Worship Innovators Conference
October 2 - 3, 2023 | Chicago, IL
Bringing together innovators to provide
practical training for worship leaders.
Every worship leader can become an innovator.
Our goal is to help you better plan for your weekend service each week so you can create new ways for people to connect with God.
Learn from the top innovators of worship resources.
You’ll learn from the experts in worship innovation and connect with other like-minded worship leaders.
If you attend this conference, you will become better at:
– Preparing for your worship services
– Reaching people in new ways with technology
– Planning for the unexpected
What To Expect
Our goal is that you leave feeling like you learned practical strategies for taking your worship leading to the next level, as well as connected to other like-minded worship leaders.
Main Sessions
– Worship (Led by Worship Innovators)
– Innovator Talks
– Panel and Interview discussions
Breakout Sessions
– Choose a specific topic of interest to go deeper in
– Learn from and hang with the innovators of your choice in breakout rooms.
– Build community with other like-minded worship leaders
Taught by worship resource innovators
Meet your conference guides
Aaron Stewart
Planning Center - Co-Founder
Rochelle Burlock
Women That Worship - Founder
Jason Houtsma
Worship Artistry - Founder
Alex Enfiedjian
Worship Ministry Training
Stephen Duncan
The Worship Coalition - Founder
Rich Kirkpatrick
Author, Musician
Brian Wahl
Worship Tutorials - Founder
Matt McCoy
Loop Community - Founder
Nate Scott
CCLI & SongSelect
Sheri Gould
Vocalist / Worship Leader
Jason Squires
The Creative Launch
Dan Willard
EasyWorship
Hear from the leaders in worship innovation.
Ryan Dahl
PraiseCharts - Founder
Jenni Mcgrew
Worship Leaders Collective - Founder
Jason Kichline
OnSong - Founder
David Pfaltzgraff
Sunday Sounds - Founder
Adam Meyer
WorshipTools - Director of Product
Dr. Michael Santucci
ASI Audio - Founder
Hang with and learn from innovators in focus groups
Schedule
Monday, October 10
8 AM – Check In
9 AM – Main Session
10:15 AM – Breakout Session 1
11:10 AM – Main Session 2
12 PM – Lunch – provided
1:30 PM – Breakout Session 2
2:30 PM – Breakout Session 3
3:30 PM – Main Session 3
5 PM – 7 PM Optional: Cornhole / Food Trucks
at church or Dinner on your own
(All times are in CST)
Tuesday, October 11
8:00 Doors Open
9:00 Main Session 1
10:05 Breakout Session 1
11:00 Lunch – provided
12:30 Main Session 2
1:35 Breakout Session 2
2:35 Breakout Session 3
3:35 Main Session 3
4:10 Conference Ends
(All times are in CST)
**subject to change
Sponsors
Practical Talks & Focus Sessions
People vs. Planning
Worship technology is important and can improve the sound of your worship. But it’s important to not put that in front of the people on your team. Your people are your most valuable asset and we want to make sure we are leading them well. Learn how to balance planning for your worship services and caring for the people on your team.
Making the Most of Planning Center Services
Planning your worship services and scheduling your teams can be overwhelming. Planning Center Services gives you a centralized place for both you and your teams to access personalized schedules, service information, and rehearsal files at any time. This class covers intermediate and advanced functionality to make sure you are getting the most of your Planning Center Services and Music Stand subscriptions.
Using Planning Center as a Church Management System
Though Planning Center started as an app for planning worship services, it has expanded into a suite of apps to manage your entire church. This class gives an overview of Check-Ins, People, Giving, Groups, Registrations, and Resources, and what it takes to get started or to move to a full Planning Center solution for your church.
Aaron Stewart
Planning Center
How to Write a Rock-Solid Chord Chart
Without a doubt, the most common musical language for modern worship music is the chord chart. Anyone can read a chord chart, even if they don’t read music. Writing a good chord chart takes time and skill, but a well written chord chart saves endless time at your worship practice. Ryan and his team at PraiseCharts have written thousands of chord charts that have been downloaded more than a million times. In this session, he’ll show you exactly how they do it, so that you can have the skill to write your own charts, or edit the ones you might get from PraiseCharts. Learn about chords, chord phrasing, lyric phrasing, section mapping, and other tricks that let you make the most of your text editor.
