November 13-14
Louisville, KY 

There are a handful of conferences that come around every year or two that I think are worth a worship leader’s time and investment. They’re not all the same, and they therefore don’t serve the same purpose. I tend to think of conferences like these in two broad categories. The first are the “big tent” conferences. A great example of this would be the National Worship Leader Conference, now hosted regionally 3-4 times a year. Big tent conferences will try to bring a lot of people together, and they’re usually willing to absorb a fair amount of tension in the vision, theology, philosophy, and outlook of worship. The second category of worship conference is the “niched” conference. This type of conference is there to articulate a specific vision for and outlook on worship.  The Doxology & Theology Conference (less than one month away!) is this kind of conference.

Why Go to a Worship Conference in General?

Before I advocate for D&T, the question should be asked as to whether conferences are valuable at all. I see worship conferences as having a two-fold value, neatly divisible in even halves. 50% of the value of a conference is its content and insight, and 50% is the networking. Even if I’m not much of a “student-type” or even if I’m not in a very teachable place (my life is busy, I’ve got other things occupying my attention), there is something refreshing to the soul about stepping outside of your world, zooming out, and getting a perspective of the forest instead of always inspecting the bark of that one tree that you live next to. EVERY time I go to a conference, something about the content will take me by surprise, illumine my life, and affect my ministry back home. But I also go simply to meet people, have conversations, hear stories, and establish more contacts. Usually, I’m frantically trying to get their name down so that I can follow them on twitter or connect with them on FB or Instagram. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from and forged friendships through conferences followed up by social media. It’s been remarkable, and it is a great habit to be ever widening your own circle of contacts and “influencers.” And there’s an ecclesiastical-theological truth here: the more of the body of Christ I know, the better I know Christ.

Why Go to This One?

So D&T is a conference with a specific theological vision. To be clear, it will talk about worship from within a theologically conservative and evangelical framework. It will view thoughtful cultural engagement as important, and it will articulate a gospel- and Christ-centered approach to worship and ministry. If you wanted a more thorough understanding, check out the book, Doxology & Theology. In the past, it has gathered the types of worship leaders who have been associated with churches connected with bigger wheelhouses like the Gospel Coalition and the Acts 29 network, so you can expect similar (though not identical) spheres of thought. You will find that the content has been influenced by pastors and theologians like D. A. Carson, John Piper, and Mark Dever, and worship thinkers like Bob Kauflin and Harold Best.

This year’s conference is focused on “The Life & Labor of the Worship Leader”…a topic which is near and dear to my heart. I’ll be doing a breakout on the subject of how worship leaders can think of themselves as pastors and engage their jobs more pastorally. If you’re in or around Louisville, or if you can swing a last-minute trip, I’d encourage you to come!