By Scott A. Couchenour, Certified Life Coach

Conferences come and go each year. Participants spend hundreds of dollars on registration fees, travel, lodging, meals and extra purchases at the conference bookstore. But how many conference binders are sitting on the shelves in your office collecting dust? For example, what three life-changing routines are you incorporating into your life and ministry as a result of that conference you attended last year?

Finite Time

When we say “yes” to one thing, we say “no” to another. Time is limited. Our attention on any one thing is limited. Better to work from a prioritized list of a few themes and go deeper than to try to go shallow on more than you can realistically handle.

A Personal Master Plan

Here is a suggested six-step approach to planning, attending, and integrating the right conferences. Follow each step in order.

1. Facets. Identify your major life facets. Your list could include things such as relationship with God, marriage, parenthood, ministry/vocation, finances, physical health and so on.

2. Themes. Identify one or two major themes for each life facet. (For example, in your “finances” theme you may want to, firsti, eliminate all your credit card debt; and, second, set up a spending plan. Then prioritize this list.

3. Conferences. List on one piece of paper all of the potential conferences over the next 12 months. For each conference, preview and evaluate the speaker list, breakouts and topics/content covered.

4. Alignment. Take your best understanding of the conferences and identify how each is aligned with your themes. Ask, “How will this conference help me grow in my prioritized theme list?” You will end up with a prioritized list of those conferences that will best support your personal master plan. Select those conferences that have the best alignment and fit your schedule and budget. Eliminate the rest of the conferences.

5. Benefits. Now that you have selected the conference(s) you wish to attend, identify the 3 to 5 benefits you will be looking to receive from each conference. Be specific. Saying, “I want to be a better communicator” is too vague. Better to say, “I want to know the top three things I can change in order to tell better stories.” Once you have your benefits clearly in mind, you will be better able to seize opportunities for growth during the conference.

6. Integration. When you return home, you will likely have a fistful of benefits. You are not done yet. Now the real work. Take each benefit and create doable routines over the next 90 days to integrate each benefit into the fabric of your life and ministry. You may require the help of an accountability partner or coach. This step is the vital link between conferences you invest in and your Personal Growth Master Plan.

When we blindly attend conferences with little or no game plan, we waste our time and money with hit-or-miss personal growth. Real growth happens when our eyes are open. Next time you see an opportunity to attend a conference, try these six steps. After all, it is not about the conference, it is about how the conference can help your personal growth.

Church Solutions

The Church Solutions Conference & Expo (February 17-19, 2009, in Phoenix) looks like it will be a tremendous value for the person seeking their Personal Growth Master Plan. Some of the topics/content being covered:

• Strategic staff planning

• Effective hiring

• Using your church campus as an outreach tool

• Engaging people through excellent communication

• Living a balanced life

• Trends in the multisite movement

• Ways to improve your church’s Web site

I urge you to give the Church Solutions Conference a good, hard look. As you run it through your six-step evaluation, I am confident there is more than enough being offered to enhance your personal growth.

Scott A. Couchenour, Certified Life Coach

Founder, Owner – Serving Strong

Web: www.servingstrong.com

Blog: www.servingstrong.typepad.com

By Mel McGowan, President, Visioneering Studios

At a recent growth-focused church expo, I was struck by the thought of what an unchurched “outsider” – or even what the convention hall employees – would think of the overall scene. I mean, the fog machines, the intelligent-lighting demonstrations, the technology and the unadulterated business-to-business selling going on just seemed so far from Jesus speaking to a crowd on the side of a hill. However, as I enjoyed a meal with a circle of friends that has attended many of these conferences, I realized that I was experiencing a sacrament. As we “broke bread” in remembrance of Him, and discussed the future of the Church – and how each of us, in our own small ways, could contribute to the health and growth of His Bride – I was tasting more than standard convention hall “banquet chicken.” I was actually getting a small taste of Heaven ... or at least of His will being done on Earth, as it is in Heaven. Through gatherings like the Church Solutions Conference, I have been able to find a unique fellowship of friends who, despite the physical barriers of time and geography, I am privileged to call friends in Christ. As C.S. Lewis taught me, if we were able to look around the convention floor and to see with His eyes the future glory of His Chosen, we would be inclined to bow and worship. As an architect of sacred spaces, I realized that the highest calling for a designer is to simply facilitate connection vertically with the Creator and horizontally across His Creation. This true church (literally ekklesia) is never a building, but always a gathering of believers called for a purpose. Enjoy and be filled by the unique ekklesia to be found at Church Solutions. I would challenge anyone to try to find as many like-minded, razor-focused souls within the same amount of square footage at the same time anywhere else on the planet.

Mel McGowan is the founder and president of Visioneering Studios (www.visioneeringstudios.com). He spent a decade with the Walt Disney Company, where he transitioned from a background in film and production design towards community design. He speaks extensively on sustainable Christ-centered community and is the author of Design Intervention: Revolutionizing Sacred Space.

Visioneering Studios is a leading global architecture and urban design firm, with offices in Orange County, Calif., Denver and Atlanta. It was founded in order to reintegrate sustainable Christ-centered community into urban redevelopment and new mixed-use community development globally. Its leaders include former design and development principals of Disney, AECOM (the world’s largest design and engineering firm), Universal Creative, Lennar Urban, HOK, RNL, Gensler and HNTB. Their work has been described as “architectural evangelism,” which seeks to tear down the walls that separate Christians from community, the Church from culture, and Christ from the lost.

I know in ministry I should have holier aspirations than this...but I have to confess that as temps drop in Central Indiana my mind leaps to the Church Solutions Conference this coming February in Phoenix. It’s not just the cold temps and visions of a few sunny days in Arizona. There’s more.

I am in the midst of a great season of my ministry. All cylinders are firing. My team has a full plate of communication projects and more on the way. I just wrapped up five weeks of service planning that I was leading for my congregation’s capital campaign. The entire McBroom family is full swing in rehearsals for a Christmas musical. And there’s more good stuff. But in the midst of all this “good stuff” I’m also getting pretty weary. I’m pooped (and there is no end in sight for the busyness). So, even though I’ll be speaking at the Church Solutions Conference and I’ll have to be “on,” I’ll also be “off.” I’ll have a chance to soak in some sun, connect and reconnect, recharge and retreat.

How about you? Do you have a retreat planned? If not, check out the conference Web site and consider joining me in Phoenix in February.

Evan McBroom

Creative Director

Fishhook

Note: This article originally appeared on Evan's blog http://evanmcbroom.typepad.com. Evan will be speaking on 'Communicating "The Next Big Thing"' at the 2009 Church Solutions Conference and Expo.