History in the Making

Wednesday Morning Run-Down

• Okay, I've got to have this book. It had me at lo-go.
• I'm thinking of starting a Friday feature that reprints the worst drivel that appears on Twitter all week long.
• Love this behind-the-scenes look at the Hybels-Welch interview for Willow Creek's Leadership Summit.
• "Opulence. I has it." Love this Direct TV commercial. I seriously want one of those miniature giraffes.
• Fast Company's 'The Influence Project' would be fascinating if it weren't for the fact that all the winners are self-described "experts in social media marketing and search engine optimization." Come on now...
• You know how they say "internet fame is not real fame"? Same is true if you specialize in search optimization.
• I've discovered an inordinate amount of mistaken charges to my business credit cards this month. Ugh.
• Details for the Four Minute Film Fest at STORY are coming together. Excited about having Jeremy Sexton and Matt Knisley as story navigators in the competition.
• About 30 tickets left for the event.
• As a producer, empowering my team is vital to the success of the event. It's like installing plumbing in a new building. If I don’t cultivate strong decision-makers, when it’s show time, all the crap comes up to the top. I'm so blessed to have strong "deciders." =)
• I think everybody at Echo this week is leading their own breakout. =) Wish I was there this year. Lots of offerings.
• USA Today's article on how churches are making films.
• The Dream Year site is launching Sept 1. Only 24 spots open this next year. But Ainsley and I are working on a plan to host several Dream Retreats for others.
• Working with Mitch Bolton on a design project. Called him the other day - great story of sitting in a pew, not designing anything, then getting hired by the church, and now tearing it up. Check out his Flickr site.

The Soundtrack of Fatherlessness

John Sowers, the president of Donald Miller's The Mentoring Project, will join us at STORY. He'll show us how fatherlessness has impacted the lyrics of the most popular songs we hear. A fascinating conversation. By the way, my buddy Jordan Chesbrough took John's photo on a rainy day in Portland.

It Was the Worst of Times...

I read a great book by Gary Habermas recently that talked about the misconception of unanswered prayer. We are psychologically more prone to remember the the prayers that don't get answered, even if they are few and far between.

If I hadn't already taken his word for it, I came across a prayer journal this week that I stopped using one year ago. Most of the requests involved STORY 09 because that was my "jump off a cliff" year. And sure enough... 80% of those anxiety-ridden requests were answered, resolved, no trouble at all.

Looking at that piece of evidence taught me two important things -- 1. Keep praying! And 2. Pray specifically.

Thoughts to Start the Week

• Every once in a while, I have to visit TallSkinnyKiwi to remember the genesis of blogging in ministry. Miss those olden days. Glad to see he's still using Typepead.
• Headed to Chicago tonight to spend all day Tuesday with the stellar team at Harvest Bible Chapel.
• Loving the book Shop Class as Soul Craft. Sadly, craftsmanship has been largely missing from my life.
• Want to know the fastest trending entrepreneurial sector? Innovative, upscale mobile food purveyors. Ainsley and I are working on a little venture for VaB next summer.
• Never underestimate people's tendency to do the same thing, every year, over and over again, regardless of how beneficial or productive it actually is.
• The mash-up project deadline for STORY is Friday. Some of the artists who are recording this week: Jonathan Shelton, Aaron Keyes, Micah Watson, Eddie Kirkland.
• When the Israelites entered the promised land, the warriors got land and the priests got nothing because the Lord was their inheritance. Today, each of these groups holds onto the same inheritance. But the cross provided for warrior-priests. There should be no more distinction.
• We have priests who fill their time with associational meetings and website redesigns to sense any achievement. And we have warriors who sit in the pew spiritually neutered week after week.
• In Church in the Making, I wrote a chapter about how church planting is the only endeavor with a God-given exit strategy. This goes for not only struggling church plants, but fast-growing ones that only reach Christians.
• It's not that I enjoy writing lists all the time. It's that between Dream Year, COLLIDE, and a forth-coming book, I'm expending all of my writing energy elsewhere.

