Leadership Network is offering a free church conference online called THE NINES on (you guessed it) 09/09/09 at 9:09am CST.

You’ll get to hear from 47+ speakers all in one day!

Each will each spend 9 minutes giving their best leadership advice.

A tiny preview of the speakers includes:

* Mark Batterson :: National Community Church

* Dave Ferguson :: Community Christian Church

* Reggie Joiner :: reThink Group

* Dan Kimball :: Vintage Faith Church

* Perry Noble :: NewSpring Church

* Ed Stetzer :: LifeWay Research

* and dozens of others

Live Bloggers for the conference include but are not limited to:

Tall Skinny Kiwi

The Digital Sanctuary

TonyMorganLive

ChurchCrunch

Shaun in the City

Bruce Reyes-Chow

Ed Stetzer

Big is the New Small

bob.blog

To register for this free conference, visit THE NINES

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!