We’re Trying Something This Week

Posted in Uncategorized on 02/08/2010 by Kelly Dolan


This Wednesday at 1pm CST, we’re trying something. We’re going to host our first ever ustream meetup for MERGE, the student event we’re hosting this June.

We realize that plenty of folks are using ustream for all kinds of content delivery. We want to see how it works to gather a group of people to talk about MERGE, answer questions, and help connect leaders who are bringing groups.

If you’re a youth worker wanting to know more about what we do at MERGE, join us on Wednesday. If you’ve been to MERGE in the past, we’d also love to have you join us to share some of your experience with others.

And if you’re somebody who’d like to be with us in our first foray into this area of social media, we’d like that too!

See you Wednesday…


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What Makes a Place Holy?

Posted in about imago, gatherings on 02/04/2010 by Kelly Dolan


We spent the better part of yesterday walking around the campus of Cornerstone University, walking through gyms, classrooms, and others spaces dreaming of what we can do with them for MERGE 2010.

Standing in a few of the rooms, lit by fluorescent overhead lights, with HVAC compressors humming, I got a little giddy about how different these spaces might look and feel when we host MERGE in a few short months.

For us, its about creating spaces that best help students learn, and creating a space for students to connect with God. Whether it’s changing lighting, hanging fabric, or cultivating an atmosphere in the room with music, it really is all about serving these two values.

It makes me wonder what exactly makes a place holy. Are tabernacles and temples and sanctuaries and university gymnasiums holy because they’re the places God mysteriously decides to show up? Or are they holy because we set aside a space and time for stopping to recognize where God is already dwelling?


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Seth Godin Talks about Church Marketing

Posted in communication, marketing on 02/03/2010 by Kelly Dolan


Church Marketing Sucks has an excerpt from an interview Jeff Goins recently did with Seth Godin. During their conversation, they got talking about Godin’s visibility as-of-late in church circles. One of the most interesting parts of the interview was when Godin started talking about how churches sometimes do marketing:

Proselytizing, in my view, is like spam. Ringing a doorbell, standing at a bus stop, buying a billboard… those are not permission-based activities. On the other hand, delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them… that works, and it always has, and it’s working better than ever.

It’s interesting to me that even as the Church has moved away from old school, cold turkey-style evangelism, it has upped its efforts in areas I think Godin would classify as interruption marketing. We work hard and devote resources to raise the visibility of our churches and their programs in hopes that more and more people will be attracted to what’s going on in our churches.

But isn’t this just proselytizing in a different form? When we try to get in front of people’s eyeballs, whether they’re anticipating or wanting that message in the first place, are we actually helping build relationships with them, or just hoping they’ll show up on Sunday?

And how does that approach (however effective it is at getting people into our churches) affect the big picture, long term relationship we have with the communities around us?


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Events need to change. Here are some ideas.

Posted in events, gatherings on 02/02/2010 by mark novelli

Over the last several years I have attended many conferences. I have come to a point that in order for me to pay $300 (plus travel and meals) to go to an event, it had better provide something other than the same old list of speakers that appear at all the other national events.

The truth is, I can access most of their messages online and listen to them whenever I want. Sitting in a room and hearing them give a lecture in person is no longer a significant enough reason for me to spend money on an event.

So, what would make me want to come to an event? Unique experiences, collaborations, interactions and relationships.

Here are a few thoughts about how I think this could look:

  • Create unique conversations or collaborations that I can’t hear anywhere else. Break free of canned lectures by giving unique experiences—original content that’s created as it happens in the room (think of an awards show when 2 of your favorite artists perform together, or the TV show iconoclasts, or listening in on an amazing conversation). Pair thought leaders together and have them interact with one another.
  • Though technology and personal conversations, allow me to interact with the presenters. Let me ask the questions I am dying to ask. When I am allowed to enter into a conversation, the entire experience becomes profoundly different and more valuable for me.
  • I believe the most powerful thing about a gathering is the collective knowledge of those attending. Stop placing all of the value on the expert disseminating information to the attendee. Let we the attendees feel empowered and valued as experts as well. Create forums for our voices to be heard, issues to be raised and solutions to be brainstormed, together.
  • Highlight community and relationships. Let the gathering times reflect the uniqueness of the people that are in the room. What can only happen when this group of people are in the room? What is different and beautiful about this group? Create space and environments for us to interact, get to know each others stories, network, have real conversations. Make this a part of the plan – not instead or in spite of the planned activities.

This is the stuff that IMAGO is about. If you are planning an event or gathering of any sort and would like some help figuring this stuff out, we would love to help.

