I'm in day 2 of the National Worship Leader Conference in Kansas City, and this is on the heels of the General Conference of the Free Methodist Church of North America in Rochester, NY last week. (More on the latter conference another time; it is enough to say that it was really amazing.)

This conference, NWLC11, feels very much like it has in previous years, which is a good thing, because this has been a great conference the past two years. This morning I attended a session about which I was a little apprehensive, titled "Leading Worship after 40." My fear was that I was going to be told that it's time for me to stop and let younger blood take over. This was not the message, not entirely. That time will surely come, but in the meantime, more "seasoned" worship leaders need to be working closely with their younger team members, and mentoring many of them to continue their legacy. An inspiring (and convicting) session.

I was shut out of the acoustic guitar workshop I wanted to attend this afternoon because of space restrictions, but I did get a chance to sit in on the Tim Hughes songwriting workshop, "Releasing Creativity." Well worth the time. Hughes is a thoughtful and intelligent songwriter and worship leader, and his advice was great whether I ever write another song or not.

I also attended a session on utilizing space, art and music to introduce the element of surprise in worship, to keep the congregation awake and wondering what will happen from week to week--not surprise for the sake of surprise, but rather creative surprise for the purpose of awakening people to the truth of God in fresh and interesting ways.

Leonard Sweet filled in for the absent Jack Hayford in this morning's general session, and his thoughts are always worth mulling over. I'll try to summarize the main points of his talk a little later--as you can imagine, I've had little time to process the previous conference, much less the current one.

Tonight: Matt Redman, Brenton Brown and Brian and Jenn Johnson.