"The Elephant Diet" Day # 118 Writer, Speaker or Leader?

I'm sitting in my room at the Prince Convention Center at Calvin College getting ready to do a concert tonight at the Speak Up With Confidence Conference in Grand Rapids, MI.

This is the 3rd time I've been the worship leader/musician for this conference and it's amazing to see what God is doing in my life now compared to the first time I attended this conference years ago and met Carol Kent for the first time. Meeting her has changed my life and ministry.

There are 3 tracks you can choose from at this training conference:
1) Writing
2) Speaking
3) Leader

150 people from 28 States, Canada and Hong Kong have descended upon MI to listen, worship, be critiqued and encouraged. It is an overwhelming experience. You will see little huddles all over the convention center and hear bells ringing every 15 minutes. A hopeful writer is pitching their book idea to a publisher. They have 15 minutes to sell their vision. When the bell rings, you have to move on. It's inspiring to be a part of this.

Tonight, after my concert, I will attend a workshop on blogging. I am so ripe for this workshop. I would have never dreamed years ago that I would crave training on blogging or any form of writing, in addition to songwriting, but that is what happens when we start dreaming and pursuing the seeds planted in our hearts. I remember when Carol reeled me in from just being a songwriter and told me she wanted to develop me as a speaker. I quivered with excitement and anxiety. Now I get invited to speak almost as much as to lead worship or do a concert.

You may start out as a writer, but you will need to learn to speak. As you learn to speak, you will find yourself leading others because of what you have to say. You may be a speaker, but there may come a time when your message should be written down for others to read - you then become an author. It all overlaps in many ways. Either way, you will definitely become a leader. You could choose any of the three tracks here and benefit from all of them no matter who you are. You might even consider coming to next year's conference. I highly recommend it.

To learn more about it, visit http://speakupconference.com/. (You might have to paste this into your browser, since I'm doing this on my iPad which doesn't seem to make hyper links when blogging).

I'll be anxious to see what I learn at the workshop tonight and how it changes this blog.

I first met Carol because I had the desire to learn how to speak better in between my songs during concerts. My oh my, I had no idea what that encounter with Carol would do for me.

What about you? Don't doubt the nudges and desires you have inside. If they never go away, no matter what happens to you, it's probably an indicator that you should follow those inklings. They will take you on amazing journeys.