I was informed on July 10 that when registration for WorshipGod08 closed a total of 1626 people had signed up to come. That’s both humbling and exciting.
What that means is that registration for the conference is closed. People who show up at the door will only be able to attend the main sessions. This is a problem I’m not used to having.
A few stats:
760 first time attendees
127 high school students
619 worship leaders
31 international guests (including 14 from Canada)
Largest age group: 26-40 with 571
Second largest: 25 and below with 436
Largest church size group: 101-300 with 635 people
Largest seminar: David Powlison’s “A Calm and Peaceful Heart” with 631 signed up
I’m glad to see so many young people coming, so many attendees wanting to address issues of the heart, and so many people coming for the first time.
I’d appreciate your prayers for all those who are preparing to serve those who will be at the conference, as well as for everyone who will be coming. Looking forward to three and half days of equipping, encouragement, and encountering God through His Word, song, and fellowship, as we rediscover God’s unsearchable greatness in the Psalms.
The other day I was adding up the number of people who had signed up for seminars. When I looked up at my calculator it read 943. I figured I must have punched in a wrong number. I added the numbers again, looked up, and it still read 943. I couldn’t believe it. We’re almost four months out from the conference and we’re already at 60% capacity. Seems most of it had to do with people wanting to save the $25 that was added to registration on April 1.
That’s good news and bad news. The good news is that we’re going to have a great time with a lot of folks. The bad news is that we’re already having to close some seminars. And we’re going to be advertising at Together for the Gospel in a couple weeks and at the New Attitude Conference at the end of May. We’re working on some solutions, like switching rooms for different seminars. But the fact is, we have space limitations and we just can’t increase the size of all the seminars. Most of them will be recorded, but it’s always nice to be there at the actual seminar. Once a seminar is full it won’t show up as an option on the registration page.
So if you’re interested at all in coming to the conference and want to have as many options as possible for the seminars, I’d sign up soon.
On the other hand, if you’re not as concerned about getting the seminars you want, take your time.
No one gives announcements like Mark Altrogge. Sure he can write amazing worship songs. Sure he’s a great dad and pastor. Sure he’s a fantastic artist. But his giftedness really shines when he steps up to give announcements. That’s why he’s been the go-to announcement giver at every WorshipGod conference. And why I made sure early on that he was set for WorshipGod08. Here’s a portion of the announcements he gave at WorshipGod06. He’s honoring those who serve on the tech team, but uses it as an opportunity to bust on me. His comments are only slightly exaggerated.