Again, a special thanks to Catalyst & Leadership Network for giving a dozen of us bloggers the opportunity to simulcast “The Nines“.

Yesterday’s simulcast, the landmark event featuring some of today’s most well known Christian leadership, was amazingly successful if you measure success in terms of numbers of viewers.   As you can see from the visual, these 9 hours of 9 minute interviews with some of today’s most influential Christian authors, pastors, bloggers, scholars & communicators really changed the rhythmic pattern of my blog’s traffic flow.  Additionally, although there were some ‘to be expected’ technical glitches, the vast archive of inspiration, admonishment, and insight will be drawn on for a long time.

The question I have been asked the most is “how can I see the videos I missed or want to watch again?”  and I’m working on getting that answer as well as rounding up some embed codes to host some of my favorite clips here.  The whole thing was a great experiment and we learned a lot of behind the scenes lessons I won’t go into today.  However, one thing that stood out to me is that although people used our blogs to “watch” the videos, none of the commenting went on on blogs….. all the conversation action was on Twubs, Twitter, & via Texting.

Today, I’m headed to LA for the Christian Web Conference at Biola University and if you’re anywhere near, please stop by.

We are just two days away from The Nines, a 100% online, 100% free, conference for church leaders this Wednesday, September 9th, 2009.

Catalyst is partnering with Leadership Network to provide us with this first time ever free event.

Todd Rhoades of Leadership Network &  Monday Morning Insight answered some of our FAQ’s recently on The Show, and you can get a teaser video about social media changing the landscape of Kingdom influencers with Todd & Pastor Charles Lee below:

Charles Lee // Social Networking and Influence from Todd Rhoades on Vimeo.

Check back in here on Wednesday morning for the simulcast and to enjoy over 60 presenters, including:

Reggie McNeal (Leadership Network)
Perry Noble (NewSpring Church)
Leonard Sweet (Author/Speaker)
Ed Stetzer (Lifeway Research)
Mark Batterson (National Community Church)
Alan Hirsch (Forge Mission Training Network)
Dino Rizzo (Healing Place Church)
Greg Surratt (Seacoast Church)
Sam Chand (Sam Chand Ministries)
Jon Tyson (Trinity Grace Church, NYC)
Reggie Joiner (CCO, reThink)
Nancy Ortberg (TeamWorx2)
Mike Breaux (Heartland Church)
Pete Wilson (Cross Point Church)
Neil Cole (Church Multiplication Associates)
Jenni Catron (Cross Point Church)
Noel Heikkinen (Riverview Church)
David Foster (The Gathering)
Mark Bankord (Heartland Community Church)
John Bishop (Living Waters Church)
Rick Rusaw (LifeBridge Church)
Geoff Surratt (Seacoast Church)
Jim Tomberlin (Third Quarter Consulting)
Anne Jackson (FlowerDust.net)
Naeem Fazal (Mosaic Church)
John Coulombe (First Ev Free Fullerton)
Teresa McBean (NorthStar Community Church)
Jason Cusick (Faith Church)
Bambi Encarnacion (First Ev Free Fullerton)
Ken Fong (Evergreen Baptist Church)
Judy West (Windsor Crossing Church)
Scott Wilson (The Oaks Fellowship)
Amy Hanson(Author/Speaker)
Toby Slough (Cross Timbers Church)
Troy Gramling (Flamingo Road Church)
Scott Nickell (Flatirons Community Church)
Jorge Acevedo (Grace Church)
Matt Williams (Grace Church Greenville)
Bob Roberts (Northwood Church)
Dave Ferguson (Community Christian Church)
Matt Carter (The Austin Stone Church)
Lawrence Aker (Cornerstone Baptist Church)
Dan Kimball (Vintage Faith Church)
Ken Fong (Evergreen Baptist Church)
Bill Easum (Easum & Associates)
Bryan Carter (Concord Church)
Jim Burgen (Flatirons Community Church)
Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church)
Chip Henderson (Pine Lake Church)
Jeffrey Johnson (Eastern Star Church)
Jim Sheppard (Generis)
Brad Bell (The Well)
Brian Bloye (Westridge Church)
Steve Robinson (Church of the King)
Stacy Spencer (New Direction Christian Fellowship)
Bil Cornelius (Bay Area Fellowship)
Margaret Feinberg (Author/Speaker)
JD Greear (Summit Church)
Scott Hodge (Orchard Valley Church)
Greg Holder (Windsor Crossing Church)
John Ortberg (Menlo Park Presbyterian)
Darrin Patrick (The Journey)
Michael Trent (Third Place)
Scott Williams (LifeChurch.tv)
Steve Robinson (Church of the King)
Nancy Beach (Willow Creek Church)
Keld Dahlman (European Church Planter)

