All posts tagged conferences

What’s Working

by Tim Schraeder on 09/10/2009 in MinistryCOM, Notes with No comments

Cleve Persinger is the Executive Director of Web and Community Engagement at The Chapel where he’s tasked with helping folks “Rediscover God” by creating compelling experiences within the context of web and all external communications/marketing including community events, print, word-of-mouth, and advertising.

Prior to his current role, Cleve served as web designer for LifeWay Christian Resources, in Nashville, TN where he supported numerous web initiatives including the LifeWay Worship Project.

Off the clock, Cleve has a passion for church planting, leading worship, summer beach trips, mountain cabin retreats, Dallas Cowboys football, Atlanta Braves baseball, and rockin’ the title of “BBQ Connoisseur.” (Keep in mind he was born and raised in North Carolina.)

Cleve and his incredible wife, Katie, reside in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with their children, Cy and Charlotte.

Eric Murrell has been creating websites since he first discovered HTML on his Geocities site in 1996. After working for a large publishing company and a well-known design firm, he is now on staff at Long Hollow Baptist Church where he serves as the Interactive Communications Manager.

When he’s not writing code or fuming about page rendering in Internet Explorer, Eric can be found reading, camping and watching LOST. He and his (beautiful) wife Lauren live just North of Nashville, where they own and operate a small design company together.

Read more from Cleve & Eric at MediaSalt

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What’s NOT Working?

Elaborate Mailers

  • it’s more effective to drive people to your website.
  • Very high cost vs return
  • Quickly outdated
  • Use simple, but visually compelling cards

Cute Pop Culture Branding

  • It’s really easy to be creatively lazy.
  • We can do better than that.
  • It’s played out.

Constant Email Blasts

  • Increasing blindness to marketing emails.
  • More blasts = less readers.
  • Send email blasts sparingly.
  • Provide email subscriptions.

Destination Websites

What IS Working?

  • BigEggDrop.com
  • Gathered the community around a humanitarian effort.
  • Unique spin on a normal event.
  • Corporate sponsorship
  • Rave cards sent home with every elementary student in the area.
  • Website with registration (used EventBrite) and game.
  • Over 3,500 people attended!

The Chapel

  • Wanted to do an open house to invite the community to their new campus but turned it into a kid’s day instead.
  • Got buy-in and support from area businesses, sponsorship, etc.
  • Most people attending didn’t realize it was a church sponsored event.
  • Gave them the opportunity to introduce their church to the community in a non-threatening way.
  • Instead of doing a direct mail for Easter they made postcards that people in the church could send to their friends (that they covered the postage for).
  • Designed a website with tools to spread the word through Twitter, Facebook, and email-a-friend.
  • Had an 88% increase in attendance for Easter.

Summary

  • Small is the new big. It’s not about big and glossy but simple and smart.
  • Create events to connect your church to the community… not your community to the church.
  • Get buy-in and cooperation from local businesses in the community… get other people involved.
  • Be strategic about mailers, emails, and anything else… don’t overload or overwhelm people.
  • Give people options to opt-in and to receive what content they want how they want it.

MinistryCOM… DIY Church Communications

by Tim Schraeder on 08/28/2009 in MinistryCOM, Notes with No comments

I attended MinistryCOM for the first time four years ago. At the time I was a young buck who was still figuring out all of this church communication stuff. It was an absolutely phenomenal experience for me on many levels. I think the biggest take-away was realizing that I wasn’t alone.

I think all too often most people who do communications for churches are on their own. Be it a lack of staffing, resources, or volunteers, the majority of us are doing our jobs on our own… by ourselves.

And what MinistryCOM did for me is show me I’m not alone and what I do really matters.

So, it’s pretty crazy that in two weeks I’ll be attending MinistryCOM not as a delegate, but as a presenter.

I’ll be making my conference debut at MinistryCOM doing a breakout session called DIY (Do-it-Yourself) Church Communications.

The title DIY (do-it-yourself) is said a bit tongue in cheek, but the reality is that many of us do communications by ourselves. With a limited budget and resources, it’s oftentimes difficult to know how to successfully build a communications process and strategy to fit the needs of a growing church when you’re literally working on your own.

Whether you are new to church communications or if you’ve been doing it for years, this workshop will help to equip and encourage you to take what you are observing and learning from other churches and give you tools on how to apply it to your context.

