There are many opinions about Church Conferences and whether or not they add value to individuals, teams or organizations. In other words: Why Church Conferences? My answer to that question is simply this: they are absolutely valuable to individuals, teams and organizations. They are great to challenge thinking, inspire, educate and team camaraderie. I have taken my entire team to several church conferences and it was always productive. Disclaimer: I’m not a big fan of after a church conference, coming back home and scrapping everything that you currently do, in order to implement what the latest church conference guru shared.
In recent days my role has shifted from not only being a conference attender, but rather being a speaker. I love speaking to leaders and I still enjoy attending the portion of the conference that I’m not speaking, in order to be inspired, educated and challenge my thinking.
This month I had the opportunity to speak at the Dynamic Church Conference in Dallas. I spoke about leveraging Social Media and Church Diversity. The Dynamic Conference is administered by the people at FellowShip Technologies. This conference is a great blend of ministry leadership and application, in addition to some nuts, bolts and application of F1 Church Management Software.
This years Dynamic Church Conference was held at Prestonwood Church in Dallas. Prestonwood is the most ridiculuous (in a good way) venue I have ever seen. Over a million square foot, located on 140 acres. A few things that impressed me about The Dynamic Church Conference was:
- Attention To Detail– Program books, lanyards, speaker/topics, signage, t-shirts, meals, rooms… were all very well done.
- Interactive Elements- As I was teaching a break out session the chef busted in my room and yelled for Scott (not me but a session attender). He then went on to say that everyone in this session won some candy because “Scott” had tweeted about the session. They quickly served everyone chocolate on a platter and left. (Nice Touch)
- Varied Programming- The conference had a good mix of programming for support staff and senior leadership. Met a couple of Senior Pastor’s whom were there with administrative assistants and support staff. All attending sessions geared towards their particular role.
This conference will actually be the road this summer going to 10 different cities, and it’s called the Dynamic Church Roadshow, details and registration are located here.
You can check out the main talks from the Dallas conference here and pics. here.
Share your thoughts and experiences about church conferences and what you look forward to most. What are some of your favorite church conferences? Better yet, answer this question: Why Church Conferences?