and believe it or not, many more.   Each presenter has nine minutes or less to present based on this thought: “If you could sit down one-on-one with a handful of church leaders, what is the one thing you would want to tell them?”

At last count over a week ago 6,000 leaders had already pre-registered for this one day online event, so make sure you register today.

In addition to being available to those who pre-register, The Nines will be simulcast on these other blogs and websites too:

• Leading Smart (Tim Stevens)
• Tall Skinny Kiwi (Andrew Jones)
• The Digital Sanctuary (Cynthia Ware, yours truly)
• TonyMorganLive (Tony Morgan)
• ChurchCrunch (John Saddington)
  
• Shaun in the City (Shaun King)
• Bruce Reyes-Chow
• Ed Stetzer
• Big is the New Small (Scott “fist bump” Williams)
• bob.blog (Bob Hyatt)
• Bill Kinnon
• Terrace Crawford

At each of these simulcast sites, including here at The Digital Sanctuary, you can watch The Nines online.

Brilliant overview of the future evolution of the Social Web by Forrester Reseacher, Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) plus John McCrea & Joseph Smarr.

Every church leader can easily understand the future of social communities and their potential value by investing in this in depth analysis of where we are in the evolution of the Social Web.  Understanding participatory media, albeit currently in it’s infancy, is a critical skill in future communication strategies for faith based communities.

Just arrived back in sunny Los Angeles after navigating the ice storm in Dallas that created some complications at the Innovation3 gathering.  Transportation became a substantial issue since most roads were frozen over.  Thanks to these people specifically for getting us around Sherry Surratt, Rhett Smith, Rick Smith, Lance Bauslaugh & DJ Chuang. I like how you roll (slide).

And it brings up a great point.  As you well know by now, conferences, in general, are becoming increasingly unpopular.   Although the reasons are numerous, a few arguments I’ve heard (and used) are:

• too expensive
• too much travel
• inconveniently located or dated
• competition with other events
• presentations easily accessed online
• boring lecture-style presentations
• redundant speakers presenting rehashed material
• lack of interactivity
• failure to present practical tools
• live streaming of keynote speakers

But, we can’t do away with conferences and gatherings and here’s why.  Face to face is invaluable.  Throughout the two days at our host location (Bent Tree Bible Fellowship) we had meet up after meet up, literally hundreds and hundreds of people reconfiguring themselves over and over again in a dynamic, organic (almost molecular) swirl that gave us the irreplaceable. (Thank you Twitter!)

As online technologies bridge the time / space barriers that have prevented us from certain kinds of connections, irl (in real life) opportunities take on different value.  Drinking coffee with someone you have never met, yet been sharing life online for months or years is as rewarding as you can imagine.   And when you can do this with dozens of people, the obstacles that go with conferences seem smaller.

Point being, conferences used to be important for hearing keynote speakers, hundreds of people – seeing one person live.  Now, they’re important so hundreds of people can see each other offline – galvanizing the relationships we have online.  And conferences must be reconfigured for them to have this value.  Innovation3 was billed as a gathering and that represents a step in the evolution of conventions, conferences, gatherings, camps, etc. – they’re still necessary.

