The Innovative Church Conference

The Innovative Church Conference started yesterday and went through today at Granger Community Church. I would have loved to have been at this conference, but am just too sore to travel. Granger is a church that I’ve been following for about 7 years – since I heard their pastor speak at Saddleback’s Purpose Driven Church Conference. I’ve shared their web resource: WiredChurches.com with countless people. They are a great church and are helping many other churches become great.

For a play-by-play analysis of the 2006 Innovative Church Conference, check out Tony Morgan, Tim Stevens, Perry Noble or Mark Batterson’s blogs. Check back at WiredChurches.com to see and hear more slices from this year’s conference.

And if you couldn’t make it this year, don’t worry. There are more opportunities coming up. Next year, the Innovative Church Conference will be held on September 27-28, 2007. You can also check out one-day workshops that are being held on Granger’s campus November 10, like Maximizing the Arts, Simply Strategic Volunteers, Communications and Discipleship.

 

Rally, Church, Rally!

This just in from my friends at WorshipHouse Media: 36 Parables needs to sell 875 DVDs by the end of October or they are going to have to shut down. So, if you are a fan, like me, and you ever want to do a series on Christ’s Parables, then order “YELLOW” or “PURPLE.“ Also, be looking for their next volume, “CYAN.” It is complete and will be released Nov. 1st, regardless of whether they sell the 875 or not.

PERSONAL NOTE:

This is a company I really love and think they offer a great contribution to the world of church media. PLEASE help spread the word. If you don’t have their DVDs, please purchase one and encourage your peers to as well. This is a company and a ministry that is needed in the Kingdom.

 

Have You Heard Of Wikiletics?

This might be a blog to forward to your pastor (if you’re the pastor or youth pastor, this is for you).

Short for “wiki homiletics,” wikiletics.com is the first “wiki” (open-content) preaching resource on the Web. Every week, 20-30 pages of new homiletic resources will be posted on the website. We then encourage preachers to make changes to the content themselves, adding useful illustrations and animations, telling stories of how certain things worked and others didn’t, and even changing whatever sermons are posted to reflect the collective wisdom of expert practitioners in the art and craft of preaching.

I’m a contributor to it. Check it out!

 

The 3rd Installment From Flashlight Films

Remember me blogging about the new DVD from Flashlight? I blogged first about their “Run the Race Collection“. Next I blogged about their second one: “Lord’s Supper Collection”.

Now they’ve released their 3rd collection through WorshipHouse. This is the “Clean the Cup Collection” – which includes the mini-movie, a loop, a countdown and 3 still images (all for $25).

PERSONAL THOUGHTS:
I must say, the “Clean the Cup” video is my favorite from Flashlight Films so far. If you are a fan of videos featuring people like Rob Bell and Chris Seay, then you’ll love the feel of this video. Practically speaking, I like the fact that this video is just 2 minutes and 45 seconds. I love the NOOMA videos, but it’s very hard to work a 12 minute video into your worship service.

 

It’s Coming…

You may have heard the rumor: Yes, I’m am about to launch a new podcast! I’m partnering with Anthony Coppedge. We will soon be launching a new podcast called “Creative Synergy”. This podcast will be for all Church leaders (pastors, worship leaders, communication folks, and techies – anyone connected to church leadership and especially if they’re involved in worship planning). Our website for the podcast was designed by our new friends at Bombay Creative. FYI – The founder of Bombay Creative, Kent, has a tremendous blog that I read daily: Church Relevance. We hope to record our first podcast this week. More on that soon!

 

Do Your Video Screens Ever Go to Blackout (On Purpose)??

I mentioned speaking to the teaching team at Prestonwood last week in an earlier blog. Something I said to them and I say at every conference I speak at, is to not be afraid of having your screens go to black and then say something like, “Close your eyes and listen as I read this story.” or “Close your eyes and listen as I read this passage of Scripture.” I think most communicators underestimate the power of the imagination. Want to improve your effectiveness as a communicator? Paint a picture with your words.

Here are some quotes that I share in my communication/preaching seminars:

• “We can apply this understanding to our own creative efforts at many levels. On the most superficial level, we learn from the prophets that the tools best suited for communicating to the imagination are image, parables and sometimes even bizarre activity! At a deeper level, we learn that if we are to effect permanent change in people’s hearts, we must do more than simply teach them facts or reduce them to some emotional experience. Like the prophets, we must learn to reach out to the heart as well as the mind by speaking to the imagination. We must allow our audience the freedom to make realizations on their own, as with the parables of the prophets, particularly the prophet Jesus!”– Michael Card, Scribbling in the Sand

• “Creativity is part of God’s divine nature, and He has given it to us as a gift. Like so many of God’s gifts, creativity is often neglected or wrongfully used…Imagination is the first storytelling tool. To properly tell a story, you must see it in your mind.”
  – John Walsh, author of The Art of Storytelling

• “Our imaginations are involved in every area of our lives, in everything we do or say or are. It is no wonder that God is so intent upon recapturing them. Therefore, we must seek to understand the imagination biblically, that is, Christ-centeredly. The imagination is the bridge between the heart and the mind, integrating both, allowing us to think/understand with our hearts and feel/emote with our minds. It is a vehicle for truth. Through the use of images, metaphors, stories and paradoxes that demand our attention, it calls for our interaction. The imagination is a powerful means for communicating truths about God, and so God shows an awesome regard for the imagination in His Word. Because we are called to creativity, a working, gut-level understanding of the imagination is vital. It can be our greatest strength or our greatest weakness. To harness the imagination, or better yet, to bring it under submission to Christ is something about which we don’t talk or pray or do enough. – Michael Card, Scribbling in the Sand

• “Frequently, creativity and imaginativeness are casualties of ministerial education. Ministers start to mistrust or ignore their own creative impulses; they come to view imagination as a child’s play toy rather than an essential tool for vibrant communication.” – David Enyart