All posts in ECHO 2010

ECHO 10 :: Todd Wagner

by Tim Schraeder on 07/30/2010 in ECHO 2010 with 2 Comments

Todd is the Pastor of Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas, one of the most innovative and exciting new churches in America. He and his wife, Alex, are busy investing in their six kids, so though he is a much sought after speaker/teacher at conferences and camps around the country, he currently says no much more than yes. He is a coach much more than a conference speaker, and purposes to be a better Dad and a faithful husband at home more than a hero on the road.  He is a graduate of both the University of Missouri and Dallas Theological Seminary. Todd has extensive experience in both church and para-church ministry, having served on both Young Life and K-Life staff as well as 10 years at Kanakuk where he last served as Asst. Director at K-2. After leaving Kanakuk in 1990, Todd has been leading in the local church.

  • We are a kingdom of priests.
  • We all come to be equipped to be prophets in our contexts.
  • Church is way too valuable to do it in a comfortable, familiar way.
  • The great bride of Christ can become something far less that what it was intended to be.
  • Acts 20:17-32

The Flock

  • The church is the bride of Christ.
  • People we serve and minister to are the flock of God.
  • God expects the under shepherds of the Good Shepherd to care as much for the church as He does.
  • One of the way you express value towards something is by giving endless attention and energy and creativity towards it.
  • We do anything and will go out of the way to capture the attention of someone we are pursuing.
  • God went to extreme lengths to establish the relationship He has with us.
  • He tore Himself in two to get our heart to engage with His.
  • When the Church stops having a shepherds heart and caring for the church, the church starts to wander.
  • We’ve been given gifts to creatively express the love of God to people.
  • The greatest evil in America today is the dead church.
  • It’s not compromised politicians, a desire to see marriage redefined, abortion, etc… all of those things exist because the Church has lost its way.
  • The Church has compromised because it’s grown stale in its understanding of God’s love.
  • You cannot improve on the message.
  • The mistake we’ve made is trying to make an ever-changing message to engage with an ever-changing world.
  • It makes people love something that will not be life to them at all.
  • We cannot change the message.
  • We have to improve on relevance, not revelation.
  • We are to be students of our culture, not participants.
  • Full devotion is normal for the believer.
  • God says I am the resurrection, I am the Life.
  • Words like life, relevant, alive, and transforming are words people in our culture would use to define the Church.
  • That is NOT what God intended.
  • Acts 2:42-47
  • How can a world fall in love with the false beauty of the Church when we compromise who God is?
  • God wants us to engage and be people who are thriving.
  • He wants us to be yolked, not just undivorced from Jesus, but intimate with Him.
  • When you engage with what is living you become alive.
  • The Church needs creatives to help make the uncompromising revelation increasingly relevant and engaging.
  • Make media that connects people to the Word of God.
  • This world is looking for life and we’ve been given gifts, stewardship and calling to make life full and known to the world.
  • Deuteronomy 32:47
  • Are you connecting people to God’s Word? If you’re not, you’re drawing them to a false lover.
  • If we make media to make people’s eyes go anywhere but to Christ we are misleading them.
  • Don’t rise to the level of acceptability… give everything to take the message with greatness and with excellence.
  • John 17:1-3
  • We think eternal life begins when our life ends.
  • Jesus gives 7 illustrations of eternal life in His ministry… 6 of them had to do with our life today.
  • Eternal life comes in radical devotion to Jesus Christ NOW.
  • The Word of God has to be the absolute center of everything we do, otherwise our efforts are in vain.
  • Life is where God’s Word is.

A lack of creativity is killing God’s Church.

