[nate95366]

Originally Posted by psalm63adam

Is Bill Hybels' daughter named Shauna? Because that's who she's married to - Aaron Niequist.

Bingo.

Aside from that, I've been to the Willow conference as recently as 3 years ago (which was done while their really big auditorium was in the final stages of construction, so I haven't yet seen that) - I enjoyed reading about your experiences there. Makes me want to take a few people back next summer, although I'm thinking the church budget will make a few other conferences look a little better.

Nate

[russellcframe]

I had a fantastic experience at WCA '07.

I had been in a bit of a rut and being able to get away from things for 3-days of focus on worship was exactly what I needed. The event was very well organized.

David Crowder was a great start, I only wish they had a longer set.

Dewitt Jones photography was awesome and really set the tone for the conference. He's got a great message on seeing beauty in the unexpected areas of life.

Dan Kimball was a dissapointment. I get the impression that he's more interested in being hip than in making a difference (and I'm a big advocate for relevancy, so that's not the issue). I find that he, and much of the 'Emerging' crowd ask good questions...but when you dig deeper I really disagree with where they take their theology. The way I see it, relevancy is about understanding and approachable to a subculture...in short, to be willing to change ourselves for the sake of the Word...I find that Kimball and company are willing to change the Word for the sake of the subculture which is a deadly error.

While Donald Miller and I would also disagree on some deeper issues, I found him to be a fascinating speaker. He did a great job at Willow and I truely enjoyed his session which really focussed on our need as a society to get over the idea that 'arts' is some side-line activity that should only be done by those who aren't serious or after all the 'real work' is done.

Erwin McManus and his team put on a great show, and I like a lot of his thinking. For some reason I think my favorite quote from him was "People always ask me...is your church modern or post-modern?. As if those are the only two choices?!?!?".

The best part of WCA for me were two of my breakout sessions. The first on 'Stage Presence and Communicating From the Heart' by Tim Carson, of vocalartistry.com. This was truely an eye-opening experience. He simply talked about the need for us to really understand the words we are singing and to deliver songs from our own experiences in life. Feel and own the words we are singing, personally. He used volunteers to demonstrate. Both sang a verse and chorus from their chosen song. Then he'd suggest minor changes in body language while they sang to better communicate what they felt in their hearts. The transformation was shocking. My rating of their performances easily would've went from a 5 to an 8+, with just his few minor suggestions. The biggest take-away was to video tape all of your services and to review yourself to compare how you look to how you felt. I did this last week and lets just say I had a page of notes very quickly. I'll note, this is about being genuine and not about drama.

The second was a great session by Joe Horness on Refining Your Worship Leading. This talked a lot about logistics and planning and he brings his experience of a couple decades as a worship leader (both for Willow and smaller churches). A few points, we have two roles as worship leaders 1. Model Worship - people should understand what we are doing when they see us and 2. Invite Worship - people should feel like we are asking them to join. To do this there are many subtle things we can do. I wont get into them all, but it means being genuine and loving the congregation enough to think about where they are at. He also had some great tips on planning services with meaning and prayer, including some tools he uses. I've started implementing a lot of his suggestions.

I hit a couple good technical sessions as well on analog audio (this was was very basic but would be a great intro for someone who's never run lives sound before)...probably a session all musicians should be required to attend so they can sympathize with and help their FOH mixer. The other tech session was on basic lighting systems and was also an excellent introductory type class for dramatic/theatrical lighting systems design.

The conference was very good overall, and it is an excellent value...something I certainly would recommend to any worship artists (singers, instrumentalists, leaders, sound, lighting, production, video, etc).

-Russ