Greg Atkinson

The following is and interview with Scott Williams of LifeChurch.tv from October 2008. These are Scott’s answers:

What is your ministry background? What did you do before becoming a Campus Pastor?
I don’t have any formal “ministry training” besides volunteering within one of the LifeChurch.tv ministry areas.

Prior to becoming a Campus Pastor at LifeChurch.tv; I had spent 13 years 6 months and 7 days in the prison system… I was actually a warden in both the Adult and Juvenile Correction Systems.  My other professional experience includes but was not limited to:  Real Estate Investment, Correctional Consultant, Assistant to Company President, Political Consultant, Lobbyist, Small-Business Owner, College Professor…

If you were a pastor, do you still preach? If you were a pastor, do you miss preaching regularly?
n/a

How would you define the role of Campus Pastor?
Being a Campus Pastor provides the unique opportunity to cast vision, pastor, shepherd, lead, provide fiscal accountability, counsel, train, develop…. without the responsibility of teaching/preaching each and every weekend. Although as a Campus Pastor, I will teach several times a year.  I personally feel that I have the best of both worlds; my campus receives the teaching from our Senior Pastor Craig who is a truly gifted leader and phenomenal communicator. Additionally, I get to be the “Senior Pastor” for my campus.

With your focus being on the role of a Campus Pastor and not preparing a weekly sermon, what do you get to do that you think a lot of pastors/preachers miss out on? What are the advantages of your role?
Again, I have the best of both worlds; my campus receives the teaching from our Senior Pastor Craig who is a truly gifted leader and phenomenal communicator. Additionally, I get to be the “Senior Pastor” for my campus.  I think other pastors might miss out on the fact that they don’t have the freedom to just lead; without the absence of the time and commitment necessary for adequate weekly sermon preparation.  If teaching is an individual’s primary spiritual gift, then the role of Campus Pastor in the LifeChurch.tv system could pose a challenge to adequately express that gift.

What are the unique challenges for a Campus Pastor at a multi-site role?
Balancing centrally driven directives/initiatives vs. individual campus autonomy; as well as developing a unique overall campus culture.

What is your communication like with your main campus or central support system?
Consistent communication via e-mail, conference calls, video conferencing, face-to-face meetings and consistent communication with Regional Campus Pastor, who serves as Supervisor/Advocate/Liaison between the Campus Teams and the central organization.

This is from DJ Chuang of Leadership Network: Do you have a backup plan? If technology fails you are you the one to preach that day? What is your backup plan?
Our back-up plan includes receiving a copy of our Senior Pastor’s sermon notes mid-week prior to the weekend experience.  If satellite is down or there is a technical difficulty prior to our first Saturday night experience; then I will have to teach the message…

As a result of our Satellite being moved less than 1 degree during a serious wind storms;  I personally had to preach a last minute message from Craig’s sermon notes… only one-time so far (Praise The Lord).  We record the Saturday night service and implement a multi-layered redundancy plan for the remainder of the weekend. (Satellite, DVD, DVR, Back-up Hard Drive)

Anything that you’d like to say, add, point out, etc.?
It is more difficult than one would think to effectively lead a campus/congregation with minimal weekly stage time.

The following is an interview between Chris Brown of Flamingo Road and me from October of 2008. These are Chris’ answers:

What did you do before becoming a Campus Pastor? I ran a residential Real Estate team.

What is your ministry background? 4 years at Clearwater Christian College but a Business Major.  10 years of volunteering for several churches. 6 months at Elevation Church as a Campus Pastor of their Union Campus and 8 months here at Flamingo.

If you were a pastor, do you still preach? 3-4 times per year.

If you were a pastor, do you miss preaching regularly? No, 3-6 times a year is fine for me.

How would you define the role of Campus Pastor? The local shepherd responsible for connecting/ministering people, campus execution, and an accurate relay of Global vision from Lead Pastor.

