It’s taken me two years to muster the courage to write this post. =) Outside of flagship flavor-of-the-month churches that host “here’s how we do church” events, most successful ministry conferences are run by parachurch organizations or for-profits.
Here’s why I think church-run conferences struggle.
1. The pastors invite their friends to speak
(who may not be the best choices)
2. The conference is programmed like a church service
(it’s not)
3. All of the creative talent is drawn from within
(which is a small pool even in the largest churches)
4. Great conference brands have to break rules by their very nature (churches have more at stake when breaking rules)
5. A considerable portion of revenue needed to pay for a great event comes from sponsorships and resource sales
(which requires a sales focus)
6. Marketing gets lower priority than the other church events
7. Their benchmark is other church-run conferences
8. Defaulting to ‘preaching’ conferences no matter what the subject matter is really meant to be
9. No chief “curator” in favor of a committee approach
(which is a disaster)
10. Failure to recognize there are four groups of “customers” not just the attendees
I’m frequently asked to consult church-run conferences, but find myself running into these obstacles with every assignment.
