“We all have varying expressions, which is beautiful and necessary for the city.”

Elizabeth Kranz
Special to Spur Ottawa

The Ottawa Worship Collective (OWC) is hosting a worship and arts conference for Ottawa believers involved in the worship at their church. The event includes a night of praise, open to everyone, on Friday, April 29, as well as special seminars targeting worship leaders, pastors, singers and musicians, and sound technicians, on Saturday, April 30.

“The Ottawa Worship Collective conference is not so much about precisely how your gatherings should look,” explains Chad Cecil, an assistant pastor with the Lifecentre. “We all have varying expressions, which is beautiful and necessary for the city. It is about who your gatherings should magnify—Christ—and equipping you to tell His story fantastically.”

This conference is actually the second in what OWC hopes will become a quarterly event. More than 200 people attended their first event, last January. Participants came from across the spectrum of Christian experience, including members of traditional, liturgical, charismatic, and informal congregations.

Mat Crisp, Worship and Arts Director at the Lifecentre, says OWC aims to encourage community, by sharing ideas and supporting each other, and to build unity in praise to God.

The Collective formed from a group of about 15 Ottawa pastors and worship leaders. They felt led by God to create a space where pastors and worship leaders could gather to encourage each other. They also wanted to provide opportunities to voice questions, problems, and ideas in order to be better equipped to serve their home congregations.

“OWC hopes to come alongside ministries, not to alleviate or give quick fixes, but to gather people from all across the city, in Jesus’ name,” says Cecil. “We want to equip them through gospel-centered teaching, along with sharing ideas and resources.”

Crisp says one principle that inspires him comes from Psalm 78:72. It says, “So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them with his skillful hands.”

He stresses that we must have both integrity of heart and strive to worship God with excellence of skill.

“Whether our personal contribution to worship is looking after the lighting, preaching, or playing an instrument, it should be done with skillful hands.”

Crisp says OWC also wants to examine how to make “the church experience” more meaningful to visitors and how to lead unbelievers to Jesus, while encouraging growth for mature Christians.

Cecil adds, “We want to encourage volunteers and leaders to see themselves as sent people, by Jesus, to serve and strengthen their communities. As followers of Jesus, we have to understand that we are missionaries in Ottawa. This calling requires us to better understand the Jesus story and to invite the Holy Spirit to navigate the planning and practices for our worship gatherings, to the glory of the Son and renewal of this city.”