Worship at the ACFW Conference

Okay, I'm back and I'll update the church pages after I get to church this Sunday. If you have something to add prior to that, please email me.

So, where did I go?

To start with, I attended the American Christian Fiction Writer's conference in Minneapolis, MN. It was a fantastic conference. In attendance were about 600 people from the Christian publishing industry.

Each day started early with breakfast at 0730. That was followed by worship and devotions. I cannot explain how emotional I became standing in that room with all those other Christians, our voices raised in praise, knowing we all had the common goal of bringing Christ to a secular world.

The worship team was made up of volunteers from the industry - mostly authors. I don't know all them except for these: Cassie Campbell (acoustic guitar), author Rachel Hauck (keyboards), author Gail Sattler (bass guitar).

On Friday night, I attended the Harp and Bowl. The room wasn't crowded at all since many groups used this 'time-out' night to go out for their yearly dinner/visit. All I'd been told about the Harp and Bowl: - it was a worship and prayer session and - bring a box of kleenex and a shoulder to cry on.

Rachel and Cassie led the singing and then invited anyone who felt the urge to go forward and pray with a 2 min time limit. So, one by one, people went up to the microphone and offered up prayers while the worship team played in the background. This went on for an hour. I ran out of kleenex but found more than enough shoulders. I was thoroughly humbled and blessed by the experience.

Classes went until 10 pm each night except Sat when the Banquet was held and awards were given out for the best Christian fiction books on the market.

The conference ended Sunday at noon after a final worship and devotion session as well as a closing message from author Angela Hunt, the key-note speaker.

I then headed up to Thunder Bay, Ontario, to spend a week with my mom and finally arrived back home at 8 AM Tues, Sep 30th.

One thing that stuck to me was a song we sang at all the worship and devotion sessions at the conference. I'd never heard it before and yet it was familiar because of the words. It stayed with me long after the singing was over. It was the Revelation Song.

Then on Sunday while in Thunder Bay, Mom took me to a church that both started and ended the service with the Revelation Song. The words and music reasonated through my mind during the afternoon. I've found YouTube videos of a couple people singing this song as well as the lyrics and chords and I'm presenting them to Jessica. Of course, she might decide not to bring this song before the church during our praise and worship, but I'll be praying that she does. And then again, many of you are probably familiar with it so that'll be just great.

You can go to my personal blog if you want to read more about the conference, my trip or see the photos.

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