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My 2011 Conference Notebook

Tim Schraeder — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:00:37 +0000

This year I’ve attended nearly 20 conferences. Yes, 20. I’ve presented at some and blogged my notes from nearly all of them. If conference-going were a profession, I’m pretty sure I’d have that one nailed. I love conferences and the connections and conversation that happen at them. I believe they can be important moments for ideas to be shared that will hopefully lead to action and change.

I recently started doing “Conference Notebooks” as a simple way to compile notes from each conference I attended in PDF format. And as a Christmas gift to you, I have compiled some of the notes from key conferences I attended this year and am pleased to share my 2011 Conference Notebook with you.

My 2011 Conference Notebook includes notes from presentations at Catalyst West, ECHO Church Media Conference, Willow Creek Association Global Leadership Summit, STORY, Catalyst Atlanta and Catalyst One Day. Speakers featured include:

Andy Stanley
Dave Ramsey
Dr John M Perkins
Christine Caine
@Jack
Eugene Peterson
Seth Godin
Scott Belsky
Steven Furtick
Jon Acuff
Matt Chandler
Blaine Hogan
Bill Hybels
Andy Crouch
Patrick Lencioni
Erwin McManus
Ed Dobson
Ann Voskamp
Jim Collins
Joel Houston
Blake Mycoskie
Mark Driscoll
Craig Groeschel
…and more!

It’s over 140 pages of notes that I hope will inspire and challenge you.

You can download my 2011 Conference Notebook here.

There’s no cost or strings attached. However, if you were a subscriber to my enewsletter, you would have received this in your inbox last week! So go ahead and sign yourself up as a way of saying thanks and so you don’t miss out on notes I take at future conferences. I’m already lined up to a blogger for The Elephant Room, Ideation 2012, Catalyst, and the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit next year… so don’t miss out on the action!

I’m humbled by the opportunity I’ve had to have heard so many incredibly inspiring people this year and know that my life has been impacted by what I’ve heard… I hope and trust yours will be, too, as you read through my 2011 Conference Notebook!

Enjoy.

Ed Dobson :: Story 11

Tim Schraeder — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:08:32 +0000

Ed Dobson moved to the United States in 1964 from Northern Ireland and earned a doctorate from the University of Virginia. He is an advisory editor for Christianity Today and a consulting editor for Leadership magazine. He was named “Pastor of the Year” by Moody Bible Institute for leading Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, MI, and is the author of the bestselling book The Year of Living Like Jesus.

For 7-8 months he had twitches in his muscles.
One day he was writing out his sermon notes and had a strange sensation that his brain and his hand were not connected.
He asked a neurologist that attended his church what was going on.
In 15 minutes he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrigs Disease, ALS.
He was given 2-5 years to live.
There is no known cause and there is no known cure.
In Israel, over the Mt of Olives is the ancient town of Bethlehem.
If you walk down a back alley way you’ll see a sign that says, “The Tomb of Lazarus.”
You leave the sunshine and enter into a spiral stone staircase.
You crawl under a large stone.
Once you’re there, you are in the burial chamber.
It’s cold, claustrophobic, damp, and dark.
That’s what it feels like when you are diagnosed and told you are dying.
In a moment you leave the warmth and sunshine and you descend into a tomb.
He could hardly read his Bible or pray.
He couldn’t get very serious about heaven.
I found I was really attached to the people down here.
The question facing him: “How do I climb back up the staircase to the warmth and the sunshine?”
One day he opened his Bible and read: “I have set before you life and death…if you keep the Torah you will live. If you disregard the Torah you will die. Choose life that you may live.”
He realized he had the choice to make.
He could choose to live or choose to die.
He could choose to take one step toward the light or he could give up, lay down in the tomb and die.
He said to himself, “God, help me to live.”
There are no guarantees of tomorrow.
The only day I have is now and I want to live it to its fullest for the glory of God.
He decided to make a list of all of the people he had offended. He called them or went to go see them to apologize.
Relationship is more important than who is right or who is wrong.
Be quick to listen and very, very, very slow to judge.
The hardest part was quitting his job.
It’s hard to leave what you love doing and what you know God has called you to do.
A man was diagnosed with ALS who went to his church.
In the worst moment of my life God showed up.
He decided to spend a year living like Jesus.
He had a rabbi, Catholic and Orthodox priest guide him through that year.
He wrote a book about his experience.
Now, he’s producing short films.
Check out Consider the Birds.

