Last Week in Orlando
I had the joy and privilege of leading a gathering of what we call the "Arts Champions" or, their favorite moniker, The Justice League, down in Orlando for a couple days last week.
This is a group of over thirty men and women who steer and guide the movement of ennobling, equipping, and connecting church artists all over the country. Each one of them leads in their own churches, while also contributing a percentage of their time to connecting with and encouraging other church artists. I absolutely love being with this group of remarkable individuals! This year we added two new members - Tony Kim from Newsong in Irvine, California, and Christopher Durso from Christ Tabernacle in Queens, NY. They both contributed great energy, innovation, and leadership to our movement.
We first reminded one another what we exist as the Willow Arts Movement to do. It can be summed up in 4 key verbs that we seek to provide for church artists: Ennoble. Connect. Equip. Refresh. Then we spent a lot of time strategizing as we look at the next 3-5 years for how we can best accomplish that mission. We are obviously all quite sobered by the economic downturn and how it will affect the ability of churches to train their leaders, teachers, and artists. Certainly 2009 will be a challenging year. And yet I was delighted to see the very high level of enthusiasm for the planning of this year's annual event and its potential. The June conference just looks fantastic! We rallied our thinking to imagining ways that this event can be possible for many church artists and pastors to attend in spite of the financial realities we all face.
My flight home to the ice and snow tundra of Chicago wasn't until late Friday night - so in the afternoon I sat outside with my face to the sun for a couple hours, drinking in the warmth and Vitamin D. That was a tremendous gift before I headed home in my flimsy jean jacket to about 10 additional inches of snow and frigid temperatures. But I guess in spite of that, there truly is no place like home.
