The Harp and the Bowl

So here is my LONG overdue follow-up post on the LIFT worship conference that I had the pleasure of attending a few weekends ago with my wonderful wife, who is not involved directly in worship ministry except that she is directly involved with me. So that counts.


In short, it was “fantastic.”

(If you weren’t there, you won’t appreciate the inside joke there. Louie Giglio teased Matt Redman endlessly about his overuse of the word “fantastic.” He probably said it 75-100 times over the course of the two days. )

But fantastic really is a good word to describe the conference.

What was so great about it? Jesus. No, really. Jesus.

From the opening minutes on Friday evening, though focus of the conference was not on cools songs, how to play your instrument or run better sound, how to hype up your media presentations or any of that. It was about Jesus. It was all about his presence.

I loved the way we started off. Total darkness. No one on the unlit stage. Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin lead a-capella songs standing among those of us in the seats. Immediately our focus was on Jesus, and it pretty much stayed that way the whole time.

There was a little bit of practical teaching, but mostly there was just lots of worship - lots of time spent in the presence of our glorious Lord. My favorite teaching was Matt’s session on songwriting. I’ve heard him speak on it several times before, but his insights are always helpful and inspiring. Chris spoke about the difference between a performer and a worship leader. Not a whole lot new there for me, but a good reminder. And Louie’s teachings were totally God-focused. He is so easy to listen to.

And then there was Matt’s CD recording. Wow! If you follow me on Twitter and got my updates from the conference you already know that he has some amazing new songs. I think there were a dozen songs recorded and there wasn’t one of them I didn’t care for. I was even hoping to introduce a few of them in my church ahead of the release of the album, but alas they took down the song samples they sent out to conference attendees ahead of the conference.

So I guess I’ll have to wait.  And so will you. It will definitely be worth the wait!! This will certainly be Matt's strongest project since Face Down and it may even surpass that mark.  We'll just have to wait and see what the final product sounds like, but if the strength of the songwriting is any indication what the production will be like, it's going to be... well... you guessed it...  Fantastic.

If you want to get on the mailing list for future LIFT conferences, which they assured us there will be. Go to the LIFT page at Passion City Church and fill in your email address under "Waiting List."

I think the release date is in June. Come back here to see my review of the CD when it’s available.

I'm a week away from attending the Lift Worship Leader Conference being hosted by Passion City Church in Atlanta.  That's the church plant by the Passion folk: Louie Giglio, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman and the like.

I'm stoked!  And for good reason. 

Several years back I was part of a small songwriting conference put on at Northpoint Church (Louie's former church) that included Tomlin and Redman and others.  It was fabulous and inspiring.  Also, it was at this conference that Matt Redman's Facedown album was recorded.  It was an honor to be part of that amazing project - in my opinion, hands down Matt's best yet. 

I say yet, because at Lift, Matt will be recording another live album! I am hoping it will surpass the high water mark of Facedown.  They just sent the registrants a few of Matt's newest songs to listen to so we can get familiar with them ahead of the conference, and though I'm morally obliged not to share them with you, I'll just say that it's going to be close!

It's been quite a few years since I attended a WL conference, and I'm looking forward to whole experience.  There is nothing quite like worshiping with a whole bunch of worship leaders!  Plus I have the honor of attending with my dear sweet beautiful wife. 

I am expecting great things, so be sure to check back here for my post-event report.