National Worship Leaders Conference Day 1

First Day of the National Worship Leaders Conference is in the books and what a blessing and increadible time of worship.  To hear all of the voices being lifted up unhindered to the glory of our Heavenly Father is empowering and humbling all at the same time.  I have a ton of thoughts and little nuggets already but will share those things a little later down the road.

The night started with Evan Wickham leading a time of worship all new songs to me, and I would suspect to many of the people there.  Here is the neat thing...... everyone had a heart to worship the King of Kings and sang out as if they all had been singing the songs for a lifetime.  There was no clumsy lets learn a new song, or let me teach you a new song.  It was lets sing a new song..... each person there including me eagar to learn the song and even more eager to sing praises to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  This resulted in everyone picking up on the songs quickly and singing out and worshiping out loud right from the start.  We all didn't get it right the first time through but before it was over the voices in unison was deafening and sweet in its sound.

Evan Wickham 

Seldom have two roles-worship leader and artist-blended as seamlessly as in the music and message of multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter Evan Wickham. At the age of 18, Evan embarked into fulltime youth ministry at Calvary Chapel of Vista in San Diego County, CA, where he served as both Jr. High and High School pastor for a total of seven years. Today, Evan is an ordained minister who serves as a worship pastor at Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego, CA, while also ministering in music and speaking at churches, retreats, and conferences worldwide. His debut album, Mysterious Things, released in 2006, is a collection of intimate worship, heartfelt expressions of joy and wonder at God's blessing, and a celebration of the redemptive power of salvation in Jesus Christ. In a day and age in which fear and uncertainty swamps entire continents, Evan's follow-up record Above the Sky, seeks to equip the Church with songs to sing loud to the Savior.






We then had a poignant  message from Steve Berger.  I love to hear the word of God preached.  Steve delivered a message that all of us need to hear.  Regardless of whether or not we have experienced hurt or loss or heartache we will all find ourselves in the pit, bogged down in the quagmire of life, trudging through difficult times.  We are not stuck there our God will redeem us.  Steve compelled us to sing a new song and that the most important new song that we sing just might be the life we live. Just as Job trusted God..... God trusted Job and the example of how Job lived his life while he was in the pit has been an example for all of us for millennia,  our lives may should be that example to others.   I will put a link to his message if it is available as soon as they get it up on the NWLC site.  Steve tells a compelling personal store that helps put this message in perspective.

Steve Berger (PA)

For more than 20 years, Steve Berger's ministry has been marked by realness and relevance. He is the founding Pastor of Grace Chapel, a community of over 3,500 and is known for his straight-talk from the pulpit. He is a conference speaker and part of the teaching faculty for the National Worship Leader Conferences. Steve is a regular contributor to several publications. He authored 40 Days with the Word of Promise for Thomas Nelson. Have Heart: Bridging the Gulf between Heaven and Earth, written with his wife Sarah, is his most recent project, the most personal to date, and deals with the events surrounding their 19-year-old son's entrance into heaven. Whether preaching or writing, in great joy or pain, Steve is a proclaimer of the grace and hope that Jesus came to offer.

We were then lead in a time of worship by Jeremy Camp and again it was a tremendous time of praising out loud in music, in lyric, in body, mind and soul.  All for the glory of God through our intercessor,  Jesus Christ.  I know that Jeremy is a bit of a famous dude, but it wasn't about that, it was about worship and while he was the one leading it was not about performance.  Not only did he lead us in new songs..... (case you can't tell the theme of the conference is Sing A New Song) but he lead us in some that everyone knew by heart.  There were tears of joy, humility, love and adoration for our God.  Voices lifted up and music offered as praise and worship.  The word of God was spoken during the entire gathering and the Holy Spirit was present.  There were people on their knees, hands raised... clapped and pointed toward heaven.  Some had a posture of worship with heads bowed, and kneeling almost prostrate on the floor.  It was a great start to a time that will not only increase our knowledge but is sure to increase our heart for worship of our Abba Father.  It is about your heart for God and worship..... other may try to convince you that it is about talent, show, elegance, smoothness, transitions and a whole bunch of other stuff, we even throw around the word excellence, problem is excellence is objective and something that we have a tendency to interpret in a manner totally different that God does.   Time and time again God has made it clear that to give with sacrifice is far greater than amount.  Gods definition of excellence comes from our heart, of us being sold out to him and giving everything in our efforts to worship him.  Worship is not a spiritual gift we all are to do it with what has been given to us.  The voice we have, the life we have, the gifts we have, the blessings we have, the money we have.   All of it..... that is excellence in Gods eyes.  So regardless of how paltry you feel your offering is you should give it all to Him with out concern for what the person next to you thinks, or how they will measure what you have given.  Give it to God and give it all with a happy heart and you will see that God is well pleased. I saw many people praising God in that manner tonight and God was pleased.




Now here is a bit of good news for those of you that are reading this blog post.  Tonight I aquired two new Jeremy Camp CD's We Cry Out: The Worship Project


I will be giving away those two CD's. Two individuals will each get one of these CD's..... If you would like to have a copy for free all you have to do is the following things.


1.  Leave a comment on the blog.... it could be your favorite Jeremy Camp song, or another favorite worship song or your thoughts about something else in this blog post.  Make sure you are logged in by one of the many ways that are available when you leave a comment or I will not be able to contact you when you win.  This is the best way as there is a level of anonymity to the rest of the web.  If you want you can put your email address in the message as I moderate all comments I will not post your email address.  Your info will not be shared with anyone for any reason.


2.  Post this blog post on twitter or on Facebook the buttons are at the bottom.


If you do those two things.... in about a week I will post the winner (selected entirely at random by assigning a number to your post in the order that they are received and two of those numbers being pulled out of a hat.... totally random for a comment and a tweet or facebook post) and make arrangements for the CD to be sent to you at no charge.   You will be listening to some really great worship music by Jeremy Camp for free.