The National “Worship Leader” Conference

I was in Texas for a week.

The first night I was a bit disoriented, I think from the long flight and having to go straight to the conference without any downtime.  Matt Redman played that night, and Skip Heitzig spoke.  I think that’s how you spell it.  But I was not vibing with the conference that night, and thought to myself that if this was how it was going to go, it was going to be a bad week. 

Luckily, things sweetened up.

The next morning I heard Leonard Sweet give a talk on metaphor in the church.  I had never heard of him.  They had his books there, and I bought “The Gospel According to Starbucks.”  I also went to his seminar “Summoned to Lead.” It was a great privilege to meet him. 

Then I went to the “Pastor as Storyteller” seminar, taught by Bishop Joseph Garlington, which was also a complete blessing, as well as “Into The Dark,” a seminar by Craig Detweiler.  

Needless to say, I came home with a lot of books.

Two things going on today that were featured at this conference are the Odes of Solomon and The Voice.

The Odes are early Christian hymns put to music, and I think they’re beautiful, and the Voice is a new “translation” of the scriptures, which I’m really excited about.  I got to meet Greg Garrett, the reteller of the gospel of Mark.  I think The Voice is going to be a great contribution to the church.

My time in Texas really did a lot to dig out some entrenched, judgmental attitudes and gave me the opportunity to meet really amazing followers of Jesus.

Things of note to sum up:

Riverbend Church: location of the conference, was quite an architectural feat.
Odes of Solomon: excellent tunes you need to check out.
Leonard Sweet: Cool dude, has things to say that the church needs to hear.
Craig Detweiler: Look into his film and books to see how the church can relate to the culture.
Joseph Garlington: Great speaker and teacher.
The Voice: New retelling of the Scriptures that you should definitely look into.
Lincoln Brewster, Tommy Walker:  Two cool musicians.

Dig it.