A partnership between the Worship Facilities Conference and Expo (WFX) and Trevecca Nazarene University’s National Praise and Worship Institute (NPWI) will present an integrated curriculum created by NPWI faculty on how to better unify technical and worship teams. The conference will be held November 18-19, 2015, in Nashville.
WFX is a national conference and expo attracting 3,500 attendees from more than 800 churches seeking training and education on achieving healthy growth through development of technology, staff, and building design and construction. NPWI is a program dedicated to educating and equipping future worship leaders at Trevecca, a Christian university in Nashville.
“NPWI has a keen interest in fusing the technical side of the church into our curriculum,” says Randall Bayne, executive director of NPWI. “This opportunity will be beneficial to us and WFX, and also to the church as a whole.”
“WFX has been delivering high quality worship team training for several years, but the opportunity to partner with the faculty of NPWI and take our offerings to the next level will result in more churches obtaining the training they want and need,” says Jim Wagner, publisher of Worship Facilities magazine and general manager of WFX.
In addition to its focus on unifying the technical with the musical, the curriculum curated by NPWI will look at how to reincorporate choir into modern worship and will also explore how stepping into music publishing can be used by churches for outreach.
Unity is the theme, though, and the training offered to WFX attendees by NPWI will primarily seek to tear down divisions in worship and the church. “We’re for unity in worship — for removing the division between traditional and contemporary. It shouldn’t be blended, but instead interwoven. We’re teaching churches how to find their own musical language,” says Bayne.
WFX sponsor and partner, Word Worship — a label imprint under Word Entertainment, will further enhance NPWI’s curriculum. “We’re looking forward to making connections with churches across the country seeking new ways to serve their congregations with music,” says Jonathan Mason, director of Word Worship.
Word Worship will help to lead the worship experiences that are part of the curriculum — one will be led by former Newsboys bassist, Phil Joel — and will also present sessions on topics such as worship theology and musical styles.
