Worship Leader Blog

It's all over, and I'm spent, and probably rightly so--the schedule for the National Worship Leader Conference is pretty much packed for three and a half days. I typically arrived before 8:30 a.m., and didn't leave until 9:30 or 10:00 pm each day. There were four Nights of Worship, four general sessions, and eight workshop sessions; eight times of worship ranging from 30 minutes to three hours.

Today was "practical workshop" day for me--I attended a session on "Leading Worship Between the Songs," a session on learning how to read music, and a session on vocal stylings. All very practical and helpful. I was exposed to so much content that it will take me quite a while to synthesize and digest what I heard and learned. If I am able to apply even one or two of the things I learned about this week, my time will have been well-spent.

It is hard to over-estimate the importance of the worship times at a conference like this. Worship leaders sometimes carry significant job, relational or personal burdens, and when a worship leader can experience worship without being the leader, that's a good thing.

Today's worship leaders included Shannon Wexelberg, Pocket Full of Rocks, Starfield, Scott and Vonda Dyer, the conference worship choir, and Israel Houghton. I was so tired by the end of the day that I decided to bail before Israel played (sorry, Israel). Lisa Harper spoke this morning in the general session, and Scotty Smith spoke during the evening worship session.

If you're a worship leader considering whether to attend the NWLC, let me offer this advice: if you can do it, do it. You won't be disappointed.