  • Our message has been lost.
  • The word create comes from a Latin word createus … they verb that means to arise or grow.
  • If the Church is anything it should be alive.
  • Things that are living grow.
  • If your Church is not growing in vibrant love for God it’s because those who are in charge of messaging the love of God to them isn’t doing a good job.
  • We need to be laboring every day to sharpen our gifts to make His message look outstanding.
  • Our job is to make sure that when people are being talked to that they are absolutely captivated by the way we communicate.
  • We don’t need to amuse people… we need to entertain them.
  • Amusement is mindless.
  • Entertainment literally means to be among a group of people… to hold among. Entertainment hold’s people’s attention amongst the message.
  • When you create media, blog, tweet, communicate, pastor, shepherd, etc are you doing it in a way that’s insightful and entertaining that capture’s people’s attention?
  • The enemy is trying to gain and hold people’s attention.
  • Proverbs 9:13-18
  • The world is using it’s creative gifts to do the work of the one who doesn’t want to create life.
  • The people of God with the same gifts need to work as aggressively to lead people to life.
  • We’ve got to develop and grow the gifts we’ve been given.
  • To whom much is given, much is required.
  • Raise the game.
  • Saturate yourself in prayer.
  • Collaborate with others who can help you develop your gifts.

The Church has gone a public relations attack against the world.

  • We talk all about what’s wrong with the world around us.
  • All we do is talk about what we shouldn’t do.
  • The Biblical command is to not avoid the woman.
  • The goal of Scripture is to go the woman of wisdom.

If you are going to make great art you’ve got learn to love what God loves.

  • You can’t paint with a pallete that’s not informed by the message.
  • Our art won’t have the content of what God wants to communicate?
  • What are you running after?
  • Are you in love with God?

It’s not about the dead Church, it’s about the dead heart we’ve got.

  • God is most concerned about one medium… the medium of our heart.
  • There is life at the table of wisdom.
  • We’ve got to tell what it’s like to have the fulness of God’s presence in our lives.

Not Losing Yourself in Social Media :: Rhett Smith

by Tim Schraeder on 07/30/2010 in ECHO 2010 with 4 Comments
Rhett Smith is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who, having spent the last 15 years on the pastoral staff in churches, is passionate about integrating his knowledge and experience in the areas of ministry and therapy to the world of social media and technologies. Rhett is on staff at HopeWorks Counseling Center in Plano, TX, and also serves on the youth ministry staff part-time at Highland Park Presbyterian Church. When Rhett isn’t online, he loves to spend his free time writing, running and being with his family.
  • In social media we run the risk of becoming disconnected, enmeshed and differentiated.
  • Genesis 2:23
  • Technology  and social media are great, but face-to-face encounters give us the full realization of who we are.
  • “Now we see but a poor reflection as is in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
  • We’d rather settle for  FaceTime or allusions of knowing one another from a distance than really being face to face.
  • The tools are great but they shouldn’t become more important than real-time connections.

Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life

  • Device Paradigm
  • Technological process available at the press of a button.
  • We don’t see the process being  performed.
  • Compresses Relationships.
  • We can “friend” people without going through the process of developing a friendship.

Formation of Relationships

  • Mediating Technologies [cell phones, computer based applications]
  • Lack an Inner Core/Identity
  • Our self exists as a collection external images.
  • The mediated self constructs a sense of “who I am” through interaction with others in various mediums.
  • Mark 1:9-11
  • Before Jesus went about the work of ministry, He was secure in His relationship and identity with His Father.
  • It’s easy to move away from our true identity and dive into what’s hip and cool and trendy.

Boundaries

  • Boundaries give us a sense of where we begin and where we end.

Time Limits

  • You shouldn’t be plugged in all day.
  • You should have your phone or your computer on all day.
  • You should have structured time limits where you are unplugged and disconnected.
  • Don’t look at your messages first thing in the morning.

Physical Boundaries

Tech Sabbath

  • We need some type of rhythm where at some point in the day we are disconnected.
  • Once a week we need a day where we don’t get online at all.
  • Do you REALLY need to check your email?
  • We need to set aside a day where we aren’t dependant on our technologies and where we are dependant on God.

Ask Others

  • Galatians 5:22-23
  • Sometimes the people around us can give us the best feedback about our use of technology and our engagement with it.

Strive for Face to Face

  • Tools are great but if you have opportunity to get face-to-face with people, strive for that.

Experiment/Be Creative

  • Think of creative ways to disconnect from technology and create boundaries.

ECHO 10 :: Reworking Church Communications

by Tim Schraeder on 07/30/2010 in Church Communications, ECHO 2010 with 18 Comments

It’s always weird to post your own notes from your own talks, but here goes! I was incredibly honored to have the opportunity to have a breakout session at the ECHO Conference to share some ideas and thoughts that have been running around in my mind.

