All posts in Innovate 2008

I am spent, but wanted to share my notes with all of you out in the blogosphere who weren’t able to attend Granger Community Church’s Innovate Conference this year. I hate to say it to you, but if you weren’t there, you really did miss out.

This was the fourth time I’ve attended Innovate and I have to say it was another home run by the Granger team and all of the guest speakers.

In years past I’ve practically written transcripts of my notes from Innovate, but this year I decided to go with bullet points. Hope that’s ok!

I’ve got notes from Mark Beeson here and here…  Shawn Wood from Secoast here… Tim Stevens here… Steven Furtick here… Rob Wegner here… and the LifeChurch.tv team here.

The theme of this year’s conference was “stop talking… start doing.”

A lot of times in the Church, we do a lot of talking, analyzing and strategizing… and while we do all of that, the world outside is waiting and searching. We have the answer. We need to stop talking and start doing.

All of the speakers and sessions were home runs, and the theme rang out clear througout every session and breakout: find out who God has made you (and your Church) to be, and DO SOMETHING!

And, being at Granger is always an inspiration and encouragement. Their team and volunteers do an amazing job of pouring themselves out and serving everyone who attends.

Some personal highlights from the conference for me include:

• getting to hang with Shawn Wood
• chillin with Tim Stevens
• having ‘therapy’ with Kem Meyer and a couple of other communications directors
• counting how many times Mark Beeson said “Oriental mindset” (I think he meant Eastern)
• playing Simon
• singing Happy Birthday to Billy Graham (via video)
• the Granger Film Fest (sponsored by Jarbyco!)
• the Schwan’s Ice Cream truck
• Chick-fil-a
• hanging with my friends Zach and Jeremy
• playing “guess their denomination” while people-watching
• being totally blown away by Steven Furtick’s energy and passion for God
• the video that made me cry
• being only 1.5 hours away from Granger!

Anyway, it was a total blast and I hope my notes will help you get in on some of the experience!

Five ways to describe him: Visionary. Gifted communicator. Committed to Christ. Passionate about his family. And as normal as your next door neighbor (but only if that’s a good thing).  What he does for Granger: No, not everything. He’s the first to admit that. Instead, he focuses on the areas in which he excels (have you heard him speak?) and gives Granger’s leadership team the freedom and encouragement to do what they do best, without micromanaging them. In 1986, Mark and his wife, Sheila, planted the seeds of Granger Community Church in their living room, with fewer than 10 people. Their dream was to reach out to those who weren’t currently attending church for whatever reason and share the truth that they mattered to God. And though it began without fanfare, Granger flourished at a phenomenal rate to become one of the top 30 fastest growing churches in the country.

More from Mark: markbeeson.com

• When you pray, ask for God’s help so you can live to bring Heaven to earth.
• We (as the Church) talk too much and do too little.
• Stop debating – start doing!
• What should motivate the Church is the awareness that there is a real world in real need.
• If you don’t change your course you are going to crash into a mess and it will
  hurt, bad.
• Stop talking. Start doing.
• Balance is static, it’s not leaning. If you want to make progress, you have to lean.
• When you lean in, you need to have the right people around you to catch you.
• There is a ‘mess’ in front of a lot of people and unless we act they will be hurt.
• God has not called anyone else to do what He has called YOU to do. There’s no “Plan B.”
• We are in a culture that wants to see something happen.
• We are required to use story and image to picture the truth and translate the
  message of the Gospel to our culture.
• The Gospel is Good News for RIGHT NOW.
• We have to boil the truth down and communicate it clearly.
• Make it brief enough for people to receive it.
• Something incredible happens when the natural and the supernatural collide.
• We must immediately diagnose reality.
• We are sometimes so removed from poverty that we lose the urgency.
• We must immediately diagnose reality.

Shawn Wood is the Experiences and Creative Communications Pastor and a Teaching Pastor for Seacoast Church, a trendsetting multi-site church with 25 weekend experiences at 11 campuses across South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. Seacoast is ranked among the top 10 most innovative churches (Outreach magazine) and the top ten most influential churches (Church Report), as well as in the top 100 fastest-growing churches in America, with over 8,500 worshipers each weekend and around 2,000 more participating in worship online. Through his work leading a team of designers, videographers, communication professionals, and many other very talented people, Shawn helps campuses create compelling experiences in the areas of weekend, web, and word-of-mouth to help people become fully-devoted to Christ. He’s also the author of a new book, 200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One: Creating a Life of Meaning and Influence.

For more on Shawn, visit 200pomegranates.com and don’t forget to visit Shawn’s blog.

• We all have issues, and oftentimes our issues revolve around “stuff.”
• “Stuff” is how we tell the story – services, media/technology, web, etc.
• Brand schizophrenia happens when we become more obsessed with “the stuff” instead of Jesus.
• We need to be who we are and not imitate others.
• When people start managing their “brand” or who they are, authenticity leaves the room.
• Stuff is great, but stuff doesn’t define who we are.
• Too often we pursue better stuff instead of pursuing who God has called us to
  be.
• In whatever way you do it, be authentic and be YOU.
• We might be excellent at what we do, but we may not be effective.
• We spend a lot of time being a Church that God never intended us to be.
• What is our unique DNA? What has God called us to do?
• A “brand” isn’t stuff, it’s a gut feeling.
• A brand is built around an experience.
• Experiences come in the form of our web, our people, our services.
• Are we spending too much time answering questions that people aren’t asking?
• Find out who you are and do good things.
• We can distract people by doing good things that we aren’t meant to be doing.
• God uses us and the things we create to see people cross the line of faith.
• What has God called you to be?
• If you are going somewhere, know where you are going.
• Find out who you are do something.

For 14 years, Tim’s leadership has helped Granger Community Church connect with people who think church is irrelevant. He has done this through the creative blending of architecture, strategy, and technology. He’s acutely turned in to popular culture and is instrumental in balancing operations, building creative teams, and inspiring artists to brand each message series and shaped the weekend experience. He’s the author of the recently released book Pop Goes the Church that asks the question, “Should the Church engage pop culture?” He’s also co-authored the Simply Strategic book series using humor and practical principles to equip churches and ministry leaders.

More from Tim on his blog.

• People in our culture are on a spiritual search and are not including the
  Church as a part of that journey.
• Most churches are not impacting their communities.
• There are three categories of people: churched, unchurched, and de-churched.
• Spiritual interest is at an all-time high in our culture; church attendance is
  going down.
• Celebrities, songwriters, authors, etc. are all expressing spiritual questions.
• Is the Church answering questions people are asking?
• Is the Church a safe place for people to ask their spiritual questions?
• The Church needs to enter spiritual conversations that people are having around us.
• We need to use what culture is identifying with to bring about spiritual truth
  and the message of the Gospel (Paul on Mars Hill in Acts 17).
• How do you look into culture and find Jesus?
• Use pop culture to package your topic (message series) in order to attract a crowd.
• Use pop culture to get people thinking or laughing.
• Use pop culture to prove a new interpretation for a popular cultural element.
• Use pop culture to encourage the people who are making ministry happen.