Marketing gurus Phil Cooke and Brad Abare appeared in a livestream chat this morning on Conversant Life.  These guys are two of the most sought-after consultants in the field of church and religious media communications.

Hearing them talk about Christians / media / church / communication / change / effectiveness is amazing because of the way they compliment each other.  They really spark one another’s ideas and their seasonings & expertise just flows.

I should say that we all serve the Center for Church Communication, the nonprofit parent of Church Marketing Sucks.  But, that’s not why I’m recommending this stream.  It’s simply because the material they have in the archives of their heads is pretty spectacular.  Encouraging us to be who we are uniquely in the body of Christ, accept changing culture rather than resist it, be transparent & tell “your” story, all very interesting stuff.

A couple of key take aways include:

• Culture is more important than vision.  If you develop a unique, inviting, rich, spiritually inviting culture your vision will fly.  If not, no matter how compelling the vision, it will fail.
• Dialog over monologue.  People want to be talked “with” not talked “to” or “at”.  Conversation is valuable.
• Next generation leaders would like the former generation leadership to “carry with” rather than “pass on to” them the truths & principles they’ve learned about the Kingdom of God.

The stream will be archived and if you missed it (starting tomorrow) you can find it at the Conversant Life site.   Well worth your hour.

Many consider SXSW to be the best interactive media conference in the world. You learn from minds like Guy Kawasaki and the people at Facebook and Google. Unfortunately, SXSW has had little if any church oriented content in the past.

You can change that.

You can vote for SXSW Interactive to have several church oriented sessions in 2010. Why should you have to choose between SXSW and a church media conference? Let’s merge them together! If enough of us vote, then we have a good chance of getting these church panels.

FIRST STEP
Create a free profile for voting at http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/users/register
(an email confirmation will be sent)

SECOND STEP
Vote today for the church panels by clicking the “thumbs up” icon located near the top left of the following four pages:

#1 :: Creating Authentic Online Community
>> Tony Steward, Carlos Whittaker, John Saddington, & Cynthia Ware (moderator)

#2 :: Technology For Results Not Profits
>> Bobby Gruenewald, Brad Abare, Kent Shaffer, & Terry Storch (moderator)

#3 :: LifeChurch.tv – Reaching 2 Million+ With Technology
>> Terry Storch, Tony Steward, Bobby Gruenewald, & Kent Shaffer (moderator)

#4 :: Pushing Technological Change Without Alienating Your Co-Workers
>> Kem Meyer & mystery experts

Please spread the word and help us rock the vote!

Within two weeks, those of us in Southern California will get to experience a new kind of conference.

For many reasons conferences in general are becoming increasingly unpopular.  Some of the reasons conferences are loosing their momentum have been discussed previously here.  Most conferences are organized around the old broadcast model of communication.  A single (often dynamic) speaker talking to a large group of passive listeners would be typical, then breakouts based on this same model would follow.

But there are a good handful of new conference models springing up.  For example, I’ve gotten to participate in the two Church Tech Camps (Pasadena & Dallas) which were structured more like conversations with up front moderators but lots of interactive dialog and breakouts that allowed for many individuals to share ideas and insights.

The Idea Camp is similarly structured.   Philosophically open source, The Idea Camp purposefully juxtaposes ideologies, personalities and ministry styles for a diversity of dialog rather than a lecture-based structure.  I, myself, am looking forward to hearing from those I don’t necessarily agree with.

Additionally, there’s a sweeping list of moderators, many of whom use a-typical or pioneer approaches to their ministry endeavors creating a unique setting for both inspiration and the exploration of practical ministry tools.  In fact, although everything is set up open discussion style, the goal is not just talk.  Ideas to implementation would best describe the point of the gathering.

New Song Church in Irvine, California hosts The Idea Camp and it’s free to all.  (But please sign up by creating a profile on The Idea Camp site so we can see who participated!)  And, yes, there are some stellar unannounced guests coming.

Brad Abare www.thinkpersonality.com / www.churchmarketingsucks.com
Greg Atkinson www.gregatkinson.com
Tony Ferraro www.tonyferraro.com / www.360hubs.com
Mike Foster www.ethur.org
Dave Gibbons www.davegibbons.tv
Brent Gudgel www.deidox.com / www.chronicleproject.org
Todd Hiestand www.toddhiestand.com
Scott Hodge www.scotthodge.org
Mark Horvath www.invisiblepeople.tv
Penny Hunter The Revolution
Zach Hunter www.loosechangetoloosenchains
Greg Russinger www.just4one.org
Jeff Shinabarger www.jeffshinabarger.com
Cynthia Ware www.thedigitalsanctuary.org / www.digital.leadnet.org
Rich Kirkpatrick www.richkirkpatrick.com / www.tehillamusic.com
Charles Lee www.charlestlee.com
Dave Mahanes www.chronicleproject.org / www.deidox.com
Shah Afshar www.shahshankedredemption.blogspot.com
Dwight Watson www.surgance.com / www.dwightgwatson.blogspot.com
Eric Bryant www.ericbryant.org
Spencer Burke www.theooze.com
Chad Mayer www.sharefestinc.org
James Pearson www.jamestravels.com
Dan Portnoy www.portnoymediagroup.com
David Ruis www.davidruis.com
Chris Cannon www.kingsharbor.org
Dawn Carter www.decarter.wordpress.com / www.360hubs.com
Eugene Cho www.eugenecho.wordpress.com
DJ Chuang www.djchuang.com / www.digital.leadnet.org
Keith Kall www.worldvision.org
Henry Zonio www.elementalcm.com
Tony Wood www.generatelife.com
Robert Yang www.kindlejoy.com
Dawn Nicole Baldwin www.aspireone.com /
www.dawnnicolebaldwin.typepad.com

Join Rich Kirkpatrick and I for a Social Media in Ministry breakout to share implementable ideas.

