Paul Clark

visionmeetsreality.org coming soon

In the next few days (alright, maybe a week or two) I'll be migrating to www.visionmeetsreality.org. I'm building it out now in Wordpress and it's going to be cleaner, more concise and a fresh start for me in the blogging world.  There were just too many things Typepad could not do.  With a clean start, I can correct some lessons I've learned along the way.  Look for the announcement and I hope you'll keep following!

Adding categories to my blog

Want to see all the blog posts relative to a particular topic?  I didn't do this as I posted each one, so I learned the hard way by going back to each post over the last three years or so and attaching a category.  Anyway, in the right hand column, you'll find categories like communications, finance, management, life, my church and more.  Try those to see specific blog posts about topics you might be interested in...  I had no idea I've posted as many times as I have! 

Getting lots of love

Director of Communications from Fairhaven Church on Vimeo.

We've gotten some incredibly positive feedback on our ad for a Director of Communications!  We had no idea this thing would shoot across the country like it has.  Thanks to all of you who tweeted or blogged about it!  If you haven't seen it, here's the video, but be sure to take a look at the landing page at www.frhvn.ch/doc

Have a great weekend!

8 Things I Learned at MinistryCOM

People who attended have a name for themselves: they call themselves, “creatives.”  I liked that, although my spellchecker doesn’t.

I could never pass for a “creative.”  Although nobody pointed it out, I felt strangely conspicuous with my Dell and my old-school flip-phone.  Nothing I had started with a little “i” or ended with “pro”.

There’s more technology out there available for churches to use than I ever imagined.  And many churches are doing some incredible things with it.

There is this thing called the “creative mandate.”  The idea that God is the most creative person in the universe, so that if we are made in his image and born of his Spirit, shouldn’t we make creativity one of our key church values?

We must be the largest church around without a professional communications person on staff.  I was blown away by how many larger churches have a well-developed communications team. And how important those folks are to the churches they serve.  We need a Director of Communications at the executive level.  Know anybody?

These folks are incredibly passionate about creativity, technology, and making the church relevant, effective, and fun.  They are trying to contribute their talents and gifts with humility and wisdom.

The media team I accompanied from Fairhaven got more and more jazzed about their work with each passing workshop.  The creative energy barometer was amazing.  That’s priceless.

Leadership teams that don’t have a creative at the table are planning with half their brain.  I didn’t make that up, a workshop leader from holycowcreative.com said it, and I now believe it.

The MinistryCOM conference in Dallas next year is a no-brainer for our team.  Maybe I’ll at least have an iPhone by then.

creativity on a small budget

Went to a great seminar yesterday on being creative and marketing effectively on a small budget.  Jody Wissing, a graphic designer at Preston Trail Community Church in Frisco, TX presented some amazing stuff they have done to reach out to internal and external audiences with only a small-church budget.  They must have some really gifted people at PTCC, which helps alot, eh?  She graciously provided her presentation slides for anyone to use, so check them out at slideshare.net.  Great being here with our media team--I can see them getting more and more excited by all the creative people here at MinistryCOM.  Have a great weekend!

So Much for Being High-Tech...

My whiteboard reserved for my brain-dumps has been overtaken by a monster from the 70's... Post It notes.  We're trying to figure out all the room use needs throughout the building during the different phases of construction and what collisions we need to resolve.  I'm sure Google has some free app out there somewhere that could make this easy, something that twitters, something that all the young guys are using, but if it works, that's all that matters...