ZOE Conference 2013 Registration

Greetings, ZOE friends, old and new! We are excited to announce that the 2013 ZOE Worship Conference, “Here With Us”, will be held in Nashville, TN at the Otter Creek Church on October 25-27. This year our conference and CD will have a Christmas theme...specifically, Advent. Advent teaches us what “God with us” really means. Advent is about waiting… waiting on the Lord, watching for Him, believing in Him… even when He is silent. Advent celebrates the absolute truth that God is faithful and that His steadfast love is present, even in difficult times, to bring a deep peace unlike anything we’ve ever experienced. It takes what can become a very commercial holiday season that can leave us empty and lonely and infuses it with life and hope.

Recently, some of the other ZOE singers who are also worship ministers and I had a conversation about the things that are most helpful to us. We asked the question, "What would WE want and need in a conference?" Well, we love to worship. So, we want to have great times of celebratory and heart-felt worship as the ZOE Group leads us (including a Saturday afternoon worship session with song writer and worship artist, Carl Cartee from Fellowship Bible Church in Nashville). We also want some inspiring Biblical feeding. So our key note speakers, Mike Cope, Jonathan Storment and Jeff Walling will take us deep into the Word.

We also need tools...tools to help us be better at this calling on our lives. So, we've worked hard this year to broaden our break-out sessions to address both topical and thematic things like Josh Ross's and John Mark Hicks's classes all about waiting on the Lord, while also offering practical worship ministry, technical, and hands-on creative and inspiring classes. We hope that some of these classes about leading praise teams, innovative lighting ideas, worship planning, caring for your voice, innovative ways of using art, Planning Center, and more will help you not only leave feeling refreshed spiritually, but also equipped to do the technical parts of your job.

And, back by popular demand, we're doing another New Music Pre-Conference to kick off the weekend! In addition to the great new music we’ll learn at the conference from the upcoming ZOE CD “Here With Us,” New Music Nashville will provide an opportunity for attendees to discover even more great new songs for worship. Beginning on Friday morning, attendees will have a chance to learn a dozen new songs with Randy Gill, DJ Bulls and rehearsal accompanist Jerry Reed. These selections are brand new arrangements in a variety of styles that will be wonderful additions to your church’s repertoire in the coming year. A folio of the new music by Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Israel Houghton and others is included in the price of the Pre-Conference. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to be part of what one participant last year called “the greatest a cappella worship choir ever assembled!” The songs are great, the singing is incredible and it's just a blast! You won't want to miss New Music Nashville!

We know how hard it can be to take time away from your home church--whether you're a volunteer or a full-time minister. We know it's difficult to make time to go other places on the days when your job seems to count the most. But it's YOU we have in mind as we've carefully begun painting this canvas that will be "Here With Us". We're planning all sorts of surprises this year...and don't want you to miss even one of them. We would love for you to stay through the weekend and then worship with us Sunday morning too as Mike Cope and I close out the conference.

My prayer is that the Lord would begin building excitement and anticipation in your hearts as we look ahead to October 25th when we will gather and experience the Lord in ways that will shape our lives and ministries. I'm praying that these hope inspired words, "God with us", will begin to just haunt you....ring in your ears...and surround you on days of trouble and in times of rejoicing.

Registration opens tomorrow (July 29th). SIGN UP! Do it! I promise, this is one ZOE Conference you won't want to miss. I'll see you in October! I CAN. NOT. WAIT! Go here to register! www.zoegroup.org

Here WIth Us

Don't forget to save the date on your calendars for the first ever ZOE Christmas conference in October! October 25th-27th in Nashville at the Otter Creek Church. You can register online at www.zoegroup.org

We begin recording our first ever Christmas CD this Friday. We're excited and covet your prayers as we enter this process!

ZOE in Malibu 2012

ZOE had our annual trek to Malibu recently. The Pepperdine lectureship is such a wonderful week for us. We have the honor of getting to minister to hundreds of people and also have fellowship with each other. This was our 15th year to go. What a blessing it is to us! We did three classes with Mike Cope plus 2 late night worship experiences. It was a very exhausting week but so worth it! The week culminated with a very sweet experience for me which you'll hear more about below...

Here are some pictures from our time there.

No trip to Malibu is complete for us without eating at Duke's!

The beauty all around the Pepperdine campus

Sheryl's sister Gail and her family were there too

Cousins! Maddie and Sierra

Mitch Fewell sang with us the first day-posing here with Peter and me

Amy and Sheryl

ZOE CD sales after each session

Part of the fun of Malibu is the beach!

ZOE girls jump for joy

Not to be outdone by the girls...we had to try too

Each morning we went down to the Malibu Country Mart for coffee and morning sunshine

Craig and Beth Ann were also on the trip this year. So fun being together!