With your focus being on the role of a Campus Pastor and not preparing a weekly sermon, what do you get to do that you think a lot of pastors/preachers miss out on? More donor development, leader development, assimilation, team building, networking with community, and community outreach.

What are the advantages of your role? All the joys of being a lead pastor without weight of the vision being carried out, without the internalization feeling personally attacked when programming is disliked by small groups of attendees, without sleepless nights worrying about revenue, and without needing to sermon prep, etc…..

What are the unique challenges for a Campus Pastor at a multi-site church? Trying to get the attendees and volunteers to understand that I am not the lead pastor, separating local vision from global vision, keeping local vision under global umbrella, trying to keep attendees from traveling 20 minutes northwest to here the teaching live.

What is your communication like with your main campus or central support system? Very good.  We have weekly Campus Pastor meetings where we all collaborate about weekly issues, 4/6 of us are on the Directional Team so we are well informed, and I am the Multi-site Director which provides one formal portal for information distribution to Campus Pastors.  We have a very open environment where CP’s can feel comfortable sharing ideas to the DLT for review.

This is from DJ Chuang of Leadership Network: Do you have a backup plan? If technology fails you are you the one to preach that day? What is your backup plan? Great question.  Because most multi-site churches have a very dynamic communicator, I never suggest trying to finish the teaching unless it is in the last 5 minutes.  We know that I will immediately get on the mic and invite the band to come back up for a worship set that will conclude when system restores.  If system can not be restored I come up after worship set to apologize and dismiss telling all that a DVD will be mailed to them along with a gift package that week for their inconvenience.  I have a packaged statement that spins the occurrence in a relatively positive manner and does not stop campus momentum.  Because we really do not like this strategy, we do a very good job at having several tech back ups to assure that this never happens.  The only thing we are not prepared for is if all power goes out and that would be an issue if teaching was live as well……

Anything that you’d like to say, add, point out, etc.? I would like to hear what others think about video worship…….. I want to buy in but I am having a real hard time…

*** What do you guys and gals think? Anybody out there using video worship at a campus?

The following is an interview between Larry Van Laar of North Coast and me from October 2008. These are Larry’s answers:

What did you do before becoming a Campus Pastor?
I owned a concrete pumping business with three direct employees. However, I would show up on job sites and run crews of up to 40 – 50 men to complete jobs .

What is your ministry background?
Before I became the campus pastor for North Coast church I was a volunteer in children’s ministry at another church while I went to school for my degree. Shortly before graduating I became the Youth Pastor. My responsibilities grew and I started occasionally sharing the pulpit on Sundays. I became the associate pastor after about 4 years and then the Executive pastor while still having hands on with high school and Jr high. I remained at that church for a total of 8 years and then stepped down. Two years later I was hired at North Coast.

If you were a pastor, do you still preach?
I do not. Well, rarely. In the last two years I have preached two times to my venue.

If you were a pastor, do you miss preaching regularly?
This is a bitter sweet thing. There is part of me that truly enjoys teaching/preaching. However, it is not my best gift. I think I want it to be at times. However, I don’t know if you have noticed, but Sunday comes every week and I truly feel the pressure to be ready. With all the time spent in preparation, stress of doing well, I have conceded that the Lord has other things for me to that truly bring me more energy and that I do better.

How would you define the role of Campus Pastor?
Well…let’s see… I oversee and am responsible for everything as a pastor might be except preaching.

With your focus being on the role of a Campus Pastor and not preparing a weekly sermon, what do you get to do that you think a lot of pastors/preachers miss out on? What are the advantages of your role?
First of all, I get to spend time with my family. If I had the role I do now and I had to spend many hours every week preparing a sermon my family would not see me. On the ministry side I get to hang out with and build into the people I call my sheep. I get more time to do a better job at everything else a pastor might normally do.  I got to tell you….it’s the best.

