The views expressed on this blog are solely my own and are not representative of my employer.
- }
- }
Category Archives: Travels
Innovate Conference: Still Thinking, Not Quite Doing
September 24, 2008 – 10:12 pm
I told myself that I’d write about each of the speakers at the conference individually. I haven’t had a speck of time to get to writing about the second day of the conference. And I keep forgetting that my notes are at my office, and I only have time to write at home, and hopefully some day soon the twain shall meet.
In the meantime, I’m still processing what I heard and learned at the most motivational, moving, and practical conference I’ve ever attended. Not that I’ve attended many, but this conference, from the things God told me or reawakened in me, has profoundly affected me. I haven’t felt this physically good, this emotionally well, or this spiritually awake in a long time. It’s near sublime, and I keep subconciously waiting for the other shoe to drop. But it hasn’t. And I’m trusting God that it won’t. If I keep my eyes on the prize, the race is mine to be won with Christ as the goal.
Until then, I can at least say that Steven Furtick’s talk kicked my proverbial butt. Learn more about him at his blog, the Elevation Church site, and this article in their local paper.
Innovate Conference: Day Three
September 20, 2008 – 11:15 pm
I told myself to get some rest.
OK. I didn’t actually tell myself to get some rest. I sort of just fell to the floor in a heaping pile of tiredness. I’m physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually drained, but my mind has been racing ever since the conference finished. I’m hoping it’s not just a “conference high,” and I don’t think it is. God’s up to something big in my life as a result of what I heard and felt this last week. It’s been an astounding rollercoaster, and I hate rollercoasters.
For the three of you that will notice, I skipped posting about a day of the conference, the day that God used to break me down and tell me what I’ve been missing and what I’m supposed to be doing about it.
Those posts will be forthcoming. I just need to regroup and rest before I tackle and write more about what I heard and experienced that day.
Innovate Conference: Day One: Session Three: Kem Meyer
September 18, 2008 – 10:37 pm
Kem Meyer told us to stop doing so much.
OK, she didn’t actually use those words, but that’s what she said. That’s what she always says. Her blog’s mantra is Less Clutter. Less Noise. so even though it may seem she’s contradicting the Stop Talking. Start Doing. motif of the conference, she’s actually reinforcing it.
People today are overwhelmed by choice, bombarded by advertising, and struggling to redeem their time. It’s up to us in the communications business to convey necessary messages without adding to the mess. Kem listed five myths, but here are my distillations in active form:
Reduce the gap between intent and perception.
See these unfortunate domains as an example. Be warned! Most are risque. But really funny.
Focus your audience’s vision.
Watch this awareness video for an example.
Every communication piece can afford liposuction.
Have you heard about the new stop sign?
Hit the heart within nine seconds.
Nine seconds is both the average attention span for a normal web user and for a goldfish. Trigger an emotional response to engage your audience.
Spend money on the experience, then on promotions.
A bad, personal experience is worse than a typo. A cool flyer that leads to an inauthentic experience is just more dead trees.
The distillation of the distillation? Effective and engaging communications wisely communicate concisely
Innovate Conference: Day One: Session Two: Shawn Wood
September 18, 2008 – 10:00 pm
Shawn Wood, Experiences and Creative Communications Pastor at Seacoast Church, and recent author of 200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One, told us not to touch the poop.
OK, he didn’t actually use those words, but that’s…actually, he did use those precise words. He’s afforded some leniency because he was quoting his two-year old daughter (who wanted to touch the dog doo-doo in the backyard), but I’d even go so far to say he’s completely absolved of any verbal wrongdoings based on Paul’s letter to the Phillipians where he considers everything “rubbish,” which, I’ve been told, may have referred to something a little more pungent than trash.
As it was, he was also reminding us in the church that we’re far too enamored with our stuff when our stuff should only be used to further the good news that Jesus loves us all and wants everyone to know and feel that in the very essence of their being. Yet, we want to “touch the poop” (or in C.S. Lewis’ much more masterful terms, “go on making mudpies”), when there’s something much greater out there to spend our time and effort on.
And it’s when we become so myopic in our own ministry areas that we begin to schism, to lose sight of the big-M, Meaning Of It All.
The distillation? The church is a continent, not an archipelago.
[Of course, he gets bonus points for two things: being on Twitter and using The Office as a metaphor for a day in the life of a pastor.]
Home