I’ve been at the Buzz Conference the last two days – an event hosted by National Community Church (NCC).
I pointed to NCC in an earlier post, in how they used Xanga to promote their Week of Justice. This morning I went to a Bloggers Breakfast at their coffeehouse Ebenezers.
One of the core convictions of the Buzz Conference is that “[t]he church is called to compete in the middle of the marketplace.” The Buzz Conference is helping churches understand how to creatively demand attention in the “attention economy”.
I’m a really big fan of one of the Buzz Commandments articulated by Mark Batterson, the pastor of NCC – Thou Shalt Hang out at Wells. That entails meeting people where they are.
Podcasts allow preachers to go mobile, reaching entire new “congregations” located around the world. Or take what these guys did on YouTube with Baby Got Book.
The Church is beginning to understanding the true power of the web. Hanging out at the “wells” on the web means getting involved in communities that already exist. It means being an active authentic participant (and not fake marketer) in the blogosphere, a MySpacer, or getting cool video content onto YouTube. The key point is that all of these efforts are birthed from passion and not duty.
It’s a very different paradigm. But it is one that is showing great success, particularly with 20 and 30 somethings – typically a difficult demographic to reach.
Add to document.write(“Del.icio.us”) | DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web
Technorati:
Ken Yarmosh is a consultant who helps organizations get the most out of their technology investments. He works with technology users and creators across various industries, focusing on technology education and strategy. With over 7 years IT experience, Ken has worked with small businesses, non-profits, federal agencies, and multi-million dollar companies.
His online efforts include acting as the Editor for the Corante Technology Hub and authoring the TECHNOSIGHT blog.