Leadership Network’s Innovation3 will likely be one of the highlights of ‘09 for me and you’re going to hear a lot more about it….. Did I mention that I interviewed a couple of people?   Bobby Gruenwald, Terry Storch, Anne Jackson, Kent Shaffer, Nancy Ortberg, Tim Keller….  You heard me right; more posts to come….

Good thing we’re all wearing name tags!  The place is packed with people whose teachings we watch on tv, or whose books we buy, whose blogs we read and those we know virtually, etc.  It’s confusing to keep everyone straight.

It’s pretty well known that conferences, in general, are becoming increasingly unpopular.  The reasons are numerous.  But the one thing that conferences do offer is the real world contact that invigorates us with face to face conversations.

In addition to the 100+ presenters, here are some the bloggers and/or twitterers who are with us today and tomorrow at Innovation3.

Tony Morgan tonymorganlive.com
Greg Atkinson gregatkinson.com
Rhett Smith rhettsmith.com
Camron Ware visualworshipper.com
Jaime Jackson jamiejacksonxp.com
Charles Lee charlestlee.com
John Atkinson http://johnatkinson.typepad.com
Jason Curlee http://jaycurlee.blogspot.com/
Kent Shaffer churchrelevance.com
Scott Williams www.bigisthenewsmall.com/
Mary Beth Stockdale http://marybethstockdale.wordpress.com/
Bobby Greunewald swerve.lifechurch.tv
Dave Gibbons davegibbons.tv
Dave Ferguson daveferguson.typepad.com/
Mark Driscoll theresurgence.com
Ed Stetzer edstetzer.com
Todd Rhoades toddrhoades.com
Dave Travis davetravisnow.com
Sherry Surratt sherrysurratt.com
Geoff Surratt geoffsurratt.com
Eric Swanson ericjswanson.com
Marc Payan http://marcpayan.com/

There’s a lot of excitement today as Christian leaders from all over gather in Dallas to celebrate the 25th year of the Leadership Network.

Leadership Network fosters church innovation and growth through strategies, programs, tools and resources consistent with their far-reaching mission: to identify, connect and help high-capacity Christian leaders multiply their impact.

Leadership Network’s “DNA” is to work directly with pioneer churches who are testing and implementing the new ideas that will drive the Church in the future.

Many churches that participate in Leadership Communities become teachers themselves, taking what they have learned to a broader and larger audience.  As innovation spreads, the Church better fulfills its mission to expand the Kingdom of God.

Leadership Network is fully committed to the multiplication of innovative ministry.  They partner with the nation’s top innovative churches, then share the best ideas, practices, concepts, advancements and thinking with others in the Church.  Innovation³ is the culmination of 25 years of fulfilling their mission at Leadership Network.

Leadership Network is proud to bring us Innovation³ a gathering of about a 1000 Christian leaders with presentations by 100 innovative leaders.

You can check out the Leadership Network website at Leadnet.org.

As Innovation3 approaches I’m looking forward to hearing from a handful of the most innovative female Christian leaders we can gather all in one place as Dallas hosts the Leadership Network’s Innovation3 Gathering!  Since, I’ve been invited to live blog the event along with Tony Morgan and Carlos Whittaker, you’ll hear more details soon.  But for now, I want to focus on the amazing list of female Christian leaders coming to Innovation3.

From Nancy Ortberg, founding partner of Teamworx and author of Looking for God, and Unleashing the Power of Rubberbands, to Laurie Beshore, Pastor of Outreach Ministry at Mariners Church that engages over 6000 volunteers in service to the poor and needy in Orange County, CA and around the world, you’ll learn from and interact with some very sharp women, all in one place, the Innovation3 Gathering!

