LeadingSmart

Mark Beeson on Legacy

Mark Beeson hit a home-run in the final session of Innovate 07. Some things he said...

• We must be intentional about pointing our feet in the right direction.
• You can't get what you could have until you let go of what you do have.
• We don't go to mentors or leaders anymore to get information. We have all the information we could want. We now go to mentors and leaders to help us make sense of the information.
• Mark shared the story of John Nace. Watch his story here.
• One of the biggest challenges for me to do ministry in 2007 is that hardly anyone is buying pipe organ music. I like hymns. But to reach people today they aren't helpful.
• I grew up going to church every week and never saw an adult give their life to Christ.
• We aren't sinners who occasionally do something right. I am a child of the King who occasionally messes up.
• Mark showed a brand-new video recap of our 2007 baptism. Watch the media player at GCCWired.com to see this in the next few weeks.
• Mark shared a letter that he wrote his son several years ago as he entered adult-hood.
• Does your team know you're for them?
• The world will change when followers of Christ are truly with each other and for each other.
• You have to work on stuff...
  • Attitude - without this you will hurt yourself
  • Relationships - without this others will hurt you
  • Persistence - without this problems will defeat you
  • Priorities - without this the insignificant will hamper you
  • Credibility - without this no one will follow you.
• The number one job of a Christian leader is to hear from God and then bring that back to their people.
• The people are not here to give you a successful ministry. The people are the ministry.

Scott Hodge on Change

Scott Hodge pastors at The Orchard in Chicago and came to Innovate 07 to talk about change. Some notable quotes...

• Scott is at an 80-year old church that five years ago was on the edge of extinction.
• Scott's dad pastored the church from the time Scott was 5-years old, and found it ineffective at reaching people and became very discontent with the state of the church.
• In this state of discontent, he invited Scott to the church to help turn things around four years ago.
• We performed open heart surgery on our church with very little anesthesia.
• We stopped doing the things we were doing that were leading us to be who we didn't want to be.
• There were times when we knew this Sunday could be our last. It was bad.
• It took over 3 years of pain before the corner turned.
• In the midst of this, my dad died instantly of a major heart attack.
• The last few years have been amazing. In three weeks we are launching our 3rd weekend service because we are just out of room.
• There are two decisions we made early on that enabled our transition...
  • We must listen to God's voice.
  • We must courageously obey.
• Sometimes we try to change by hanging on to what is old. It just doesn't work.
• We hang onto the old because old is cheap. Doesn't cost us anything. The new costs. It costs friendships. It costs money. Change is expensive.

I'm so glad Scott shared today. He has a story that Granger doesn't have. He has seen a very traditional 80-year old church completely transform and become effective in today's world. I know his talk connected with hundreds of pastors.

Troy Gramling

Troy Gramling leads Flamingo Road Church from the Miami, Florida area. They are currently doing the MyNakedPastor series and he brings his story to Innovate for the Friday afternoon session.

• Traditional ears hear everyone. Innovative ears limit who they listen to.
  • Troy listens to the people who 1) Believe in me, or 2) They love me, or 3) They have more wisdom than me.
  • If you don't limit who you listen to, you aren't going to hear anyone.
• Traditional eyes broaden your perspective and narrow their influence. Innovative eyes narrow our focus and broaden our influence.
  • Protect the vision. Produce the product. Push out the values.
• Traditional hands do stuff today. Innovative hands are executing for tomorrow.
  • Todays numbers are from yesterday's execution.
  • John Wooden: "You can use great men to establish a great basketball team, or you can use a great team to establish great men."
• Traditional feet make the next step really big to prove we love God. Innovative feet make the next step as easy as possible because the end goal is that people love God.
  • Leverage today's energy for tomorrow. Use the emotion of a weekend service to motivate people to a next step.
  • Troy shared several awesome video clips of specific ways that they gave people next steps in their services.
• Traditional brains think God blesses the method. Innovative brains know God blesses the person.

Way to go Troy!

Rob Wegner on Transferring Communication

Rob Wegner launched the second day of Innovate 07 with a tremendous talk on communication.

• People get thousands of messages every day.
• How do we cut through the noise? How do we get our message to stick?
• Our message only becomes catalytic when it sticks.
• Rob showed the story of Deb Atkns who sat in the parking lot for a year before she ever came in the building. You can watch it again here.
• Our message must be simple. Simple = finding the core.
• Rob recommends Made to Stick by Chip & Dan Heath. He said it's one of the best books on communication he's ever read.
• "Simple" is about choosing what to communicate. Ask, "Is this idea stick-worthy?"
• We need to become "masters of exclusion."
• All Scripture is equally inspired, but not all Scripture is equally important.
• Make your message unexpected. Unexpected means being unexpected in a way that drives the point home.
• Jesus wasn't boring and predictable but it seems like that's what alot of churches are experts at.
• Rob showed a video clip from a message he taught last year communicating that what's inside comes out. Watch it again here.
• Your message must be concrete. Can people test it out themselves?
• A clip was played of Mark Beeson asking the people of Granger to tithe for one week. I blogged about it this summer here and here.
• The old model was make a point, tell a story, make a point, tell a story. The new model is tell a story, tell another story, tell another story -- and by doing this you are making a point.
• Without God, all of this is merely human efforts producing merely human results.