You’ll also get an inside peek at the “renovation” Park Community Church has undergone over the past two years as Tim has taken their communications from 1.0 to 2.0.

To be honest, I’m a bit nervous but very excited. I certainly don’t feel like an expert (only if learning from your mistakes counts!), but am humbled to be able to share a bit about things I’ve learned… both working in a smaller church in a small town and a large church in the heart of downtown Chicago. I think after seven years of doing this gig I’d have a few things to share!

If you’re coming to MinistryCOM, I’d love some input about things you’d like to hear about, questions you may have, or anything else. Your input would be invaluable!

If you aren’t coming, why not?! It’s not too late to register… you should definitely check it out.

If you are more of a pro, been at this for awhile and want to take the conversation to another level, beyond bulletins, fonts and all that kind of stuff,  definitely check out Cultivate, which is being hosted at Park in October.

Lead Where You Are

by Tim Schraeder on 08/08/2009 in Leadership Summit 2009, Notes with 3 Comments

I’ve been to the mountain… well, The Summit.

This year’s Leadership Summit was fantastic. Thanks to all of you (well over 3,000!) who found your way to my blog. I guess I take good notes? [By the way, I'm still taking 'Notes for a Cause' donations to go to Kiva.org!]

So I was at The Modern Wing at The Art Institute of Chicago today with a friend and overhead someone saying near the end of their trek through the galleries, “wow, I’m saturated…”

I think that sums up how I feel right now. Absolutely saturated.

There was so much information, inspiration and ideas that leapt out at me over the past couple of days and I’m still processing everything… but while it’s fresh, I thought I’d share a key thought or take-away I had from each session.

  • Bill Hybels’ first session, Leading in a New Reality, reminded me that I need to slow down and gently listen to God, even in the midst of the chaos of the world around me.
  • The panel discussion on Hiring, Firing, and Board Meltdowns challenged me to think of the kind of work culture we are creating at Park and how I, as a part of the team, am contributing.
  • Gary Hamel blew me away. There was so much he said, I don’t think I caught it all. But the one thing he did say that’s going to stick with me is that the Church is God’s plan for humanity and He has no “plan B.”
  • Tim Keller’s session, Leading People to the Prodigal God, was a sobering reminder to remember the true heart of the Gospel.
  • Jessica Jackley’s insight on the whole idea of co-creation totally excited me when thinking about new ideas and possibilities that are out there. It just starts be taking one, small step.
  • Harvey Carey didn’t have to do much to convince me that I just need to do something!
  • I could have listened to Dave Gibbons a lot longer, but I did get a copy of his book. I’m stoked to read more about his thoughts and insights on creating a Third Culture, a culture of adaptation.
  • Andrew Rugsira really challenged me to think differently about the continent of Africa and to not just look through the lens of compassion, but to also see the opportunity that is in the people there.
  • Wess Stafford… wow. What an amazing story. And how humbling to think that nothing is wasted, everything is redeemable.
  • David Gergen had tons of great insights but the one that stuck with me was the idea that who we are says a lot more about us than what we actually say.
  • The Heath Brothers were stellar, as usual. I’m going to really cherish their statement that “failure is oftentimes an early warning sign of success.”
  • Bono was great, too. I think the biggest challenge from him this year wasn’t so much about the HIV/AIDS as it was what he said about the Church. He said some things I think we really need to take to heart.
  • Tony Blair’s interview was way too short, but I think more than anything his reminder of what a privilege it is to be in leadership was something I needed to hear.
  • And although not a formal session, Bill Hybels’ closing remarks were a great way to end, reminding us that the little things are often the most important.

So, after all that… what’s my final thought?

I think the theme of this year’s conference says it all: lead where you are. No matter who you are, where you are, what you do, what you have or what you don’t have, God is calling you to do something. To lead where you are.

In thinking through each of this year’s speakers, they were all the first to admit their flaws and shortcomings but also the first to admit that in order to make a difference, you have to be willing to take a risk and do something. Even in the midst of your own failures or at the risk of failure.

I cannot think of a more exciting time and opportunity to be a part of the Church and to be a part of what God is doing in our generation. I’m so thankful for the experience of the Leadership Summit to remind me of the importance of the call to leadership, but more importantly, to remember first and foremost, before I do anything, I’m called to be a child of God.

So how about you?

What’s are your take-away’s from the Leadership Summit? What challenge are you going to face? Or what simple thing are you going to do differently? Would love to hear!

