Blog

The Table at DC12

Last week our Executive Director Ken Finsaas and Customer Service Guru Caleb Rotach headed to Texas for the 2012 Dynamic Church Conference. In addition to manning the Table booth and connecting with our users, Ken and Caleb did two hour-long presentations. They had the chance to share our new prayer video and hear stories face to face from our users (we love stories!).

The team behind the Dynamic Church Conference and the Fellowship One church management software even gave us a show of support as Jeff Hook, general manager of Fellowship Technologies, a part of Active Network, strongly re-affirmed the strategic partnership between the Table Project and Fellowship One speaking of the Table as "our social strategy."

It was a fun week and a good chance to share the Table with churches.

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Table Stories at Speak Conference

A couple weeks ago we sponsored the Speak conference in Minneapolis. Our customer experience/marketing guy Kevin D. Hendricks (that's me!) spoke about sharing your church's story and our product VP Jason Wenell gave a short pitch for the Table. But more than just offering a commercial, Jason talked about how social networking is a chance for your church to live out your story.

Jason introduced the Table and shared our intro video, but then went on to give three real examples of people using the Table. There was a woman asking for prayer as she undergoes cancer treatment, a couple facing infertility that asked for prayer and people came up to them on Sunday to pray for them, and a blind man who needed help moving and people stepped in to help. All examples of people needing help and their church community reaching out to help them. All examples of people getting help without the church staff needing to waste time and resources passing things along or recruiting people. That's the power of social networking within your church.

Watch the video from Speak as Jason shares these examples (feel free to skip past the intro video if you've seen it before):

Highlights from the talk:

• The Table is a nonprofit organization that was birthed from a missions organization and not a corporation. This is one of the favorite parts of our story and impacts our decision making. Point one in our manifesto is "Mission First."
• The Table is not as much about communicating your message but is more about writing a more impactful and authentic story as a church.
• Jason was the biggest skeptic. He met with 100 churches and pleaded with them to see if Facebook and Twitter would work. Instead it revealed a large gap between global networks and what the church needed.
• We are at over 1,800 churches now and thousands of people log in every day. Not to update their status, but to pray for a stranger and serve their neighbor.
• Story about a woman going through cancer treatment asking for prayer. Praying for each other in a moment of need: She didn't need to wait until Sunday to get support from her community.
• Story about a woman being prayed for at her church for infertility issues. The special thing about this story above and beyond 48 people praying for her need is that no fewer than 15 people came up to her at church and told her they were praying. Virtual communication turned into physical relationship.
• Story about blind man getting help moving: His friend saw the need and posted it to the Table. It wasn't from the church but from a member. Five people signed up and the need was met. This empowers the congregation to serve their community by mobilizing them in an easy way. 
• We've gotten the event down. Churches have great music, motion backgrounds and facilities. But are we missing the hundreds of opportunities between Sundays to write our story and to be the church. 
• A recent quote hit Jason hard this past week. Biz Stone said, "For Twitter to be successful, it cannot be a triumph of technology but instead a triumph of humanity." Jason would say the same for the Table: For it to be a success, it will be a success of Christianity not technology. The Table just acts as a catalyst to help us be a more connected and impactful faith community.

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Table at the And Conference

The And Conference is underway this week in South Bend, Ind., at Granger Community Church. We're sponsoring the conference and our own Jason Wenell is blogging the event, along with a crew of other bloggers (including Tim Schraeder of Outspoken).

Stay tuned for more updates and shared learning from And. Plus, you can glean your own wisdom by checking out the live stream.

Update: Here are a few of our And Conference blog posts:

• Kem Meyer: Less Clutter, Less Noise
• Don Reynolds: Utilizing Volunteers

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The Table at Converge

This week we attended Converge, a conference near Kansas City, Mo., for United Methodist churches. Our own customer experience guru, Caleb Rotach, led a breakout session introducing about 30 pastors to the Table.

The group asked all the right questions and had a lot enthusiasm for what we're doing. Many came from smaller congregations, so the conversation covered the benefits of a social network for small churches. We often say that the Table makes big churches feel small and small churches feel big.

We also had a booth at Converge and answered lots of questions and showed off our iPhone app. It's always great to interact with people, answer questions and explain the Table firsthand. Thanks to everybody who attended our session or stopped by to talk.

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Speak Conference

Your church has a story. You share it when people walk in the door. You show it when you work in your community. You tell it through communication efforts, from your Sunday bulletin to your Twitter feed and website. What story are you telling?

Speak is a free conference coming to Minneapolis (and streaming online) on Sept. 8 that will explore how your church communicates online. The Table is sponsoring Speak and the guest speakers include our own Jason Wenell and Kevin D. Hendricks (that's me), as well as an impressive cast of folks including Carl Nelson from the Minnesota Association of Evangelicals, social media expert Justin Wise, Moody Bible professor Bobby Moss and YouVersion's Adam Bouse.

We think this is an important event because it can show your church how to make an impact online. Research shows that online connections translate into real life connections. Those connections and conversations can become community and eventually there can be conversion.

So how you tell your story is important, even online. It's the command Jesus left us with: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel," (Mark 16:15) "and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19).

How does the Table fit into all of this? Good question:

Preaching the gospel is what your church should be doing on Facebook, Twitter and your website.

Making disciples is what your church can do on the Table.

The Table really isn't on the front lines of your church telling its story online. That's what Facebook, Twitter, your website and all kinds of other platforms are for. But the Table is a place where that story can be lived out. You can share your testimony in the discussion boards, your Prayer Wall is an on-going story of God working and the Serve App tells a story of need and provision.

Let's live our story online. Check out the Speak Conference. It'll be streaming online on Sept. 8 for free. And if you're in the Minneapolis area, you can register for free (physical space is limited, so register now).

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The Table at Echo 2011

Last week a group of us attended the Echo Conference in Dallas, a church conference for artists, geeks and storytellers. We had a swanky exhibit, met a lot of people and had good conversations. The speakers and breakout sessions were challenging and encouraging, and we got to eat some In-N-Out and a good helping of Tex-Mex. You can't ask for much more.

If you met us at Echo, thanks for checking us out. If you have questions you didn't get to ask in Dallas, we're doing a Q&A webinar on Wednesday so bring your questions then and we'll get them answered.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

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The Table at the Dynamic Church Conference

We're off to the Dynamic Church Conference in Texas this week, an event hosted by our friends at Fellowship One. We'll be rubbing shoulders with some incredible church leaders, like Church Diversity author Scott Williams, Cultivate Her founder Jenni Catron and designer Michael Buckingham.

We'll be doing a session talking about the Table. We'll cover why having a community tool matters, how the Table works, as well as current and future integration plans with Fellowship One.

In addition to the session, we'll have an exhibit and are looking forward to connecting with church leaders. Check out our swanky Table Project display that touts some of the benefits of the Table:

A free gift to...

slay anonymity
champion prayer
and squash apathy.

(Click to see our full display.)

If you're planning to attend, be sure to drop by and say hello.

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Twin Cities Group Showcasing the Table

This Friday there's an event in the Twin Cities to showcase the Table. The Social Media Shepherds, a local ministry networking group, are hosting a get together to talk about digital communities. The event will feature the Table and a few folks from our team will be there to share more about the Table.

The event is at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, March 18 at Northwestern Hall auditorium on the campus of Luther Seminary in St. Paul. It's a free event (with free coffee!), but they're asking you to register online.

It should be a fun time to geek out over social media, meet some new friends and learn about the Table. If you have questions about how the Table works, why it might help your church or what we're all about, this would be a great event to attend.

Hope to see you there!

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