On Saturday, March 17, William Jessup University hosted the third annual Worship Conference, organized by 2007 alum, Jason Squires. The sold out conference featured worship sessions with well known artists and offered various breakout sessions designed to address many of the concerns facing worship leaders today.
When parishioners come to worship as one Body of Christ; they may not realize all of the work and level of detail that has gone into the actual worship service. From music to lighting, to sound and video it often appears as one seamless production that just so happens to come together perfectly each week.
As a worship leader himself, Squires came up with the idea of reaching out to fellow worship leaders during one of his local roundtable events. “A common theme emerged among worship leaders that we weren’t as equipped as we wanted to be to teach our worship teams,” Jason explained. The conference serves as a resource to teach and equip those who are involved in leading worship.”
Over the past three years, the popular conference has continued to gain momentum; doubling attendance from the first to second year and now reaching over 600 worship leaders who came from as far as the Central Valley.
"This past weekend, William Jessup University helped fulfill its mission of partnering with local churches by hosting a worship conference for over 600 worship leaders,” said Dr. John Jackson, Jessup’s president. “Conservative estimates are that churches represented at the conference serve over 20,000 people each week in our region.”
Squires opened the all day conference leading worship for the largest group yet. “We actually had to turn away about 120 people just because we didn’t have enough classroom space to accommodate such a large group.” As Jessup prepares to unveil its latest $17 million expansion project; space should become less of a concern for next year.
Other featured worship leaders were Darnisha Taylor, Pastor of Worship and Creative Arts from Real Life Church in Sacramento and Jared Anderson from New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Forty workshop breakout sessions were held covering topics from the building blocks of stage design to vocal style to video storytelling.
“I am grateful that this conference continues to grow at such a rapid pace,” President Jackson added. “It is yet one more indication that in church life, business, education, health care, and public policy, William Jessup is making a mark in our region".
Just days after the close of the sell out event, March 16, 2013 is slated as the date for the fourth annual Worship Conference scheduled to be held next year at William Jessup University. Those planning to attend just might want to get tickets well in advance!
For more information visit www.theworshipconference.com