There have been a few new developments in the Echo Hub Store, and I wanted to make sure you heard about them:

First, the Echo DVD 4-pack is on sale through the end of the week. Get the DVDs from the four previous Echo Conferences for just $179, a savings of $50 off the regular price. As you might imagine, the DVDs feature audio and video recordings of fantastic sessions from past Echo events. The 4-Pack is a great resource, and you can find out more here.

Culture Making by Andy Crouch is now available. This is one of the best books I’ve read in the last five years, no doubt about it. Andy Crouch is brilliant and the message of this book is so necessary and life-giving. The great Tim Keller had this to say: “Culture Making is one of the few books taking the discussion about Christianity and culture to a new level. It is a rare mix of the theoretical and the practical, its definitions are nuanced but not abstract, and it strikes all kinds of fine balances. I highly recommend it.” Get the book here.

We’ve updated our bundles. The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield is now out of print, so we had to make some changes to our bundles. While we were at it, we added a few things (such as Culture Making) and tried to make our bundles better values than they were before. See the bundles at the bottom of this page.

Save when you buy multiple EchoNotes notebooks. Thanks to a new feature in our Store, you receive automatic discounts when you order three or more of any one version of our EchoNotes notebooks. Stock up on notebooks for the year or buy a few to give as gifts — either way, we’ve got a great price waiting for you. Click on any of the individual EchoNotes notebooks here to see our quantity discount pricing.

That’s all the Store news for now, but we hope to have a few more announcements soon.

I’ll confess: I love personality surveys. I think they’re fascinating. So when I saw The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace I was intrigued. I had read Gary Chapman’s The 5 Love Languages and found it a good resource for communication in relationships, and I was curious to see how it applied to work.

Then Champan and his co-author, Paul White, started throwing out statistics like these (true against any job type):

• 64% of people who leave jobs do so because they don’t feel appreciated.
• 70% of employees say they receive no recognition or praise at work.

I quickly realized that the authors were on to something more than just a communication pattern. Appreciation is key when it comes to work, especially when you consider the church where burnout runs rampant. Chapman and White observe:

“When relationships are not nurtured by a sense of appreciation…team members will experience a lack of connectedness with others and with the mission of the organization.”

Churches and ministries don’t have the luxury of an employee or two not being connected with the mission. It’s clear the authors see the importance too, as they included an entire section on churches and ministries. Appreciation can be more difficult to express in this environment because people are driven by a spiritual calling and “are not looking for financial reward and rarely desire high levels of praise.”

With themes such as thankfulness at the core of our Christian value system, you would think employee appreciation comes easily. The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace helped shed a little light on why we might be “missing the mark.” The premise is simple — we feel most appreciated when others communicate with us based on our primary “language.” The five languages are: words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, tangible gifts and physical touch. It should be noted that in the new book, the authors drop the latter because no one had physical touch as their primary language of appreciation in the office.

Parallel to my love for personality tests is my delight in knowing my co-workers well. So, after reading the book, I confidently strolled around asking people (many of whom I’ve know for five years) which language spoke to them most (secretly believing I already knew the answer). I was wrong every time. Every time! As I nursed my pride, it got me thinking, with so many employees feeling undervalued not just by their supervisors, but also their coworkers, how do we fix it? Chapman and White make it clear: we learn to speak each other’s language in order to effectively communicate appreciation. Each language is described in detail, from how to identify it to how to implement it. They share practical action steps and valuable advice to help you pursue a positive work environment through expressed appreciation.

One section I found notable was the idea that recognition has limitations where appreciation doesn’t. Recognition is about performance and often only covers those who feel appreciated by words of affirmation or tangible gifts. It costs money and is rarely personal. On the other hand, appreciation can be shown at any time, at no cost, by any employee, and with a little diligence, in any “language.” This idea alone has the potential to change an entire organization.

There is a lot of great info in this book; it’s worthy of at least a hardy skim. Pick it up to find out more about:

• What to do when you actually don’t appreciate your employee/coworker
• Obstacles to showing appreciation and how to overcome them
• The MBA Inventory (the survey that helps determine your primary language of appreciation)

Heres’s hoping we’re all more intentional about effectively appreciating our coworkers, partners, and volunteers this year than we were last year.