Thanks to all who were there and who tweets and thanks to ChurchJuice for sharing your summary of my talk as well!

Enjoy!

We Live in a Different World

  • It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the world around us is changing rapidly
  • With advances in media/technology along with the recent economic shifts happening, the world we are living in is a different place.
  • The world has become smaller as we’ve become citizens in new global community and as we’ve become tribalized.
  • The way we work and communicate has changed.
  • We are living in a new day and a new area and are literally seeing the world change around us every single day.
  • With every major cultural shift has come a significant move of God.
  • In Gutenberg’s time we had the beginnings of the Reformation.
  • In the industrial age we saw revivals and the birth of many of our modern-day denominations and church movements.
  • We stand as leaders in an ever-changing world with the unchanging message of the Gospel.

The church has never been more equipped to advance the message of the Gospel and we are living in the days of significant opportunity.

  • With that opportunity comes immense responsibility… we will be held accountable for how we steward the resources God has given us in a digital age.
  • We need to be people who are like the men of Issachar, who are able to see the times and know hwat to do are indispensable in churches that are growing and thriving in the western world
  • We are now able to go to places we’ve never been able ot go before and can literally take our message around the globe with the click of a mouse.

The challenge for all of us is that we’re leading in a time of change, and as we know, the church is often very slow and resistant to change…

  • We’ve got to learn how to lead up while leading from the middle and lead the church forward in communicating one of the most important message with clarity and conviction.

The world around us has seen that we’ve got to change to survive.

  • Seth Godin says “the factory has died” and economist Richard Florida talks about the fact that we are in a cultural reset.
  • The rules have changed.
  • In order to survive, we have to change.
  • We’ve got to change the way we work and stop holding tightly to the idol of “church as we’ve always known it’ and lean into the opportunity God has given us to extend his message to a world that is searching for authencity, hope and turth.

REWORK-ing Church Communications

No one Cares About your Church

  • People’s view of church in general is on a significant decline.
  • People don’t care because we’ve lost credibility and trust.
  • We’re all big fish in our small fish bowls
  • We’ve got to realize we’re not at the center of culture anymore.
  • The challenge is to show that we care, genuinely care, about what people care about.
  • This gives us an incredible opportunity to re-present the church to culture but it will be through focusing on the needs of our community and caring about what they are care about.
  • We’ll only have a voice when we take the time to listen first.
  • We’ve got remove the focus from our programs our needs and focus on people’s needs and the needs of our communities around us.
  • It’s only when we show genuine care that people will begin to give us their time.
  • We earn the right to be heard.

Know Your Real Competition

  • Your competition isn’t the church down the street.
  • We can oftentimes get competitive with other churches or look with envy at what’s happening over there instead of focusing on what God is doing right here.
  • Our competition isn’t other churches because were’ all on the same team.
  • Our real competition is the forces of darkeness around us.
  • Our competition are things that people give their time, energy and attention to outside of the church.

Forget Your Mission and Your Vision

  • Vision is important.
  • Without a vision people perish.
  • The problem is our vision can sometimes not be very compelling.
  • A lot of our vision is pretty bland and sterile.
  • It doesn’t motivate people to act.
  • Vision is picture of where we want to go and who we want to be.
  • Our passion is what truly motivates us.
  • So many people these days say “if your church ceased to exist what would people miss’
  • I’d say if you had to strip everything you do away to one single thing, what remains would be your passion.
  • Passion is what motivates people.
  • More than a vision we need a cause that people can be passionate about.
  • We’re a generation that’s looking to be moved and who wants to give ourselves to something.
  • In the Bible it says of Jesus, that passion for God’s house consumed Him.
  • There’s nothing we can be more passionate about and give our lives to than the church and the cause of Christ.
  • Your vision is where you want to go, your mission is how you’re going to get there and your passion is what will fuel the journey.

Technology isn’t the savior.

