Take God really seriously ... yourself not so much . - Mark Batterson The Group Life Conference started today. I have the privilege of serving on the creative team for this conference, so I get to sit in on all the sessions. We had rich times of worship. Joel Johns is our worship leader for the conference...

Today we begin a full conference week at Willow, with three distinct experiences. Nancy Ortberg and I will host an all day Gifted to Lead workshop today with over 475 women exploring the art of leading as a woman in the church. This will be our second time in the Chicago area with this subject matter...

It’s Friday morning & your Senior Pastor just called with ‘a great idea’ for the weekend. What’s your response? Do you have a process for developing creative ideas? People are telling you your worship team needs to grow younger. Is there an age that people need to retire from up-front ministry? You...

Yesterday at Willow, Darlene Zschech and her band from Sydney, Australia, led our congregation in worship. With a mix of brand new songs and a few old favorites, their team skillfully and powerfully ushered us into the warmth and wonder of God's presence. I have known Darlene as a leader and friend...

Throughout history, art has been used as a means of communicating and uniting around the most important themes and convictions. Today, a passionate new generation of artists is taking this trend to new heights, spreading word about the terrible injustice that's affecting so many innocent human beings...

Last Friday I so enjoyed my time with about twenty worship/arts leaders at Discovery Church in Orlando. I was delighted that the day included a wide age range of leaders and people from several different kinds of churches. Together we talked about some of the challenges we face as leaders, and exchanged...

Nancy & I had the privilege today of spending time with a small group of arts & worship leaders from the Orlando area ... well, technically not all were from Orlando, one came all the way from Dallas, Texas. I wish you could have been there. The group had people who had been leading in the church...

I’m heading to Orlando to spend a day on Friday with worship/arts leaders. We still have room for a few more, and you don’t have to pre-register if you’d like to join us at Discovery Church (though we’d love to know you’re coming!) I treasure this opportunity to talk about the challenging issues of leading...

Periodically we like to gather local worship arts pastors and creative directors from Chicago-area churches for a 90 minute brown bag lunch. Each time we’ll move the location around so it ends up exposing us to various churches and also keeps it from always being a long drive for the same people. Last...

After hearing from arts leaders across the country that accessible training and networking opportunities for artists and leaders in their community were needed, we launched two regional training and networking events - The Green Room and The Leaders Table . In '07 - 08 we had 3 events in Montclair...