Having shared some good conversation and good coffee with Houston Clark recently, I’m a firm believer in what he and his company have to offer the local church. Sit in on Houston’s breakout session, and be sure to visit with the Clark team at their Echo booth!

You’re probably well-aware of the greatness of Clover by now, but just in case you’re not …

Clover provides fully-functioning, beautiful, Flash websites for churches, para-churches, church plants, camps, youth groups, and other ministries. Stocked with tools specifically created for ministries, Clover provides the Church with an amazing platform to infuse its message into the world, doing what God has called it to do. Not only does Clover provide ministries with a clean, modern and intuitive platform to connect with their community, but also a revolutionary way of creating, editing, and updating their site. With Clover’s creation of “The Greenhouse,” any ministry can update their own website with little or no training. It’s so intuitive and revolutionary, you’ll have to demo everything yourself to believe it.

If your church or ministry needs some help in the website department, be sure to stop by the Clover booth at Echo.

One of the many reasons I’m looking forward to Echo is interacting with the team from Church Community Builder. I’ve heard great things about their technology — they’re the pioneer of socially-driven Church Management Software. We asked them to share a little bit about who they are, what they do, and what drives them to serve the Church:

Our passion is to improve community, connectedness and communication within the local church. Our web-based solution streamlines the daily administration and leadership of a church by providing that one right place to enter, track and manage critical information. Whether it is event management, calendars, church membership, financial tracking, assimilation, youth check-in, small group management or website integration, CCB meets the needs of today’s “wired” churches with easy-to-use, dependable technology. Our goal is to help churches build a loyal, committed community that can connect, communicate and serve in today’s web-oriented culture.

To find out more about Church Community Builder, visit them online.

Have you heard about The Playback Drive yet? The Playback Drive is the first of its kind — it’s a plug-and-play visual worship library stocked with more than 320 images and video clips, including animated motions, animated loops, stills, footage, 50 TripleWides and more. In our COLLIDE review, we called The Playback Drive an “attractive and cost-effective solution,” and we weren’t kidding.

The Playback Drive will push you out of your media comfort zone and will kickstart visual worship at your church. It’s a great tool and it will take your service to the next level. Plus, The Playback Drive is PC- and Mac-compatible, and it works with all major presentation software titles.

The Playback Drive is a partnership of Orange Thread Media, worshipVJ and Visual Worshiper — all of whom we love — so check it out here.

I’m totally biased, but I love the Centerline New Media story.

In October of 2008, Aaron Holt was reading a COLLIDE Magazine article on Floodgate Productions (an amazing church media producer). Inspired by their story, Aaron called his friend Stephen Anderson that same day and said, “I’ve got an idea.” Thus, the guys plunged headfirst into the waters of church media production.

According to Aaron and Stephen, “Centerline New Media was created with the sole purpose of worshipping God with all the gifts He has given us. We absolutely love being able to create quality media that can be used to further the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.” I love that perspective.

Check out their work at centerlinenewmedia.com. The CNM team hopes their site will not only be a resource for your media needs, but also a place to share ideas and learn from one another. And speaking of sharing ideas and learning from one another, be sure to say hi to the guys at Echo!

The Shift Worship team has joined us at Echo before, and we’re so glad they’re going to be back. See, these guys create great media resources for churches and we believe in what they do. In fact, you can check out this COLLIDE article that spotlights Shift’s work, their story, and their creative process.

Because Shift does such great work, their All-Access Pass is an incredible deal. ShiftWorship.com’s All-Access Pass is unique in the world of worship media. Shift offers unlimited downloads for a low, once-a-year price. Thousands of churches and media professionals have already joined the Shift community, downloading from their ever-expanding library of nearly two thousand mini movies, motion backgrounds, sermon helpers, stills, and countdowns. New content is updated weekly, and customers continue to recommend Shift’s consistently high-quality and creative content to fellow worship team members and pastors around the globe.

Visit Shift’s booth at Echo for a conference special or check out ShiftWorship.com for more information.

Do you know what I like about Our Shirts Don’t Suck, a T-shirt design and printing company based in Charleston, SC? They make a big promise right there in the name of the company! They let everyone know they stand for quality, which means they leave themselves no choice but to back it up. I like that.

We’re excited to have Our Shirts Don’t Suck at Echo this year because, in addition to their promise to deliver the goods, they have a huge heart for ministry. Their mission: to honor and serve God with their talents and help spread the Good News unconventionally. They accomplish that mission by supplying local churches and ministries with quality shirts and other promotional items (the kinds of things that every ministry and organizations uses), and their work is relevant, affordable, and custom. They also do screen-printing in their facility rather than outsource it, which is a huge plus in my book.

The best part about Our Shirts Don’t Suck is that they waive setup charges and art charges on their jobs — they view that as a way to donate to and invest in your ministry. I think that’s phenomenal. Stop by their booth at Echo next week to learn more, or visit their website: www.outshirtsdontsuck.com.

What do well-known churches like Bellevue Baptist Church, North Point Community Church, and Prestonwood Baptist Church have in common? They’re all featured on a long list of churches and ministries that trust the new media services of 316 Networks — and that’s why we’re thrilled to partner with 316 Networks at Echo 2010. They’ll be live onsite helping us as we stream some exclusive Echo content, and they’ll also be there to talk with people about how 316 Networks can partner with their ministries.

The 316 Networks team and technology serves ministries that have a vision for growth through strategic digital communication. 316 Networks provides proven leadership and technology solutions surrounding social media, web development and integration, online video technology, and targeted communications and provides the strategic leadership to assist churches and ministries for the most effective use of these tools. VX Media Suite, 316 Networks’ leading online video platform, is used by hundreds of ministries for delivery of content live, on-demand, simulated live, and via iPhone. For more information about how your ministry can partner with 316 Networks, visit http://solutions.316networks.com/ECHO.

Big Finish Media is one of our esteemed premier sponsors for Echo 2010, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with them. We’re excited to announce Big Finish will host a screening of the one-and-only, critically acclaimed, award-winning film Lord, Save Us From Your Followers on the opening night of Echo. Dan Merchant, the director of the film and one of Echo’s keynote speakers, will also be at the screening.

Tim Abare, who leads Big Finish (and is also the co-executive producer of Lord, Save Us), has 20 years’ experience working with respected leaders in business, entertainment, and ministry. Big Finish was created to help churches, filmmakers, publishers, authors, content providers, musicians, and others find and mobilize their audience. Just check out the roster of people Big Finish has worked with:

ABC News, ABC Television, Barna Films, Bearing Fruit Entertainment, CBS Television, Columbia Pictures, Compassion International, Entertainment Events, Fox Searchlight, Icon Productions, INSP, Max Lucado, Man in the Mirror, North American Mission Board, PAX Television, Prison Fellowship, Real Impact Missions, Reformed Theological Seminary, Regal Theaters, Smalley Marriage Institute, Student Leadership University, Teen Mania Ministries, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros., World Relief, and many others.

Tim and his son, Brad Abare, will do a breakout session together at Echo called Go Big or Stay Home. They will share real-life stories and give you three takeaways that will help your big ideas fit into the bigger picture and maybe even the big screen. While you’re at Echo, be sure to visit the Big Finish booth to find out more about everything they have to offer.

We’re proud to partner with 316 Networks (one of our great sponsors) for this year’s Echo Conference, and we’re thrilled that they’re giving away five free Echo registrations this week.

All you have to do to enter the drawing is click here and complete the signup form. While you’re there, you should watch John Saddington explain why he loves 316 Networks. John knows everything there is to know about web technology and the church, so let him take you to school on the greatness of 316 Networks.