  • I know it’s odd to say that at a conference all about church media but it’s true, technology isn’t the savior.
  • The church has endured for 2,000 years without it and while I believe that it’s a significant oppporutnity for us, it’s not that end all be all.
  • It’s great that we are able to broadcast our services do online baptisms and communion and all sorts of things that create buzz and I do believe that those things are effective
  • BUT technology isn’t the savior, but we can use it to help point people to the Savior.
  • One of the great things that having chuch online does and what having an active social media presence does is that it enables you to take your message and your experience to people that you may never have the opportunity to connect with otherwise.

Be Inspired, Don’t Imitate.

  • One of the first glimpses we see of God and his character in the Bible is the fact that he’s a creative God
  • Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created…”
  • Creation is unique and God doesn’t create clones, He’s marked all of his creation with a sense of individuality and uniqueness
  • So why in the world can we be some of the most uncreative people
  • I think the greatest sin any of us commits in our work life is the sin of copying and pasting.
  • We all learn by imitating but eventually we find our voice.
  • It’s easy to copy and paste and sometimes you’re in a bind and it’s a quick fix
  • But the problem with copying is that it skips understanding and understanding is how you really grow.
  • Copying rips off the final layer and neglects the thought, energy, and intentionality that went on behind the scenes
  • We feel we’ve got an excuse because “we’re the church” and I do think it’s great that there are people and churches who freely share things they’ve produced… and some charge.
  • Your church is unique… you have a unique voice, DNA and call God has given you and our role is to cultivate God’s creativity and present our church and our message in a way that’s reflective of our context and community
  • Copying what worked somewhere else doesn’t mean it will work where you are.
  • This doesn’t just go for other peple’s work it applies to things you always do.
  • Don’t just rely on what worked before.

Constraints are a Blessing

  • I think I very common conversation at these conferences goes something like “we’re waiting for the budget to get that… we’re working on a new site… we’re going to change our logo…”
  • We get way too preoccupied with what we don’t have or are consistently thinking we need more than what we’ve already God.
  • Most churches are feeling the affects of the economic climate we’re in right now and have been forced to cut back our budgets and spending.
  • And honestly, I think it’s a good thing.
  • All too often we use what we don’t have as an excuse.
  • Your videos aren’t going to get better with a camera… the pixel quality may improve but if it’s a dumb video, it’s a dumb video.
  • Content is what matters most and having the best doesn’t mean you’ll do the best.
  • Having less means you’re forced to maximize and make the most of what you already have.
  • Constraints force you to be creative.
  • In our age of abundance it’s easy to rely on what we’ve got and less and less on seeking God for His divine inspiration.
  • Having less will increase our dependence on Him.
  • You don’t have to do everything you just have to do what’s right.
  • Less really does more.
  • Jesus fed 5,000 people with 2 loaves and some fish and had more than enough left over.
  • He can take our little and make it much

Flawed is the New Perfect

  • We are trained to not trust marketing anymore
  • We don’t believe what we are told at face value
  • We connect with real people and with stories
  • We feel closer to people when we know what’s going on behind-the-scenes in their lives
  • The movies, TV shows and music that we consume tend to show the down and dirty and a raw with emotion and authenticity
  • So why in the world do we try to wrap everything we do as a church up in a pretty package?
  • Life is messy
  • We shouldn’t be afraid to show our flaws.
  • There’s beauty to imperfection because it shows people you don’t have to have it all together to be a part of your church
  • It’s all about simplicity
  • Talk like you really talk
  • Use real pictures of real people who go to your church
  • Reveal things people don’t want to talk about
  • It’s ok to not be perfect because that shows you’re really being genuine.
  • A well produced, polished service will pale in comparison to raw story of someone who is on the journey of finding their faith.
  • We see how to do this most clearly in the life and ministry of Jesus… he told people, “come as you are…”
  • We say that but do we really show that in how we present ourselves?

Stop Speaking in Tongues

  • We need to be interpreters.
  • We have created our own language in the church subculture.
  • The challenge we have is that language matters.
  • Language is oftentimes our first impression.
  • Are we speaking in a way that people easily understand?
  • Does what we say make sense?
  • Are we creating easy onramps for people or creating barriers with our language.
  • It’s not about dumbing down the Gospel but making it easy for people to connect with and understand
  • Remember to have an outside set of eyes and ears.
  • Jesus was a pro at this, he used everyday terms and ideas to express some of the most significant spiritual truths.
  • We’ve just created our own language trying to explain it all.
  • Go back to the basics.

