Last week I braved the sweltering heat and onslaught of megachurches with big crosses to attend the Echo Church Media Conference in Dallas. This is the fourth year of Echo’s existence and I’m proud to say I’m 4/4 in attendance.
Billing itself as a conference for “geeks, artists and storytellers,” Echo is kind of like band camp for church nerds. You’ve never seen so many iDevices, black rimmed glasses, plaid shirts and man bags in your life. And, it’s one of the rare conferences where it’s actually a good thing if the audience is all looking at their laptops and typing away when a speaker is talking.
All joking aside, Echo is like a giant family reunion and one event I look forward to every year. Not only is the content practical and applicable, the relationships and connection that happen there are invaluable.
This year did not fail to disappoint and strangely, it seemed like all of the speakers seemed to be echoing the same message: DO THE WORK.
Having attended my fair share of church conferences [and many related to creativity/media] it seems like we’ve been on a journey as a group of church geeks, artists, and creatives.
A few years ago, we were seeking affirmation for our role in churches. We didn’t know many people like us were out there and we were just beginning to get our bearings and find our voice.
Then, we focused on creativity… where it comes from, where to find it and how to express it.
In the last couple of years the idea of story or storytelling has been central. We’ve all recognized that regardless of our craft and our day-to-day job title, that central to all we do is the narrative we express through our art. We’re all storytellers.
And, it seems like the message coming across the loudest and strongest lately is the idea of making all of our ideas and creative pursuits a reality. To stop talking and to start doing. To move from ideation to execution. To move from thoughts to action.
Jon Acuff reminded us that God has given us unique gifts and talents, and we can’t sit on them, we must use them to help rebuild people’s lives and build the Church.
Blaine Hogan, who has literally written the book on the creative process, challenged us with the idea that our art is our confession. “Your job as an artist is to journey through self-reflection and inner work and to take what you find and carry that light into the darkness.”
Culture-maker Andy Crouch admonished us to remember our goal isn’t to make culture safe for people, but to rather, embrace the full catastrophe, showing God’s grace amidst the chaos.
Focusing on our desire to be known, Bianca Olthoff (formerly Juarez) said, “Our identity changes when we encounter the living God. Our art should reflect that.”
Scott Belsky brought the house down in a rapid-fire dissection of his book “Makig Ideas Happen,” which is a must-read for anyone in the creative field.
And Kem Meyer challenged us with the idea of gaining more influence by giving up control.
There were many other great session and voices at Echo this year. Here’s a link to more notes and I highly encourage you to check out the recordings from this year to get the full dose of awesome from Echo.
My personal take-away from this year was to define my process. Instead of having scattered ideas or thoughts, I need to define my process and create the mechanism to capture and catalog my ideas. And, most importantly, to articulate the process to get those ideas into action.
What we all do matters.
The day and age we live in demands we all do the work of the creative process for the Cause that’s greater than ourselves.
Our world is waiting and it’s longing and we, through our various creative endeavors, can bring the light of hope into the darkness. We just have to do the hard work of cultivating our skills and talents to bring that light to bear.
We can have all of the right tools and talents but unless they [along with our pride] our surrendered and committed to Christ, we’re hopeless to do the work that truly matters.
Echo is a unique and fitting name. While it seemed like a lot of the speakers were echoing each other, they were all communicating a message we need to hear.
We’re called to echo God’s truth, grace, beauty, and love to our world. In order to make an echo, we have to speak. We have to work. We have to do something.
So, I hope those of you who were there or those who followed online will chose to act and be an echo to your community and your context.
The work we all do matters too much for us not to act.
A huge thanks to Rob Thomas, Scott McClellan and the entire team behind Echo… hats off to you for creating space for us church geeks, artists, and storytellers to learn, grow, connect, and be inspired to do the work!
