There’s a Social Media Summit this weekend that will inject a shot of redemptive light into the Des Moines Social Club.  If you’re in the vicinity – sign up now!

Incubated by dear friend and colleague, Justin Wise, the Summit will be a hive of creative collaboration and a deep drill for Christian leaders who want a clearer understanding of participatory media evolution, new media values, opportunities, challenges and practical helps.

Justin, one of my team members at the Center for Church Communication, has done a masterful job of putting the Summit together and if you’re anywhere near the Des Moines, Iowa area this weekend and want a social media education, come dream with us.  The children of Issachar understood the times and knew what Israel should do.  Let’s do the same.

Recently, I got to skype in with the M2Live guys for a session on social media values and how they impact the church. You can access the archive here: Cynthia Ware on M2Live.  It was great fun and I was sorry it took me the whole summer to finally have time to say yes.

The guys who run M2Live are awesome and their mission is simple – to help the Church benefit from online media in ministry.

After broadcasting out of Atlanta for some time, the M2Live crew are gearing up for a national tour – bringing live training to a city near you.

First stop Chicago – October 8 – 9, 2010 at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.

And best news yet, if you’re near C-town, I’ve got a registration code that provides a 10% discount to you!

There are only a few more seats left and since we’re in the final 2 1/2 weeks before the tour’s launch; I recommend you hurry.  Here’s your discount code: WARE

And if you attend the Chicago event, please use the M2Live hashtag so I can follow your insights.

M2LIVE is a grassroots effort allowing believers of all backgrounds to share and learn from one another.  As a series of web-based and live hands-on workshops, M2LIVE is designed for church leaders and volunteers interested in enhancing their ministry using the latest in web and social media technology.

The M2LIVE webinar showcases insights from many of today’s brightest church web evangelists. While presenters have opportunity to share their message, the format allows ample time for asking questions and interacting with the presenter. Today’s free M2LIVE webinar features a discussion of some of the values embedded in the new media and why some folks resist participation.

Join me for the discussion today. To access the webinar, visit http://www.M2LIVE.org/live at 11:30am EDT / 8:30am PST.

STORY is a conference I love promoting. And, having spoken at STORY previously, I can attest to the elegant, inspiring, and stellar atmosphere it both creates and provides for the creatives who serve us in taking ministry far beyond the traditional western church walls.

This year STORY will be held on September 23-24, 2010 at Park Community Church in downtown Chicago. The purpose is to fuel the church’s artists, writers and producers in communicating the greatest story ever told. You’ll hear from some of the best creative practitioners in both ministry and the marketplace, from filmmakers and authors to actors and musicians. Presenters include:

Seating is limited to just 500 attendees, and the event is scheduled on a Thursday and Friday so you can enjoy the weekend in the city. Following its inaugural event in 2009, STORY is now a two-day, main-stage event with no breakouts or workshops; just an intimate audience with the top creative minds. You’ll be able to ask questions during the event and continue the conversation after it’s over. Visit www.storychicago.com.

One of the things I’ve been focused on lately is the self-referencing we Christians do when it comes to the web.  Working with the Center for Church Communication has convinced me that there must be so much we’re missing in terms of global communications. Imagine my surprise when I discovered Steve Fogg who’s a brilliant student of church comm over in Australia.

So I’m doing a bit of scouting… and via a tweet by Jason Clark found this.  It’s not necessarily communication (or technology) related, but it does broaden our perspective so we can see beyond US Christianity via the web.

Here’s a brief history of the awards:

The Christian New Media Awards were the first ever exclusively Christian award ceremony for bloggers and web designers in the UK. They were established in 2007 by Premier Christian Media to recognise and reward Christian achievements on the internet.

Now in its fourth year, The Christian New Media Awards continue to grow. The awards now feature a new media section, to recognise a wider range of Christian achievements in technology, from iPhone applications to VJ to flash games.

