In March 2007, the Winepress held its third Empower Conference for Small
Church teams. Empower ‘07 was attended by 116 delegates representing 21
churches from different denominations.
Empower is the result of a long-term
vision of Pastors Arthur & Dani Cherrie. Arthur says, “It seems only a
few years ago that Dani and I started Winepress out of our garage in
Berwick. We’d go to conferences and hear great talks, but generally it
was from people so far ahead of us, that we found it hard to implement
what we had learnt. A vision was born in our hearts to help folks who
are in small churches through getting their teams together with our team
and speaking into their situations at their level and then supporting
them in their journey”.
Arthur & Dani’s dream has now been realised. In March 2007, the
Winepress held its third Empower Conference for Small Church teams.
Empower 07 was attended by 116 delegates representing 21 churches from
different denominations with some coming as far away as South Australia
to attend.
Arthur Cherrie opened Empower ’07 by saying, “This conference is all
about empowering people through relationship, rather than just a lot of
how-tos.”
Some comments received from Pastors who brought their church leadership
teams to Empower 07:
“Our team members were greatly blessed and encouraged and could not
stop commenting on how wonderful every aspect of the weekend was.”
“In all my years as a Christian I have attended many conferences in all
states of Australia and never in that time have I attended one that has
had such a big impact on me as an individual.”
“The love that was expressed to all of us was overwhelming.”
“You have encouraged and inspired me to work more at loving and
releasing my people more.”
At Empower 07, a spirit of generosity overflowed, with many volunteers,
staff and interns giving their all to make Empower a first class
experience for delegates. Gourmet food was available throughout the
conference with some people enjoying a shoulder and neck massage.
Conference Co-ordinator, Fiona Grech says, “Seeing churches connect with
one another, pray together and catch the vision of giving and become a
blessing themselves was very exciting. Also seeing our church body catch
the vision of Empower and rise in servanthood and unity was something to
behold. This was definitely a WOW factor!”
A key to Empower’s success is the emphasis on relationship and honesty,
not just on sharing information. As one attending Pastor said, “I really
appreciated the relevance, transparency and genuineness of Arthur & Dani
who know what it is like to walk in our shoes.”
