Fusion: Worship Music Conference
Fusion 2026, Full Conference Download
Everything you need while you are here — the full schedule, workshop outlines, worship services, parking, and places to eat. Hosted at Belmont United Methodist Church, 2007 Acklen Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212.
Schedule
01 Thursday Evening, Sept. 24
- 5:30 – 6:30pm — Check-in & Meet and Greet
- 6:30 – 8:00pm — Welcome & Opening Worship
- 8:00 - 9:00pm — PLENARY 1: The Future of Worship
02 Friday, Sept. 25
- 8:15 – 8:40am — Morning Worship
- 8:40 – 9:40am — PLENARY 2: Bridging Traditional & Contemporary Worship
- 9:50 – 10:50am — Breakout / Workshop 1
- 11:00 – 12:00pm — Breakout/Workshop 2
- 12:00 – 1:30pm — LUNCH (on your own)
- 1:40 – 2:40pm — PLENARY 3: Challenges & Solutions in Contemporary Worship
- 2:50 – 3:50pm — Breakout/Workshop 3
- 4:00 – 5:00pm — Breakout/Workshop 4
- 5:00 – 7:00 — DINNER (on your own)
- 7:00 – 8:30 — Worship Night
03 Saturday, Sept. 26
- 8:45 - 9:00am — Gathering Music
- 9:00 – 10:15am — PLENARY 4: Engaging Your Congregation for the Future
- 10:30 – 11:15am — Affinity Groups
- 11:30 – 12:15pm — Closing Worship
To download the full schedule, click here.
Downloads
01 Workshop & Plenary Downloads
- PLENARY · Bridging Contemporary and Traditional Worship
- PLENARY · The Future of Worship
- PLENARY · Challenges and Solutions
- WORKSHOP · Cultural Fusion in Worship
- WORKSHOP · Running Effective Rehearsals
- WORKSHOP · Understanding and Reading Chord Charts
- WORKSHOP · Creativity in Worship
- WORKSHOP · The Pastor Worship Leader Relationship
- WORKSHOP · Wesleyan Theology for Worship Leaders
- WORKSHOP · Building a Band
- WORKSHOP · Inclusivity and Accessibility in Worship
- WORKSHOP · Running Effective Rehearsals
- WORKSHOP · Songwriting for Worship
- WORKSHOP · Worship Ethics
- WORKSHOP · Copyrights and the Church
- WORKSHOP · Integrating Modern Elements
- WORKSHOP · Leading Through Change
- WORKSHOP · An Intergenerational Approach to Worship
- WORKSHOP · Arranging Hymns to Bridge Styles
- WORKSHOP · Harnessing AI for Good
- WORKSHOP · Basics of Worship Technology
02 Extra Resources
03 Information
Parking & Arrival
Places to Eat
We have put together a neighborhood guide with names, addresses, and walking distances so you can plan around the schedule.
Download the Places to Eat PDF
Speakers & Leaders
The people leading plenaries, workshops, and worship this weekend.
Rev. Nelson Cowan, PhD, is a liturgical theologian, worship leader, and ordained elder in The United Methodist Church. He serves as director of the Center for Worship and the Arts at Samford University, leading initiatives at the intersection of worship, theology, the arts, and young people.
He holds degrees from the University of North Florida (BA), Wesley Theological Seminary (MDiv), and Boston University (PhD). Cowan is the author of Let the Children Lead (2025) and Worship Any Time or Place (2024) and is a founding co-senior editor of the Journal of Praise & Worship. He is married to Rev. Samantha Cowan, and they have one daughter.
R. DeAndre Johnson is a musician, author, preacher and serves as the Associate Pastor for the West Campus at Memorial Drive United Methodist Church in Houston.
Having served as a speaker, worship leader, and consultant for several churches and conferences, DeAndre has worked closely with UMC leaders globally, nationally and locally to help ensure the strongest expression of unity and clarity of mission for the United Methodist Church.
Most of all, he is husband to Kelsey and dad to Natalie and Henry. His most recent project, Call & Response: The Abingdon Guidebook for Worship and Preaching, is available, with the next lectionary year coming soon!
Rev. Jackson Henry is a pastor, church musician, and composer who serves as a deacon in full connection in the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference of The United Methodist Church. He currently serves as Pastor of Worship and Music at First United Methodist Church, Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
With a career spanning three decades in church music, Jackson has served in roles that include campus ministry, small, medium, and large membership churches in Tennessee and Texas, and Discipleship Ministries of The United Methodist Church. Some of his greatest passions are finding ways to sing older hymns in a new way and writing new hymn tunes.
