Last week church and nonprofit folks gathered in sunny Southern California for the Cultivate Conference. We plugged it a bit, so we thought we’d follow up with a few nuggets of wisdom gleaned from Cultivate.
As always, Tim Schraeder seems to have the best notes from the event. Check out the smart things the speakers had to say.
But perhaps better than the speakers is what the attendees had to say. Cultivate prides itself in being a conference that’s not about the experts—it’s more conversation than conference. So check out the #Cultivate11 hashtag or follow some folks on the list of Cultivate attendees that Vince Marotte is putting together. The chatter of the people who were there is perhaps the best gauge of what you can learn.
We’re Not Experts: You Are
The one idea that bubbled to the top for this outside observer is that nobody has it figured out. Even the experts, with their fancy blogs and book deals, have struggles and challenges. The point is that we keep on struggling, we keep on trying, and we figure out one of many possible paths to success. You don’t have to be an expert to do that. In fact, that’s how you become an expert. You get out there and you get to work.
Thanks
This year’s Cultivate Conference benefited our nonprofit parent, the Center for Church Communication. So thanks for going. It also benefited InvisiblePeople.tv, an organization that tells the stories of homeless people. We interviewed the founder, Mark Horvath, last fall and he had some powerful things to say about homelessness and church marketing. I can’t plug Mark enough.
If you’d like to do more to support Mark and InvisiblePeople.tv, check out the book Open Our Eyes: Seeing the Invisible People of Homelessness. It’s got a foreword by Chris Brogan and features contributions from Church Diversity author Scott Williams and our own Brad Abare. And yes, I happen to be the book’s editor. But more importantly, all profits go to InvisiblePeople.tv, so it’s a great way to support their work and learn more about what they do.
