Our Heart & Vision
Today there are conferences for just about everything located all over the world. What makes CRE8 any different? CRE8 was birthed out of a heart for the average church and the group of volunteers that make up its music ministry. Through ministry connections and travel Rich Hamm saw a need for local church. After attending many conferences himself, he decided to present the idea of CRE8 to his local church. Many of these conferences were amazing and featured great speakers and worship leaders, but he always walked away wondering what the average church full of volunteer singers, musicians, technicians and worship leaders were getting out of these conferences. Sure the music was amazing, the sound was unbelievable the lighting was top of the line, but how did this help the local church? With thousands of people in attendance how did the needs of the average church with not a lot of resources get met? Mostly they did not. Classes and sessions were based on solid spiritual application and even some practical application, but overall wasn’t a resource for the average church, just a great place to dream what if! Rich proposed a conference that would be small enough to truly connect the attendees with the speakers and artists present. A conference that would feature tools in the technical field that were obtainable for average churches. What if the speakers focused on building the worship team as a whole and provided great insight into what they do and how they obtain the sound that they do?
CRE8 is about the local church that is the heart! CRE8 is designed for every size church no matter how big or how small. The sources and tools used and explained will fit into any size budget. Many conferences are very expensive and require a lot of money to run, so typically only the worship leader and maybe one or two people attend these conferences. Rich asked the question what if CRE8 was affordable enough that the average church could send their entire team? What would that change for that church? What would this kind of atmosphere bring to their lives? After much prayer and much discussion CRE8 was born for the building of the local church.
CRE8 is an annual conference held each March in San Antonio, TX birthed out of First Assembly of God in San Antonio’s Worship & Creative Arts Department. The conference features the best speakers and artist in Christian music. The line-up each year changes and the amount and caliber of speakers rivals the biggest music conferences. Each speaker/artist is chosen very carefully and the heart beat of the conference is fully explained. All of these speakers /artist are attending to build the local church. Because of this, CRE8 is also, the most affordable conference in the United States (that features the same caliber of speakers).
Last years conference was a huge success and the testimonies from pastors and worship leaders has blown us away. The atmosphere last year was truly epic. God moved in such a wonderful way and everyone was blessed in attendance. God used each and every speaker/artist to convey a message of hope to the local church and a mighty sound of praise echoed through out the building. The best example of the speakers/artist jumping on board with the heart beat of this conference came last year from Kari Jobe. After selling out the conference and being at standing room only for the worship night much of the public was turned away from the worship night due to the conference being a sell-out. When Kari found this out she offered to play and additional worship set in the gym for those who couldn’t make it inside. Kari and her team played and worship with these people for almost an hour, because she understood our heart and wanted no one to be turned away for an opportunity to worship God. Although all of conference attendees were able to have a seat in the main sanctuary, those from the public that wanted to attend, many were turned away. However, thanks to the heart of our conference and speakers/artist like Kari Jobe, those people walked away with a great encounter with God thanks to Kari and her team. Last year the sponsors took a hold of the heart of the conference and gave away merchandise, gave special deals to the churches in attendance and taught classes on how to maximize the use of their products.
Almost 80% of the people in attendance last year were registered in large groups representing a majority of each churches worship team. We were so pleased to see so many large groups and for these teams to get to experience an event like this together. Lincoln Brewster, Kari Jobe, Ricardo Sanchez and all the other speakers and teachers did such an amazing job of building the local church and we have heard all the great things that happened as a result of this conference.