When you do attend a session, workshop, etc. don’t just listen….in fact don’t just take notes. As a speaker, I don’t look at my part being that of simply a dumping of information. I have two primary goals whenever I speak:

1. Give everyone at least one idea, action item, etc. that they can take back with them.
2. Begin a conversation.

Too often conferences are just a blip on the radar. A successful conference is one that has an effect that spreads. I’m not just talking about spreading the content through twitter…though a great start (and I’m still kicking myself for not kicking off my session with my twitter ID and a hashtag) but it goes beyond that.

Don’t just take notes, process them later. Look over your notes and create action items based on what you’ve learned and experience. What good is inspiration if it remains static. Of course those action items can come from things outside of sessions and keynotes too.

Stay connected. This is the area I am terrible at. I just spoke at the HOW Design Conference and met some outstanding (these people truly stand out) people. What a shame it is to wait a year to connect with them again. Keep the conversations going, continue to develop the relationship. For me that means make a list of people to stay in contact with on a continuous basis. For me I keep that list fairly short, to help make it an achievable goal but I also have a list of everyone that I met that I will try to stay in touch with as well. Again, this is the hardest area as life and busyness get in the way.

In fact can I ask you to help me? If you’ve heard me speak will you do a couple of things for me?

• Connect with me at the conference.

Remember, I don’t usually go in with a team. And as much as I’m an extrovert, I don’t like to crash your group. So please say hi, let’s go to lunch, all that good stuff.

• Reach out afterwards

Again, this doesn’t come naturally to me and honestly, I don’t know if what I said resonated. If it does please stay connected through email, twitter, you name it.

• Give me feedback

I take my position as a speaker seriously. I want to be sure to give you everything that you are expecting out of your time at the conference. That’s why I always try to leave lots of room at the end for questions. If I can do things better, and I know I can, let me know so that I can bring the best content, engage you more, and ultimately give you what you need to do your work better.

Escape from the Planet Mundane
I’m going to talk about church marketing, why it often sucks and what we can do about it. Of course much of that will apply to whatever type of ministry you’re in and will include:

• God created us to be creative
• Our role as storytellers
• Us+Them instead of Us vs. Them
• Habits of creativity
• Group activities to get the mind moving throughout the session.

Unchurched
We talk about reaching the lost…but guess what? They don’t know they’re lost, they probably don’t feel lost and they think we’re full of it. So how do we reach the unchurched. This presentation was the easiest and hardest to put together. Easiest because it really centers around 2 words:
WHAT
HOW
Hard because it’s not easy to change WHAT we are saying and HOW we are saying it. If you’ve heard my speak before you know I love the verse “The father gave me what to say and how to say it.” and I include it in just about every talk I give. But I’m taking a different spin on it this time and examining some of the religious junk that makes the church feel good and people feel unwanted. This is going to be extra great as I’m able to speak alongside Joe Sindorf, Jenni Catron and Matthew Turner…I expect this to be much more conversation than speech.

If you’re in the Nashville area let me know, I’d love to connect with you!

Unfortunately life reared it’s ugly head and we find ourselves with a couple less than we had counted on for the panel. That’s where you come in. I’d really like to bring some various points of view to the panel…maybe a pastor, would love a woman’s perspective, or maybe you’re involved in a not so typical type of church or ministry.

If interested reply here or send me a note and we can talk some more.

You either need to be in Nashville already or willing to get there, but you will get full access (read free tickets) to the conference.

Here’s more info on the session and NRB:
The Unchurched: Who They Are and How To Communication with Them

So…how about we kill two birds with one stone. Let’s meet up and some of the upcoming conferences/speaking gigs I have coming up in 2009. We can meet and you can enjoy some great conferences. Speaking at conferences is one of my favorite parts of what I do. Not only do I like giving everyone something to take back with them that can change the way they do church, but also to see the connections and relationships built.

Here’s where I’ll be so far (if you run a conference let’s talk so that I can expand this list*):

Jan: Ohio Ministries Convocation (OH)
Feb: NRB Conference (TN)
Feb: Church Solutions Conference (AZ)
Apr: Q Conference (TX)
Jun: HOW Design Conference (TX)
Sep: MinistryCOM (IL)

If your going to be at, or near, any of these reply to this post or drop me a note and we’ll make plans to at least grab a cup of coffee. If you don’t already have plans on being to at least one of these, check them out you’ll be glad you did.

* and if your conference is on an island…I’ll speak for free!

What are the issues you want to talk about?

What do you struggle with?

Here’s a glimpse at some of it:

• Sermon graphics vs. Sermon branding
• Why literal is boring
• How to be inspired not a ripoff artist
• 7 ways to look at a sermon
• How a child’s attachment to his teddy bear relates to sermon branding
• Ammunition for the creative in the church

Now it’s your turn. What do church communicators need to know about being a part of the Sunday morning message? Go ahead…hit reply.