What are the unique challenges for a Campus Pastor at a multi-site church?
There is a season, whether personal or public, I think, that you go through that I call the transition from Puppet to Pastor. Traditionally, the pastor preaches. Anything less is just an imitation. However, once you meet people and begin to truly love them and get involved in their lives you become their pastor. Which really is the deal anyway; the preaching thing does not build relationship—except for maybe the preacher. It is getting into the dirt of people’s lives. Even a preacher knows that.

What is your communication like with your main campus or central support system?
We meet every week. I am given more than enough rope to hang myself and they trust me with that. However, I have such a brilliant group of Godly men to work with we talk just about everything. I am amazed at the lack of power acquisition. Nobody is trying to micro manage me and I am not trying to build my own church. This is a team attempting to do great things and I disappointed how so often I see a play for power in so many other churches.

This is from DJ Chuang of Leadership Network: Do you have a backup plan? If technology fails you are you the one to preach that day? What is your backup plan?
There would need to be a fairly large scale technical breakdown. First we check the DVD’S to make sure they are working by running all the way through one each morning. We have a back-up DVD that runs about 10 seconds behind the first in case the DVD player goes down or whatever. We have gone to the second DVD two times in three years. However, if everything went down I would probably give a message. It would really depend on when it went down however. If it was half way or more I think I would call it done.

Anything that you’d like to say, add, point out, etc.?
Understanding my unique gifts and talents is why I am here. Understanding is the key. I may like to preach or whatever, but at the end of the day I know why the Lord has me here. I love people and love to lead them.

The following is an interview between Dave Clark and me from October 2008. At the time, Dave was a campus pastor at National Community Church in Washington DC. Now Dave is on staff at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX. I asked the following questions to several campus pastors. Here’s what Dave said:

What is your ministry background? What did you do before becoming a Campus Pastor?
Before coming to serve here at National Community Church I attended Valley Forge Christian College in Pennsylvania for 4 years where majored in pastoral ministry and minored in music. I have been a Pastors Kid my entire life and my father is currently still serving as a Senior Pastor of a church in West Chester, Pennsylvania. You could say that I was born in a pew.  In my upbringing I was constantly in the church. And having traveled with my family for a number of years with a transient ministry, I have been exposed to so many different kinds of churches and so many different kinds of church leadership. My father was an amazing man to watch navigate all of the nuances of doing life in ministry and I learned a great deal from him. After feeling the call into ministry I knew I wanted to serve by being apart of something fresh and new, but I didn’t have much of an idea of what that looked like.  Long story short I met Mark Batterson towards the end of my college days and ended up on staff here at NCC.

If you were a pastor, do you still preach? If you were a pastor, do you miss preaching regularly?
I get to preach a handful of times here at NCC every year. Sometimes it has been to the entire congregation and other times it has been preaching to just the campus that I am over. I really enjoy the practice and feel that it really stretches me.

Sometimes I do feel like I would like to preach more, but I don’t feel as if I am at a place where I can or want to preach every week. I have even toyed with the idea of planting a church at times in the past but one of the big questions for me has always been “if I want to” or “can” preach every weekend. I don’t really have the answer to that question.  So all that to say that being a campuspastor is a good fit for me because I get to scratch that preaching itch once in a while by being given an opportunity to speak here at NCC.

How would you define the role of Campus Pastor?
I think being a Campus Pastor means that you are the local pastoral presence at your location or campus. Meaning that you pray with people, meet with people, Council people, share how your heart was impacted after the message, help bring application, dedicate babies, marry couples and so on and so forth. Basically a campus pastor is responsible for carrying on or spurring on the vision of the Lead Pastor or Senior Pastor at that location each and every week.

With your focus being on the role of a Campus Pastor and not preparing a weekly sermon, what do you get to do that you think a lot of pastors/preachers miss out on?
I think that Campus Pastors get to pay more attention to the details of the church. Things like making sure things are in order and that things run smoothly. Making sure that volunteers are well resourced and happy. Being more strategic about helping the location practice the vision.
Another thing is that I actually carry dual roles.  I am also the Media Pastor at NCC. So along with my campus duties I also oversee all of our media/production elements at NCC. So being a campus pastor allows us to have a capacity to do more.