Jenni Wright is the Production Manager at Igniter Media and the Logistics Coordinator for Echo Conference.

First up, some spoken word on sex, marriage, and fairytales:

Have you ever wondered what kind of impression a logo makes on a five year old?

Bob Goff throws a great parade: (HT Jon Acuff)

Wanna work at Twitter? You might after you watch this top-notch recruitment video:

And finally, I’m not sure how to describe The Lumarca, so just watch the video: (HT @worshipVJ)

Have a great weekend!

I recently came across this post (note: it features a few choice words that don’t appear on Echo Hub) and I found its subject thought-provoking:

“a Stanford research report [which suggests] that spending considerable amounts of time on multimedia/technology can make us unhappy.”

The author of the post explores the effects that a glut of information and always-on technology can have on us. How does this information infestation change the way we think and feel? How does it change the way we see ourselves and others? How does it change the way we communicate?

These are important questions with — if we’re honest — telling answers.

The author of the post has chosen to go on something of a digital diet. He isn’t completely abstaining from digital content, but he is cutting back on his intake. He’s unplugging at regular intervals. He’s consuming high quality content rather than digital cotton candy. He’s looking to pursuits other than “hanging out online” as sources of happiness.

As it turns out, things like exercise and cooking and gardening and reading and writing are still good for us — just as vegetables are still good for us — in a world where every object has a screen and every intersection has a fast food joint.

As I find myself barreling toward middle age (and pudginess), I’m thinking a lot more about the quality and quantity of what I eat. I’ve even started to make a few changes. Thanks to this new study, I’m going to think a lot more about the quality and quantity of my interactions with digital media. Soon I might even make some changes.

You can read more about the Stanford report here (devoid of choice words, I think).

Scott McClellan is the Editor of Echo Hub and the Director of Echo Conference. You can follow him on Twitter: @scottmcclellan.

Micah Davis is one of the coolest guys I’ve ever met, no doubt about it. Micah is a member of the talented team at Oven Bits, a creative shop that specializes in mobile web and app development. And by the way, Micah has a great heart, too. Recently, Oven Bits released Instead, an iPhone app that encourages people to make micro-donations to charity instead of buying a coffee, a meal at a restaurant, or something similar.

Let’s say you decide to brew your own coffee instead of stopping in at Starbucks one morning. That might save you $4, so you fire up Instead and choose to give that $4 to ALARM or Blood Water Mission or American Cancer Society (there’s a big ol’ list of charities and churches to choose from). How great is that? It’s a means of using technology to help us consider our consumption habits and practice generosity on the go.

Micah was kind enough to answer a few questions about Instead, so read on:

ECHO HUB: Where did the idea for Instead come from?

MICAH DAVIS: Instead was birthed out of a passion to help people better understand how giving can be associated with our lifestyles. During the recent recession, tough times forced many people to reduce their consumption habits in order to continue to give to the non-profits and charities that they’re passionate about.

ECHO HUB: What can you tell us about your team’s processing for designing and building the app?

DAVIS: Instead was designed with the goals of enabling micro-donations to be made fun, meaningful and able to be given in under 60seconds on a mobile phone. Most people told us that they felt the desire to give tiny donations at or around the “point of decision.” (ie – at a coffee shop, when deciding which restaurant to go to, etc…) From that, we decided to make it a mobile-centric platform. This challenged us to design an native iOS app, Android app, mobile webview for smartphones and lastly, a desktop website.

ECHO HUB: Have you heard any feedback on the impact Instead is having on people and organizations?

DAVIS: In a short amount of time, we’ve been thrilled by the responses received! People have been tweeting and emailing us about brown-bagging their lunches in order to give $3 to a charity. Others have written about drinking only water for a week in order to support their church with $10. We believe that small giving is a big thing. Encouraging folks to live within or below their means, in order to help give back, is what Instead is all about.

I love it. If you have an iOS device, go get Instead in the App Store. If you’re the Android type, rumor has it that a version of the app is on its way to the Android Market soon.

Scott McClellan is the Editor of Echo Hub and the Director of Echo Conference. You can follow him on Twitter: @scottmcclellan.