If you haven’t registered, what are you waiting for? If you register by the end of the month you could win an iPod (which even if you already have, will make a lovely Christmas gift).

For those of you who attended last year and took part in the Church Marketing Lab LIVE workshop I’d love to get your thoughts on how to make it better this year. One thing I am going to do is mix people up, the biggest benefit comes from interacting and getting feedback from people who you’ve never met before.

For the sermon branding session I’m going to try to really push people, and I’d love to hear what you want to learn. My goal whenever I speak is to not just give a good speech or good looking presentation…I want to give you something to go home with that you can put into effect into the ministries you touch.

I leave in the morning for the 2008 HOW Design Conference…what a great opportunity not just talk about the challenges of church marketing but also to show that we are moving forward as a church and that truth still stands strong. I hope this opens doors, begins conversations, stir up curiousity … I go with great expectations.

Here’s a glimpse at what I will be talking about Monday night:

• how I found myself in this world
• what church marketing looks like the good, bad and the ugly
• something to take home that if you’re not doing will pay for this conference
• why church marketing sucks and why it’s important
• what went wrong and how to fix it
• 3 words that can shift the creative environment of any organization
•  habits of a dysfunctional designer

I will be posting my full notes along with the powerpoint (which is nothing but 40 slides of pictures) later in the week. If you’re going I’d love to meet up, if you’re not would you pray for me? I want to do a great job, I would love the church guy to be one of the highlights of the conference. Not for my glory, but for God’s glory.

More and more, churches are recognizing the value of good design and marketing. From billboards and blogs to sermon series and sanctuaries, churches and faith-based ministries are creating a whole new category for designers. From the people behind the highly acclaimed ChurchMarketingSucks.com and the founder of Holy Cow Creative, comes an intelligent, intentional and sometimes irreverent approach to church marketing. Whether you’re a church marketing veteran or novice, you’ll learn to think beyond butts in pews and leverage the power of design to help communicate the greatest story ever told.

The top three take-aways?
1. Learn what church marketing looks like and why it’s important
2. Learn how to be an agent of change amidst stodgy church thinking
3. Learn how to get beyond mediocre church marketing that sucks

I’m in awe of the doors God opens…it’s an honor to be able to talk to designers from across the world, from every sector imaginable about how the church is making an impact. If you’re going to be in Boston May 18-21 and would like to connect give me a shout!

I’m going to touch on perfection, but I’m going to spend most of my time talking about excellence. For those of you who will not be there, or for those of you who just want a sneak peek…here’s a bit of what I’ll talk about.

What’s Excellence

• Mediocrity vs. excellence
  we can accidently run into mediocrity, excellence takes work and is a way of life
• Perfection vs. Excellence
  Perfection isn’t just unattainable, it’s boring because it’s all about restriction and doesn’t allow for any risk or experimentation
• Doing the best with your best
  Excellence isn’t about being all things to all men, it’s about doing everything you can to communicate with impact with all that’s within you

Why be Excellent

• 1 Cor 12:31 “Eagerly desire greater gifts…”
• Phil 4:8 “Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely…”
• It’s not about you
  Or the preaching, or the church, or even the altar call…all good things, but not the main thing…it’s all about God and the change He brings. Never forget why you do what you do…this might be the most important point I make all weekend.

How to be Excellent

• Do what you do best (and stop doing everything else)
  God designed you a certain way on purpose, stop trying to be something you are not and embrace who you are
• Wherever you are, be all there
  Yes, the grass might be greener, and the water may even sparkle brighter; God placed you where He wants you, stop arguing with him
• Don’t steal ideas, Take inspiration … I’ve talked about this before
• Start with the end in mind
  Know where you are going, what you want to happen and how you want it to happen
• Store creativity in everything
  It’s all around you, store it up so that you can tap that resource later

If you’re going to be at the conference and want to chat, have a cup of coffee…give me a shout.

I had the honor of doing just that this weekend as a speaker at the 24.fourteen youth conference of the Assemblies of God-Michigan District. The weekend was attended by students who had a call on their life for full time ministry. Typically when I’m asked to speak it’s to pastors or communication directors…but this time I had the honor to share the passions of our future leaders, I was given the opportunity to speak into the lives of tomorrow’s church leaders.

Some take aways from the weekend:

• great teams produce great results
  
• great ministers have even greater wives
• it’s not about altar calls, it’s about God changing us
• a call is not a job, it’s a continuing hunger to serve
  

I encourage every leader out there to find an opportunity to speak into the lives of those who will one day take the helm of leading the church. You will not regret it and will probably find you receive just as much as you are giving.