He is a graduate of the Master of Sacred Music program and is currently a Doctor of Pastoral Music student at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, where he intends to explore how music-making can affect survivors of trauma.
Jeremy Hearn is the Director of Contemporary Worship at First United Methodist Church of Lakeland, Florida, overseeing weekly worship for the church's two unique contemporary / modern worship experiences. Hearn also is the Founder and CEO of The Institute for Modern Worship (IMW), which provides worship ministry staffing, equipping, and retaining support to UMC churches across the continental United States. More information on IMW can be found at worshipinstitute.org.
Originally from St. Petersburg, Florida, Hearn has more than 20 years of professional worship leading and mentoring experience. Hearn is regularly sought to provide worship music or worship-related support for conferences and events, as well as consulting, coaching, and hiring support to local churches in need.
Through the mid 2000s, Jeremy worked in both the Country and Christian music industries in Nashville, Tennessee, before turning his focus back to the needs of the local church. Hearn has experience working with, and learning under, names like Capitol Records CMG, Martina and John McBride, Michael W. Smith, Jeremy Camp, Matt Maher, and Paul Baloche.
Hearn also brings with him invaluable experience related to church planting. In 2009, Hearn helped launch Wells Branch Community Church, a church plant in Austin, Texas, where he served as a founding member and founding worship leader.
Midwestern native Kiersten began her musical journey at six on piano, inspired by musical family. She earned Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Jazz Studies from Webster University and has released four independent albums in Christian, Pop and Jazz genres. She is an award-winning songwriter and seasoned performer, performing and leading worship nationwide.
She joined the Institute for Modern Worship in 2024 as Director of Operations and Consultant, committed to empowering worship leaders. With over 35 years of experience across various Christian denominations, Kiersten is part artist, part architect, designing worship that moves hearts and makes disciples.
Based in St. Louis with her husband, Bryan, Kiersten enjoys family time, garden-to-table cooking, and restoring their 1950s ranch home.
Ben Shaw serves as the Director of Modern Worship at First United Methodist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. With over two decades of experience in worship leadership, he combines a deep musical background with a passion for leveraging technology to create meaningful worship experiences.
Ben holds a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication from Middle Tennessee State University and has extensive experience in media production, design, technology integration, and worship planning for church environments.
He and his wife, Laura, live in Murfreesboro with their three children—Brewer, Charlie, and Ellie—and their two dogs, Gibson and Koda.
Sofia Friedley Fernandez is a worship leader based in Central Florida, serving several United Methodist congregations while pursuing her M.Div. in Christian Ethics at Mercer University. Her work centers on the intersection of Worship and Ethics, exploring how contemporary worship shapes moral formation, communal identity, and the church’s public witness.
Alongside the Institute for Modern Worship team, Sofia has developed and led trainings on trauma-informed ministry and Modern Worship Ethics, and she is dedicated to helping churches cultivate worship that is theologically rich, ethically grounded, and spiritually restorative.
Outside of worship Sofia enjoys spending time with her wife, Olivia. Together they are passionate about sports, travel, and friends, always seeking new ways to integrate faith and creativity in their ministry.
Diana Sanchez-Bushong grew up in San Antonio, Texas. She earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master’s degree in Music in Choral Conducting from Southern Methodist University, a Master of Sacred Music degree from Perkins School of Theology at SMU, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas Austin.
She has served in a number of churches and at the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship, where she worked with the Hymnal Revision Committee to develop The United Methodist Hymnal, 1989. In addition, Dr. Sanchez-Bushong helped develop the 1992 United Methodist Book of Worship, and Mil Voces para Celebrar, 1996, an official UM hymnal for Spanish-speaking churches. She served as the Volume Editor for The Hymns of the United Methodist Hymnal (Abingdon, 1989) and authored Your Ministry of Planning and Leading Hymn Festivals (Discipleship Resources, 1990).
Most recently she has served on the editorial team for a new Spanish language worship resource, “Fiesta Jubilosa” (Abingdon, 2022) compiled by Raquel Mora Martinez, and she was also a contributor to the resource, “Forming Disciples Through Worship” (Discipleship Ministries, 2020). She has written extensively on hymnody and music in worship, including the article ‘Latin American Hymnody, USA’ in the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology.
Dr. Sanchez-Bushong also enjoys teaching and has taught the course “Culto de Adoracion y los Sacramentos” for the Course of Study Program, and she also teaches as an adjunct professor at Belmont University in the College of Theology and Christian Ministry.
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