What are the advantages of your role?
I think the biggest advantage of Campus Pastors is the fact that the church can stay smaller and still have more intimate connections while still growing bigger. We have the ability to touch more peoples lives individually. Our lead pastor can only individually meet with so many people.  Se we help expand that capacity by carrying on the vision and leadership to our campuses.

What are the unique challenges for a Campus Pastor at a multi-site church?
I think the biggest challenge that a Campus Pastor in a multi-site environment is to stay connected to the vision and heart of the Lead Pastor. So many times things just start running and running smoothly and once everyone is comfortable, that’s when it’s most dangerous. The vision get diluted. As campus pastors we have to strive to constantly hear the heart of our leader and the heart of God. Lead Pastors also need to be extremely intentional about spending ample time with their campus pastors and investing in them.

What is your communication like with you main campus or central support system?
We have weekly meetings with the Lead Pastor and all campus pastors to make sure that everyone is on the same page. We go over everything from announcements to structure and order of service. We also talk about what went wrong or what’s working or what’s not working.

Anything that you’d like to say, add, point out, etc?
I think that about covers it. =)

*** What are your thoughts after reading this first interview? I did add one more question about a back-up plan to the rest of the interviews. Are there any other questions that you’d like to ask? I’m working on some new interviews and can add in some questions if they are appropriate. Let me know.

It’s been a little over a year since I first blogged about “Digital Real Estate“. Was I right? Did you take me up on my plea and dive into social media for your organization? Let’s see what’s happened in the last year and what changed with the examples I mentioned in the first blog post. Basically, I showed you the concept of digital real estate and gave you some examples of people or churches that weren’t actively twittering at the time, but had reserved their space/name online.

The first example was of worship leader Matt Redman. When I first blogged about him over a year ago, he had created an account, but was not using it, yet. He had a total of 310 followers.

I’m writing this blog post on August 11, 2010. As of today, Matt Redman is twittering regularly and has 21,135 followers. Wow! Look:

The second example I pointed to was LifeChurch.tv’s Twitter account. Now LifeChurch.tv is active and has 3,586 followers as you can see here:

The next example I gave was of Willow Creek Church. Willow now has 3,774 followers on Twitter and tweets regularly. You can check them out here:

Lastly, I mentioned that Rick Warren had reserved his spot on Twitter and had 5000 followers before ever writing his first tweet. Now Rick has 130,463 followers and is a regular on Twitter and encourages church leaders daily.

So… have you claimed your digital real estate? Have you grabbed you or your church, business or organization’s name?

Throughout the past couple of years, I’ve made my pleas about giving Twitter a try. This is another plea for you to claim your “digital real estate” and get on Twitter for your church, business, non-profit or organization. We’re past the point of Twitter being a fad. Twitter now has over 50 million users and has gone mainstream. Businesses everywhere are using Twitter to be seen and get heard. They’re using Twitter to get by the roadblocks of old media and create a powerful presence online. You have the same opportunities and potential for an effective online presence with your church or organization.

The best part about Twitter users, unlike Facebook or YouTube, is that most Twitter users are over the age of 30. What does that mean for you? Paying Customers in the business world or your target for your church. Most modern churches target young couples with small kids – this is who is on Twitter. Make sense?

The 2nd reason? Laser Targeted Marketing:

When you use Twitter to build your brand online, you’re not relying on random Google searches. You’re not relying on expensive PPC methods that bring lukewarm consumers (in business) or people that aren’t located near your church and will never visit. You are using Twitter to filter out the tire kickers and bring you the people that want to hear your voice. Enter – a surge of traffic that is hungry for what you have to offer!

