If you’re new here, here’s some of the best content from the past few years to get you caught up!
TOP 11 POSTS OF 2011
[non-conference notes!]
1. A Different Kind of Christian Demonstration at Gay Pride – #1 again! My take on a Christian demonstration at Chicago’s gay pride parade last year. This post has resonated with MANY people… over 30,000 Likes and 1,100 retweets! It’s a great story and challenge to consider how the church engages the gay community.
2. The Decade: 10 Things I’ve Learned 10 Years of Ministry - after being in ministry for over 10 years, I share 10 things I’ve learned about ministry.
3. Creative Matters - a post on the CreativeMatters ebook project I had the honor of being a part of. Check it out and get some great insights from some brilliant creative leaders.
4. My Awkward Interview with Seth Godin – In August I had the chance to interview Seth Godin as a part of the Willow Creek Association Leadership Summit. I was a bit nervous to say the least, but Seth shared some great thoughts on why we should keep poking the box!
5. You Have Permission – My riff on how why we don’t need to ask for permission to do what we know God has put on hearts to do.
6. Community Isn’t A Noun – A short rant on why community should be a word used to define our church like ‘community church,’ but an active expression of the life of our church.
7. Labels – A call for everyone to discover our true identity… in Christ.
8. A Plea for Originality – A controversial post I did on why I think we need to be original.
9. How Do You Measure Success? – A challenge to define success differently.
10. A Note to Young Leaders – Self-explanatory.
11. Interview with Paul Nevison – I interview Paul Nevison, one of the creative directors at Hillsong Church.
TOP 11 CONFERENCE NOTES POSTS
1. Love Wins. Notes from the controversial interview with Rob Bell about his book, Love Wins.
2. Tough Callings: Wess Stafford, Mama Maggie Gorban and Bill Hybels [Leadership Summit] – Probably one of the most awe-inspiring moments of the Global Leadership Summit this year.
3. Steven Furtick [Leadership Summit] – Steven Furtick from Elevation Church challenges us to dig some ditches!
4.What If We Stepped Into All God Called Us To Be? Andy Stanley [Catalyst West] – Andy Stanley shared about the 3 faces of courage in leadership.
5. Seth Godin [Leadership Summit] – Seth Godin condenses about 20 years of his genius ideas into a 30 minute talk at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit.
6. Creating a Come & See Culture - Andy Stanley [Catalyst One Day] – Andy shares three essential ingredients to creating unique environments for people to experience the Gospel.
7. Ann Voskamp [STORY] – Ann Voskamp shares ideas on creativity. One of the most captivating speakers I heard all year!
8. Joel Houston [Catalyst East] – Joel Houston from Hillsong Church talks about the true calling of a leader.
9. Eugene Peterson [Catalyst West] – Eugene Peterson shares insights on being a pastor.
10. Patrick Lencioni [Leadership Summit] – Patrick shares about the need for vulnerability in leadership.
11. Bill Hybels [Leadership Summit] – Bill Hybels shares 5 critical questions leaders need to ask of themselves and their teams.
Top Posts of 2010
#10 Decisions
All of our lives are marked by moments of decision. In this post I shared about a step of faith I took in making a decision to leave Park staff without having another job. Fortunately, God provided and I start the new adventure next week!
#9 Stop Speaking in Tongues
It’s not what you think I mean, I’m a charismatic kid at heart. However, many churches are speaking in tongues, using language that’s hard for people to understand. In this post I share some ideas on how to make sure you’re clearly communicating and not leaving people scratching their heads.
#8 What Happened to Wonder?
As my friend Blaine Hogan says, “the artist is the new pastor.” In this rant I share some thoughts on the loss of wonder in churches and the role the arts will play in saving the Church.
#7 REWORK-ing Church Communications
I was honored to do a breakout session at the ECHO Church Media Conference inspired by this post where I shared ideas to help church communications directors rework the way their churches communicate. You can read notes from the session here or grab an audio copy, along with other great content from ECHO 2010 here.
#6 No One Cares About Your Church
Again, the contrarian in me. Synopsis: People don’t trust advertising and definitely don’t like the church, so why do we try and market the Church? I argue that we have to earn the right to be heard. This article was also republished by Catalyst.
#5 Delivering Happiness :: Q&A with Tony Hsieh, Jason Fried, and David Heinemeier-Hansson
As a part of the Delivering Happiness Tour, Tony Hsieh from Zappos.com made a stop at the 37signals offices in Chicago to do a Q&A with 37signals’ Jason Fried and David Heinemeier-Hansson. I was one of 37 lucky people who was able to sit in on the Q&A and I was sure to take some notes! There’s some great insights here on office culture, hiring, customer service, and more.
#4 Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit Notes
Ok, so this isn’t an individual post but a collection of all of my notes from the Global Leadership Summit. I was honored to serve with the Willow Creek Association team helping to lead social media and blogging for the Summit. There was some great content from people like Bill Hybels, Jim Collins, Christine Caine, T.D. Jakes, Daniel Pink, and more!
#3 Announcing OUTSPOKEN
Probably one of the big highlights of the year for me personally was announcing the collaborative book project I’m heading up called OUTSPOKEN: Conversations on Church Communications. Over 60 church communications leaders from around the globe are contributing to one of the most comprehensive books on church communication. Release date is Spring 2011!
#2 10 Things That Drive Me Crazy About Working for a Church
Let me be clear: I LOVED working for a church but in this post that was inspired by my favorite book of 2010, REWORK, I shared some of the things that drove me crazy about working for a church. This post went on to be featured on the Catalyst blog, the Christian Post,Monday Morning Insight, and even garnered a counter-post from Tim Stevens of Granger Community Church.
#1 A Different Kind of Demonstration at Gay Pride
With over 106,000 views, 27,000 Facebook “Likes”, and over 1,000 tweets, this post took the prize for #1 by a long shot. In this post, I shared the moving story of a group of Christians who took the streets with during Chicago’s gay pride with a different message… an apology. I also wrote a follow-up to this post, Church Communications Lessons from the Gay Pride Demonstration.
