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| Pedway |
Deborah and I went back to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada last week for a Christian conference called Break Forth Canada. It’s sponsored by Break Forth Ministries and draws over 7400 people to attend three days of worship, lectures, and workshops in the most wide ranging set of topics. I think this was the fourth time we have been to the event over the last 9 years, and fortunately the weather was delightfully warm. Edmonton in the winter can be a frighteningly cold place, but the downtown areas can be navigated largely through a system of pedways. Basically, there are connections between buildings either over or under street level that can take you to most, though not all of the locations in the city that hold the different sessions. Let me explain a little further.
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| Erwin McMamanus |
The conference starts with optional attendance on Friday morning. There are a variety of “intensive” sessions to join. It can be anything from spiritual renewal, to playing drums, running sound, lighting, writing, conflict resolution, leadership and so on. Most of these sessions run in tracks, but you can mix and match as you want. There were 26 options that could be chosen. Friday night kicks off the main event with everyone in a large hall in the Shaw Conference Center. After announcements, there is worship, followed by a main speaker. This year it was Erwin McManus. After the speaker there is more options for bands. Saturday again starts with music, then a speaker, followed by more breakout sessions. [ I think there were 145 total option over Saturday and Sunday.] Another evening worship, speaker and more bands follow. This all concludes Sunday with breakouts, yet more music and worship and a speaker. The other main guests this year were Anne Graham Lotz (Billy Graham’s daughter), Tony Compolo and Nick Vujicic, pronounced 'Vooy-cheech. The bands ranged from Robin Mark, Paul Baloche to DownHere, Starfield, Third Day, Jars of Clay and Jeremy Camp and others.
I hope you can get the sense of the quality of the whole conference. We didn’t go to any of the music arts breakouts this year, but I can tell you there was a whole room filled with large format digital mixing boards that were used for training. If you can swing it, you really need to go check it out. The conference itself is only $99 for the main sessions. The concerts are an add on ranging from $15 to $27, and the intensives extra as well. But it’s less than $200 for three days of insight, instruction and encouragement. It’s a packed three days, with lots of learning, and incredible stories from all the speakers. Not only that but it’s fun and uplifting at the same time!
I'll be sharing more of the details in the coming days, but this served as a good introduction.
We’re hoping to go again next year; who’s coming!
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| Worship |
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| One of the Breakout Rooms |
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