Jon Acuff onstage at Echo 2011

I was reminded recently of a conversation I had with some folks at Echo 2009 about their church moving to an IMAG (Image Magnification) production for their Sunday services. We talked excitedly for a long time about the reasons for doing so and the ramifications of such a big decision. I think I remember actually taking the stance that they should not consider using IMAG, and I was wrong in not simply helping them ask the right questions and come to their own conclusions instead of my conclusions.

To be clear, when I say IMAG, I’m not talking about just using video screens during your services. I am referring to the projection of your speaker’s face on the screen during his or her talk. With video cameras, projectors, and production equipment becoming a little more financially attainable, I wanted to take some time to go back and do what I should have done then — just prompt you with some of the questions and considerations that will help you come to your own conclusion.

WHY?
The first big question to ask is, “Why does my church want or need to use IMAG?”  I make a distinction there because I hear from time to time that there is simply a push from somewhere in the church to do IMAG. No matter what it is your church is considering it’s always good to keep that question in mind. ”Because we want to,” can color the rest of your answers in a way that might be unhealthy.

However, it is very important to evaluate the need. There might even be some pastors who would consider it silly to put themselves on a big screen — that is until they discover that 25 percent of their congregation feels disconnected from the sermon because they can’t see from the back and they can’t find seats closer to the front.

Once you work through the answer to the “Why?” question you will be empowered to either shut down the conversation or power through with purpose.

SUPPORT
Before moving to the tech side of things it is imperative to consider the human element. Without someone to operate the equipment with some level of competency week in and week out, the question of To IMAG or Not To IMAG is not even relevant.

As someone who directed live church broadcast and IMAG services for a number of years, I will tell you that you need people who are dedicated and passionate. The dedication means they will show up consistently. The passion means they will care about the product enough to perform well and even improve their skills over time.

I have heard it said that “Sunday comes with alarming regularity.” Considering the number of volunteers, training, and the amount of time asked of each person each week will help you in your decision.

Also, how well a camera is operated might not seem like a big issue. Your audience may not consider themselves experts on television production, but they are!  They see it every day from folks who are the best at what they do. Someone in your audience might not be able to pinpoint an awkward transition or bad framing, but they will subconsciously know something is wrong. Therefore, if your church’s production is not up to a minimum standard, it will be a distraction — more of a hinderance than a help.

When answering the questions of who and how well they might do, be realistic but don’t call it quits too quickly. While I was the Media Director at First Baptist Church Tuscaloosa, AL back in the late 1990s — just for fun — I started letting a group of junior high boys experiment with the video equipment. Of course, I supervised them, but I let them get on the headsets and switcher and run camera for each other before services. Some of them showed amazing aptitude and focus! I actually ended up using a few of them to run camera for a few things. They had some important things working their favor: they were going to be there every week, they were really excited to learn the equipment, and they pushed on each other to become better operators. It was a neat experience seeing them develop into little production rats and from what seemed to be a very unlikely place — the junior high ministry.

One last thing to think about here is the option of compensation. In the business world there is a cost associated with the combination of skill and time. It’s not uncommon for churches to actually hire camera operators in order to maintain consistency in production quality and commitment. At that point, though, expectations go way up, so it’s necessary for the person in charge of that ministry to set and monitor those expectations and be willing to treat the operators like employees and not like volunteers.

FACILITY
I have some good news and some bad news. Good news: I went to a Worship & Arts Conference a few years ago. Bad news: The only practical information I remember is that audience members who are more than 90 feet from the speaker should probably have IMAG so they can see what’s going on.

That is not to say that facilities where everyone is within 90 feet should not have IMAG. It’s just another important thing to consider. When there is an IMAG screen available for people to look at, they will almost always look at the screen instead of the live speaker. Most pastors convey their message with their whole body and not their face alone so it would seem that anyone not looking at the pastor “live” might miss something he or she would have caught if the screen were not an option.

Something else to consider is whether introducing cameras into your facility will be a distraction. Will a camera and operator block the line of site of a significant portion of your audience? Will a camera operator be so prominently displayed that he or she is certain to be a distraction? Can someone be tucked away or positioned well enough that they won’t even be noticed?

EQUIPMENT
It’s important to ask if your church can financially sustain an IMAG production. I am reasonably confident that with a $100 in cables and maybe the purchase of a video card, many churches that already have screens and a video camera could just jump right in to IMAG. But however exciting that frugality may seem, it is unlikely that making a little jump to IMAG will produce results that are worthy of being on your screens. I think it is necessary to actually do the research and talk to folks who install the necessary equipment in churches to ensure you are doing things the right way.

