In March 2008, the Winepress held its fourth Empower Conference for Small Church teams. Empower ‘08 was attended by 83 delegates representing 17 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 2008, the Winepress held its fourth Empower Conference for Small Church teams. Empower 08 was attended by 83 delegates representing 17 churches from different denominations with some coming as far away as South Australia to attend.
Arthur Cherrie opened Empower ’08 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 08:
At Empower 08, 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.“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.”
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.”
