Churchplanters.com Velocity 2010 Recap: Carlos Whittaker

I’m not even sure I need to say much about Carlos.  If you read ministry blogs or are remotely creative, you’ve probably heard of Mr. Los Whit.  The guy is a genius and someone I can honestly say I enjoy hearing speak and lead every chance I get.  His blog, Ragamuffinsoul.com may be one of the most popular blogs in ministry.  But it’s not just ministry…it’s transparency.  At Velocity, Carlos led a breakout for creative teams.  I generally don’t attend creative meetings because we have a great Creative Director and team that takes care of all that jazz so I don’t have to. Yes, I’m very blessed.  But I went to his breakout becase A) I like the guy and B) I wanted to take notes for our creative director.  So, for all you creatives out there, here’s what I learned from Carlos…..

• What’s been poured into you is what will pour out of you
• Real creativity comes out when your budget says $0.00 (know this one all too well)
• Ideas for creating on a budget….
• #1 Recycle Ideas
• Send your team out with $5 each to purchase something creative @ yard sales and thrift stores just to create conversation
• Read Thinking For A Living
• #2  Create a space and time to THINK
• #3  Brainstorm with your team for sole purpose of brainstorming.  Work out the details later
• Making creative meetings work…
• #1 Exploration Phase….
• a) Have teams “explore” and plan before the meeting ever happens
• Collect ideas constantly and file them (Evernote is a great tool) to use
• b) Make meetings as short as they can be
• Don’t lead the meetings…influence it
• Take chairs out of the room if you want the meetings to be shorter
• Bring magazines for good ideas…search them and file them
• #2 Implementation phase….
• Take a pause after meetings to make sure the ideas are good and stick

• Change the locations for meetings so that it will inspire creativity
• Play games and make the meetings FUN
• Inspire creativity however possible
• Try to plan out 8 weeks in advance
• As a pastor/communicator…let them know the Bid Ideas of the messages
• Pre production happens 6 weeks out…this is the details
• Not much should change within 3 weeks out
• Be sure to review series
• Don’t be tied to looking JUST online for ideas