My Session Notes

Perhaps your sitting in my Innovate session today and want to follow along and take notes. Here ya go...

• Word Format: Download tims_session_handout_word.doc
• PDF Format: Download tims_session_handout_pdf.pdf

Not here? Don't sweat it. We'll be offering video streams of the sessions within the next couple weeks.

Many Bloggers at Innovate

I'm sure I've missed some, but here are a few people I've found who are blogging about their experience during Innovate.

• Sam Barrington
• Joe Case
• DC Curry
• Dave Ferguson
• Troy Gramling - one of our speakers for Friday afternoon. Also see live feed from Troy's seat during some of the sessions on MyNakedPastor.com.
• Jim Henry
• Corey Mann
• Zach Montroy
• Todd Rhoades
• Jeff Wilson

Updated 9/28...

• Heredes
• Jason Gordon
• Micah Caronna
• Heather Palacios

Mark Beeson - That's Going to Leave a Mark

Mark Beeson started the second session of Innovate sitting at a coffee table, and through use of a pen and tablet, taught and illustrated his message. Some highlights...

• If we were just walking on the beach, we wouldn't need innovation. But we are climbing a mountain together.
• Sometimes you should trade efficiency for participation.
• When people first come, you want to quickly let them participate in the vision, where they know they matter.
• Your architecture communicates a message.
• It's unbelievable how far removed we (those of us who have been in the church for awhile) can get from real life.
• There are four places people interact: Public - Social - Personal - Intimate. People move from one to the next on their own accord. People take their own steps. Your facility and your programming can do much to determine how easily people will move deeper into relationships.
• We aren't just asking people to add Jesus to their life--but to give their lives over to Him.
• There is a tipping point that comes in everyone's life. You are standing today on the foundation you built yesterday. And will stand tomorrow on the foundation you are building today.
• One of the strongest bonds you can get with someone is when you serve the poor together.

DVD's used in this session available to use at your church for $30 each...

• Office Safari
• M&M's
• Dominoes

Guy Kawasaki on The Art of Innovation

Innovate 2007 was kicked off with strength by Guy Kawasaki. Some notable quotes...

• I am a Christian, but not a Christian speaker. I rarely speak to this type of crowd.
• The root of all great innovation is the desire to make meaning.
• Make a mantra, not a mission statement. A mantra is two or three words long and explains why you exist. Example: Nike - "Authentic athletic performance"; Ebay - "Democratize commerce"
• Don't aspire to do things 10 or 20% better. Figure out how to do things 10 or 20 times better.
• True innovation happens when you jump curves, not when you stay on the same curve.
• In whatever you create, ask your self if it is DICEE Is it D=Deep; I=Intelligent; C=Complete; E=Elegant; E=Emotive.
• Don't be afraid of polarizing people. Some people will love what you do and some will hate it. It would be worse if no one cared about what you do.
• If you don't upset a few people, you aren't doing your job.
• Follow the 10/20/30 rule of PowerPoint (or KeyNote) presentations. Use 10 slides; Do it in 20 minutes; Use a 30 pt font. Or, figure out the oldest person in your audience, divide their age in half, and use a font that size.
• The danger of success in one area is that you have a very difficult time accepting the next curve of success.

My Friend Rob is a Blogger

I went away to Georgia and came back to find the world a different place. My friend, Rob Wegner, is officially blogging. I've begged, pleaded, bribed, manipulated and tried to guilt him into it for months. He's finally in.

Put Rob on your blog roll, folks, I promise you won't be disappointed.

We Cannot Speak to a Culture We Despise

Tomorrow I have the privilege of speaking at Innovate. One of the quotes I'll be sharing is from the book Movies that Matter: Reading Film Through the Lens of Faith by Richard Leonard. The first 25 pages is worth the price of the book. Mr. Leonard, a Jesuit priest with a PhD in Film and Theology (wow, what a combination!), says the following...

"Given the power of media, becoming conversant with its mixed messages is an essential tool for Christian life. This involves the process of inculturation—discovering where Christ is already active within a given culture. Inculturation has traditionally been about uncovering Christian resonances in faraway places and exotic rituals. Yet the risen Christ sends us out to our media-saturated culture as well, and in it we labor with Christ to expose the signs of God’s saving love already present there. We cannot speak to a culture we do not know or one we despise…we have to learn its language and discover how Christ has already gone ahead of us, inculturated in some of media’s values, stories and style."

More on this at Innovate.