Blog

Don’t worry. It’s not you. It’s us. And it’s all good.

We wanted to let you know we’re doing something that may seem crazy at first glance: We’re cancelling Innovate for this fall.

It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but it’s the right one. We realized with the launch of some exciting new initiatives for our Granger audience, we could not bring the focus, energy and effort it takes to provide you with the very best Innovate experience. And we don’t want you to have anything less than the best.

So we’re bypassing the Innovate Conference this year so that our teams can ruthlessly focus on our number one priority—serving our Granger Community Church audience by helping them take their next steps toward Christ.

If you purchased a ticket to Innovate you’ll be receiving a refund shortly. If you bought a plane ticket let us know by emailing info@wiredchurches.com and we will reimburse you for the cancellation fee.

We believe the local church (that’s you) is the hope of the world. We are committed to helping you by offering specific and practical tools and training that will take your ministry to the next level. Check out our free webinars and high-quality materials online at WiredChurches.com.

Still on the fence about registering your team for Innovate this year? We think you’ll get the training and information you need to up your game and take your ministry impact to a new level. But don’t just take our word for it. Watch the main sessions from 2013 and see for yourself what it’s all about. All four full-length main sessions are available on-demand. Just press play on the video below:

Seen enough? Ready to pull the trigger? Good news: Early-Bird pricing is available for three more days! Register your team today and beat the September 14 deadline.

We can’t innovate alone. There are going to be some incredible partners with all kinds of tools to help take your ministry to the next level at this year’s conference experience.

Here’s the list of institutions who have already committed to making Innovate 2014 the best yet:

The Innovate Conference is always looking to partner with great people, companies and organizations. Not only to help offset the cost to attend the conference, but also to provide valuable options to attendees during the conference. Check out the multiple ways you can become a partner.


by Sean Bublitz, Creative Arts Pastor

I’m a huge fan of hockey and when I lived in the Chicago area I used to go watch the Blackhawks practice. It was incredible to see how the professionals prepare. They go full speed. Game speed. They practice exactly like they play in a game so that when it’s game time they’re ready, not trying to get up to speed.

We’ve applied the same idea to our weekend services. The last thing we want is to go into our first service not truly prepared. Not ready to give our best.

So each week before our first service we do, what we call, a service run through. In the run through we do everything that we’re going to do in a service, sans the message, before there are people in the room.

The benefit is that our excellence level is high from the beginning of the very first service. We’ve already worked through transitions, fixed mistakes, and practiced our cues. The nerves are mostly gone and we’re as prepared as possible.

Continue reading on the GCC Creative Arts Blog...

If you’d like to learn more about what goes on in Creative Arts and Weekend Services at Granger, bring your team to Innovate. You’ll find strategic and practical ways to explore innovation across the life of the church—in every ministry area. Register today for early-bird discounts and group rates!

by Sean Bublitz, Creative Arts Director

As an organization grows, communication and alignment are two of the hardest things to maintain. Throw that into the mix of a bunch of creative people trying to stay on the same page and execute projects at the same time and you’ve got a difficult task.

Because of that we’ve developed a process to help us stay aligned with our weekend series development and planning. This system is the way that our communication, creative, production, teaching, and campus teams stay on task and aligned without having to meet every day and check in.

This is our process, the people involved, and the timeline we work to stick to. This is a guide for us, not a law. We have flexibility based on projects and pace. If it’s helpful to you, you can download the .psd for our timeline in the resources section of this site and create your own.

SeriesDevelopmentTimelineFN

10 weeks out

  • Our Lead Team (direction leadership team for our church) will agree on the series topic. The Lead Team doesn’t always come up with the topic. Our topic ideas come from many different sources. But the Lead Team will put a rubber stamp on the topic for us.
  • Our packaging team can then take the topic and start to brainstorm the branding, the series title, and the design and packaging.

Continue reading on the GCC Creative Arts Blog...

This is a great example of the kind of practical, behind-the-scenes learning we’ll be featuring at Innovate 2014. We’re finishing up the details of the elective offerings, but for now you can check out the speakers and main sessions. And if you register by September 14, we’ll reward your hustle with an early-bird discount.

An excerpt from C Magazine

I was in the middle of a job change, we had just sold our house, one of our daughters was diagnosed with cancer and the other was fighting an eating disorder. I was very near the breaking point. The rules of how to act like a man in tough situations were breaking down for me. I was so distraught and desperate that when I would try to get into a proper man conversation about our situation, I would just start spilling my guts and sharing my anxiety. It was obviously very uncomfortable—for me and the other guys who suddenly remembered something they needed to do as they politely excused themselves.