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:

• Brad Abare (Church Marketing Sucks)

• Barton Damer (Already Been Chewed)

• Scott McClellan (COLLIDE Magazine)

• Camron Ware (Visual Worshiper)

• Tony Steward (LifeChurch.tv)

• Ben Rugg & Jim Elliston (Clover)

• Greg Atkinson (Church Video Ideas)

• Anthony Coppedge (Church Media Consulting)

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.

The Idea Camp is a free hybrid conference for idea-makers to share, network, and implement ideas.  The Idea Camp will gather some of the most innovative and creative leaders from around the country to share ideas, intentionally network, and move collaboratively into idea-making.

Whether your passion is church leadership, non-profit work, social entrepreneurialism, technology, media, creativity, culture making, church planting, spiritual formation, compassionate justice, etc., this is the conference for YOU!

Here’s a beta list of the facilitators at The Idea Camp:

Brad Abare (http://www.thinkpersonality.com / http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com)
Shah Afshar (http://www.shahshankredemption.blogspot.com)
Greg Atkinson (http://www.gregatkinson.com)
Eric Bryant (http://www.ericbryant.org)
Chris Cannon (http://www.kingsharbor.org)
Dawn Carter (http://www.decarter.wordpress.com)
DJ Chuang (http://www.djchuang.com / http://digital.leadnet.org)
Mike Foster (http://www.ethur.org / http://www.deadlyviper.org)
Dave Gibbons (http://www.davegibbons.tv)
Keith Kall (http://www.worldvision.org)
Charles Lee (http://www.charlestlee.com)
James Pearson (http://www.jamestravels.com)
Matt Russell (http://www.myvcc.org/uturn)
Greg Russinger (http://www.just4one.org)
Jeff Shinabarger (http://www.jeffshinabarger.com)
Cynthia Ware (http://www.thedigitalsanctuary.org / http://digital.leadnet.org)
Tony Wood (http://www.generatelife.com)
Robert Yang (http://www.kindlejoy.com)

The annual Internet Ministry Conference is well underway.  Calvin College is hosting this year’s event and our sessions are designed to give us a chance to absorb all there is to learn about ministry online.   The speakers are hand-picked experts in the field of internet ministry and literally I wish I could hear them all.

Last night our keynote was Gabe Lyons of the Fermi Project.  Taking a prudent inventory of all the technology we are using and combining it with excerpts from the book unChristian, the book Lyons co-authored with David Kinnaman, made for an evening of heady reflection and thoughtful evaluation.  As a parting gift he gave everyone the book The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture (I interviewed it’s author, Shane Hipps, last year here).

Today Dr. Quentin Schultze (who I recommend here often) will present the morning devotional.  Following devotions we’ll head into 3 days of internet-related ministry tools, skills and best practices.

Some sessions include:

David Russell of NCC – Crafting Usable Websites

Dr. Dave Bourgeois of Biola University – Best Practices in Internet Ministry

Kent Shaffer of Church Relevance – Internet Ministry Marketing and Tailored Internet Ministry

Brad Abare of Church Marketing Sucks & the Center for Church Communication along with Michael Buckingham & Holy Cow Creative & also CCC will help us define our Personality and, shall we say, frustrate, educate and motivate us towards better online practices.

I’ll speak on Thursday about Your Spiritual Gift Mix Online (how to successfully be yourself online!) so make sure and let me know if you’ll be here and we can connect.  If you’re anywhere near Grand Rapids swing by.

If you use Twitter, don’t use #IMC08 (that’s a marketing conference),  instead use #IMC2008 to follow status updates.

It’s time to register for the Internet Ministry Conference in October.  You won’t want to miss this opportunity to absorb all there is to learn about ministry online if you’re anywhere near Grand Rapids, Michigan.  The speakers are amazing and literally I wish I could hear them all.

Some highlights will include:

Dr. Quentin Schultze (who I recommend here often) will present the devotional and David Russell of NCC will talk about websites.

Kent Shaffer of Church Relevance & Bombay Creative will speak about Internet Ministry Marketing and Tailored Internet Ministry.

Brad Abare of Church Marketing Sucks & the Center for Church Communication will help us define our Personality and, shall we say, frustrate, educate and motivate us towards better online endeavor.

I could talk about more speakers but the important thing is to register now if you’re looking to get educated about serious online ministry.

I’ll speak on Thursday about Your Spiritual Gift Mix Online so make sure and let me know you’ll be there so we can connect.

A conference for church leaders that love using media, technology, and the internet to be more effective in sharing God’s story.

This Thursday through Saturday, Dallas will host the ECHO Conference.  If you have interest in using media, technology and the internet to be more effective in ministry, then Echo is for you.

Hosted by Watermark Church (I blogged Watermark here) it promises to be an inspiring and creative gathering of church innovators.  Authors, pastors and media-savvy experts will explore the dynamic opportunities available for churches & individuals and sponsors will provide the means to do so.

There are ample breakout sessions and keynotes that include these speakers:

Donald Miller, Matthew Paul Turner, Mark Batterson, Todd Wagner, Mark Steele, Brad Abare

Echo is brought to you by the team at Igniter Media, WorshipHouse Media, and Collide Magazine

If you’re in Dallas, stop by and check out Greg Atkinson’s Church 2.0 breakout session.  Meet Greg, Tony Steward and myself – all contributors to the upcoming Church 2.0 book.