Though this will typically cost more, it will set your ministry up for success.  Finding someone who does this for a living buys experience as much as anything.  You will likely have pitfalls and technical issues that this person has already encountered and overcome.  That can be priceless.

So the questions to ask are Can we afford the equipment? and Can we afford to sustain the equipment?

Cameras die or mysteriously disappear. Good tripods are crazy expensive. Wiring may wear out over time. And it might be necessary to install more lighting to improve the shooting conditions. I’ll be interested to read in the comments about any other unforeseen expenses you have had when setting up IMAG for your own church.

THE BASIC QUESTIONS
Good on you if you actually read this thing!  If you just skipped here to the end, you are a very efficient person and should also be commended.

Just as a recap, here are the questions you should start with when considering IMAG as an option for your church.

• Why would we need to use IMAG?
• Do we have enough skilled and passionate volunteers to maintain this portion of our ministry?  Can we train each person to competency?
• Can we afford to pay our camera operators?
• Does our facility warrant the use of IMAG?
• Can we introduce a camera station to the auditorium in a way that keeps distraction to a minimum?
• Do we have the appropriate equipment or can we afford to purchase that equipment at this time?

Trent Armstrong is a Creative Producer for Igniter Media. Follow him on Twitter: @AETrent

We’re all trying to do more with less — that’s just the way it is. Thankfully, there are resources that make doing less with more easier than ever.

Meet Only144.com.

Only144 offers “epic 144-hour sales for your church” — it’s what Jon Acuff recently described as more than a Christian version of Groupon because Only144 actually has a heart for churches and ministers and volunteers.

Signup at Only144.com to see the current deal, a bundle of worship media resources worth almost $2,000 but priced at just $97. This bundle is quite a deal, and it could be quite a boon for your church’s media library.

Head over to Only144.com and check out the worship media bundle, but hurry — the deal expires Thursday. And then it’s only a matter of time another great deal is on the clock, so keep an eye on Only144.com.

Note: The preceding has been a sponsored post, paid for by Only144.com but written by Echo Hub. Don’t worry, we only recommend resources we believe may be helpful to our readers.

I have begun to distrust the identifier “creatives.” We, the Christian community, use the word to describe artists and those with an artistic bent, even though we claim that we are all created in the image of the Creator. The Creator of the heavens and the earth, who spoke life into being, breathed the cosmos, filled the land and sea with his word, and created us in His image. The disparity here is blatant.

Beyond disparity, the problem we introduce when we use the label of “creatives” is that it creates two classes. The creatives and the non-creatives. So what we are saying is that there are those who are wired to think creatively, but the rest of us are hamsters in wheels.

From a biblical perspective on creativity, as well as our reflective nature of the divine, this is unacceptable.

You don’t have to be an artist to be creative. By nature, we are all creative. We are reflections of the master creator. We have a divine breath of life in our lungs. We have a powerful life force coursing through our veins. It is innate and foundational to who we are.

You may say that I’m simply arguing semantics. But remember that semantics are what turn a good message into a great message, and what make an incorrect statement a damaging statement. Our words constantly create new shades of reality both for ourselves and others. When we speak of some as creative, we are creating a reality that keeps most of society at arm’s length from the creative nature of God. This happens because we all create, with our motives, words, actions, and lives.

You may claim that indeed, there are two classes of people. Some people just aren’t in touch with creativity. They aren’t artists, they don’t appreciate design, and they don’t recognize beauty. While this may properly describe some, I would argue that it is a result of decay and destruction both in their souls and in their environments, rather than a general state of being. Those who have witnessed and perpetuated destruction experience a gap in their lives when it comes to creation.

This is seen in Genesis when the man and the woman sin, and go from serving the garden to using the garden to serve themselves, sewing together leaves to hide their nakedness. There is a distance created in that moment, not only from God, but from the man and woman with their creative nature. By turning their back on the task of co-creation that was laid out before them, they abandoned an integral role in the unfolding story of creation. The man and woman’s mandate to nurture creation was rooted in their relationship with the Creator. As such, the joy found in their work was a direct result of their relationship with God.