Hot Dogs Not Included

A local Chicago artist is creating a replica of this circa-1940s hot dog cart with free treats in the lobby at STORY. One lucky attendee will go home with it. =)

Every Great Story Begins with a Great Crime

Brilliant crime novelist Andrew Klavan will present at STORY. Two of his books were turned into movies, including True Crime starring Clint Eastwood. Photo for us by Daley Hake at Andrew's Santa Barbara home. About 40 seats left.

Looking for a Few STORY Volunteers

We're looking for 12 more servant-hearted, hard-working volunteers who can help us shape the unique "user experience" that is STORY. If you would like to be a part of the team, send an e-mail to Info [at] StoryChicago.com expressing your interest, along with 3 words you would use to describe yourself.

The Problem is You're a Cause...

...When you really should be a marketing organization.

Came across these notes about Charity Water, which unashamedly puts marketing ahead of their efforts. No one cares about your cause. There are too many of them. So you've got to be a marketing firm... with a cause. Some highlights of the notes from CW's digital director Paull Young.

1. “We never ask for money. We share pictures and point to good campaigns supporters are doing.” 
2. "(Founder) Scott Harrison was a night club promoter – getting paid to promote alcohol brands."
3. “We have design excellence – we don’t look like the average charity.”
4. “Simplicity is key. An 8 year old can tell our story. We spend a lot of time and energy on it."
5. "We’re a marketing organization – the key is message.”

HT: Curtis Simmons

Grammy Winning Songwriter at STORY

Grammy winning songwriter David Hodges will be at STORY. He wrote Kelly Clarkson's "Because of You," David Archuleta' "Crush," and Celine Dion's "This Time," among many others. Daley Hake recently caught up with him at his LA home to photograph him for the souvenir program.

I Prefer Real Life

• If you copy more than one person on e-mail - nobody responds. If you write separate e-mails to each person - you'll get about half to respond.
• If you've been 'blind carbon copied' it means you're supposed to not make a peep. It's a wink from the author.
• If someone offers to help promote your thing on twitter, they're pretty much saying, "I'm not actually helping you, but you owe me!" So you promote their thing on twitter in return. Nobody's helped, nobody's troubled.
• If I'm following 1,000 people on twitter, I'm effectively following no one. Total crap shoot on who I read.
• On twitter, the noisiest people win. Unfortunately.
• There needs to be a guilt-free way to unfollow people. Feel like I'm burning a bridge each time I do it.
• Have you seen how defensive people get when they're unfollowed? It's vicious, I tell you.
• Guy Kawasaki said to fire the same tweet at different times throughout the day to reach different people.
• There needs to be a like/dislike function on twitter to improve the quality of tweets.
• Guy Kawasaki said to fire the same tweet at different times throughout the day to reach different people.
• See how obnoxious that is?
• Too many Seth Godin wannabes. If everybody's blog takes on an authoritative tone, no one's an authority.
• Twitter is still disconnected from my work tools. Cut and paste across platforms couldn't be more inconvenient.
• How do you not get a response from a text message? That's like tapping someone on the head.

One of My Dream Year Participants...

Kate Schmidgall in Washington DC is launching a cause-based magazine called Bitter Sweet. It's half content and half catalog to bring awareness and aid to people in oppressed conditions.

She's hosting quarterly meet-ups in DC to help women engage with critical issues... and ones that relate to each edition of the magazine. Her first one is this July 22nd. Find out more HERE.

