Conference Welcome

“Love bade me welcome”

Let me extend our heartfelt welcome to you! We are glad you are here and look forward to our two and a half days together as we contemplate what it means to ‘bring poetry into the life of our churches.’

 

Our goals are simple: we want our sessions and our interactions with one another to be inspirational, practical, and worshipful. From our first plenary session to our final guided meditation, we expect to walk away feeling even more motivated to plumb all of the resources that poetry offers the life of faith. As we reach for such heights, we also want to bring it down to earth. In our plenary talks and particularly our workshops, we aim to equip one another with fresh, practical ideas about how to integrate poetry into the worship, preaching, teaching, and devotional practices of our congregations.

 

Our ultimate focus is not poetry, of course, but God. In ways that are both inspirational and practical, our worship services and guided meditations will both demonstrate further how to draw upon the riches of poetry in our devotion, and, most significantly, direct our attention to the One whose love especially bids us welcome.

 

With gratitude for your company,

David Mahan
Conference Coordinator

Note: Because they are an integral part of our schedule, we have made every effort to offer worship services and guided meditations that embrace all of the diversity represented at our conference. Some elements may be familiar to you, others may not be. But we encourage you to participate in ways that you feel comfortable with.