Two days from now I will (Lord willing) hop on a plane and head down to Gaithersburg, Maryland. I have been invited to liveblog the WorshipGod06 Conference that will run from Wednesday evening until Saturday morning. While I would love to stay in town until Sunday and worship at Covenant Life Church, family duties will call me back to Toronto on Saturday. This is the fifth occurrence of this biannual event devoted to the theology, practice, and joy of God-honoring worship. It will be my first time attending. The main sessions of this year’s conference will explore the theme of “the glory of His presence.” The official site for the conference says, “Throughout Scripture a distinguishing mark of God’s people has been His presence, especially during corporate worship. But how are we to understand God’s presence? If God is everywhere, why does He tell us to seek His presence continually (Psalm. 105:4)? What part do God’s Word and His Spirit play in making God’s presence known to us? What part do feelings play, if any, in being aware of God’s presence?”
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The conference will be held at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland (the church home of both Josh Harris and C.J. Mahaney). The main sessions will be led by Bob Kauflin, Jeff Purswell, Mark Mullery and Craig Cabaniss with the final session featuring Randy Alcorn. The first night’s worship session will feature Keith and Kristyn Getty. Keith, as you may know, is co-author of the modern hymn “In Christ Alone.” He is a composer who has been active in the record, concert, film, and television industries. He has written several internationally known hymns with Stuart Townend, including “In Christ Alone.” Keith’s wife, singer and songwriter Kristyn Getty, will appear with him at WorshipGod06, as part of the worship team and in training songwriters.
The event will also mark the unveiling of a new Sovereign Grace CD project, Valley of Vision, which is based on the book of Puritan prayers and devotions of the same name. “The songs on Valley of Vision draw from these prayers at various levels and in various ways. Some use a few phrases from a specific prayer, others develop a particular idea, and a few try to capture the original flow of thought, using many of the original words.” Samples and a free song are available on the CD’s official web site.
All-in-all it promises to be an interesting, edifying and exciting conference. It is also one that I expect to challenge me in the style of worship. I look forward to worshiping with a large crowd of men and women who love to worship and who have dedicated themselves to understanding and modelling gospel-focused worship. I will be travelling with my friend Julian. I expect to meet many new and old friends there. If you are going to be attending, let me know! I am likely to try to camp out somewhere near the back, so feel free to wander back and look for the guy trying not to be noticed.
If you will not be able to attend, please be sure to drop by my site later this week. I will be covering each of the main sessions and will attempt to provide information about select seminars as well. The one seminar I absolutely do not wish to miss is “Worshiping The Triune God” by Bruce Ware. I expect the teaching throughout the conference to be deeply challenging and hope I can capture some of that through the medium of this blog.
Here are some interesting facts about the conference:
Pre-registered Attendees: 1,034
Attendees from Non-Sovereign Grace churches: 55%
Gender of Attendees: 62% men, 38% women
Nations represented include :
- Australia
- Bahamas
- Bolivia
- Canada (Go Canada!)
- Japan
- Northern Ireland
- Switzerland
- USA
- Wales
Main Session speakers will be:
- Bob Kauflin
- Jeff Purswell
- Mark Mullery
- Craig Cabaniss
- Randy Alcorn