Here are just a few of the many positive conference attendee responses:

• "I don't know when I have been so moved by the various speakers."

• "Came away with valuable insight - consistent among the speakers. Loud and clear message."

Click here to see how our attendees rated the conference. 

The conference purpose was to "educate, inspire, and equip people to take a first or next step into Africa ministries." To determine if we accomplished our goal, here's a brief list of what has happened since the conference.

• Our Saviour's High School students are in the preliminary planning stages of a trip to Africa to visit Viola Vaughn.
   
• Rumor has it our C.A.R.E. Moms are considering going to visit Africa to visit Viola Vaughn.
   
• A team is currently being formed to "get a person on the ground" in Mozambique.
   
• Our current refugee ministry had close to 20 people attend the "Refugees Among Us" forums with the intent of building a refugee ministry team.
   
• Our Saviour's is hosting a micro-finance conversation next week ar Celebration.
   
• I will be meeting with some empty-nester moms who do NOT attend our church to explore their next steps developing an Africa ministry in their neighborhoods.
   
• ELCA Global Missions has asked to host the April Global Mission Formation event at Our Saviour's. 
• The next Our Saviour's Daddy Daughter Dance to raise money for the water project in Derre Mozambique is being planned.

We had our last planning meeting for The Africa Summit Monday night. It goes without saying that the planning team is excited. But as we were finalizing last minute details, I stopped the conversation and said to everyone, "Next week a lot of people are going to regret they did not come to the Summit." I don't think there has been or ever will be an experience like this again for a long time. The conference's laser focused vision, the faculty of speakers, and the creative elements are second to none; competing with conferences that have triple the budget. If nothing has motivated you up to this point to attend, adopt an attitude of "regret avoidance" and come to the Summit. Because I can and because I feel it is important you're there, I invite you to be my guest. Register at www.theafricasummit.org and use GUEST09 as the discount code when prompted to save on registration fees. I will warn you though, discovering you have a heart for Africa could be life transforming. But I promise you won't regret it.

It has been an amazing 15 months preparing for the upcoming Africa Summit. Month after month, I have felt the hand of God working in such a visible and tangible way. The presence of the Spirit has never felt stronger than it has the past two weeks.

• Budget deficits were replaced with a resource surplus that allowed us to bring in a second speaker from Africa.
   
• A record number of website hits in one day.
   
• Churches in the area are volunteering to advertise the Summit at their cost!
   
• One exhibitor even donated an "in demand" gift for the first 150 participants. (No ... Apple is not an exhibitors and no ... participants are not getting free iPhones.)

In fact, we feel so blessed by what God has done, we've extended the $50 early bird price until September 14th. Our goal is to create the space where as many as possible are educated, inspired, and equipped to take a first or next step into Africa ministries.

Would love to meet you! Register today.

She's 9 years old and she's working to end homelessness! Meet Katie Nylen, the daughter of Mike and Laura Nylen from Our Saviour's; and my hero! Katie is a Spirit filled girl who refuses to sit back and watch people suffer. Katie simply "get's it." She get's what most people miss. If you want to help the under-resourced, you actually have to DO SOMETHING! If you want to understand their plight, you might have to READ SOMETHING! She is not waiting for the next stimulus package from the government. Katie simply takes action. Recently, the Naperville Sun did an article on our young philanthropist's most recent project to fight homelessness and poverty.

I am so excited about what Katie is doing locally and globally, I am working with her administrative assistants (aka mom and dad) to see if they could change her schedule (get her out of school) so she could be on the panel for the Africa Summit.  My hope is that Katie becomes and inspiration for anyone tenuous about taking a first or next step into Africa ministries.

I cannot begin to tell you how excited and humbled I am to be part of the Summit. The faculty of speakers is second to none (e.g. Bishop Wayne Miller, Lynne Hybels of Willow Creek Church, Rev Ben Tumuheirwe from Juna Amagara Ministries in Uganda, David Young from World Vision, etc).

And here's the best part of all, over and over for the past 13 months God has shown up and done amazing things to make this conference a reality. As the time of delivery draws near, please pray for us, the team, but most importantly of all ... pray for every attendee who God will use to make a positive and everlasting change in Africa.

The past seven days the compassion and justice ministries of Our Saviour's have held the pedal to the metal; speeding ahead to develop strong missions in line with Vision 2012.

• Monday -  The golf outing with close to 100 participants grossed an estimated $15,000 (and some have suggested that number could go even higher) for local and global missions.
   
• Tuesday - With the communication team working hard to get everything done by the first week of June, TheAfricaSummit.org website successfully launched on Tuesday ready to receive conference attendees looking to take their first step into Africa ministries.
   
• Wednesday - The Africa Summit conference team met; continuing to firm up plans for the upcoming summit.
   
• Thursday - Thursday I was able to sit down with Bohdan Hrobon from the Center for Christian Education and dream about how Our Saviour's and the school will walk side by side in mission; helping to develop Christian leaders to lead in post communism Slovakia. 
   
• Friday and Saturday, despite the economic challenges that face our community, the Garage Sale with over 265 volunteers working over 2100 hours grossed over $32,000 beating last years record and gave away over $7000 worth of items to people in need.
   
