A sharing conference is a gathering of worship artists (anyone who plans or participates in the worship service) who gather in a safe and nurturing environment to share their experiences and ideas in order to learn from each other and receive encouragement in ways to vitalize worship in our churches.
The idea of a "Sharing Conference" is not a new or original idea. One of the organizers in her professional life (as a special education teacher for adjudicated teenaged male sex offenders), was introduced to the concept of the sharing conference. Even .. though there was a lot of literature on sex offender treatment - it was still a young discipline with many treatment programs still learning valuable things in the field. Those best practices were shared at regular intervals among all kinds of practitioners- social workers, therapists, physicians, counselors, care-givers, teachers, family members -anyone connected with the transformation of the lives of perpetrators and victims/survivors came together to share. It didn't matter how many letters were after your name, the value was in the content of your idea about what worked, with whom, and in what setting. Seeing the value in this event professionally, the organizer speculated that this concept would be transferable to the worship/church setting and just as valuable there. The possibilities are limited only by the participant.
An introduction to the Worship Sharing Conference idea was first held July 19, 2008 at the Dundee United Methodist Church. Between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and noon, the "sharing conference" idea was shared, and then vocal music was read through. (Only one topic was available due to the introductory nature of the event.) A Transcript of that event is available by Clicking Here.