Monday Mind Dump… Thanksgiving/Birthday Week Edition

Tim Schraeder — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:33:36 +0000

God is faithful.
These last two weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions as I’ve announced that I’m leaving Park. Thanks to everyone who has emailed, commented, sent a DM [direct message on Twitter for those who haven't seen the light] or texted. It’s been overwhelming to see the amount of love, support, encouragement, and affirmation I’ve received as I’ve taken this step of faith into the unknown.
A really good friend took me out for an amazing lunch at NoMI on Friday to celebrate this new chapter and to celebrate [in advance] whatever God has in store. And on Friday evening I was able to grab dinner with Ben Arment, Sarah Cunningham, and Nathan & Becky Ykema. While there was talk and planning for STORY 2011, it was just great to connect, catch up, and share life. Having people in your life, especially in seasons of change and transition, is absolutely vital and I’m so thankful for the people God has put in my life.
I’m excited to report that in the next couple of weeks I’ll be able to share exactly where I’m headed next. The best part… I’m staying in Chicago!
Some of you have asked, so I’ll answer… for the first time in my adult life I will be looking for a church home when I leave Park staff. I’ve been working in churches since I was 18 and have always gone to the church I worked for by default. In this next season as I won’t be working for a church, I will be looking for a church community to call home. Park is one of many incredible churches in the city and I look forward to wherever God will plant me! “Blessed are those who are planted in the house of the Lord for they shall flourish!”
In other news… Oprah’s Favorite Things episode [part 1] was incredible. My favorite part of the entire episode isn’t all of the gifts she gives away but the audience’s reactions. These people are going absolutely bonkers. Thanks to my friend Josh for finding this mashup… classic.

Confession: I had a beer at 11 AM on Sunday morning. But it wasn’t at a bar, it was at a movie theater. One of my friends and I went to see an afternoon matinee at the Gold Class Cinemas. Oh my word. I felt like I was walking into the lobby of an upscale hotel. Our seats were reserved in advance online. We were escorted by the staff to our oversized reclining chairs by the staff and offered pillows and blankets… they had a full menu and bar and we had a buzzer to get refills whenever you wanted them during the movie. I’m officially ruined.
Sooooo excited to see Brooke Fraser in Chicago on Wednesday night.
On Thursday, which is also Thanksgiving, I’ll be turning 28. I’m becoming an old man.
I think it’s interesting how Thanksgiving is becoming less and less of a family event [at least in urban centers] and more and more of a holiday being spent with friends. I will be headed home for Thanksgiving but turning right around to make it back for a Thanksgiving leftovers party with some friends here in the city. When you’re living in the city your friends really do become your family.
Speaking of, this weekend I was reminded of the fact that we were all created for relationships and community. We were created from relationship for relationship… life is hard but we don’t have to do it alone.
God is faithful. [I'll say it again!]