Here are some of last year’s winners:

Best Christian Blog:

Winner — Dave’s District Blog, www.davesdistrictblog.blogspot.com
Runner Up — Bible Study Exposition Online, www.bibleseo.com

Most Inspiring Leadership Blog:

Winner — Nick Baines’s Blog, www.nickbaines.wordpress.com
Runner Up — The President and Vice President of the Methodist Conference, www.methodist-presandvp.blogspot.com

Best Christian Blog for under 25’s:

Winner — The Rmablings of Hughbo, www.hughbourne.co.uk
Runner Up — Saved by Grace, Dan Blythe, www.danblythe.wordpress.com

Best Newcomer Blog:

Winner — The Church Mouse Blog, www.churchmousepublishing.blogspot.com
Runner Up — The Thoughts of a Thinker, Xander Coomber, www.xandercoomber.co.uk

Special Recognition (for the youngest entrant):

Winner — Faithful Catholic Girl, www.faithfulcatholicgirl.blogspot.com

Best Small Church Website:

Winner — Stevenston High Kirk, www.highkirk.com
Runner Up — Reading Family Church, www.readingfamilychurch.org.uk

Best Large Church Website:

Winner — Hope City Church, www.hopecitychurch.tv
Runner Up — Abundant Life Ministries, www.alm.org.uk

Best Christian Organization:

Winner — Divine Match – The UK Christian Singles Community, www.divinematch.co.uk
Runner Up — Christian Today, www.christiantoday.com

Best Christian Music Site:

Winner — Worship Central, www.worshipcentral.org
Runner Up — Musicademy, www.musicademy.com

People’s Choice Award:

Winner — Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred – A monastery of Roman Catholic Benedictine nuns in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire, www.benedictinenuns.org.uk

Best use of New Media for a Christian project:

Winner — Clayton.tv, www.clayton.tv
Runner Up — New Frontiers Church Planting, www.ukchurchplanting.org

Best use of New Media for a Christian campaign:

Winner — Passion Play, www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqZjRh2cCnE
Runner Up — Tearfund – Make Life Flow, www.tearfund.org.uk/lobalooroll

Best use of Rich Media for Christians

Winner — 24-7 Shorts, www.24-7shorts.com/

Joint Winner — Island Wall Entertainment, www.islandwall.com
Runner Up — Planet Sport, www.planetsport.tv

One of the amazing people I get to work with on a weekly (sometimes, daily!) basis is Kevin Hendricks. Kevin acts as the editorial director at the Center for Church Communication and is a clever and thoughtful writer.

As you might know, I’ve struggled with book publishers asking me to promote their books. This happens on a weekly basis and I always send my standard form letter. “Thanks for considering me but I only review books that explore the intersection of faith and technology….” Nevertheless, the books keep coming.

Today, I make my only exception for the last year. I simply can’t resist talking about a cause I support (adoption) by an author I respect (Kevin) in a format I love (tweets). Wait! A book written in tweets about adoption – ok, I’m gonna call that the intersection of faith and technology.

Lemme clarify…

Kevin’s newest work, Addition by Adoption: Kids, Causes & 140 Characters, is the Hendricks family’s personal journey of adoption presented as a collection of tweets; you heard me right … a book authored in Twitter.

I just got mine in the mail. You can get yours today at Amazon. And to seal the deal, a good chunk of the proceeds go to charity::water!

Creating products that actually serve the church is not easy, especially when it comes to technology.  The interwebs are littered with Christian ghettos, static dead-end websites and social networking tools that promised they were designed to serve the church but somehow really didn’t.

Why a product or application fails is hard to say.   Some apps end up as walled gardens, others accidentally fell into broadcast mode, offering no community appeal, and so died off, and still others never got over their clunky user interface issues or high bar fees.

Nevertheless, there are those courageous individuals who press forward always straining to develop services that really do foster richer communication opportunities for churches.

Recently, I was asked to check out a start up called SoChurch and I found myself curious….

Here’s what I learned:

SoChurch is being built with the church in mind.

SoChurch is a work in progress, with developers getting plenty of input early on to make sure the product release is stellar.

SoChurch wants to change the way ministries and churches leverage web technology for church communication.

SoChurch is a communication platform for community development both within and beyond the church walls.

SoChurch is going to be scalable, dynamic, and culturally flexible – and I can’t wait to see what that means!

