As promised, the live simulcast of “The Nines”, a landmark event featuring some of today’s most well known Christian leadership commences.  Watch here live all day (Wednesday) to see 9 hours of 9 minute interviews with some of the United States’ most influential Christian authors, pastors, bloggers, scholars & communicators.

Special thanks to Catalyst & Leadership Network for giving a dozen of us bloggers the opportunity to simulcast this event!

Here’s a partial schedule: (all times CST):

9AM — Troy Gramling, Mark Beeson, Anne Jackson, Dave Ferguson, Scott Hodge

10AM — Perry Noble, Stacy Spencer

11AM — Dino Rizzo, Nancy Beach, Steven Furtick, Reggie McNeal

12PM — Craig Groeschel, Leonard Sweet, Greg Surratt, Jon Tyson

1PM — Margaret Feinberg, Larry Osborne, Matt Carter, Pete Wilson

2PM — Neil Cole, Reggie Joiner, JD Greear

3PM — Mark Batterson, Dan Kimball, Mark DeYmaz

4PM — Jud Wilhite, Brian McLaren, Bob Roberts, Rick McKinley, John Ortberg

5PM — Alan Hirsch, John Bishop, Toby Slough, Ed Stetzer

6PM — Mark Driscoll, Darrin Patrick, Brad Powell

7PM — Darrin Whitehead, Brian Bloye

8PM — Eric Bryant, Nancy Ortberg, Rick Warren

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.

Kent Shaffer, known around our house as the human encyclopedia of all things “church statistics” related, and known to the blogosphere as Church Relevance, has compiled a substantial research list of the Top 60 Church Blogs.

Likely you can guess what my favorite thing about this list is.   And no, it’s not the fact that I appear on it.

It’s that I love seeing the uniqueness of the body represented in the blogosphere.  This list displays diversities of giftings… Pyromaniacs side by side with The Ooze, The Resurgence along with three female bloggers (Anne Jackson, Kem Meyer & myself), Ragamuffin Soul & Desiring God all on one list, each of us standing side by side serving God.  The list reminds me how particularly individual the gifts, assignments and callings of of God are in each of us.

Thank you, Kent, for serving the global body of Christ by painstakingly compiling the data and producing the work that saves so many of us research time.

Who would you add to this list, especially if it were Top 100?

Yes, I've finally paid someone to translate The Digital Sanctuary into Spanish. 

Oh, no wait, Google does that for me.  Free, of course. 

Check your own blog out in your favorite translation.   One of 10 New Media values I covered at the Dynamic Church Conference '08 – free services.

                                                 image: socialmedia.biz

Kem Meyer, Communications Director at Granger Community Church has been having ongoing conversations with her team about improving the online experience their church delivers.  Recently, Kem posted What we like… a brief list of the things Granger's staff enjoy when visiting a website.

Kem, an insightful communicator and active user of new media, noted that when the staff stepped away from their own church website to discuss what they liked about the websites they visit on a regular basis, they came up with 5 things they like (aka – what they value):

  *  I get to choose what information comes to me and how. (personalization)

  *  I can interact if I WANT to, but I'm not forced to. (interactivity)

  *  I can access it from any computer; public or private. (mobility)

  *  I like the "insider scoop" on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. (user generated)

  *  It's instant. (instantaneous)

I was curious to see if their list paralleled the list I created late last year for the Dynamic Church Conference '08 – Social Media – 10 New Media Values Your Ministry Needs.  Sure enough, of my ten, they listed the five found above.  You can down my list here Download Presentation (PDF).

Although your church website should be well-designed and easy to use, what's as important is that the values it reflects embrace a new communication mindset.  

You can also comment, twitter, ichat or facebook me for more exploration of new media values.

Great news if you're looking for the place where media & the Church converge.  COLLIDE Magazine has a brand spankin' new, redesigned website.  It's less than 48 hours old.  

And how can I resist mentioning COLLIDE when several Digital contributors are featured in the magazine's new May/June issue.  Odd happenstance?  I don't think so; it's more like Spirit-led inspiration if you ask me.  

Our Digital contributors in COLLIDE include:

Aaron Linne (Mr. Vimeo himself) His article, Stop Throwing Sheep, explores how we can use Facebook applications to spread the messege.

Cynthia Ware My article, Technology and the Virtual Church, was written to inspire early adopters of new media technologies to forge ahead.

Joe Suh (MyChurch.org founder) Joe's interview explains how social networking can serve local churches and facilitate their members connecting online.

Additionally, there are a lot of other good resources, articles and reviews in the magazine and while you're visiting the new website, it's easy to get a risk-free issue or subscription. 

Congratulations again, Tim Stevens, on Pop Goes the Church making the cover with some amazing graphics by Barton Damer.  And speaking of Barton and his way good digital media skills… you didn't think I was going to forget to show off some of his video maneuvers did you? 

Not when they feature this August's Echo Conference…..

ECHO Full Promo Video from barton Damer on Vimeo.

When I changed my domain name and upgraded my WordPress from 2.3.3 to 2.5 I noticed a lot of things around here were neglected.  I found a pile of 51 unpublished, incomplete drafts.  Time to delete.  I found mis-loaded images, broken links, outdated blogroll entries, etc.  I could use a couple of days of site keeping. 

No posting while I clean it up.  Oops!  Too late, already published.

Here's the new URL: http://thedigitalsanctuary.org/ so you can update your blogrolls.

What's on your electronic 'to do' list?

Fellowship Technologies is hosting it's 2nd annual Dynamic Church Conference in about a month.  If you are a church leader who wants to know more about ChMS, learn more about leveraging the power of the internet, networking with partners, etc., please join us in Dallas, May 15 – 17. 

Because there are two Leadership Network Digital contributors on the speaker list, I thought you'd like to know we'll be at the Frisco Convention Center.  We'd love to meet you.  Here's more of what's offered:

    * An pre-conference called 'Power Start' with six different, personalized training classes 
    * 60% more sessions across six different tracks, both Beginner & Advanced user levels
    * Guest speakers include:

            Terry Storch, Digerati Pastor, LifeChurch.tv and YouVersion.com

            Joe Suh, Founder, MyChurch.org

            Cynthia Ware, Pastor, Writer, Blogger, The Digital Sanctuary

    * 50% more hands-on training labs, both Beginner & Advanced
    * Dedicated Q & A – 'Ask the Experts' with Fellowship Technologies staff
    * Free wireless Internet throughout the conference facilities   
    * Free 2 hour live worship concert featuring Lincoln Brewster   
    * And much, much more!