How To Play By Ear and Get Free From Your Sheet Music
Well written charts can help your band sound amazing. However, on a Sunday morning during live worship, they can also be an annoying crutch. If you want to play music from your heart, and you want your band to have more freedom to “flow with the Spirit,” you’re gonna have to get free of the sheet music eventually. In this session, you’ll discover that memorizing your favorite worship songs isn’t as hard as you think. Once you tap into the repeating rhythms and progressions, there is a lot less to memorize. After this session, you’ll feel encouraged and inspired to take a leap, swipe that music away, and play with freedom from your heart, with your own unique style.
Ryan Dahl
PraiseCharts
Developing Sets that Engage Your Congregation
Just about any musician can pick a handful of songs for a worship setlist, but there is an art to developing a worship set that intentionally engages your congregation and encourages the flow of worship. Learn how to make a worship setlist that is meaningful, thoughtful and creative.
Jason Houtsma
Worship Artistry
Hands-Free and Hassle-Free: Using Digital Music on Stage
Explore how to get rid of the binder, music stands, and paper sheet music and be more organized and confident. Learn how going digital can improve your congregational engagement and team dynamics.
Beyond the Page: The Future of Worship Technology
Going digital with your sheet music is just the beginning. Learn how to run lyrics projection, control stage lighting, and automate your instruments and effects with just a tap. Then we’ll end with a discussion on future worship technology.
Jason Kichline
OnSong
The Spark of Innovation
Why are we sometimes afraid of innovation? Why do we hold back? Innovation is what moves the world forward. Everyone can be an innovator by understanding the fundamental drivers behind innovation.
Tracks Made Easy
Do you want to start using multitracks in worship? Using multitracks is a great way to fill out the sound of your band and replace missing musicians. It can seem complicated when you first get started, but in this session you will learn the easiest way to use tracks in worship.
Ableton Live for Beginners
Learn the basics of how to use Ableton Live in worship to run multitracks.
Matt McCoy
Loop Community
Electric Guitar Tone & Technique for Modern Worship
Learn everything you need to know about electric guitar tone and techniques for today’s modern worship sound
How to lead an effective and stress-free rehearsal
Rehearsals and soundcheck can be stressful and overwhelming, but they don’t need to be. Learn practicals tips and a framework that will make your next soundcheck or rehearsal go smoothly.
Brian Wahl
Worship Tutorials
How to Build Engaging Worship Sets
Learn the proven roadmap to building better worship sets. Tired of clunky sets that don’t flow or engage the congregation? Learn how to build cohesive, beautiful, Christ-centered sets that help your people passionately express their praise.
The Systems & Rhythms of a Thriving Worship Ministry
If you want to achieve health and success in life, you have to do certain things at certain teams. Your ministry is no different. Do the right things at the right times, and you’ll achieve the right results. Come and learn how!
Alex Enfiedjian
Worship Ministry Training
Lessons from Behind the Mixer
Jeff Barnett presents seven insights from his journey as an audio engineer that took him far too long to learn. Get a jump on your journey with this mix of practical tech tips and relational wisdom he wished someone told him early on.
Improving Your Live Stream
You may have recently scrambled to get geared up for live streaming. Now that you have a basic foundation, Kent Morris and Jeff Barnett present techniques to take your live stream to the next level, not just technically but how to better understand and engage your viewers.
Lighting Techniques for Worship
Lighting 101 – The basics of lighting for the non-lighting expert. If you’ve ever had lighting responsibility unwittingly thrust upon you, this session is for you! We’ll cover various types of stage lights, what they do, and how they are controlled.