Now, I realize that a lot of what I just said is exactly what I tell my clients. Again, I’m just trying to share with you for free what I get paid to share with others. Please know my heart is to reach people for Christ. I’m not pushing a consumer-focused church or trying to scratch itching ears. I’m one of those, like Perry Noble, that will do anything short of sin to see people come to Jesus – realizing that it’s the Holy Spirit that draws men and women unto Himself. I’m just referring to the part where we are partners of the Gospel and work with the Spirit to share Christ and reach out to our community.

Still not convinced you should be on Twitter? Tomorrow I will blog an updated or revised version of my “Digital Real Estate” plea. Stay tuned. In the meantime, how many of you have a Twitter account for your church? How many of you update it regularly? Are you conversational and not just a broadcast mechanism? Please share.

In last week’s blog post “An Introduction to Social Media Marketing”, I referred to SMO. (SMO) Social media optimization, sometimes known as social media marketing, is a branch of search engine optimization that isn’t as mainstream as it should be. Every business and church can benefit from some form of engagement with social media networks, but not every business (or church) does engage. In the very near future, any business ignoring SMO will do so to their severe detriment. This is why I do my social media marketing company (GTK Solutions) and something I help educate business owners about.

Here’s just a few of the functions an SMO campaign serves:

*Exposure. This is the main thing most businesses aim for when they engage in social media optimisation. Many companies let increased exposure remain as the limit of a campaign’s advantages. A little thought can make social media work harder for your website optimisation campaign.

*Customer service. As more of the average businesses can be contacted through social media than in any other forum, it makes sense to use social media networks as a kind of customer service line. The publicly viewable nature of social media communication means that positive customer interactions get your business some excellent coverage, although for the same reasons negative encounters are best taken offline.

*Brand and reputation management. One of the major changes social media has wrought upon the internet is the need for results in real time. This aspect of social media comes in as an advantage when your brand needs a little support. Businesses are using social media to respond to bad press in their own words, getting in before the media does too much damage.

*Media coverage. The social media can be used as your own little media network, without the trouble of bothering with journalists.

*** I hope you know that my heart is to educate, inform, train and equip you as Church leaders. Any mention to my company (GTK Solutions) in my blogs is just a passing reference to what I do during the day. Please know that my business is not geared to churches (they can’t afford it). I’m not writing this for any other purpose than to share for free what others pay me to tell them. My clients for GTK Solutions are businesses only.

However, I do offer consulting (not marketing) to churches and am passionate about teaching and equipping church leaders and pastors about social media. Let me know if you’d like to talk with me about consulting with your church or organization for SMO. I also include social media and online strategy in my report when I do a secret shopper for a church. If you have interest in that, go HERE for more details.

I thought this was a great article/blog post by Michael R. Macias on that I came across on the Small Business Tech blog. This is what I try to get across to clients that I work with: social media marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Just like I said in my older blog post “Diving into Social Media” – you have to be in it for the long haul. Read what Michael had to say to business leaders:

Far too often in the business world the term return on investment (ROI) is used to justify actions or strategies. Though the term certainly has a place in the small business sector, it doesn’t fit everywhere. And there is one place it should never be used-social media. Imagine if all of us treated our “real” friends based on the concept of “ROI” like we do with our “virtual” ones. Chances are it would look a little something like this: “Today I hung out with Billy, but got nothing in return, so I won’t be doing that again, even if we’ve been friends for 20 years.” We’d all end up without any friends if we lived our lives that way. Well, the same rule should apply to any social media efforts your small business engages in. Using Facebook shouldn’t be about tracking ROI, or measuring the benefits of your friends.

Granted, there are metrics or insights, available to show you how effective your messages are, but that shouldn’t define your efforts. Social media is about more than just sales conversions or coupon deliveries…it’s really about relationships. Today’s consumers want to feel connected to a brand, and have a personal relationship with it. It’s about engaging people, inspiring them, motivating them, and encouraging them to appreciate your brand. When you decide to dive into social media, think about treating it exactly as you would a new friend. As you get to know them, and they get to know you, you start to like each other more, and the next thing you know, you are introducing each other to new people. I believe in the business world we refer to that as word of mouth marketing. So before you try to rate your “virtual” friends, or create a system to track their value, stop and think, “Would I do this to Billy?”

