add a feed from Lessons from Babel.

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The ECHO Conference 2009 dates are set, the website’s up, and speakers are being added.  If you have any interest in church multi-media & technology, you won’t want to miss it.

Besides great keynote speakers, it’s a wonderful nerworking opportunity located centrally in Dallas.  This year it will be held at Irving Bible Church.

Just some of the people I got to have conversations with at last year’s conference include:

  • Ben Rugg & Jim Elliston (Clover)

In fact here’s a link to some of the photos I shot of Barton Damer explaining how he comes up with his amazingly cool graphics.  You won’t want to miss it.

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