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Echo Live Saturday
By John | August 16, 2008
9am - Keynote 5
Johnny and Chachi
What a great way to start off the morning. The don’t song. Check it out at worshiphousemedia.com
Kendall Payne
What a fantastic voice! It’s always great to hear a new singer/songwriter that is full of passion. The depth of her soul was poured out in a mix of tender lyrics and driving melodies. She claimed she had a cold, but her voice didn’t lack any of the range I expect from a seasoned musician. In fact, I’m going to iTunes to buy some of her songs right now - especially the one called Pray! You should too!
Brad Abare
Founder of Church Marketing Sucks
Where do we get our identity from? We used to get our identity from our heritage or history. Organizations provide peoples identity now. What you wear, who you work for, where you shop, etc.
Symptoms of this:
1. Drift - sliding away from what really matters
2. Fragmentation - dividing up in disunity
3. Narcicissm - we are all that matters
4. Conflict - can’t agree about what really matters.
Reasons why we’re allowing organizations to define us:
1. Globalization
2. Options
3. Branding
4. Disruption - we prefer shortcuts and convenience.
Church needs to be the identity/soul provider
1. Loyalty - we’re committed
2. Identification - we belong
3. Trust - we lack fear
4. Recognition - we’re noticed
Ways to find your identity/soul
1. Figuring out your roots
We are a… (role)
Serving… (who-relationship)
Doing…(responsibility)
To accomplish…(result)
11am - breakout 3
Church 2.0
Greg Atkinson
Technology/New Media book
Commenting is the new value. Not the monologue, but the conversation
Lots of resources were shared-all to help us navigate the web 2.0 web. Big open source advocates.
Reccomendation: Read the Starfish and the Spider.
12pm - lunch
By the time we got out of the church 2.0 breakout, Dan and I realized that there could only be one proper way to end this conference - Buffalo Wild Wings. So we skipped out on the last speaker (to have some family time together at the Dallas zoo) and headed to the local spicy sauced mini-buffalo wing and leg vendor. Mmmm…
What a great conference. The Echo staff and volunteers were very helpful and provided a valuable experience for all of the church techies that attended.
Fun facts:
1. There were so many people Twittering during the conference, that Echo made the Twitter front page - right behind Olympics and Michael Phelps. Amazing!
2. I’ve never seen so many iPhones in one place. Of the 350 or so attendees, I would bet at least half of them flashed their iPhone bling at one time or another (yours truly included).
3. We met some guys from Faith Lutheran Church in Oakville in South County, St. Louis and the design team from Elmbrook church in Suburban Milwaukee who were all very awesome!
Topics: conference |
August 18th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I agree with Brad Abare to the degree that I am very disappointed with our Texas District that they have allowed (and funded) two churches that refuse to use the name “Lutheran” in their name because they are trying to “reach out ” to the unchurched who don’t trust organized religion. That is blasphemy in my sight and they should not be in communion with the LCMS, but rather with the “Community Church of Whatever You Believe”.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I don’t know Gordon. Isn’t the church’s primary purpose to be reaching out to the unchurched? And if the word “Lutheran” (which Luther would have hated) is a stumbling block to those people, shouldn’t we be more than willing to take it out?
After all, isn’t using “Lutheran” before “Church” our way of organizationally branding our congregation - and isn’t this what Brad Abare might be cautioning us against?
Just because their name doesn’t include the word ‘Lutheran’ doesn’t mean that they aren’t being an incredible ‘Lutheran’ witness in their communities! (The name doesn’t define the thing…)
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
John-If “lutheran” is a stumbling block to the unchurched (and yes, Luther didn’t want his followers to call themselves Lutherans, but they insisted on doing so to honor him and identify themselves as something other than ex-communicated Catholics)then we should do away with the LCMS in its entirety(including seminaries and funding of churches) and drop the word “Lutheran” from all churches in the Synod so as to not appear to be doing a “bait and switch” on those who come to a (shh)Lutheran church and find out too late, after they find they agree with its teachings, that it is not the non-denominational assembly of people that they thought it was.
If we are not proud of branding the organization we belong to with a name that describes it and we can defend why–then let’s call it quits and join the Saddleback or First Main or the “Bunch of Us Community” church if we wish to continue attending any church. Oh, I guess we could disband and those that want to meet at someone’s house in the Church of the Living Room could do so.