I'm here early (if you know me, well, of course I am), and the place is beginning to hop. The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS is a big church...let me re-state that...a BIG CHURCH. Last I heard there were 20,000+ in their congregation, and it has all of the atmosphere and amenities you would expect in a modern mega-church: a large lobby/atrium with a coffee shop and a bookstore, a huge main auditorium (at least 4,000 seats), and an impressive and beautiful multi-building campus. I'm sitting in the Rezlife building at the moment (not sure if that's what they call it, but that's the name of their student ministry, and this is where that happens), which is where the exhibitors and vendors have set up the "trade show" area for the conference. There's wireless access here. Thanks, CoR!

Even now, as some of the exhibitors are still getting their booths set up, the place is getting noisy--tomorrow it will border on chaotic between sessions. There are some cool booths here--Roland and Yamaha are showing off keyboards and guitars and other electronic music gadgetry; various vendors of sound and stage equipment are here, along with Christian music publishers, software publishers and yes, even the National Guard is recruiting here. I've made a quick pass to see what sorts of give-aways and such are here to be harvested, but nothing really caught my eye just yet. However, several vendors are reportedly planning to have drawings for iPads, and I promise you I'll find them. (I am believing Jesus for an iPad--pray for me :-)

There was a pre-conference session today (I didn't go), but the real kick-off of the week is tonight's "Night of Worship" concert--the first of four. Each evening there is a worship concert featuring several worship artists and a speaker, and tonight (according to my nifty conference notebook) the artists are Phil Wickham, Keith & Kristyn Getty and the NWLC Conference Choir. The speaker will be Steve Berger and the Grace Chapel Team--not sure exactly what that means.

I'm looking forward to tonight, and the whole week, really--as any worship leader who reads this might imagine, a conference like this can be a major battery-charger for a busy worship leader. It can also be overwhelming, because there is so MUCH content, so MANY workshops to choose from, and so many ideas floating around. Having been here last year, I have some idea of what to expect, and I already know that it's not going to be possible to take notes on everything, absorb all the input and ideas, or even begin to implement much of what I am exposed to here. My goals are (1) to worship God authentically (and not be leading!), (2) to see what others are doing in the field, (3) to take in as much helpful content as I can, for me and for my team and my church, and (4) to engage in meaningful conversations with others who do what I do.

I'm also going to try to attend one or more of the sessions on songwriting--some of the church's greatest modern songwriters are here to teach this week: Matt Redman, Laura Story, Chris Tomlin, to name a few.

I'll keep you posted. I'll be tweeting to lfmcpb from time to time (I hope).