Monday Morning Musings

• Spent the weekend with the team of overseers and Daniel Floyd at Life Point Church over the weekend. I've never been treated with such undeserved honor in my entire life. If you live within a 4 hour drive of Fredericksburg, Va, you simply MUST visit this church.
• I'm going to urge Daniel to consider hosting a "weekender" for church planters and pastors.
• I'm planning something in 2011 that's quite scary. I must get a high off risk or something. What's wrong with me?
• Yesterday was my son Cody's 1st birthday, and we made him spend it stuck on I-95. We owe that little bugger.
• The Monday morning e-mail to all of my Dream Year participants today was called "Your Idea Needs a CEO." It's about the conflicting roles of ORDINARY YOU and CEO YOU in pursuit of your dream. Wish I could post it here, but then what would Dream Year be for?
• When we use other churches as the benchmark for creativity, we produce "churchy" ideas. There are higher forms of creativity we need to be looking at.
• Just under 50 tickets left for STORY.
• Why is Starbucks trying so hard to sell me Via? Why would I want coffee that looks like a condiment?

Best Rate for STORY Ends Tonight

An extraordinary group of creatives are coming to Chicago for STORY this Sept 23-24. We'll be sold out for sure. Don't miss your chance to be there. Best rate ends tonight at midnight EST. Click HERE to register.

Screenwriting Legend at STORY

My good friend Tim Abare of Big Finish Media helped me connect with Richard Walter who has chaired the legendary graduate screenwriting program at UCLA for over 30 years. His students have written the movies you love. You're going to enjoy hearing him at STORY. Daley Hake photographed him at his Los Angeles abode for our souvenir program.

Some Questions for You

Pick one and have at it...

Have you ever been overwhelmingly struck by the urge to send someone a book? Recently? I'd love to know the book, the circumstances...

Why don't the people who hoard massive amounts of URLs for some eventual payoff offer them on a leased basis... rather than let them sit idle? I swear there's a rental market for domains.

How do you unfollow people on Twitter without hurting their feelings?

What happened to Mel Gibson?

Why do pastors give their wives their old phones instead of giving them the new ones?

Have you ever read Shop Class as Soul Craft? Recommended to me by Sam DuRegger. Great book about returning to the value of tactile work. He calls what most of us do "ghost work."

Wednesday Morning Run-Down

• Diacarta is what happens when a Moleskine doodler gets into creating iPhone apps. Lovely graphical calendar.
• Scott Hodge did a great job with his new blog.
• This is the last week for STORY's early bird rate. Friday at midnight EST, it clicks over. I'm telling you...
• My sister in Seattle just won $15,000 by shooting her friend and submitting this video to a Hayneedle.com contest. She's a video designer for World Vision by day.
• Last week, my father went in for prostate cancer surgery, and I went through one of the most bitter-sweet business exchanges of my life. It was an intense week... but...
• My good friend Stephen Brewster who knew nothing of these things, sent me this e-mail: "I have been praying for you for the past couple of days. Not sure what if anything is going on, but know that I have your back." ...
• Have I mentioned that I love Stephen Brewster?
• The ops team at STORY 2010 is jaw-dropping incredible. Sarah Cunningham, Katie Strandlund, Rachel Moran, Tammy Helfrich, Ann Keefer, Pam Howell, Sherri Meyer. Seriously, take a moment to soak that in.
• Got to chat with 2010 Oscar-nominated filmmaker Gregg Helvey (Kavi) this week. Julie Belle is interviewing him for the STORY souvenir program. Daley Hake is photographing him. Should be a really nice piece.
• I'm flying my family with all three boys to STORY in Sept. I want them to grow up in their dad's business.
• Anyone use Flavors.me?
• John Mayer trades Twitter for Tumblr. If I were starting a blog today, I would do it on Tumblr too. Very smart.
• Every once in a while I get a mistaken text from someone in my past who is trying to communicate with another "B" in her address book. Random, irrelevant stuff. That's what Twitter feels like to me most of the time.
• This week, I awoke to read a tweet that said, "I enjoy the feeling of Q-tips in my ears." Seriously...
• If you like to sing, join in the STORY mash-up for How He Loves. Follow these instructions. Deadline is July 30.