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Media Saturation

Posted in communication, technology on 02/01/2010 by mark novelli

Check out this great article: What Moderation Means In A Media Saturated Environment

My thoughts:

The devices we carry with us are rapidly becoming more powerful, instantly accessing unlimited information and entertainment. It’s getting tougher to be present with those around us in “the joy of unfiltered reality”. We’re at just the beginning of understanding how media saturation affects us socially. I think it will be increasingly important for us to create these spaces absent of media in our families and gatherings.

[HT to echo]


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What’s right with the iPad

Posted in technology on 01/29/2010 by mark novelli

I have read a lot of reviews about the iPad this week, many of them negative. While I wish it had some of the features that are sure to be included in future versions, I think many of the comments are very short-sided.

The problem is that it’s impossible for anyone to live up to all the hype and rumors that surround Apple devices. The iPod and iPhone are prime examples. When released, both of these game-changing devices were heavily criticized as too limited, too expensive, lacking features, etc. Those critics have been silenced. Partially because of features being added and sales figures, but mainly because the potential of the devices (that they should have seen the day they were released) have been realized.

Just like those devices, the iPad is setting the way for a new, more natural way for us to interact with personal computers. The gestures of our hands will soon replace the mouse, track pad and cursor. Icons and images will serve as a primary way to find information rather than file structures.

It is also going to change the print media business. Books and magazines will more closely resemble websites than static pdf’s on screens. Apple has the distribution model and brilliant design to actually create these changes.

This beautifully implemented device is the first step toward what’s next. Apple is ahead a few years of the game, again. Some just can’t see it yet.

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How Many Rules Will Apple Change Today?

Posted in technology on 01/27/2010 by Kelly Dolan

I’m feeling a bit like a kid on Christmas morning. Later today, Apple will announce details of its long-awaited, much-hyped tablet computer.

We don’t know exactly all that it will do. We don’t even know for sure what it will be called. But if you believe this, this, or this, Apple could be changing a lot of the rules in the media industry today.

Can’t wait.

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Sacred Cows and Family Pets

Posted in culture on 01/26/2010 by Kelly Dolan


When sacred cows are invited into the home as family pets, things get confusing.

In truth, real honest-to-goodness sacred cows get a bad rap. As long as the cow really is sacred, it means there’s something worth protecting, and it’s clear: the cow needs to stay alive.

But somewhere along the way, the cow gets invited inside and becomes a beloved member of the family. Then, it doesn’t matter whether the cow is sacred or not. It doesn’t matter if there’s a need for it to stay alive. The fact that it is loved and cherished by the family is the only reason that’s needed.

And if you thought it was tough trying to kill the sacred cow, try killing the family pet.


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Avatar Making Lots of Money, People Depressed

Posted in culture, technology on 01/25/2010 by Kelly Dolan


The AP is reporting that in the next day or two, Avatar will overtake Titanic as the #1 money making film of all time, something industry insiders said even a few weeks ago they weren’t sure was possible.

I saw Avatar, and liked but didn’t love it. I did, however, marvel at the dense, beautiful 3D world created by director James Cameron. But I’m not feeling sad I can’t physically go there….

CNN reports that over 1000 people have posted comments on a fan forum about the sense of depression they have experienced since seeing Avatar. Said one moviegoer:

Ever since I went to see Avatar I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na’vi made me want to be one of them. I can’t stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it,” Mike posted. “I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in Avatar.

On one hand, you could write this off as crazy. On the other hand, could this signal the new kinds of issues facing us as media becomes more and more immersive? As storytelling technology becomes more powerful, is it perhaps going to be more difficult for people to emotionally separate fantasy from reality?


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Video Games, Religion and the Role of Wonder

Posted in faith, technology on 01/21/2010 by Kelly Dolan

Interesting article on Gamespy about the apparent absence of God and religion from video games. The writer, Julian Murdoch, interviews a few video game industry executives comfortable talking about the issue, and also cites a few games that are exploring religion, including Assassin’s Creed 2, which the writer says, “tackles real issues of religion and faith, even if I may not like the conclusions.”

One executive, James Wyatt, talks about the role of wonder in exploring these issues in video games, saying, “Fantasy has this ability to open our eyes to the enchantment of our world, and to view real things with more wonder.”

He goes on to quote C.S. Lewis:

“[A child] does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted. This is a special kind of longing.” — C.S. Lewis, On Three Ways of Writing for Children

It seems to me that Hollywood has gotten a lot more comfortable exploring faith and religion over the past few years. I wonder if its not some grand effort of the gaming industry to avoid religious issues, but perhaps just harder to do, and so we see it less often.


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