I was reaching out for someone to at least understand one aspect of my ordeal. I remember coming to the conclusion that most people just didn’t really care, and the ones who cared really didn’t understand. I think it was the most alone I have ever felt in my life. I cried, but almost always alone. I stopped praying. I felt like I had told God everything. He knew how I felt. The rest was up to Him. I didn’t need to risk boring or scaring Him off, too.

When we went out to the treatment center for family therapy week with one of our daughters, I was numb—just going through the motions. I had pretty much given up on people, on God and on hope.

Continue reading in C Magazine...

At Granger, we believe in the power of story. Because we believe this so strongly, we’ve innovated our storytelling approach and started a magazine. C Magazine is for the people of our community. It’s a chance to share the stories of what God is doing in hearts and lives with people who may or may not step inside the walls of our church building. We’d love for you to check out our recently released second issue for free. And if you’d like to be a part of the conversation around innovative approaches to spreading the Gospel, you’ll want to bring your team to Innovate 2014 on October 14 & 15. We’ll explore strategic and practical ways to innovate in every ministry are.

Here are five things you won't want to miss at (NEXT WEEK'S) Innovate Conference:
  1. Customized Schedule | Choose-your-own-adventure style, except all of this book's endings are good.
  2. The Digital Age Concert | If you liked The David Crowder Band, you'll love The Digital Age. Your registration includes a free ticket to the concert. (Side note: If you're in the area and can't come to the conference, you can still buy tickets to the concert.)
  3. Networking Opportunities Galore | Look at the schedule. There are no less than four built-in networking breaks right in there! Add in the color-coded team bracelets and the first night's After Party and it's actually going to be difficult to avoid meeting people who work in your area of ministry. Not that you'd want to.
  4. Great Art | Experience a showcase of some of the best art Granger has produced in the last year. We hope it will inspire you and get your creative juices flowing.
  5. All Hands On Deck | If you clean toilets, crunch numbers, create videos or lead massive volunteer teams, someone from Granger who does what you do will be here, either leading an elective, hosting a Fireside Chat or making themselves available for some good old fashioned Q&A.

Don't miss it! Come to learn and interact; go home inspired and ready to innovate in your role, at your church, in your community. Register yourself and your team today. We'll see you next week!

Comprised entirely of former members of the David Crowder Band, The Digital Age maintains a beating-heart belief that the Church is beautiful, diverse, creative and alive—and that these qualities should be reflected in the music that the Church and The Digital Age create.

“The Digital Age mission picks up where [David Crowder Band] left off,” guitarist/vocalist Mark Waldrop says. “It’s alt-rock that’s compelling lyrically and musically, and we’re still obsessed with the concept record. So we’re carrying over what we did before. This is all we know, to write together and work together. It feels new, but a lot of it is a carryover; it’s not too huge a departure.”

There’s much to recommend about this musical expedition, which promises to reach an audience far beyond David Crowder Band territory. “Captured” gallops along on a marching-band beat Jeremy “B-Wack” Bush cooked up in his home studio between rehearsals, while the lyric revels in broken-chains celebration: “’Cause love has come to rescue me/ Your love has come to set me free/ Your love is all I need.”

Waldrop sums up the song with a simple exclamation and explanation: “Wow! What a way to start, especially in this transition time for us. We made it; we traversed through death—that’s how it felt as a band. People talk about the resurrection of Jesus, and sometimes they forget that there’s resurrection in everything. Things die and it’s OK, because the God of resurrection gives birth to new things.”

And so let The Digital Age begin, an age that mocks its very moniker by yielding music that overflows with heart and soul—not just the kind that makes for a gliding groove or an emotive performance. Yes, there’s plenty of that to enjoy on Evening:Morning. But another brand of heart and soul also manifests itself, and it’s one Waldrop sums up with high-beam optimism:

“Our God isn’t passive and in the grave. He’s active and so we thought, ‘Let’s put the flashlight ahead of us and see what step we’re supposed to take.’ We don’t know where we’re going but we’re going somewhere and we’re trusting that God is with us every step. We’ve been given the gist; we’ve been given the songs. Now it’s time to go out into the wild, follow … and see.”

The Digital Age is coming to Innovate! Register for Innovate and concert admission is on us. Grab The Digital Age's brand new record Evening:Morning on iTunes. And check out InnovateConference.com for more information.