The removal from the garden was a painful display of the distance created between the man, woman, their Creator, and their intended purpose as creative beings. But the story doesn’t end with the man and the woman standing on the East of the garden …

So we have a choice. We can buy into the myth that some are creative and others aren’t, or we can play a part in creating a new reality. A reality founded in the truth that we are all created to reflect the living God. A reality that our lives are bodies of work pointing to something larger than ourselves. A reality that this life is constantly pointing to a new reality that is yet to come, full of redemption and restoration.

We can usher in this new reality by choosing to act in love and extend grace to those who may be overlooked. We can lend our skills and attention to just and noble causes. In our words and actions, we can tell the compelling story of a God who is setting all things right. By faithfully following Christ, the triumphant experiences and the daily mundane tasks form a body of work that drips the gospel message, and invites others to join us.

You and I can point to the eternal kingdom that is breaking in. It starts with what we create.

Sam has worked with churches, building ministries to reach the 20-30 age group, as well as building web and live experiences. He has preached in churches that reach from 35 to 2,000 per weekend. He recently wrote his first book, Creative Theology, which explores the relationship between faith and creativity. You can read his blog at creativetheology.com. 

First up, check out this response to a video we shared two weeks ago about hating religion but loving Jesus: (HT Tim Schraeder)

And speaking of the Church, here’s a challenging look at we’re called to do:

The team at Elevation Church knows how to put together a recap video:

The team at Granger Community Church knows how to put together a “this is who we are” video: (HT Kevin Hendricks/The Table)

And finally, the great Dan Stevers knows how to put together a video on a … sensitive topic:

Thanks for watching! Have a great weekend.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw one of those well-connected tech bloggers complain about Facebook’s 5,000-friend limit. Like the rest of us, this blogger wanted his numbers to go up.

Unique visitors, comments, Facebook Likes, Twitter followers, sales, attendance, giving — we all want to get bigger. Some of us are obsessed with getting bigger to the extent that growth, rather than the work itself, becomes our main focus. Some of us are so fixated on growth that we equate flat growth on a chart with a flatline on an EKG. That’s why, in a world where the race is on to post bigger and bigger numbers of fans and followers, I’m interested in Path.

Path is a relatively new social network whose pitch you see in the image above. Path is “the smart journal that helps you share life with the ones you love.” If you read that carefully, you see the contrast between Path and Facebook/Twitter. If you’re like me, Twitter and Facebook are places where you occasionally share life (or whatever) with people you don’t even know, let alone love. But what’s the harm? There are no follower/following limits on Twitter, and I’m not in danger of hitting Facebook’s limit any time soon.

Perhaps the harm, as it were, is that I’m not very open or personal on those platforms. I don’t reveal the kinds of details my close friends and family might enjoy because of the other people listening in on the conversation. And that’s where Path comes in. Rather than Facebook’s limit of 5,000 friends, which some feel is restrictive, Path’s limit is just 150. Here’s the official explanation:

We are inspired by Professor Robin Dunbar from Oxford University, whose research delves deeply into the number of trusted relationships humans can maintain throughout life. We tend to have 5 best friends, 15 good friends, 50 close friends and family, and 150 total friends. At Path, we’re building tools for you to share with the people who matter most in your life.

Interesting, huh? I admit I haven’t fully embraced Path in my day-to-day just yet, but I see the potential and I’m intrigued by the premise. It’s a social network with a point of view, and I like that. Even more, I like how that point of view has challenged me to think about events like Echo and organizations like local churches. Where should we get bigger? Where should we get smaller? 

I came to realize that this Path idea — the idea of getting smaller when everything around us is getting bigger — is the same at work in one my favorite things to emerge from the era of the modern megachurch: small groups. As worship centers began accommodating hundreds upon thousands of people, many churches began concentrated efforts to connect their members in small groups. I think that diversity of scale provides a healthy balance, which leads me to believe that Path (alongside Twitter and Facebook) could prove to be a valuable tool.

Oh, and by the way, one of the interesting things about Path is that I find myself choosing ‘Ignore’ on a few friend requests because I’ve bought into the “close friends and family” ideology. Just know that before you try to connect with me on Path. Or try to join my small group.

Scott McClellan is the Editor of Echo Hub and the Director of Echo Conference. You can follow him on Twitter: @scottmcclellan.