• Sunday - The Africa Team with the help of 100's of volunteers. Transformed 8,000 pieces of clothes and baby essentials into 420 layettes that will be shipped around the world to under-resourced pregnant women. For the women to receive all the contents of the layette, they must return to the health center for their well baby visit.

To quote one of my favorite pastors Bill Hybels, "Only God!" Only God could stir the hearts of so many people to serve and respond!

Kem Meyer, is the Communications Director at Granger Community Church and author of "Less Clutter Less Noise; Beyond Bulletins, Brochures, and Bake Sales." My blog and many others will be part of a one day blog tour where she answers questions about communications and advertising in the church.  Here's my question and her answer. Thanks Kem!

Oh Yeah ... I will be giving a free copy of Kem's book to one lucky blog reader. So make sure to post a comment so I can get in touch with you if I draw your name.

MARK: When it comes to building the buzz about a sermon series or event, how do you determine the amount of energy, communication pieces, and time it will take for the largest buzz to grow?

KEM:  Short answer. You can’t orchestrate buzz or predict the lifecycle. Buzz is the excitement, energy, anticipation and conversation around a product or service. It’s the best type of marketing—when “people are buzzing.” There are as many variables at play to what gets people buzzing as there are drops in the ocean. In its purest form, if you talk about something of interest and give people a great experience, they’ll tell their friends. That’s buzz. What are you doing that people will want to tell their friends about?

Everybody talks about how to create buzz. But, nobody talks about what to do when you actually get it. That’s the longer answer.

A few years ago, our church ran a five-week message series where you could find straight talk and answers about sex. It was not what people were expecting from a church. And, that was precisely the point. To help promote the series, we used billboard advertising around town that featured one photo (bare feet entwined under bed covers) and one line of text—mylamesexlife.com. Curious onlookers who visited mylamesexlife.com saw a brief movie asking questions that commonly surround the topic of sex. At the end of the movie, viewers were redirected to GCCwired.com to learn more about the upcoming weekend series called PureSex.

It sparked controversy and conversations around our community and got national attention. The response—positive and negative—was overwhelming. It created a stir. But, I’m not going to talk about the advertising we did or the media attention that resulted from the series. I’m going to answer the question “What did we do with the buzz once we got it? “

That’s the hidden landmine in creating buzz. People get so busy trying to manufacture buzz, but few are prepared for it when it comes. What happens when you get what you were hoping for? What happens when the crowds come in droves? Or, the phone is ringing of the hook? Or, every media outlet wants a sound bite? Things can go sideways before you realize it, and then you start feeding the frenzy around you. In the process, you can lose sight of what you came to do in the first place. It’s dangerous for anyone, especially if you are in the church.

We didn’t set out to create a flurry of activity, but to create a helpful series about sex for people who weren’t hearing the truth from anyone, anywhere about the subject of sex. We tried a few things that people don’t expect from a church, hoping people would be curious enough at least to come check it out. And, that is what created a flurry of activity.

I’ll admit, it even threw me of when we started getting calls from the national media. My mind automatically short-circuited into figuring out ways to manipulate a new message with an expanded platform positively. It’s easy to freeze like a deer in headlights when you are in the spotlight, but it’s just as easy to avoid being surprised if you’ve prepared for it and stick to your original goal. If you can’t say what that goal is, then you’re not ready.

When I asked my senior pastor if he was nervous about the television anchors on their way over with a camera crew, here is how he responded. He remembered the original goal.

Even with a furry of buzz—local, regional, national—communication isn’t complicated. The old rule still applies—less is more. Did we set out to catch the attention of Fox News in New York or Mancow in Chicago? No. But, when they called us about the series, our senior pastor was prepared. You see, he knew the message never changed. It wasn’t about the billboards, the Web site, the media or the sex.

He started and stayed with the same message from beginning to end—“People matter to God.” Plain and simple.

At one point Bill Hybels, their senior pastor, presented his thoughts on "getting people in the game." He suggested that after a person's first conversion, the rest of their life is a series of "2nd conversions" where God continues to break their hearts over the plight of the poor. These 2nd conversions lead to awareness and action; people actually getting into the game of "compassion and justice".  Bill told us how he took a person from his church to a local food pantry and the guy's heart was broken once he saw what he had kept at a distance; people that looked just like him in line waiting for food in the highly resourced town of Barrington, IL. 

My question for you is simply this, what steps have you take or could you take to facilitate these 2nd conversions? Would love to hear your stories.

Ok men, is this a good idea or a God idea? Pastor Joe and I were talking about ways to engage the men in our community and help them grow in their faith. What if we got some guys together that like to use their hands for rebuilding stuff and began a ministry focused on.

• Building (and rebuilding) Homes
  Whether it's in Iowa, Biloxi, Aurora, or Naperville, we take on projects to help rebuild homes damaged either by the forces of nature or the forces of the economy under-resourced.
   
• Building (and rebuilding) Faith
  We take the time to help men grow in their faith; building and rebuilding disciples who see faith as something integreal to life and not just an add on.

And we would simply call this "Rebuilding Men." I think we would keep this real simple ... bible study and building ... taking time once a month to grow in faith by studying scipture and taking time each month to idenfiy project for men to work on.

Thoughts?