New STORY Presenter Added

Just announced... David Wenzel, founder of Dot&Cross will be speaking at STORY. Pictured here with his wife Amy, David is behind the beautiful short films that are NOOMA, Tim Keller's Prodigal God film, Marcus Buckingham's Trombone Player Wanted, and many others.

Best rate for STORY ends this Friday. About 140 tickets left.

Marketing Exists Because Great Things Do Not

I'm pretty sure marketing exists when great offerings do not.

At the end of the day, if my book is great, I won't have to market it. Church planters will talk about it. If my events are great, each one will fuel the next one. So if we're working too hard on marketing, we have to improve the offering.

Last year, I had to market STORY heavily. Sure, it was new. But I think I lost a piece of my soul trying to encourage 1 person at a time to experience it. This year: a complete turnaround.

We don't have pastors trying to talk about creativity, but actual practitioners. Artists who are at the top of their game. A tribal gathering. We're getting closer to our sweet spot.

And the results are refreshingly different. I'm watching people register in teams of 4, 10, 20 as we approach sell-out. I still have to build awareness (thanks to you who help), but this year's event is next year's marketing.

Wednesday Morning Run-Down

• You can be part of a video mash-up at STORY featuring worship artists from all over. See the post below...
• By the way, all of the early "leaked" info about STORY comes on our Facebook page. Good stuff there.
• I finally found a pretty incredible designer for Typepad platforms which would prevent me from ever having to switch to an oh-so-common Wordpress blog. Ugh.
• The new Dream Year website is currently under development by the amazingly talented Elliott Munoz.
• We're sending the inspiring Daley Hake on the road this summer to photograph STORY's speakers for the souvenir program. He caught UCLA screenwriting legend Richard Walter last week, Grammy-winning song-writer David Hodges this week...
• This week, I told my Dream Year class the story of how Willow Association's Jim Mellado nearly died trying to save his son in the ocean. Ever heard that story?
• I was hanging with my boys at Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg looking at all the fake trees and canoes, thinking, "Why are we not experiencing the real thing??" I'm on the hunt for a good outdoor experience for kids.
• I wonder how many people took up biking after reading Donald Miller's Million Miles in a Thousand Years. We're selling adventure short, I think. ;)
• Heard an interesting tidbit that Macy Gray's new album is doing so well because all the top producers who were asked to work on it said no. I love an underdog story.
• I was invited to speak on the Nines that Leadership Network is putting together. There was voting, but I'm pretty sure I was appointed by the "electoral college" that is the sheer force of Ed Stetzer's influence.
• Big, new speaker announcement for STORY coming up. Scott Hodge is going to break it first on his new blog

You're Invited to Join a Mash-up of Worship Artists at STORY

John Mark McMillan wrote the biggest anthem of our generation in HOW HE LOVES.

I've spoken at events where this song literally brought people to their feet with tears falling down their cheeks. It's a song that was written after JMM's youth pastor declared "I would be willing to die if it would shake the nation." That night, he died in a car accident. Since then, this song has swept the world.

At STORY, I'm pulling together a mash-up of artists - both known and unknown - to perform the song together on video. It will then be joined live on-stage by our artists at the event.

I'd like you to be a part of it too. If you're interested, here's how you can participate...

1. Download the guitar track HERE.
2. Put in your ear buds to listen to it
3. Record yourself singing to it - [lyrics]
   - one track with just your vocal audio - [we use this]
   - one video file from your iSight camera
4. Send the two files to benarment [at] gmail.com by July 30

The amazing Dust Corrona will mash-up the video and piece together a stunning piece of music. To give you a better idea of the end-result, maybe you saw [this] or [this].

Depending on the response, we might not be able to use everyone. But if you make it, you'll be a part of a stunning piece of history... and an incredible moment at the event.

If you have trouble e-mailing me the files, try using DropBox so we can snag it from a server. Remember: July 30.