Building A Worship Conference To Change Lives

by Tim Swanson

What has God called you to do? Has he called you to search out the heart of worship within your own congregation? Or to write music that glorifies His name in the highest? Has he called you to impact your community or even your nation with the Gospel through music? Whatever it is that God made you to do, the upcoming Worship!Arizona Conference is the best next step in making progress toward God’s calling in your life.

A Conference That Changes Lives

The atmosphere was electrified as 3000 church leaders from all over the Southwest funneled into the auditorium of Mariner's Church in Irvine, Ca last year. North Point's praise team made the massive worship production look effortless. Other musical guests like Carlos Whittaker, Gungor and All Sons & Daughters graced everyone with their music as well. Comedians, Tripp and Tyler, made everybody's sides hurt with their special brand of unpredictable comedy. Those were just some of the highlights of last year's Catalyst Conference, but the real treasures were the words of the very talented speakers. Marcus Buckingham talked about his leadership development program, StandOut. Best selling author, Michael Hyatt, spoke about his new book, 'Platform', which became the inspiration that I needed to begin writing and developing leadership within my team. And the #1 takeaway for everyone was Andy Stanley's talk. His whole point was, "do for one what you wish you could do for everyone". His point was that no matter where you are in leadership, you'll get burned out trying to be fair to absolutely everyone. His talk changed my outlook on leadership.

I attended that conference over a year ago with the rest of the staff at Moon Valley Bible Church. Today the ideas from the Catalyst Conference still carry the most influence on how MVBC's staff operates. We've been united by a new vision. And we found the foothold we needed to make real changes within the organization. And our efforts have translated into visible results. New families are visiting our church, and finding a home that they want to come back to.  Our church family is growing because God is accomplishing His will through us.

Building The Next Great Worship Conference

It's important to acknowledge our success comes from God, who is powerful where we are not. He has worked through us to begin doing great things. And He used the Catalyst Conference as a... well as a catalyst for innovation and growth. We continue to draw our inspiration from the brilliant leaders that spoke there. Through their blogs, books, podcasts, webinars, tweets, facebook posts, instagrams, etc. we have continual access to the best ideas from the brightest minds, and it all started at that conference last year.

That is why I want so badly to do a worship conference here in Phoenix. I want to find the brightest minds and the best ideas for worship in our community, and spread them out to every worship leader in Arizona. I’d like to see us conquer the age old problems that I always hear other worship leaders fighting to overcome: unmotivated team members, the volume on Sunday morning, performance based worship, conflict within the church, etc. There are people in our community that have made huge strides in overcoming these hurdles, and they want to share their discoveries. In one day we can create a convergence of great ideas, and move forward as a worship community.

The Worship!Arizona conference that we are currently planning will be taking place in the first quarter of 2014, and right now we are still gathering data to build a conference that will meet your needs, and help you realize the vision that God has given you. If you have an idea for a topic that you’d like to see covered, please leave it in the comment section below. And know that the conference team is praying for you, and what God wants to do in our community through all of us.

You can stay posted for conference updates, and special preregistration offers through the Worship!Arizona blog, through the Worship!Arizona facebook page, or by subscribing to my blog in the column on the right. I look forward to seeing you there!!!