You Don’t Need a Marketing Budget

  • The rules of marketing have changed dramatically with the rise of social media.
  • It’s now more about what other people say than what you say about yourself
  • In an overmarketed-to culture, we do better off to realize that marketing is effective but only when it’s done right and oftentimes, we’re pretty bad at it.
  • Marketing is often expensive and the return on investment isn’t often very high.
  • We’re getting our message out there, like scattering the seed, but is it really taking root?
  • Everything your church does is marketing.
  • Your church marketing is the sum total of everything you do… it’s the experiences and interactions you have with everyone and your marketing team isn’t some people who sit around a table it’s the people who attend your church.
  • What other people say is what matters most.

Don’t Communicate, Curate

  • One of the most critical roles in any museum is the role of a curator
  • What matters most isn’t what’s on the wall but the stuff that’s not
  • You don’t make a great museum by putting everything on display, you make a great museum by saying no
  • The curator decides what needs to stay and what needs to go
  • In an age of information overload the discipline and tact of editing is an indispensible quality
  • We’ve got to learn to stick to what’s truly essential
  • We’ve got to pare things down until only what’s most important is left
  • We can always add more later, but it’s really about getting your core message, your core idea, the thing that makes your church what it is front and center.
  • It’s not about events or programs its’ about people
  • We’ve got the best message that’s out there and an immense responsibility to share it in way that connects with people
  • That means we have to sacrifice some good ideas for the great ones
  • That means we have to be actively engaged in the life of our church and listening and collecting stories
  • We need to shift from communicating to the intricate task of curating

Closing Thoughts

  • We have a tremendous responsibility and an incredible opportunity and it will require us all to think differently, look at the world around us with new eyes, to listen with ears that are open and to realize that we are all shaping the way the world around us sees the church.
  • We’re not geeks or techies, and what we are doing isn’t about being hip and cool and trendy, what we are doing is leaning into the opportunity that God has given us to communicate his truth to a world that’s desperate and seeking for answers.
  • It’s not about how many followers or likes we have, how many hits or comments we get or how many people fill our multiple campuses and online venues each week
  • It’s about true life change and people finding their story in God’s story.
  • We’re pursuing a holy calling and our labor and our work is for something so much greater
  • Communicating for the church is a big deal, especially in today’s hyper-connected world.
  • I hope we can REWORK the way we work and communicate so the greatest message that’s out there can be heard with clarity… that people might get connected to our church communities and ultimately, to Christ.

Huge thanks to 37signals for their inspiration and for the book REWORK!