Monday Mind Dump

Tim Schraeder — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:27:35 +0000

Fall has officially hit Chicago. LOVE the cooler days and leaves turning colors. Only downside is that it means winter is on its way soon!
I spent the weekend with both of my moms. No, it’s not like that. I’m adopted but know my biological family and this weekend both of my moms came to visit. It was an amazing time and one I’m so thankful for.
Tomorrow I’ll be doing a webinar with M2LIVE at 11:30 AM EST on texting! Be sure to come and join the conversation if you’re curious about how we use texting at Park and how you can figure out if it’s a good fit for your church. Learn more here.
I completed my home office space this week… LOVE having a place to work, read and reflect that’s my own.
I’m officially over STORY hangover. It was such a phenomenal event. If you missed it, be sure and check out my STORY Appendix that includes links to all of speakers, sessions and everything else STORY related.
Personal highlight for me at STORY was being able to interview Jason Fried from 37signals. I’ve had the chance to get to know him over the past couple of years and think so much of what he has to say can apply to our context in the church. It was a blast to get to welcome him to STORY and have the chance to interview him on some of the ideas that he has that apply to our world as church creatives. One of the statements he said that impacted me the most was: “It’s always more about the message you are communicating and less about the technology that’s wrapped around it.” Brilliant.
I’m headed to Catalyst on Wednesday this week. If your’e going to be there, definitely try to make it to the Bloggers Meetup. Brad Ruggles does an amazing job putting on this event and it’s a great way to meet some of your favorite online personalities offline!
I’ll be an official blogger for Catalyst this year, so stay tuned for notes and updates from what’s happening in ATL.
I’ll turn around from ATL and head to San Francisco next week. My sister is getting married and it’s going to be like “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” Assyrian style. Can’t wait to celebrate with her and the rest of my family.
I haven’t seen the The Social Network yet. I feel so behind.
I’m a little floored/stunned/humbled that Ken Shaffer added the +41 to his Top 100 Church Blogs list. That made room for yours truly at #140! Pretty crazy and scary all at the same time. Thanks to all of you who read and follow.
Last week we had our first planning session for Cultivate11. More details are coming soon!

Story 10 :: Leonard Sweet

Tim Schraeder — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:51:32 +0000

I love it when poets pay homage to storytellers.
Thomas McGraff paid homage to storytellers…
All time is redeemed, by the singular person who remembers and resurrects. I remember. I keep the winter count.
Every one of us is a keeper of the winter count.
American Indians kept track of their history in an odd way; they kept track of the year from winter to winter. From the first snowfall to the next snowfall.
They called their years winters.
Elders of the tribe would review the past year and come up with the most significant events that would define the year for them and distilled those events to singular image that they would release to the keeper of the winter count.
The job of the keeper was to present the narrative of their life together in an image of a buffalo hide.
He would create a spiral of images that would encapsulate their year… this was their annual report.
We do our annual report with an accounting mentality; they portrayed theirs with a story.
The storyteller would preserve the memory by remembering.
The function of the storyteller was to remember and resurrect the life of that community and to conserve the memories of the past in story form.
We have been chosen and called by God to be storytellers in a very different world than the one most of our churches are used to.
Len was born in a Gutenberg world; many of us were born in a Google world.
TGIF = Twitter, Google, iPhone, Facebook.
Most of our churches are stuck in a Gutenberg culture.
Born after 1973 you are a native; before you are an immigrant.
Immigrants ry to preserve the old country.
Most church fights are about preserving tradition.
The first job of a missionary is to learn the language of the culture.
The language of a TGIF world is a very different language than Gutenberg.
We communicate the Gospel in word and verse; we need to communicate it in image and story.
There’s a war going on in the world and it will be won by whoever tells the best story, whoever out narrates the opposition.
The future belongs to the storytellers, the artists.
“In the medieval world the church saved the arts; in the future the artist will save the Church.”
The future belongs to the artists.
We have a huge mission.
We are short-order chefs, kitchen cooks.
We cook stories up that people who are starving need to hear.
We are enabling the soul to grow.
Jesus was the greatest storyteller of all time… that’s how we communicated.
Jesus’ message wasn’t pointed.. it was a narrative.
Warning: they kill the storytellers first.
Jesus’ was killed because His stories created a threat that would have undermined the establishment.
Jesus was an artist.
Jesus used a lot of paradox, crowd-sourcing, etc.

He used a lot of sugar and salt.

When no one is looking sneak into your cooking the story teller’s secret ingredient.
Heighten the sense of what’s coming next.
Leave people wanting to come back for more.
Sugar and salt keep people wanting to turn the page.

Use the right utensils.

Regardless of how you’re cooking, you need the right utensils.
Biblical storytellers need to pay attention… in a Google world we need to carve out images and story.
The only place that doesn’t understand the cultural currency of image, not words, is the Church.
Every church has a mission statement… but is it an image?
We all have versitas… we think the Bible is about Bible verses, what about Bible stories?
Carve out stories, don’t cut them up.