This was a guest post and thank you Michael for taking the time to write this great post. You can find out more about Michael and his business at his website www.insidethecube.com . An impressive website and it is worth taking the time visit. Also you can follow Michael and his business on twitter http://twitter.com/CreativeQube.

Did you know I do social media marketing for businesses? I never really talk about my day job on here. I consult with churches from time to time and do secret shoppers at churches on weekends, but during the week I run a social media marketing company called GTK Solutions. The “GTK” is named after my three kids: Grace, Tommy and Katie. By the way, if you want to get social media and social media marketing tips and quotes and links to blogs that educate and inform, follow my company on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gtksolutions.

I consult and market for clients in the social media realm, dealing with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization). I thought I’d do a couple of blogs on here that educate you on things like this and share with you what I share with my clients.

If I can help out doctors and businesses, you know I want to help out Church leaders. So what do I do with businesses? I first do a discovery meeting with the client to learn more about their business, their target (who they want to reach), their existing online presence and their goals. The discovery process and questions I ask are some of the following (these are things you need to think through in your situation):

GTK Solutions Discovery Questions

1.         Do you believe in what you do?

2.         Would you buy what you are selling?

3.         What social marketing are you currently doing? Even unintentional communication about your business.

4.         If I searched social media sites today what would I learn about your business?

5.         How do your customers use social media?

6.         What is your brand?

7.         What is your reputation among those you serve?

8.         What social media marketing seems to be working?

9.         What social media marketing seems to not be working? What will it take to stop this?

10.       Who is your target audience?

11.       What date are you thinking of going public with this new campaign?

12.       What goals do you hope to see met as a result of this social media campaign?

***  First, things first. If you’ve never read my blog post “Diving into Social Media” – stop and read that. It’s a great place to start. So before I start answering questions you’re not asking: What questions do you guys have about social media marketing and how it can benefit your church and boost your online presence? Of course, I’m assuming you’ve seen the Social Media Revolution video, know how important social media is, how many people can be reached by it and that you want to reach more people for Christ.

The following is a blog post announcing the new book OUTSPOKEN – a book on church communications (which I’m honored to be  a part of). Read what Tim Schraeder said in his announcement on his blog:

Less than a month ago an idea was born.

I bought a domain, sent a few emails, and the rest has been a crazy journey that only God could have orchestrated.

While there are a number of great books and resources available for church communications directors, they often offer a very narrow or limited view of what can be an intricate subject. Church communications is now a wide umbrella that encompasses a broad range of disciplines including print, media, branding, design, web, social media, online communities, and much more.

The need is great but solid resources are few and far between.

Two years ago I was approached by an editor to write a book about my experience doing church communications, and I began the process of putting together a manuscript. While things seemed to be coasting, the economy began to take a slump downward and the idea was quickly shelved.

Well, about a month ago a fire was rekindled under me to make a book happen [credit to Scott Belsky’s Making Ideas Happen and Seth Godin’s Linchpin]…only this one would be different.

I felt there was need for a more holistic resource that would pull from the collected wisdom of many to create an indispensible resource for church communications leaders to help them clearly and effectively communicate the Gospel. Rather than one sole voice, I wanted to help create a conversation.

I’m thrilled to be the first to let you know the idea has become a reality and it’s happening… in partnership with the Center for Church Communication, I will be releasing OUTSPOKEN: Conversations on Church Communications.