ECHO 10 :: Donald Miller

by Tim Schraeder on 07/29/2010 in ECHO 2010 with 8 Comments
Donald Miller grew up in Houston, Texas, in the shadow of the Astrodome, next to a cow pasture. When he was a kid, his single mother took him to a Southern Baptist church because she couldn’t afford reform school, which is probably why he writes about religious themes. He left Houston at 21 in a Volkswagen van, and later wrote a book about his trip called Through Painted Deserts. In his travels, he ran out of money in Portland, Oregon where he audited classes at Reed College, then selected as the most godless campus in the country. He wrote a book about that experience called Blue Like Jazz that eventually became a New York Times Bestseller and is now being made into a movie. Don then followed up with the best-selling Searching for God Knows What. After thirty-years of no interaction with his father, Don found his biological dad and wrote about it in a book called To Own a Dragon, which is being re-released in Spring 2010 under the title Father Fiction. About that time, he started The Mentoring Project, an organization that seeks to respond to the American crisis of fatherlessness by inspiring and equipping faith communities to mentor fatherless boys. Don’s work with The Mentoring Project led the Obama administration to invite him onto the President’s task force on fatherlessness and mentoring. Last year, along with the Ride:Well Team, Don rode his bicycle across America in an effort to raise money to drill wells in Sub-Saharan Africa. This experience, along with the writing of the screenplay for Blue Like Jazz, provided material for his newest book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (also a New York Times Bestseller) for which Don spent the fall of 2009 promoting on a 65 city national bus tour. He is a frequent speaker at National Conferences and Universities across the country. He has appeared at such diverse events as Women of Faith Conference and The Democratic National Convention. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his dog Lucy.
Note: Got here a few minutes late, so I missed the opening!
  • Great managers help people see not only the purpose of their work but also how each person’s work influence and relates to the purpose of the organization and its outcomes.
  • Companies with high engagement levels had a 19% increase in operating income and almost 28% growth in earnings per share.
  • If a company’s goal is associated with helping people there’s an increase
  • Having your associates better engaged in your project promotes growth.
  • Engaged employers believe they can impact customer satisfaction.
  • Engaged employees believe they can impact the profitability of the organization.
  • How do we better engage the people we work with?
  • We need to see projects not as projects but as narratives.
  • What really engages the human mind is a story.
  • Do we like the elements of the narratives we hear?
  • We frame ideas as narratives to deceive and manipulate people.
  • There’s a lot of companies that do technology but Apple has a compelling narrative.
  • Apple is the Robin Hood of the tech world. They take it from smarties so simple people can use it.
  • TOMS Shoes has an amazing story – giving shoes to children who don’t have any.
  • TOMS makes ok-looking bad shoes but they make an awesome story.
  • We value the story over the inferior product.
  • We have to tell better stories.
  • When you write a project you want to end with a single climactic scene.
  • You start planning with a single climactic scene.
  • If you say you need a new building that seats 5,000 seats but don’t have a story connected to those people you won’t have a compelling story.
  • Your story has to be a picture, not a number.
  • You should be able to draw it on the back of a napkin.
  • A question gets asked in a story — that’s what engages the mind.
  • Will the guy get the girl? Why are they on the island?
  • Will we be able to build this building on time and on budget is a BORING story that people won’t care about.
  • We run our projects that way and expect people to engage in our projects that way.
  • We have to put real people and real life change in the building and symbolize what will happen in that building.
  • We have to put flesh on the idea.
  • The fully-fleshed personal end goal associated with a visual image that is emotionally and intellectually compelling to the point that it instills sacrifice.
  • People walk away from bad stories. They engage with good ones.

Developing Your Single Climatic Scene

  • What project or near term responsibiltiy do you need to create a stroyline for?
  • What are the outcomes you are responsbile for in this effort?
  • Why is this good for your organization, your customers, and your community?
  • Describe one of the many ancillary scenes that can ONLY take place if you’re successful in bringing about the SCS (Ride:Well)
  • Using your answers to the previous four questions, write your Single Climactic Scene

SCS Validating Questions

  • From my associates perspective, why might the SCS not be engaging?
  • Have I captured a scene that employees, stakeholders, and customers can envision?
  • Can my people make an emotional and intellectual connection to my SCS?
  • Does bringing about the SCS mean we’ve accomplished all we are responsible for?

Conflict

  • Conflict is a necessary part of story.
  • It creates the risk.
  • Conflict makes the story question more interesting
  • Our scenes should be impossible without God’s intervention.
  • We have to help people see that life has conflict in it and that God likes conflict.
  • Conflict makes for great stories.
  • Conflict is the forces of resitatnce the heighten tension, increase risk and complicate the actualization of the single climatic scene.
  • There’s a difference between minor conflict and major conflict.

Conflict Questions

  • What are the most obvious major conflicts we’ll encounter as we pursue the SCS?
  • List all major conflicts that you can anticipate. If these go unaddressed, the SCS will not happen.
  • What is the deadline for the SCS?
  • With that deadline in mind, when must we respond to our anticipated conflicts?

The Characters

  • A character is someone strategically placed to enter and engage with the fulfillment of the single climatic scene.
  • Characters are hired to live the story.

Story is designed by God.

  • God creates us to desire and to want something.
  • He created people to want each other, land, to learn.
  • God increases the conflict in people’s lives to teach them the value of what they should pursue.
  • God gives us a blank page on which to write.
  • With Him, tell a really hard beautiful story.
  • Risk, take the chance, engage people… pursue the single climatic scene.
← Older Entries