Cayenne Pepper

Jesus always spied up His story with passion… He made them exciting.
We tell too many stories without passion.
A world without passion is a world without beauty, truth or goodness.
You tell stories by becoming what you tell.
Get so involved in the story that you become the central character in the story.
When you tell the story of Jesus, tell it until you become a “little Christ,” a Christian.

What kind of stories are we going to tell?

We all have stories to tell… which one do you love to tell?
What is your favorite story?
Our favorite story should be, “I love to tell the Story of Jesus and His love…”
When this is no longer the favorite story of the Church, we are in trouble.
It’s about time we started lifting up the Jesus story, telling the greatest story ever told.
We need to go beyond telling the story on Sunday and start singing it.
The greatest sermons ever told are the ones preached on Sunday and sung on Wednesday.
What gets settled down deep is not what you say but what you sing.
A keeper of the winter count learns the story of our community to the point where we can take the stories, turn them into songs and sing them in a way that people can write their own songs and verses.

Closing

That was the cry of a TGIF generation.
When I get older then I’ll be stronger, they’ll call me freedom… just like a waving flag.
It’s a cry of hope.
This a culture looking for waving flags.
We are flying a lot of flags… leadership, justice, causes… of the Kingdom?
We don’t know what a Kingdom is because a kingdom has to have a king. We don’t understand that in America.
You know where the king is because they fly the flag of the king where he is present.
We need to start flying the right flag.
Jesus is the King.
Our storytellers need to start flying the flag of Jesus and His Kingdom.
We’ve been waving “Six Flags” over Jesus… we need to wave the flag of Jesus for a world desperate and searching for Him.

Story 10 :: Shauna Niequist

Tim Schraeder — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 21:23:48 +0000

Your story must be told.
The central image of the Christian faith is death and rebirth.
When you haven’t yet had your heart really broken the Gospel isn’t about death and rebirth; it’s about hope and possibility.
When you experience death and loss, you begin to understand the central metaphor.
When your life is easy the crucial parts of the Gospel aren’t necessary.
Rebirth and new life are very important when death is staring at you in the face.
Death is real but rebirth is real, too.
Telling our stories is crucial.
We tell what we know and what we’ve learned the hard way.
Your story can be a bridge to helping someone else in their own journey.
People need more than ideas or principles, they need pieces of wisdom earned the hard way.
My life is not a story about me and your life is not a story about you.
Chesterton: All of life is a story and if there is a story, there is a storyteller. The storyteller is the God of creation.
The story is the story you’re living right now, today.
We believe two myths about our story: that they are about us and because they are about us they don’t matter.
When we tell our story we tell them about the story of God in us.
Pastors aren’t the only ones that tell the story about God.
You story gives life, breath, arms, and legs, to the Gospel just as much as preaching.
Preaching cannot be the only way we allow our story to be told in our midst.
I’m less interested by the ruminations of the scholars and more compelled by the stories of everyday people.
People aren’t compelled by abstractions; they are compelled by real life.
The biggest and best story isn’t told by the same voice the same ways, it’s told by whispers, paintings, blogs and around dinner tables around the world.
Rip up the form, rip up the script.
Speak the extraordinary story of God in your own way.
The big story is being told by our little stories.
We turn our sacred stories into cliches and quips.
Resist the temptation to hide behind theology.
Stop acting as if pastors are the only ones who have the right or responsibility to tell God’s Story.
It’s all of our responsibilities to tell God’s Story.
Consider your own silence may be part of the problem.
If you have been longing to hear a new language for faith, start speaking it.
Pastors, preachers and leaders cannot tell your story.
Only you can tell your story.
Don’t allow the story of God to become flat and lifeless.
It’s been dulled by a predictable format… reduced to 3 points and Hebrew word or two.
If we only allow the Gospel to be proclaimed on Sundays the life-changing story will lose its power to change lives.
Christ entrusted the Gospel to people who were not religious professionals.
They didn’t know the right words, they had been transformed.
If you’ve been transformed, it’s your responsibility to share your story.
Our story must be told.

