Karitos Indy? What's That?

Post date: Apr 9, 2012 4:58:58 AM

By Susannah Francis

So, if you happen to be on my Facebook friends or even 1heart Arts’ FB friends, you have to know that Karitos is a passion for me. Actually, I should say “us” to include my hubby and the few other 1heart Arts friends that have been a part of this AMAZING weekend up in Chicago. Just in case you haven’t seen these posts, let me tell you a little about it. Karitos Worship & Arts Conference takes place in the Chicago area each July and brings together Christian artists of all disciplines; Dance/Movement, Theatre, Film, Music Business, Visual Arts, Signing, Literary Arts & Worship/Vocal are the department “tracks”. Zach and I attended for the first time in 2009 and were blown away. Zach was very deterred by the term “conference” when I first asked if we could attend together, so we only attended a single day that year. However, in those six hours we were so hooked on Karitos that we vowed that we would attend the next year for the entire three days of the event. As God has a way of doing, we did even more than just that. I started my administrative ministry with Karitos just a few months later and He led me to become part of the planning team and staff. Each year we attend, God opens our hearts and minds to more of His will for our lives and ministry. We have candid talks with Him through the hours of extravagant worship and bring back powerful tools and resources through attending the workshops. Most importantly, we grow as Christians and learn to humble ourselves more and more to Christ’s leading.

So, yes, the Indy part…I’m getting there. As we experienced this conference time and time again, my heart grew more and more passionate about letting our artist community in Indy know about this amazing event. Last year, was the first year we invited Bob Hay, Executive Director of Karitos, to Indy to share about it. He was interviewed on the WISH-TV8 program “Religion in the News” (watch it here) and then we held a short promo event

at a local café. Though the event was pretty much a disaster (I won’t get into all the

warfare of it), we still had seven other people travel with us up to Karitos that year and another church group of 10 attend separately from us. As we expected, hearts were changed and we brought back a bunch more passionate Karitos-ers like us. Now, this year, God has opened a much larger door for us. Karitos will be making a stop in Indy this year! No, we are not bringing all 50-some faculty, 100+ workshops & dozens of artists groups to Indy…sorry. However, we are hosting a “taste of Karitos” right here in Indianapolis! Six Karitos faculty members will be coming down to lead five workshops in the areas of Dance, Theatre, Worship, Vocal and the Artist’s Calling. We are beyond thrilled that God has made this possible and seek to make this event all that is “Karitos” so that participants of the Indy event will truly understand what a special place that Karitos is for Christian artists. So…without further ado (drum roll), we welcome each and every one of you to early registration to the much awaited birth of Karitos Indy!!!

Register today for only $10!!

More details at www.karitos.com/Indy12.html