This post contains my rough notes. Please forgive the brevity and typos. My job is to burn up the keyboard with lightening fast content!

This session was presented by Kem Meyer.

Kem Meyer is the Director of Communications at GCC. She is also the author of Less Clutter. Less Noise. and has contributed in Outspoken.

“We’re our own communication roadblocks”

 

Sometimes its not what we say, but what people hear. 

We are all emotional, with different emotional triggers. We all carry around our own beliefs, assumptions. It is our own unique thumbprint. 

Bad communication is when you go out and try to change someone’s worldview.

Good communication is when you identify a worldview and you frame a message around it.

It isn’t our job to send the right message, but to release the right response.

1. The first step, is admitting you have a problem. After we have all our info, and facts; step outside the “frame” and think how other people are going to think of it. Run the info through different filters. You don’t have to do this by yourself, bounce it off other people. Draw people that have different worldviews than you do.
2. Reduce the noise. You don’t have to have a lot of content to go overboard.“A generation ago, the question was “what is truth”, today the question is “what is the point”" -Billy GrahamIf you want to maximize the response, you’ve got to minimize the options. “Think progressive dinner, not potluck”Look for ways to join all the parts loosely together. “Way finding”. Helping people find information that already exists.Sometimes something has been out there for so long, it becomes invisible. Sometimes we need to rewrap the invisible so that it’ll be visible again.
3. Share the Story. Make it shorter. Make it portable. Don’t pursue perfection. Show that you’re human. “The little stress cracks are enduring…”. Perfection is out. Your biggest “marketing tool” is when people are talking about Jesus.

Release Control. Our motives are good, but in reality we’re just adding junk to the pile.

• Need some tools to change your pardigm. You have to unlearn what you learn. Need a new filter to get information out.

Instead of capturing people’s attention, liberate their life.

A change in approach is a change in mindset. (One mission statement for the whole church, instead of one for every ministry).

You can find handouts and other resources from this lecture on the Sessions Notes page of the AND Conference page. Click here.

This post contains my rough notes. Please forgive the brevity and typos. My job is to burn up the keyboard with lightening fast content!

This session was presented by Jami Ruth, Tim Berkey, Jeanna Leitch, Lisa DelSelm.

Jami Ruth is Promotions Director at GCC. She can be found on Twitter (@jasonadammiller).

Tim Burkey is Communications Coordinator at GCC. He can be found on Twitter (@timburkey).

Jeanna Leitch is Interactive Project Manager at GCC. She can be found on Twitter (@JeannaLeitch).

Lisa DelSelm is Communications Coordinator at GCC.

This session was Q & A style. Everyone was involved, asking him questions, and asking other each other questions too.

Jeanna, Could you explain how you take all info and determine what gets promoted, and where?

High promotion is determined if it pertains to 80% of the audience (i.e. Baptism weekend, Ground Breaking, etc.)

Lisa, How do you utlizie volunteers in Communications Team? Specifically in Graphic Design and Proofing.

• When it comes to proofing, we look for pick people who love words. They point out grammer, and give feedback if things make sense or not. 
• As far as graphic design goes, there are people from different departments who usually do it. But we really use volunteers because things start to look different. If it was just one person, things would all starting to look the same. 
• Using volunteers is hard when it comes to reaching deadlines. These people have jobs too, but they do great to bring fresh ideas. On top of that, they get to use the materials in their portfolios. 

This post contains my rough notes. Please forgive the brevity and typos. My job is to burn up the keyboard with lightening fast content!

This session was presented by Jason Miller, Director of Creative Arts at GCC.

Jason can be found on Twitter (@jasonadammiller) and at his blog.

Freedom vs. Parameters 

• There is a tendency to believe that organizations thrive on parameters and artists thrive on freedom. In reality, Artists need a little paramaters with their freedom, and organizations need freedom with their parameters.
• In a brainstorm meeting, Jason feels a personal responsiblity to bring parameters to the Creative Arts meeting. Jason is liason between arts, and Senior Management.
• GCC doesn’t have office hours for the creative arts. Here comes the meeting. The problem came where people could float away into their own “universe”. Rather there is a morning huddle, around 9AM.
• The huddle keeps the connection between techs and artists (i.e. a tech may be planning on spending a few hours to move some equipment on stage. When presented to the whole team, 10 people can knock it out a lot faster than 1 man).
• Jason suggests the book Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni.
• If we try to be one or the other (Freedom or Paramaters), you can never express

This post contains my rough notes. Please forgive the brevity and typos. My job is to burn up the keyboard with lightening fast content!

This session was presented by Dan Moore, Matt Metzger, and Jeanna Leitch.

Dan Moore is the Director of Finance at GCC

Matt Metzger is IT Project Specialist at GCC

Jeanna Leitch is Interactive Project Manager at GCC

This session was Q & A style. Everyone was involved, asking him questions, and asking other each other questions too.

Weekly Reports

• Combined Weekend Attendance of Granger Main Campus and Elkhart Campus and the past 36 months to compare.

Quarterly Reports

• Once a quarter, Dan’s team generates and presents a report to GCC’s Senior Management Team; not just money reports, but of volunteer roles (Up/Down). The volunteer report is broken down at a “team”/ministry level. Ministries may have more than one team (i.e. Facility Care has “Roadies” and “White Gloves”).
• Just because numbers go down, doesn’t mean it is unhealthy. Things change. When presenting the quarterly report, there are times when they know the exact reason why numbers fluctuate, but most of the time its a “We believe because…”. Dan’s team ask around and see what is going on.
• Volunteer numbers can change because of “connect” and “disconnect”. There might be a week where a friend comes and helps out a volunteer, then they might stop.

Sermon Series Reports

• Fairly new report for GCC (only 7 pages!).
• This report compares attendance to those of other series.
• Online Video Content: This report generates numbers on how many people are watching pervious worship experiences.
• New Check-Ins: GCC only check in children (electronically), they don’t take an attendance on everyone. People don’t want to be “tracked” at GCC. A lot of people that come to GCC are from Catholic backgrounds and church has left a “bad taste in their mouth”.

This post contains my rough notes. Please forgive the brevity and typos. My job is to burn up the keyboard with lightening fast content!

Don Reynolds is the Director of Creative Arts – Elkhart Campus (GCC-E)

He can be found on Twitter at: @DonReynolds

Don’s session was a “bouncy-ball” workshop. Everyone was involved, asking him questions, and asking other each other questions too.

When Don started he had to come up with band members, techs, and vocalists for GCC-E’s worship band. GCC-E is “church-in-a-box”, they have to be packed and unpacked every weekend. Very budget conscious, and modest and inspiring.

What was it like to launch the first “multi-site” at GCC?

• Is GCC-E just a smaller version of Granger main campus?
• Part of the experience was to be creative and creating something new.
• No matter what, Don’s challenge was to get back to the heart of GCC. An inspiring environment where people can learn more about God, and what it means to bring others to a relationship with Him. We want to create that environment, but not spend a lot of money.
• It isn’t an “us” (GCC-E) and “them” (Granger main campus). It is so easy to get “tunnel-vision”. Where you have a hand on the blessings that God has given you, but you want so much more.
• Just because GCC-E doesn’t have as many lights at Granger’s main campus, doesn’t mean they aren’t as blessed. We want people to engage God, but its natural to always think about money. It is moving from a view of scarcity to a view of abundance.

Bulletins

• GCC has moved from a weekly handout, to a “seasonal” handout.
• If no one reads the bulletin, why produce one? We sometimes need to be creative on how we communicate.
• It isn’t a “one-way street” when it comes to communicating. Use slides, bulletins (if applicable), and online outlets (social media, website, etc.)