Greg Atkinson

I’m back in good ‘ol Dallas. Glad to be done traveling for a while. I had a great time at Catalyst – it truly is my favorite conference to go to. I speak at so many conferences that I hardly get to simply attend a conference and be fed. Catalyst is one that I make sure I attend each year. It really recharges me.

Highlights this year for me were:

• Andy Stanley
• Craig Groeschel
• Francis Chan (WOW – I love him!)
• Erwin McManus
• Rick Warren
• Getting to know some of the staff from my church better
• Seeing friends from other churches and companies
• Meeting people that I know from online face-to-face

BONUS:

It was good to spend some time with my friends from WorshipHouse Media. They had rented some couches, which I spent some time on. WHM was giving away free loops. You can get them HERE.

PERSONAL:

Today our new Audio Coordinator starts his first day at our church. I’m excited and looking forward to him settling in to our team.

Today I fly out EARLY in the morning to Atlanta for the Catalyst Conference. We’ve got a group of 9 going from my church. I’m looking forward to the conference, as well as spending time with other staffers. I’ll blog about it when I return.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

I can’t believe it’s October already!

This just in from my friend Cory at Church Communications Pro:

A Church Communications Stylebook

Kristie Melvin, Director of Communications at Providence Baptist Church, was gracious enough to share some great church communications resources including samples of their:

* Communications Services Values and Standards
* Project Request Form
* Providence Text Standards

Download the Providence Communications bundle HERE.

EXTRA:

Any of you going to Catalyst?

A while back, I mentioned YouVersion by LifeChurch.tv. This is a project that my friends Bobby Gruenewald and Terry Storch have been working hard on. I’ve been checking it out for a while now. Now, YOU, can check it out, as they officially released the first public beta version last week. YouVersion is a Web 2.0 online Bible. I’ve been doing a lot of study on Web 2.0 lately, as I’m working on my “Church 2.0″ book.

Kent at ChurchRelevance had a good summary. He described YouVersion as an online Bible that lets you:

* Read the Bible in multiple versions
* Star and tag verses and content
* Associate images, videos, links, and text to verses or series of verses
* Create an online Bible journal
* And much, much more

YouVersion Versions include:

* King James Version (KJV)
* American Standard Version (ASV)
* English Standard Version (ESV)
* New Century Version (NCV)
* New King James Version (NKJV)
* Smith and VanDyke Arabic Bible
* World English Bible

They will be adding additional versions in the future. Check it out!