Buzz Recap: last word

Church Marketing Sucks says they're "living the vicarious life" through my blog. Cool. By the way, CMS doesn't suck. Mad props to Brad Abare for some seriously cool linear steps to conceptual positioning. I won't go through all my notes on Brad's session but, perhaps the key to authentic Buzz was unlocked when Brad hit on positioning your church to publicly represent who you are and not who you want to be. Just be honest.

As he talked, my mind raced back to Belushi's masterpiece, "Taking Care of Business." Sakamoto, CEO of high quality foods asks the fake Spencer Barnes (Belushi)to help him with an "honest marketing campaign." Sakamoto asks if he has eaten any of their "High Quality Foods?" Barnes said "I eat it all the time. The oatmels sucks...tastes like dirt. The bologna is chewy like a rubberband...The potato chips are ok. But, I like greasy food."

He then proceeds to tell Sakomoto he shouldn't call his brand, "High Quality Foods." He said, "Big Sak, if you want to be honest, you should call it Low Quality Foods...Why don't you try calling it something like Affordable foods. Or change the ''best there is'' thing to, ''high quality food because you can afford it.'' Or make your food really great, then you can say, ''Eat this because everybody deserves high quality foods.''

Brad was a stud. Other super creative types were everyone peresenting entries in the Buzz Film Festival. Sugar Creek Baptist Church was phenomenal (videos: "When Time Runs Out" and "Questions Thinking People Ask"). Of course, Tony Morgan and his crew from Granger cranked out some sweet vids. The staff at NCC was super. Anytime that a church has a staff member with a blog called "Pimp My Church," you know its bound to be a creative, envelope pushing crew.

The real value that we received was the scale that NCC does ministry on. Listening to Ed Young talk about creativity and ministry is inspiring. But, when you walk away, you wonder how the heck you are going to be able to pull off a Fellowship Church type of presentation. When Mark and his crew do ministry, it is on a believable and achievable scale.

Also, since we just moved into a really super theater 3 weeks ago, the Theater Forum was incredibly beneficial. The relationships at the Pastor's Blogger Bonanza or whatever Scott Hodge named it was cool. The guys from Healing Place were decent folks. Scott Harris was a super guy...enjoyed hanging with him a bit. Gary Lamb is a straight up sick freak. Bob Franquiz is cooler than the other side of the pillow. I feel like a nerd around him. Obviously, he is in possession of major cool points. Dean Jackson was a great guy to get to meet. His story sounds really similar to mine. Tadd Grandstaff and all the other guys with flavor savers and messed up hair have style and by presentation must either have culturally cool churches or are on their way to having them. Ross Wiseman was an all around super guy. I could hang with him all the time.

Anyway, the bottom line is that it was a great couple days at just the right time for us. Two thumbs up to NCC for pulling it off.

Enjoy the last two pics I'll leave of Ebeneezer's coffeehouse. I'm hanging here the rest of the night. Great place.