John Saddington, a SoChurch advisor & evangelist said this recently, “Organizations who are weak in terms of communication end up with frustrated programs, initiatives, and burnt out personnel.”  So true!!   So bring it SoChurch, help us communicate.

You can expect to hear a lot more in the near future and follow SoChurch on Twitter to get daily status updates.

Disclaimer: I am on the advisory board for SoChurch.

NAB Expo is right around the corner – from April 12 – 15 2010 in Las Vegas.

The Technologies For Worship Pavilion at NAB will offer comprehensive training for church worship staff and technical volunteers. The pavilion is set up like a virtual worship environment, incorporating video projection, web streaming, moving lights, digital audio console technology, personal monitoring and live worship music.

If you want to plan your Technologies for Worship Pavilion tour you can use this schedule for planning.  You can register for a free floor pass here compliments of TFWM; use code TF01 when prompted.  

And pastors, you should be there – if only just to hear FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski.  Bet you didn’t know that wireless mic of yours needs a license, huh?

Plus, I got this from Jason Rouse:

The Technologies for Worship Pavilion offers comprehensive training for house of worship staff and technical volunteers and is the focal point for all things related to worship technology at the NAB Show. In addition, you may be interested in Destination Broadband – the newest broadband-centric exhibit at the 2010 NAB Show. It will be featuring technologies like online video platforms, streaming video, mobile video distribution, and much more.

Technologies for Worship Schedule
Destination Broadband

The reason I’m reaching out to you is because I have a special registration code for you to pass along to your readers, giving them access to the show – a $150 value – for FREE. This special pass includes the exhibit floor, the Opening Keynote and State of the Industry Address, Info Sessions, Content Theater, Destination Broadband Theater and Exhibits. All you and your readers need to do is visit http://ow.ly/13TL9 to redeem or register at http://nabshow.com/register with the code A913.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Remember way back when, when we all voted on panels for SxSW?

Videos of today’s SxSW gathering are already hitting YouTube.  Thanks Tony Steward for streaming live on your iPhone.

Technology For Results, Not Profits featured a couple of the LifeChurch.tv digerati, Terry Storch & Bobby Grunewald, engaging audience members on ways nonprofits can maintain and even grow their support base.

“Profit isn’t a bad thing. When you incorporate free tools to engage your users (like LifeChurch.tv’s youversion), you are funded from a philanthropic perspective – people donate to support the cause,” Grunewald said.

Churches – quantify your results.
“It can be even more important for nonprofits to use online analytic services to stay in touch with their communities. Because many nonprofits are local, it’s important for members to feel connected and to know that their organization is in touch with them. As a nonprofit, it’s important to see your measurable results compared to how your community is actually doing. Crunch the numbers. See if you’re making an impact.” (via http://sxtxstate.com/)

Is your church measuring their results overall and in every department at every level?  If so how?  What metrics do you use and what do you measure?

My great friends at Fellowship One Technologies hosting the Dynamic Church Conference (DC10) are offering a $50.00 off deal!  This is an unbeatable opportunity for all those happy campers who use F1 technologies and those interested in doing so.

DC10 is a three-day educational event focused on teaching users and developers how to effectively leverage Fellowship One. I, myself, have spoken at Dynamic Church Conference and inspire churches to impact their ministries through complete utilization Fellowship One.  It will be held this year on May 12-14 at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.

The goal for DC10 is to educate and inspire churches so they can impact their ministries through Fellowship One. Here are a few reasons you should attend DC10…

• Lower Cost… just $249 — that’s less than half the cost of previous years! (Use the promo code IMPACT prior to March 31^st to get $50 off the registration fee!)
• Education focused… DC10 will feature 60 education sessions across six tracks, 40 breakout sessions and a Consulting Lab staffed with computers and Fellowship One experts
• Dynamic Speakers…  Check out featured presenters
• Developer Track… Geared specifically to application and web gurus wanting to extend the power of Fellowship One, register now for just $99
• Networking… DC10 Meet & Greet, Networking Lunch and panel discussions offer great opportunities to hear how other churches are utilizing Fellowship One to grow their ministries.