Andrew Scriven, Jeff Barnett, Kent Morris
Sweetwater
Women That Worship
Women that worship (WTW) is a community designed for female worship leaders, songwriters, artists, and church leaders in ministry. Our mission is to see women living out a lifestyle of worship, rooted and grounded in the word of God, that radiates the love of Jesus Christ wherever we go. We are here to support, encourage, equip, and inspire female leaders in the local church. This session will include such topics as; Embracing the Call to Lead, Identity vs. Image, and What’s Your Sphere of Influence? Join Rochelle as she walks you through her personal journey of worship leading and shares the many lessons she has learned along the way.
Rochelle Burlock
Women That Worship
Modern Keys Techniques for Worship Leaders and Musicians
There’s never been a more exciting and challenging time to be in the keys position on stage but as worship leaders we understand that there’s a big difference between ‘playing piano’ and ‘playing worship keys’. Figuring out how to articulate that difference and transition your volunteers from playing to piano to playing worship keys doesn’t have to be complicated or controversial.
Sunday Keys for Beginners
Pianos, synths, and keyboards have never been more important for modern worship. Gain an understanding of how to use the Sunday Keys App with any keyboard to unlock the full potential of the worship keyboard in this practical and interactive session.
David Pfaltzgraff
Sunday Sounds
Building a Healthy Team Culture
It’s hard building a team that is all in and shares the same vision as you do. Learn how to pastor your worship team and build a culture that lasts.
Jenni Mcgrew
Worship Leaders Collective
Worship Teams & Tech Teams: One Team
Lets discuss the things that draw us closer so that together we’re all working towards the same goal. There’s a lot to unpack here but they are things that will definitely make us better at communicating to achieve a great service.
Getting Started with In-Ear Monitors
There are so many advantages to in-ears, not only for the musicians but congregation as well. We’ll talk about types (universal or custom), devices to hear your mix, how to make changes to your mix, wireless, headphone amps, monitor mix apps, stereo vs. mono, effects, and more!
What you Need to Know about Microphones
Techs and musicians have their favorite brands and models but if you’re a creative musician or tech you may want to experiment and broaden your horizons to achieve the results you have heard in your mind or only imagined .. don’t get stuck by doing things the same way hoping for a different result . Let’s get creative and flesh out some new ideas .
Doug Gould
WorshipMD
How to Legally Lead Worship
CCLI Licenses, Streaming Licenses, Reporting – what does it all mean? Learn how to make sure that your church is legally covered.
Nate Scott
CCLI & SongSelect
Stayin’ Alive
Keeping your voice healthy and vibrant in these days of unhealthy vocal technique can be tricky. Come learn some great ways to nurture and grow your voice amidst today’s styles.
The 3 part Magic Bullet for Your Voice
Discover how to employ three of the most powerful vocal tools you’ll ever use to get the most out of your voice. With these techniques you can get the power, tone and range you’ve always wanted.
5 Steps to Tight Vocals
5 Tips designed to help your team get the tight vocals you’ve always wanted. These tips are simple and so easy to use that you can start with some of them this Sunday!
Sheri Gould
Vocalist / Worship Leader
Getting Your Lyric Slides Right
Discover the power of Music Stand and Presenter working together. Save time by creating your worship sets in one place for musicians and tech.
Writing and Editing Your Own Chord Charts
Learn how to create and edit worship charts with ChordPro, and how to easily share and transpose them.
Service Planning & Volunteer Management on a Budget
Learn how to plan services, manage volunteers and more for free using Planning by WorshipTools.
Adam Meyer
WorshipTools
Creating a Worship Songwriting Culture
For those of us writing Christian songs, the responsibility is immense. In fact, it’s been said that the majority of Christians learn or develop their theology from the songs they sing in church or hear on Christian radio. That means we can’t take the ministry of songwriting lightly. What our songs say is extremely important because we will be held accountable for what our lyrics are teaching people about God (James 3:1). In this session you will learn how to set up and steward a thriving worship songwriting community that shifts culture by writing songs that are grounded in truth and are alive in the spirit.
Stephen Duncan
The Worship Coalition
Creativity in Service Planning
Two songs, announcements, 2 songs, offering, 1 song, message, dismiss. Getting stuck in a rut is very easy to do. This session is going to talk about creative elements you can add into service planning as well as tips on how to write a good setlist.
