Church Leaders Do Not Understand The Times

Thursday, 17 May 2012 16:51 Written by Vince 0 Comments

Where are the men of Issachar these days?

1 Chronicles 12:32 said that these were the people who were responsible for both understanding the times and knowing what to do.

Today, like most days, I came across an interesting story several times in my social stream. A Church is suing a woman who has posted negative reviews on several review sites about the church as well as start a blog sharing her story of discontent with how that church has handled some issues. Now, I don’t know the whole story here and I leave it up to the courts to figure that out but I can comment on the perception that the public now has of this church and the woman.

Clearly the church in question, and the leaders of it, just don’t get it. We live in a completely different culture now that new media has become pervasive. The problem is that most church leaders think culture is the same PLUS we have new media and that is where we are failing right now not just at Beaverton Grace Bible Church; whose biggest offense might be the over use of papyrus.

We cannot go about communicating and connecting with people, both inside and outside our churches, the same way we did EVEN 5 years ago. We have turned the corner and new media has gone from being a thing that was simply a new tool to something that has forever changed our culture right down to our very core of how we empathize with our fellow man.

What this means on the ground for you as a leader in a church:

Think new media first
Don’t do your normal vision and strategy thing and then look to new media as a secondary tool or channel. New media must be a part of your thinking from moment one just like it is part of culture continually. Better yet, use new media in real time to work through your strategy it will make your church that much more transparent.

Be Transparent…now
Transparency is everything in new media space, and that just may be the scariest thing to baby boomer leaders who are used to having tightly controlled channels of communication and an audience at the ready. Millenials need you to be transparent because they don’t trust leaders, and for good reason. This means the conversation must continually be two way.

Make noise
If you truly have a vibrant community at your church and they are connected in new media sharing stories, then the positive should out weigh the negative. In a new media world there is always going to be a negative review, especially for a church, but you have to rise above that and celebrate the beautiful stories in a public way. If your organization is truly toxic there will be know hiding it, I can’t help you there.

Church Website Effectiveness Survey

Wednesday, 16 May 2012 19:30 Written by Vince 0 Comments

At Gateway Church we are looking to gather some real data to understand how our website is performing. The problem we have is that there really isn’t much in the way of industry standards on measurable points of data. Most church website surveys and studies focus on subjective opinions of UI and UX rather than hard numbers.

If you manage, or know someone who, manages a church website we would love to share the data with you. Just pop open your analytics and fill out this form and we’ll send everyone that contributes data the results.

Fill out my online form.

Reconnect Conference

Wednesday, 02 May 2012 13:14 Written by Vince 0 Comments

I had a great time up in Cambridge, Ontario Canada last week at the Reconnect Conference. A couple people asked for the clips I played during my talk so without further delay I give you:

//// There’s a video here. Click through to view it.


//// There’s a video here. Click through to view it.

Stop Talking About Social Media

Wednesday, 21 March 2012 13:21 Written by Vince 0 Comments


Being in the field that I’m in and having the friends, colleagues and network that I have, there are a lot of people around me who are flat out experts in social media. It’s created a really cool journey and an inside look at a lot of really amazing ideas over the last 5 years; but I think it’s time to move on.

Clay Shirky, in his book Here Comes Everybody, says:

“Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring….It’s when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen…”

I would like to think that, at the early adopter level, we have gotten to this point but there are still enough ‘early adopters’ out there still making so much noise about ‘Social Media’ itself that we are stunting the growth of the top part of the bell curve. If we are going to pull culture along and lead them to the place that we have all discovered, which is the position of ubiquity that new media has in our live’s as early adopters, we need to act like it is pervasive and ubiquitous so that it truly becomes so.

Every time we do another blog post on 101 level social media ideas and strategy we stunt the growth of people who might otherwise be much farther down the road. Every time we try to convince our teams to adopt more social channels we turn them off and keep them out of the game. Every time we do another seminar on social media we slow down progress.