Story 10 :: Richard Walter

Tim Schraeder — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:20:00 +0000

Richard Walter has chaired the legendary graduate program in screenwriting at the UCLA film school for more than 30 years. His students have written a dozen projects for Steven Spielberg alone, won two Oscars in the past three years, and dominate the national and international screenwriting competitions. Richard has written screenplays for almost all the major studios and television networks and a new book entitled “Essentials of Screenwriting.” The Wall Street Journal called him “the prime broker for Hollywood’s hottest commodity – new writing talent.”

The way to find things is to stop looking for them.
There’s a reflection in Scripture of what’s in the real world.
There’s something holy and healing in narrative.
That’s why we find narrative in Scripture.
The best parts of the Bible are its stories.
The best preaching isn’t listing principles but telling stories.
Narrative is transformative.
The best movie is not made up of cartoons or stereotypes.
You can’t out-struggle yourself to try to understand someone else.
Every story is a reflection of its writer.
Narrative isn’t a metaphor or a method… it’s a healing thing.
There is a connection between the spiritual senses someone has and their biology.
Narrative isn’t just a digression and entertainment, it’s something that’s fundamental and important.
If you are creating narrative you are doing something important.
Narratives are redemptive.
We often use cognitive dissidence to prove our message.
Sympathy is an important part of the narrative.
The protagonist is the Gospel is Jesus; the antagonist is Judas.
We wouldn’t be saved if Judas wouldn’t have betrayed Jesus… there would be no redemption.
The real enemy in the world is the enemy that’s inside of all of us.
There is a tension between feeling and faith.
Emotion can bring about faith.
Movies are completely fake.
The feelings movies evoke are real.
You need to provoke people… engage them. Don’t just make them feel good.
You don’t have to make people feel good, you just have to make them feel.
The narratives in the Bible aren’t all “feel good” stories.
As a pastor, you are much better off giving people questions, not answers.

Story 10 :: Charlie Todd

Tim Schraeder — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 16:41:17 +0000

Charlie Todd is the founder of Improv Everywhere and has produced, directed, and documented the group’s work for over seven years. Based in New York City, Improv Everywhere has executed over 70 missions using thousands of actors to cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places. The group has received 34 million views and their exploits have been profiled in The New York Times, This American Life, The Today Show, 20/20, ABC’s World News Tonight, and Rolling Stone to name a few. New York Magazine called Charlie “one of the 10 funniest people you haven’t heard of.” To learn more, visit www.improveverywhere.com.

You may not know ImprovEverywhere but you may know this:

They exist to cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places.

I don’t ask for permission for most of the things I do.M
Most of their ideas come from random strangers. Like this one:

Their most famous video is the Frozen in Grand Central video.

This video spread quickly and within 3 months people from over 100 different cities repeated the same thing in freeze in public places.
Weirdest thing that happened as a result of the video: Law & Order SVU did a take on Charlie Todd with Robin Williams.
Some of their videos have been musicals.

They got permission to do that video.
improveverywhere.com looks like “improve everywhere,” but that’s really they do.
They try to take a boring, unhappy place and make it exciting by giving it a great story.
They did this at a train stop in New York.

Rob gave out 2,000 high fives in 45 minutes.
They also do some videos to target individuals.
This is where they did a surprise wedding reception.

This happened before Christmas last year:

It’s all about making something normal awesome.
Here’s a more recent no pants subway ride

It’s interesting to create something that’s subversively positive.
The main thing it’s taught me is to be open to say yes and try new things.
It’s not about your funny idea, it’s about making other people’s ideas look brilliant.
They’ve done over 100 projects over the last 9 years and being prolific is important.
The only way to fail at what we do is to not do it at all.

