Have you ever had one of those moments in your career or ministry where you hear something and think, “This completely changes the game”? A light bulb comes on and everything is different now kind of moment?
I get the privilege of seeing those happen all the time. Sometimes it’s someone telling me about a time they read a post on Church Marketing Sucks. Other times it’s when a church has just received new life from the work of a Creative Missions team. Most recently, it was at the Atlanta Intensive.
As the executive director of the Center for Church Communication (the nonprofit parent behind this website), I admit I’m a bit of an insider when it comes to our events and products. But when I say that The Intensive is not like any other conference out there, I really mean it.
It’s really not a conference at all.
It’s not a seminar.
It’s not a workshop.
It’s not even just a training event as we normally think of training events.
That’s why the best name we could come up with is The Intensive.
To be clear, it has the best of conferences: dynamic speakers, inspirational moments, invaluable networking, take-home resources, and more. It provides the training you’d expect from a seminar and the practical hands-on benefits you’d expect from a workshop. But there’s something about The Intensive that is different. It’s an intangible, hard-to-describe, game-changing experience.
In Atlanta last week, I saw Stephen Brewster—the king of church social media—audit the social networks of the churches in attendance and give them instant, practical feedback that they can use to immediately transform their reach and engagement.
Phil Bowdle understands systems like nobody I’ve ever met. He walked through weekly rhythms with those in attendance to help them build sustainable approaches to their time so that they can have longevity and productivity in serving their churches. He didn’t just teach unreachable concepts from a stage, he got down in the trenches to help folks walk away with a usable strategy.
I saw the light bulb go on over and over as people experienced how to increase giving in their churches through simple communication tweaks, watched as people made real-time updates to their websites for increased effectiveness, and even saw a few people simply take the deep breath they needed as they had the game-changing realization that it’s OK to rest.
I don’t want to over-sensationalize what happens at The Intensive. If you want hype, there are better conferences for you to attend (and we applaud the important work that all of them are doing to help you, the church communicator). But if you need a game changer, I encourage you to sign up for one of the remaining events on the calendar for this year before it’s too late.
More:
Learn more about The Intensive and register now for the remaining 2017 events:
- June 26-27 – St. Louis (Advanced event)
- July 24-25, 2017 – Cincinnati
- Sept. 25-26, 2017 – Dallas