So stop talking about social media and just let it become the norm.

SXSW 2012 Recap

Wednesday, 14 March 2012 18:03 Written by Vince 0 Comments

South by SouthWest Interactive is one of the most important conferences in the world. There. I said it.

In my conversations about it I realize that way too many people have no idea what SXSWi is all about. When I say SXSW half the people think of the music festival that happens right after interactive. The other half think that it is a technology and development conference for uber geeks.

SXSWi is actually a conference on culture and where culture is going. Since technology it what makes culture change than it naturally is at the forefront of the conversation at SXSWi. If understanding culture and where culture is headed is important to you and your career you need to think about attending SXSWi.

Some of the sessions I attended:

The View From Inside Rainn Wilson’s Brainstem

This was the highlight for me since it was right in my wheelhouse; spirituality on the internet. You may or may not know that Rain Wilson launched Soul Pancake, an online community that discusses the ‘big questions’, in March of 2009. I signed up for the beta back then because I was really interested in spirituality and the internet.

Notable notes

The web isn't about clicks and views and enslavement. Rather it brings us together to a place where we are not alone. #sxrainn @
March 10, 2012 11:51 PM via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
@aaron_j_patton
Aaron J. Patton
"AOL still makes a lot of money off of old people who still pay for email" #sxrainn #sxswi
March 10, 2012 11:15 PM via Twitter for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite
@m_vince
Vince Marotte
Don't ask what the world needs. Find what makes you come alive and do that. The world needs more people to come alive. #sxrainn #swsw
March 10, 2012 11:58 PM via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
@sabialea
Sabia Siddiqi
#SXRainn #soulpancake #SXSW It's a spiritual act to post a beautiful photo on Instagram ... to watch Arcade Fire, to try and bring justice
March 10, 2012 11:54 PM via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@StarTGIF
ElizabethKieszkowski

Digital Debouchery With Anthony Bourdain

I’ve said it before, Anthony Bourdain has my dream job. I’m not saying that lightly, I really believe he has the best job in the world. So it goes without saying that this was the session I was most looking forward to. As a content creator first and foremost I think the No Reservations is creating some of the best content out there today. The session was a look at some of their creative processes and team dynamics as well as some insight on their use of new media. Since this is an all ages blog I’ll keep it clean with some of the notable notes:

"The whole world is changing, the whole dynamics of tv is changing! That´s what we´re preparing for!" Tony Bourdain at #sxsw #sxBourdain
March 13, 2012 9:30 PM via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@ninanord
Nina Alida Nordbø
“@: Yet another confirmation TV is dying. "We want our tv shows to feel like the movies." #SXBOURDAIN”
March 13, 2012 9:13 PM via Twitter for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite
@m_vince
Vince Marotte
I don't care how many ppl watch my show when it first airs,I care about how many ppl watch it aft 2 yrs. #SXBourdain
March 13, 2012 8:52 PM via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite
@RandyElrod
Randy Elrod

Open Source Book Club | Cognitive Surplus

Wednesday, 22 February 2012 14:37 Written by Vince 0 Comments

A couple weeks ago at re:create conference in Franklin, TN the conversation was ripe for bringing up a book that came to my attention a year ago when I saw Clay Shirky speak at SXSWi (check out my notes from this mind blowing talk and listen to the audio). The book is called Cognitive Surplus and the ideas in it are some of the most important concepts for leaders to understand in the new media reality that we now live.

Some of the brilliant minds I connected with at re:create thought it would be a good idea to do a blog to blog book review/conversation on Cognitive Surplus. I like the book so much I’m always down for reading it again. I’m currently re-reading Here Comes Everybody, also by Clay Shirky, so it’s fitting to dig into Cognitive Surplus again.

Head over to the blogs of the others involved (Adam Herod, Amanda Sims, Chris Branscome, David Ballard) and get yourself a copy of the book and start digging in. Next week one of us will post the first post on the first chapter and then we’ll see what happens.

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