The Mission Worship conference has a 25-year history and became part of Kingsway CLC Trust after the merger between CLC UK and the Kingsway Trust in 2019. It was established to share the move of God through worship that has arisen in recent decades and to give a platform for emerging worship leaders, as well as training, equipping and encouraging new leaders. Even as COVID-19 spread across the UK causing all Christian conferences to be cancelled, we maintained a hope that a November event would still be possible.
It was not to be - but God had other ideas! Like so many Christian activities, churches and events, we moved online. Instead of a physical conference spread over three days, a one-day event over a ten-hour period was put together, and it was live-streamed on Saturday, November 21st. Preparing this was a steep learning curve!
Over the years, Mission Worship has enjoyed the generous support of many participants - Doug Williams (our compere), Dr John Andrews (teaching) and Aaron Keyes (worship leader and songwriter), among others. Everyone connected with the event contributed to produce a series of videos full of spiritual content and glorious praise.
The day began with a worship session led by Jake Isaac and Lucy Grimble (Us & Him), which set the tone for a day centred on Jesus. Dr John Andrews shared a talk with us titled ‘Held by Hope’, a theme that continued in the evening.
In the second and third sessions, there was a mix of seminars and the introduction of new songs from a stunning array of songwriters - Glenn Packiam, Rend Collective, Noel Robinson, Clayton and Olivia Webb, Krissy Nordhoff, Lou Fellingham, Tim Timmons, Lucy Grimble, Keith and Kristyn Getty, Sarah Kroger, Chris McClarney, Richard James Butt, Sandra McCracken and Pat Barrett. A feast! All shared with simplicity and humility, even when the recording was interrupted by a ‘family event’, such as helping a child in the middle of a song! It all combined to bring a sense of authenticity.
The day ended with worship led by Aaron Keyes and the Word of God shared by John Andrews. As Aaron sang - Hallelujah, you are worthy to receive all glory, all honour.
There has been some encouraging appreciation of the day:
MW20 was my best ever Mission Worship experience - I am really pleased it was not cancelled. There was such an awesome sense of God’s presence. There was a real sense of the worship leaders playing to an audience of One without having to also focus on a perfect performance and all the factors that need to be taken into consideration with a concert or big stage event.
Being up close with the worship leaders, sharing their vulnerability and offering pure worship, made it such an intimate experience. The life settings, including the pink bedroom and having to open the playdough, did not detract but made the worship real as it flowed through and out of the realities of personal lives and situations.
I made it a day in His presence - I stayed in my bedroom for the entire time, and it was so good that I did not want to miss any of it so only took a break for dinner, fasting inadvertently.
Maybe you are disappointed to have missed Mission Worship? Well, the beauty of online events is that they can remain online. All of the sessions have been uploaded on www.missionworship.com. Do take the opportunity to check them out.
How are we to evaluate such a new and different experience? The physical events have always attracted hundreds of attendees. The online experience is undoubtedly different and, yet, the numbers speak for themselves - more than 7,500 people from at least 20 countries joined the live-streamed event at some point during the day; the YouTube Mission Worship channel has gained 1,600 new subscribers, and the collection of videos was viewed more than half a million times in 2020 alone.
It is clear that digital channels can enable us to connect with far more people spread around the world. Our mission is to encourage people in their spiritual walk, whatever their starting point. COVID-19 has forced us to look at new methods of communicating His message. Digital is not the only way, but it certainly opens up new opportunities ‘to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever’