For thirteen years, we’ve gathered for VOUS Conference. Each year we’ve come full of expectation, ready for all that God will do. Time and time again, God has met us, lifted our spirits, deposited encouragement, and planted seeds of purpose for the road ahead.
When we gathered for the first time all those years ago, some church kids with God dreams, no heart knew what the next decade would bring. As we stand here today, we shout this resounding anthem in our souls: He has been faithful.
While our meeting has grown, our mission has remained the same — encounter God, equip the Church, and empower the next generation of leaders. A global family has formed as leaders from all walks of life come together to grow and learn. God has faithfully molded us in the meeting and we’ve never left the same.
This is the largest gathering that our church gets to host. 2022 was our best year yet. A long-awaited reunion after several years delayed. Our faith was reactivated, a flame reignited to continue the mission. As we thought ahead to 2023, we couldn’t imagine the year without this moment, and we saw an opportunity for identity expansion. VOUS Conference grew into an idea for VOUS Convention: a meeting place for people with shared work and common interest. VOUSCon was born, and now we’re only days away from gathering together again.
Designed to champion the cause of the local church, VOUSCon leads transformative conversations in faith, culture, and leadership. As believers, we stand at the intersection of all three, with each part influencing the next.
FAITH: Encounter God
We believe faith is activated when it’s personal. Our chief aim this year was to create environments for people to examine their faith. No matter what meeting or workshop a person attends, our prayer is that they walk out of the room knowing Jesus better than they did when they entered.
We want to offer space for people to gain Biblical knowledge and understanding that elevates the way we live and anchors us to Jesus. Leaders are learners; we don’t shy away from opportunities to broaden our current perspectives.
There are faith moments woven throughout VOUSCon — workshop content centered around theology and different elements of church, main arena meetings and worship experiences, and prayer rooms for guests to freely come and go to receive prayer.
CULTURE: Equip the Church
We meet people where they are and are willing to adapt our methods to effectively contextualize our message. Creativity is a conversation-starter for faith, and we celebrate creative expression as a gateway to glorify God. The goal is to lean in and speak into current cultural themes within the Church and secular spaces.
We’re incorporating this theme into VOUSCon through the different guest speakers that are coming, the programming we’ve planned, and the way we’ve designed the environmental spaces. Through brand partnership and collabs, merch, parties, workouts, art, music, and food, we have found ways to integrate culture and initiate conversation that explores the impact culture has in our lives.
LEADERSHIP: Empower the Next Generation
One of the goals of VOUSCon is to empower the next generation of leaders. We are intentionally creating a pathway of growth and purpose for others. Our aim is to provide practical frameworks of leadership that people can apply in their churches, businesses, and homes. We invest in new technology and experiences that equip and empower.
This year, we’re building intentional spaces for leaders to connect with other leaders. With thousands of people attending VOUSCon from all over the globe, there’s an incredible opportunity for people to connect with people they would never have met otherwise — there’s so much we can learn from each other. We’re bringing in world-class leaders with different backgrounds and experiences to host panel discussions, lead workshops, and share during the Leadership Lunches with Pastor Rich.
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The anticipation for VOUSCon builds with each day that passes. Before we ever enter the room, we give all glory to God. The ultimate reason we’re there is to exalt him, lift up his name, and make his name known. We’re walking in with an expectation that he will meet us there, and that what he has in store is better than anything we could ever dream up on our own. We can’t wait to be in the room with you.
