One Conference
Unify. Serve. Equip. Empower. The One Conference was created by the Global Leadership Network Canada. They are committed to helping leaders grow in Canada. They exist to inspire, equip and encourage Christian in Canada for the sake of maximizing community impact. It was held at the beginning of February at Center Street Church (CSC) in Calgary Alberta. This conference was an opportunity for Canadian Church Leaders to gather to experience a spiritual refreshing, gain renewed focus, and be effectively equipped to lead the church of tomorrow. With wholehearted worship, powerful keynote speakers, and thoughtful breakout sessions, the Global Leadership Networks goal was that the participants would leave with a renewed sense of optimism and courage to help lead their church in the months and years ahead.
I had the huge honour of being asked by my sister (who was the point person at CSC) to take photos at this years conference because they were in need of a photographer! As you have seen in my social media, website and blogs, conferences aren’t something I specialize in so this request was out of my comfort zone. But I felt that God was saying yes for me to stretch and use my God given gifts and talents to serve the Canadian church in this unique way.
As I as preparing for this conference I was comparing it to a wedding. Candid photos of people signing in and chatting like people mingling at a reception. Main speakers and break out sessions like the ceremony and speeches. Photographing all day and more. Normally after a wedding though the next day I have a massive head ache. But after these two days, my sister and I went out to see the mountains! I was tired but filled.
The main difference was that I could give back my gift of photography to serve these leaders and the leaders to come. These images are going to be used to encourage, teach and advertise for future GLN Canada events. In some small way, I pray that these images will encourage Church leaders to plant seeds of the gospel in the people that are around them. If these photos can be, in some small way, a mustard seed in someones faith, wow, what a humbling and exciting experience to be apart of!
I had a blast and was so filled with energy by the staff, volunteers and leaders! The staff that came out from the GLN Canada were the kindest around. Over and over again they were checking in on their volunteers, guest speakers, and guests to see if they could help in any way. It was a beautiful thing to witness how these leaders were serving those around them.
One of my favourite moments of the event was at the very end when the GLN Canada staff, volunteers, guest speakers, worship and tech came together to in prayer to thank God for the conference and the work that He was already doing and that the Holy Spirit would flow through the leaders as they go back to their own churches.
During the conference, the music was awesome! The Holy Spirit was flowed through each note! The songs they sang are now on my playlist. 🙂 Let me know if you want some of those song titles. Taking photos during the music part was the funnest part of taking photos. (So there is a lot of them.)
Worship Time
The Speakers
If you are curious about some of the guest speakers, here is a list from this year:
Mark Sayers (Zoom interview)
Craig Groeschel (Via video)
We were led in worship by “Worship Central“.
During the second day after worship and main sessions there were a few breakout sessions which included topics like:
– Community Support and Outreach Workshop
– Worship Leaders Lunch
– Marriage and Family Ministry Workshop
– Supporting Mental Health Workshop
– Evangelism workshop
– and more.
Ministry Partners that helped to support this mission of One COnference to serve, equipe and unity the church in Canada were:
The Global Leadership Network Summit https://globalleadershipnetwork.ca/summit2023
Centre Street Church https://www.cschurch.ca/
Compassion https://www.compassion.ca/
World Vision https://www.worldvision.ca/churches/home
Alpha https://alphacanada.org/
Lifecentre https://www.lifecentre.org/
Volunteers
A huge shout out to all the volunteers behind the scene that made this event possible! The volunteers and staff and CSC, you guys are amazing! Colours and Shapes, your creative addition to this event was so amazing and brought many into the presence of God. Since working at a church, it is neat to see how other churches run their technology for services.
I can’t wait for next year! 🙂
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