ctcdallas

I finally get to attend a technology conference. I want to go to SXSW, but $400 is a bit steep, so CTC is probably my limit for the year. There are about 100 attendees, it looks like (but it could be 50 or 250, because I can’t estimate these types of things), and the conversation is good. Because it’s so small, we get to talk back and forth, and respond to everyone’s comments. I’m loving how we’re able to share ideas, and sift through the collective wisdom.

One of the things that strikes me is that there are only two women here. You just don’t encounter women in these circles, and I wonder why that’s so. I wonder what Lawrence Summers (of “innate differences between the sexes” fame) would think.

Conference happenings

Digital Pastor

Is pastoring and relationship real if it’s only online? (Prayer over facebook, church online?) Is it event the right question?

  • Do what you can with technology, it will accellerate what you can do.
  • Ministry happens online with or without us. So we have to participate in the communication and community that is already taking place.
  • (Paul from ReachingtheOnlineGeneration) Use technology to increase contact with people in your “offline” pastorate, or to reach unbelievers and lead to an in-person meeting.
  • (@michaelmcminn) is this simply a generational question, in student ministry I am not sure my students make these hardline delineations between online and offline relationships.
  • (@johndyer) Is the lack of physical communication in online community that different from attending a megachurch where you watch the screen and don’t know the people next to you?

Online Campuses?

  • Is online church something you do as a supplement to offline, or is it something leading up to an offline relationship, or just a way to isolate?
  • Lifechurch.tv experimenting with online campus and Second Life. Started with a webcast and the stories of “indirect ministry”, so they started working toward it intentionally.
  • (@human3rror) two professors responded to an unadorned question, “What do you think about online church?” with “oxymoron”.  Is it an oxymoron?
  • (@rick_smith) People can go to church in person and just sit in the back, listen, and walk out without communicating or connecting with anyone.

Church Websites

  • Where is your bar of adoption? Does your site demand flash or JS? You need to be backwards-compatible with less powerful machinery, or you automatically lose/alienate users.
  • (@tonystewart)  “Don’t have a grunge website if you play organ on the weekends.” Make sure your site represents who you actually are.

Church Staff

  • How do we encourage church leaders who aren’t hooked-in to start using technology for the congregation? Don’t tell them,”You have to use x.” Figure out ways it can impact, or ways those to be reached are using it, and come up with a plan and purpose.
  • The conversation about online pastors is going to expand: what do they do, how do they interact and disciple…how much do they get paid? It will be important in the near future.
  • Find ways to harness the voice of leaders who aren’t interested in blogging or communicating online.
  • Remove the phrase “they don’t get it” from your vocabulary. If you can’t explain it to them, and show the value, you probably have some work to do…on your plan.

Breakout w/John Saddington (Human3rror & ChurchCrunch)

Wordpress Hackstar

This session didn’t come together, because the net was too slow for us to get a copy of WampServer to work on some WP skillz. But we got two pearls of wisdom before switching gears. First, never risk a live site by working directly on it. Something I know, but I have a 16-year-old’s invincibility complex.

The second was about GPL licensing and Wordpress premium themes. Wordpress is against them, because they go against the whole idea of free software.

Missional Blogging

John’s major thought here was that if you aren’t blogging with purpose, you’re wasting your time. Average blogs are purposeless and general. Exceptional blogs are purposed and specific. He centered on seven checkpoints for good blogging:

  • Purpose: this should be as specific as possible, and distinct from “logical conclusions”. Blogs are conversations (if anyone else is reading). They are communities (again, if anyone else is reading). Your purpose has to be more particular.
  • Authority: Why should people care what you think. Where do you get your credibility? An incomplete list included education, experience, expertise, and associations.
  • Fears: You need to know what they are and deal with them. Then understand that they are invalid, if you have the above. Some of the mentioned fears were that no one would read, it would interfere with family life, and retribution.
  • Passion: This one was the key for me. He said that passion is synonymous with “obsession”. If you aren’t obsessed with what you’re writing about, your readers can tell. If you are passionately obsessed, they will respond to you.
  • Audience: This one becomes easier after identifying the four previous. Again, specificity is really important.
  • Motivations: usually selfish, but not always bad.
  • Accountability: find people to keep you accountable for meeting your goals, maintaining quality, and staying within your boundaries.

It was a productive day at CTC Dallas, I’m glad I went. It was nice to be around techies for a while.

There were some snags and hiccups with the wi-fi, and with the unconference conference model. I heard that the other breakout sessions were something like headless beasts. All in all, it was a good day. And there was free pizza.