In addition to Nancy and Laurie, you’ll meet:

• Bambi Encarnacion, Director of The Encore Ministry at First Evangelical Free Church, Fullerton, CA
• Missy Hannon, Executive Pastor and Director of The God Network at Living Hope, Seattle, WA
• Jennifer Lefforge, Experience Architect at Irving Bible Church, Irving, TX
• Linda Slaton, Release Pastor at Fellowship Bible Church, Little Rock, AR
• Teresa McBean, Director of Recovery Ministries at NorthStar Community Church, Richmond, VA
• Dawn Nicole Baldwin, CEO of Aspire One
• Anne Jackson, Author and Pastor at Cross Point Church, Nashville, TN
• Wendy Ferrin, Women’s Ministry Director at Salem Alliance Church, Salem, OR
• Claudia McGuire, Women’s Ministry Director at Chase Oaks Fellowship, Richardson, TX
• Sibyl Towner, Spritual Formation Pastor, Willow Creek, Chicago, Ill

You will also network with other great women leaders, like Sherry Surratt (Director of Women’s Initiative at Leadership Network, previously Central Support Pastor at Seacoast Church), for example, who can inspire and challenge your ministry.

Sherry and I are hosting a tweet up so if you’d like to join us for dinner on the Monday night before the event, simply contact us at http://twitter.com/sherrysurratt or http://twitter.com/cynthiaware.  Of course, you don’t have to twitter to come, but once we’re done with you, you will.

There is still time to register online: Innovation3 – register online if you are anywhere near Dallas.

Browse the entire list of 50 reasons to attend Innovation3 Gathering as the count down continues…

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

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!

I’m intrigued by the data and information from Forrester Research so I love reading the blog of Jeremiah Owyang.  So many of the concepts explored in the world of social media seem to me, (am I the only one?)  to be directly tied to all the changes in business models, political strategies, economic developments (vis-a-vis digital divisions), and communication/mass media practices.

Over the summer, Jeremiah posted this:  Trends, Corporate Adoption of Social Media: Tire, Tower and the Hub and Spoke.  It’s come up in so many discussions, at conferences, etc. I thought readers might be interested in the details.

Using three basic metaphors, a tire, a tower and a hub and spoke, Jeremiah identifies three social media adoption styles.  Here’s an excerpt:

The Tire
Common to grassroots movements within corporations, adoption happens at the lowest levels at the company, rather than from a centralized group. You’ll see individual business units define their own strategy, pick their own tools, engage their own vendors, and communicate with the market on their own terms.

Common to companies that haven’t put a strategy in place, depending on culture, this could be detrimental as resources are not used efficiently, data is spread on multiple systems, and the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing.

The Tower
Common in organizations where power is centralized, we may see a central team formed to organize social media. This team defines the policy, best practices, vendors, and tools. This team which will commonly found in corporate communications and supported by PR will often dictate the direction of social media. Expect a dedicated role or sub-group to appear either experiential marketing, new media, or interactive media to eventually be born out of the group, where social media is centralized.

Social media is a grassroots movement, so common dangers can be gagging the natural voice of conversations of product experts with customers using these tools, so a centralized team needs to be more of a support organization to the enterprise, not a controller.

The Hub and Spoke
This coordinated model has a central organizational unit that provides best practices, sets policy, supports infrastructure but encourages conversations at the edges of the company. More about empowering business groups to partake in natural social media discussions without hindering, this group will be more of a coordinator, and less of a controller. Expect to see this model to occur as social media infiltrates every nook and cranny of a business, and at a certain point, a company as an enterprise can’t ignore the raging groundswell.

Cautions to this model, as overly coordinated programs will be difficult to achieve, and may be ineffective to different unique markets that a large company may have. Like the tower, having a centralized group at a large enterprise is always going to slow down natural conversations so focus on empowerment, rather than control.

Can you identify your church’s leadership style?  If so, you’ll be able to determine it’s strengths, weaknesses and the value social media may play within your staff and congregation.