Wish I had time to post all that is happening here at the Internet Ministry Conference.  I’m hoping to get some of my notes uploaded in the next few days.

I don’t know how you view conferences but sometimes I question the affordability of such events and wonder about long term gains for any one ministry.  But this gathering has some unique elements that give it some distinctives.  Several things that seem ouside the norm include:

• attendance by women (of course there could always be more)
• a measure of diversity (scholars, geeks, ministers, professionals)
• a representation of Non-American ministries (Canada, France, England, Netherlands, etc.)
• good equipment / access / accomodations / atmosphere

There are a lot of really smart people here.  And I mean those who are reflecting deeply and profoundly on why we are using the internet, what for, directed at who and with what success.  There is a broad sweep of people who would argue that that online communication and real world communication are co-mingling in such a way that there are few distinctions between them.  There are equally scholarly people saying these communication experiences are totally different due to the fact that any form of communication with a technological element included differs dramatically from a real world face to face communication.  There’s also an apparent (and not surprising) distinction between generational perceptions on this topic. (Gotta remember my grad thesis was built around diffusion of innovation theory so I love that stuff!)

I enjoyed dinner last night with good conversation between a table of tweeters plus Peter Green of Agathon Group and Dr. Dave Bourgeois.

You can check out the Internet Ministry Conference blog for more.

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.