The Simple Things

by Tim Schraeder on 08/07/2009 in Leadership Summit 2009, Notes with 4 Comments

Hybels is the founding and senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL, and the chairman of the board for the Willow Creek Association. He convened The Leadership Summit in 1995, following a God-given prompting to help raise and develop the spiritual gift of leadership for the local church. Both visionary and passionate about seeing every local church reach its full God-given potential, he speaks around the world on strategic issues to Christian leaders and is a best-selling author of more than 20 books, including Courageous Leadership and Axiom: The Language of Leadership.

Story of Naaman

  • The OT book of 2 Kings tells the story of a military leader from Syria.
  • They went from one military conquest to the next.
  • He was the rock star military leader of the day.
  • He got a certain death sentence: leprosy.
  • He goes to a prophet to seek help and got instructions to dip into the water of the Jordan River seven times.
  • He was offended.
  • His soldiers reminded him that if the prophet had asked him to do something great that would have required great effort and achievement, he would have done it.
  • He was a great man who had done great things in great ways.
  • The prophet had asked him to do something very simple.
  • He was told to do something simple and to see what God would do.
  • When he did it, he was healed… perfectly healthy, perfectly whole.
  • He said: “There’s no other God but the God of Israel.”
  • The great temptation for some of us is to think that we have to set our minds to go out and do some great thing.
  • Launch some new idea.
  • Double or triple our size.
  • Go global with our local thing.
  • But we should do simple things, every day.

Simple Things We Should Consider Doing…

1 – Consider establishing a time and place where you will meet personally with God every day.

  • So often what gets compromised in our doing great things for God is our meeting with God.
  • In Ephesians 6, Paul asked for prayer to fearlessly proclaim what he needed to proclaim while he was doing what he was supposed to be doing.
  • Leaders need something fresh from God every day.
  • When you establish a meeting time and place, there’s some days the fireworks won’t happen, and day when the words will seem just like word on a page.
  • But if you are in the routine of it, God will speak to you.
  • It’s a simple thing, really.

2 – Commit to reading good books at least 30 minutes a day.

  • Steve Sample said, “I challenge you leaders to read something substantial 30 minutes a day for the rest of your life.”
  • It’s a very simple thing.
  • Bill has read hundreds of books since that have helped him along the way.

3 – Review your replenishment strategy

  • Romans 8:6 – if you are filled with the Spirit you will be filled with peace.
  • Is your “bucket” too depleted?
  • Instead of doing something big, maybe you should do something simple
  • Are you on a net gain or in depletion mode?
  • God will show you what to do.

4 – Decide to say “yes” to God every time His Spirit prompts you to do something.

  • This is advance decision making.
  • It means you saying “yes,” then asking God what the question is.
  • You don’t have to understand it, just test it against the Gospel… and just say yes.
  • “Some of the most fruit-bearing events I’ve ever been a part of came out of saying yes to God even I had no idea where they are going.”

Other Decisions…

  • Maybe it’s deciding what your key seats are.
  • Maybe it’s forgiving someone.
  • Maybe it’s reconciliation.
  • Maybe it’s time to stop complaining about the lack of resources and equipping people with what you have.
  • Maybe it’s time be innovative.
  • Maybe it’s time to consider a simple way to serve the poor.

The Simple Things

  • It’s often in the doing of the certain number of simple things that leaders build into their lives that often, over the years, compounds and increases their effectiveness, influence, and impact as a leader.
  • These simple things are the building blocks of God doing the “great thing” through us some day.
  • When we do the simple things, God takes responsbiilty for the big things.

Your Life Matters

  • Your life matters.
  • This isn’t the pre-game, this is THE game.
  • You have one life to live full-on for God.
  • You have one life to develop your leadership to the fullest potential.
  • You have this life to do something that will last for eternity.
  • “I only have today to fight for God and for His plan and purposes.”
  • I will fight hard.
  • It’s a personal decision we all have to arrive at.
  • What are you going ot live for?
  • What will you lay it down for?
  • What race are you running?
  • The curious thing God does when we all gather together and submit ourselves to the One, true Leader, Jesus Christ, and the combustible energy that happens when we are together is unlike anything else.
  • There’s a challenge we, as leaders, offer to each other.
  • We are building His church, for His glory through His power.

Do some simple things that will compound over the weeks and months ahead… who knows what God will do.

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