Story 10 :: Dan Allender

Tim Schraeder — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:58:37 +0000

Dr Dan Allender is the professor of counseling at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle. He has taught counseling at several universities and written numerous books, including To Be Told, Leading with a Limp, The Wounded Heart, and The Healed Path. He travels and speaks about his unique perspective on sexual abuse recovery, love and forgiveness, and worship. Dan, his wife Rebecca, and their three children live on Washington’s Bainbridge Island.

Story plays a role in all aspects or our life.
Story is the currency of our day.
We live in the midst of stories.
Story sells.
We are in the midst of a constatn array of stories.
When we live in a glut of stories it’s hard to know which stories we are meant to live in.
It’s hard to know which stories to craft, tell, and communicate.
We are all in a story realm.
God has authored us with a unique story.
Our life is meant to be a revelation, through our story, of the story of God.
Our lives are acting out something of the unique role God has given us.
What does it mean to act out your unique role in the context of the drama of the Gospel?
The core question we need to be asking is: How are you living out your unique role in living out the Story of God in the world?
Do you see every moment of your life as a stage you are called to ad lib on?
How do we bring the story of God to bear in the unique moments of everyday life?
We cannot accommodate to the stories of this world.
The moment we do, we lose the power of the Gospel.
If you accomodate to stories of this world you will lose your uniqueness.
People expect us to accommodate or distance ourselves from stories that our contrary to ours.
The tension of all stories is that you don’t know what to do.
There are no quick ways or answers about what to do in the middle of our improv.
We are to sing about the resurrection of praise music, and Johnny Cash’s song “Hurt” simultaneously.
We can’t just sing about the resurrection.
We are to draw people into moments to speak about things they are uncomfortable to name.
Our task as storytellers is to give people a taste of Christ’s death and resurrection.
We are to draw people into our moments that mirror and mimic the death and resurrection of Christ.
We live our lives as if they are sequential but in reality they are about simultaneity.
We have to live with the greater reality of God’s presence and the scars in our own lives.
We need to tell the story of life and death together.
Every story has a story that is seen and a story that is unseen.
Your stories mark you.
We must take into account the stories that have shaped us with death… the stories that have marked our face.
We can’t bring the GOspel as an antidote to death but a courageous reality of what death has done to us.
Have you blessed the death that is your own?
We have to read our own stories to act out the story God is calling us to live out.
Genesis 16
There is violence in every single on of our lives – it’s part of the harm of living in a broken world.
Story evokes and draws forth the core realities of our own stories.
Wherever there is good there will soon come tragedy.
We can count on it.
We all have a period of innocence.
There must be an inciting incident that precipitates our story’s movement. It’s tragedy.
Tragedy is inevitable in all of our lives.
That’s part of living in the drama of God.
Do you have a sense of your role?
Where are you from?
Where are you going?
How has the past shaped you to be who you are?
The drama is in the moment, the real issues are in the past and in the future.
Our role will come more clearly to the degree you know the name you call God.
Our stories are a gift to name God.
God is waiting for you to name Him.
All of the names of God are not finished; they mount with every life and with every story.
Each story is unique and revelatory.
God humbly bears the name we bring to Him.
May our names mark the unique work of how God redeemed and redeemed us.
Our calling us to find the unique name God has given us and return it to Him.
You have no greater gift you to give to the world than your story.
Nothing is a greater gift than to know your name for God.

Hey Story Peeps, What Do YOU Want to Ask Jason Fried?

Tim Schraeder — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:09:56 +0000

Story is just a couple of days away! Unbelievable. We are so excited to welcome nearly 700 people to Park Community Church for a conference geared towards the creative class in ministry. Ben Arment and his team of volunteers have some amazing things in store and I’m so excited for what the next few days will bring.

On Thursday afternoon I’ll be interviewing Jason Fried as part of the conference. Jason is the co-founder of 37signals and author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-seller REWORK.

I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Jason over the past year or so and am thrilled to welcome him to STORY. I know he will have some great things to share with us. I’m working on a final list of questions to ask him but thought I’d give you the opportunity to let me know what questions you have for Jason.

So comment below and let me know what you’d like to ask Jason… I’ll pick a few questions to ask him onstage at STORY!