Well, it’s not just me doing the writing… it’s me and over 50 friends including:

Kem Meyer – Granger Community Church
Dawn Nicole Baldwin – AspireOne
Greg Atkinson – gregatkinson.com
Michael Buckingham – Holy Cow! Creative
Shawn Wood – Seacoast Church
Scott Hodge – The Orchard
Ben Arment – Story, Whiteboard Sessions, Dream Year
Leonard Sweet – best-selling author, professor at Drew University
Phil Cooke – author of Branding Faith
Tony Morgan – TonyMorganLive.com
Jon Acuff – Stuff Christians Like
Will Mancini – auxano, author of Church Unique
Tony Steward – LifeChurch.tv
Charles Lee – Ideation
Cynthia Ware – Center for Church Communication
Blaine Hogan – Willow Creek Community Church
Daniel Decker – Higher Level Group
John Dyer- donteatthefruit.com
Rhett Smith – RhettSmith.com
Scott McClellan – COLLIDE Magazine
Katie Strandlund – CautiousCreative.com
Jason Widney – Park Community Church
Matt Knisely – Lawton First Assembly
Nathan Davis – Destiny Christian Center
Phil Bowdle- West Ridge Church
Jesse Phillips – CATALYST
Kent Shaffer- ChurchRelevance.com, YouVersion.com
Katie Moon – Fellowship Church
Kevin Hendricks – Center for Church Communication
Corbyn Tyson – monvee, Heartland Community Church
Curtis Simmons – Fellowship Technologies
Eric Murrell – Long Hollow Baptist Church, MediaSalt.com
Cleve Persinger – The Chapel, MediaSalt.com
Matthew Paul Turner – JesusNeedsNewPR.com

I’m just getting started!

John Saddington – North Point Ministries
Jay Argaèt – Hillsong Church
Maurilio Amorim – The A Group
Danielle Hartland - Grace Church
Jim Gray – Mission Igniter
Lori Bailey – LifeChurch.tv
Vin Thomas – VINTOM.com
Justin Wise – BeDeviant.com
Sam DuRegger – theomusings.com
Blair Farley – Mariners Church
Jeremy Scheller – The Sanctuary Covenant Church
Jan Lynn – TheViewfromHer.com
Steve Fogg – Crossway Church
Clint! Runge – Archrival
Jennifer Schuchmann – WordstoThinkAbout.com
Kerry Bural – The Resonate Group
Jeremy Sexton – National Community Church
Michael Forsberg – Jarbyco
Bobby Chandler - Sugar Creek Baptist Church
Vince Marotte – Gateway Church
Denny Weinman – Sugar Creek Baptist Church
Josh Burns – Park Community Church
Dawn Bryant – bloom
KC Walsh – Willow Creek Community Church
Rich Kirkpatrick – Sunridge Community Church
Cameron Smith – Christ’s Church of the Valley
Gerry True – Oak Hills Church
Josh Cody - Center for Church Communication

Added July 21:
Dave Blanchard – IDEO
Josh Blankenship – NewSpring Church
Bianca Juarez – InTheNameofLove.com
DJ Chuang – Worship Leader Magazine
Drew Goodmanson – MonDev/Ekklesia360
Paul Steinbrueck – OurChurch.com

…and more to be confirmed!*

OUTSPOKEN will be a collection of short essays by each contributor focusing on various areas that encompass church communications. It will offer practical ideas and insights from some of the people who are shaping and changing the way churches communicate. Some faces are familiar, some are new, but they all represent a unique mix of churches and backgrounds that will inspire and challenge you to change the way you do communications.

OUTSPOKEN will be self-published and available for purchase online as a downloadable PDF. Print copies will be available for purchase through Amazon. We’ll also be working to make it available in Kindle and iBook format.

Release date is to be determined, but we’re aiming for early winter.

Proceeds from the sale of OUTSPOKEN will go to support the Center for Church Communication, the parent organization of ChurchMarketingSucks.com and the Church Marketing Lab. CFCC exists to help the church matter and is a resource for church communicators. Churches have the greatest story ever told, but struggle to tell it well. They want to help churches tell it better.

Follow the OUTSPOKEN journey on twitter @OUTSPOKENbook or “Like” it on Facebook to stay up-to-date! Watch for more updates, the website launch and more!