Jason got to see his sister Rachel while we were there

Rachel helps prep Jason before we sing

These are the kinds of views you get at Pepperdine...the lovely Pacific Ocean

On Friday Melissa had to leave early because she and Michael were headed to NYC with the Nashville Symphony because the symphony was playing Carnegie Hall. So, I called my buddy Beverley who I used to perform with (who now sings weekly on Dancing With the Stars) and she came and joined us. It was such a special thing for us! We loved having Beverley. She sang a solo on "It Is Well" and I only wish I had recorded it. I got the other two days...but was so caught up in the moment that I missed it. It was truly incredible! You can hear clips of the other two days below...

This is in the stairwell where we go after soundcheck. I stopped recording right before Sheryl got choked on saliva. :)

After our afternoon class on Friday we all loaded up and went in to Santa Monica to the pier. In all the years we've been going out there we have never done this. It was such a blast!

Jason and Amy

Beverley and me

Maddie and Jesse

Jeremy, Beverley and Kelly Chitwood with Sheryl and me

This artist was amazing! Maddie had her do her name

Amy, Kent and Jason--oink

Kevin, Amy and Jason before riding the coaster

Ella rode with me! She loved it!

We had a great week out there and some pretty incredible moments of ministry in Mike's class and in our late night worship sessions. I always leave feeling the glory of God. It's a very special place. 

ACU Welcome Week Candlelight Devo

Tuesday night I went to the annual ACU Welcome Week candlelight devo in the ACU amphitheater. It was awesome...as always. It had been almost 20 years since I had been to it. I loved hearing the more than 1000 voices sing with passion to the Father. Many of the songs were ZOE songs/arrangements. It was surreal in a way. I thought of my friends who had written some of those songs...probably having no clue the life it would have within my particular tribe, and wished for them.

My buddy Chris Davis who wrote "Here In This Place" probably never imagined how his song would be tied in a very emotional way to the beginning of all these students' college experiences. Chris is a good friend and a good man.

I'm wondering if my friend Eric Wyse ever imagined the picture above when he wrote "Light the Fire"? Eric and I produced several kids records together for Parable Bookstores and we've done multiple projects together including the Hymns project for Family Christian Bookstores. I love and miss you, Eric! Please come see us.

I'm wondering if my friend from Belmont Church, Rob Still, could have ever imagined how "A New Anointing" would take on a life of its own? Rob has often told me how ZOE brought that song to life. Worship Leader Magazine had used our recording to introduce that song in their Song Discovery program. I wished for him as I heard these kids belting it out. A season for a NEW anointing! Powerful words for these kids in this time in their lives.

And every time we sing Shout Hallelujah, I think about the night in the studio when Randy Gill introduced us to that song. It's one of my favorites! I love how Randy has helped shape the worship vocabulary within our tribe and beyond.

One of the MOST bizarre things is how songs take on a life of their own. I stood there as the students sang these songs and listened as the girls all sang the adlib parts by memory...parts that my wife Sheryl, Jason McArthur, Zach Wilson and others made up while we were in the studio. I listened as the tenors soared on parts in "Salvation Belongs to Our God" and "Worthy is the Lamb" and remembered how the tenors and altos haggled (a serious ZOE tradition) in the studio over who would sing which part. The tenors always want to sing the alto parts. HA! And those students were just belting it out. There were no screens....no lyrics...they just all knew them by heart. It was so incredibly moving. I just cannot express how full my heart was that night.

I doubt most of these kids knew any of the background or history of these songs. I did some quick math in my head that night and realized that they were all 3 and 4 years old when the first ZOE CD came out. Talk about a fossilizing moment!! What they WERE thinking about was worship. They seemed to be transported right into the throne room of God. And, after all, THAT is what it's about.

I walked away that night thinking about my ZOE family...all the experiences, the journey, the laughter and tears, the prayers....and I thanked God. It's in times like that when words completely fail you. But I know that in ways I cannot know, the Spirit was able to help me as I prayed. As we have said from the beginning in ZOE...there is only ONE audience and it's our Father. He is the Almighty, Abba, Alpha and Omega, King of kings and Lord of lords. His glory is above the heavens. What I saw Tuesday night was that His fame and glory were being celebrated in powerful ways. Hallelujah! May this generation take that to even higher heights! I want to be a part of THAT! We serve a mighty God! I stand in the shadow of the cross and feel so thankful that I have a hope in Him. Without Him, I am nothing. He gives Life. He takes my meager offering and makes it into something I could never imagine. He takes my brokenness and makes beauty from ashes. He loves beyond my wildest imagination. I want MORE of God and LESS of me! Praise God for his unfailing love!