Eliminating Rehearsal
Mid-week rehearsal is an extra night out in the week and can easily be eliminated so your teams can be home with their families. This class will show you how to set the expectations & use some tools to eliminate it.
Tech Team Invincibility
They are only noticed when there is a problem yet they are the first ones in and the last ones out every week. Your tech team is a vital part to making your worship experience happen. This session will talk about ways to encourage them and show them they are a part of the team.
Jason Squires
The Creative Launch
Creating a Stunning Worship Display with EasyWorship
Easy, reliable, and powerful aren’t exclusive terms. As we go over the basics of EasyWorship like layout, building a schedule, and even basic livestream setup, you’ll see how easy, reliable, and powerful EasyWorship can be for you and your team.
Automating Your Lyrics with EasyWorship
Integrating tracks into your service doesn’t have to be complicated. With EasyWorship and Loop Community’s Prime App, we’ll walk you through how easy it is to sync your tracks and lyric slides to create a powerful presentation for your worship service.
Dan Willard
EasyWorship
Hearing Wellness for Musicians
Learn about how to use in-ear monitors and get started with in-ears at your church with ASI Audio by Sensaphonics Founder Dr. Michael Santucci.
Dr. Michael Santucci
ASI Audio
The Creative Process in Three Steps: The Dream, The Sandbox, and The Story
What if being creative is simply another word for being human? We can grow our creative muscles and Rich tells not only the how-to but explains why the process works. He pulls from researchers, creatives, and experience. The premise is this. Everyone is wired to create. And as we uncover and apply the process, we might actually become better people along the way! His book, MINDBLOWN: Unlock Your Creative Genius by Bridging Science and Magic (link to book https://amzn.to/3qB3k7q), brings this fresh and important message to innovators. Growing your creativity is not just about your work, it’s about all of your life.
Rich Kirkpatrick
Author, Musician
Panel Discussions with Worship Innovators
The Obstacles of Innovation
If you’re a worship leader that wants to start innovating either in your role or in other ways, there are many hurdles that you will have to overcome. Get tips from the top worship innovators on how to be successful as an innovator.
What To Do When Things Go Wrong
When you are leading worship with technology, things will inevitably go wrong at some point! In this panel, the worship innovators will help you learn how to handle these situations, how to help them not distract from the worship service, and how to learn from them.
Leading Worship on a Budget
Whether you are at a large or small church, you most likely have a budget for leading worship. Learn how to utilize your team’s budget, no matter how much it is, to add the technology that is the most effective for your church.
Eyes Off the Page and Heart Into the Song
Chord Charts are a great resource from your worship team. But how do you make sure that your team is able to use them while authentically leading worship? In this panel, some of the top innovators of worship chord charts will give tips for how to use charts while still focusing on leading worship.
Registration
You won’t want to miss this. Limited tickets are available.
Reserve your spot today.
Worship Innovators is perfect for your whole team.
Individual
$99 – early bird pricing!
Usually $199
Group
$49 per person
Group of 10+
Location & Travel Info
CONFERENCE VENUE
Christ Church of Oak Brook
501 Oak Brook Rd
Oak Brook, IL 60523
AIRPORTS
ORD (Ohare) or MDW (Midway) are great airports to fly into and will be a 30 minute drive away.
HOTELS
The Drake – Oak Brook
2301 York Rd
Oak Brook, IL 60523
Hyatt Lodge – Oak Brook
2815 Jorie Boulevard
Oak Brook, IL 60523
Bonus Giveaways for Attendees
Must be present to receive these offers
Loop Community
- 20% off coupon for tracks or hardware
Sunday Sounds
- 20% off all digital products
- 1 Free Song Specific Patch
Get in Touch
We’d love to hear from you. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions – shoot us a message and someone from our team will get back with you!
ALL SALES ARE FINAL
To transfer your ticket to another person, please contact us with your order number.
*Schedule and speakers are subject to change
ALL SALES ARE FINAL
To transfer your ticket to another person, please contact us with your order number.