Yesterday was the last day of Innovate 2007.  Most excellent day! 

Highlights:

Rob Wegner

  Oh man!!  The dude brought it.  Not only did my Sam I Am blog get three seconds of fame on the big screen (Rob was using it as well as four others as an illustration).  He went on to talk about the principle of us all being bombarded by a zillion messages and how the church’s message easily gets lost in the wealth of messages out there.  The key:  making our message sticky – like duct tape – David Kneip obviously misunderstood the point of the message!  To make our message sticky he said that it needs to be simple, unexpected, concrete, story-driven, and Spirit-driven.  Excellent illustrations along the way.  The bottom line – after listening to Rob I just want to be a better preacher/teacher/communicator.  Very awesome!

Blogging Breakout Session with Kem Meyer:

You can, and people have, gotten fired from their jobs over what they post!  Your blog is personal, but it isn’t private.  Lots of definitions and rationales as to the why, whats, and hows of blogging.

Troy Gramling 

Troy spoke next.  He has a website called www.mynakedpastor.com where for five weeks he is doing a 24 hour webcam of his life.  Why is he doing this?  Because he is nuts!!!!  But Troy says he is doing this to give everyone an authentic (the good, the bad, and the ugly) glimpse into the life of a pastor.  He has a camera in his car, in his office, in his home, and in a hotel (if he is there).

He began by mentioning the website and said, “Not many people have the chance to see a naked pastor.”  And then my wife started laughing.  I thought, “What’s so funny?”  And then it dawned on me…my wife DOES get to see a naked pastor…and probably more often than she would like .

The other “small world after all” moment with eight degreesof separation came when my wife told me she had already met Troy because her entire family is from Paragould, AR and her cousin Wayne played basketball with Troy in High School.

Troy gave a lesson on how to have innovative ears, eyes, hands, feet, and brain.

Scott Hodge

Oh dude.  What a story.  I connected in so many ways.  Scott just shared the story of how he came to the church his dad pastored and they worked together to transition the 80-year old church to a thriving and healthy church.  Three days after a celebratory moment, Scott lost his dad to a massive heart attack.  Very powerful.  My dad was sitting behind me at the Innovate conference.  We have worked together for the past (almost) eleven years to transition a 50-year old church into a healthy and growing church. 

Mark Beeson

Mark finished the conference by encouraging everyone to continually work to get better.  Pastors, staffs, etc.  Specifically:

1. Work on your attitude (without this you will hurt yourself).
2. Work on your relationships (without this others will hurt you).
3. Work on your persistence (without this problems will defeat you).
4. Work on your priorities (without this the insignificant will hamper you).
5. Work on your credibility (without this no one will follow you).

I loved the baptism and mylife videos they showed.  You can see them at GCC’s website.