Processing “The Nines”
Back on 09/09/09, Leadership Network and Catalyst sponsored an event known as “The Nines.” Beginning at 9:09 am CST, this online event featured dozens of nine minute streaming video messages presented by Christian thinkers and ministry leaders from around the world. Each message was essentially a response to the question: “If you had nine minutes to talk one-on-one with thousands of church leaders, what is the one thing that you would tell them?”
I had a two hour window in which to participate, and saw about twelve of the day’s speakers. In that span, I took over six pages of notes (and I write small), and noted via twitter that while I was loving the experience, the rapid-fire pace of it all made it feel like I was drinking from a fire hose!
The event created quite a stir as well. For three hours on 9/9, the conference was the top trending topic on twitter, with over 6,000 tweets containing #thenines hashtag.
While I was tempted to regurgitate my notes and create a couple of quick posts to capitalize on the buzz, I decided instead to slow down, step back, and take time to really reflect on what I had heard.
So in keeping with the nines theme, I’m creating a series of nine posts called Nine Words from “The Nines,” where I’ll be reflecting upon the following key words that emerged from my notes:
- Christ
- Context
- Scarcity
- Paradoxy
- Measures
- Mission
- Team
- Innovation
- Heart
Look for the first installment in the near future. In the meantime, I’m interested to hear your thoughts. Did you catch any of The Nines? Do you have any insights or observations you’d like to share?
