Four Steps to Book Us
1) Determine the conference you want to hold (or contact us about designing one especially for your particular needs!)
2) Contact us to discuss available dates.
3) Initiate a conference agreement. This is sent you via email when we get this far in the dialog.
4) Sign and return the agreement (with deposit for airline tickets if needed)
Travel Arrangements
We love and appreciate when we are extended an invitation to minister in your area. As you plan for the conference, please ask questions! We want this to be a positive experience for all involved, so feel free to ask questions and we'll do our best to serve you.
Our team always travels together with very few exceptions. We will drive to the destination if it is 4 or fewer hours from Pasadena, TX (Houston) unless otherwise specified by Oil of Heaven. (If traveling by car, we ask hosts to please send monies for gas at least two weeks prior to date of event unless other arrangements have been agreed to.)
Any travel more than 4 hours by car outside of Houston, Texas will require flight arrangements. Oil of Heaven will arrange and book flights, normally for three airfares, although exceptions do occur. The host church is responsible for reimbursement of air fares, airport pick-ups and drop-offs and for transporting the team back and forth to the sessions. The host church arranges for accommodations and meals for the team, either in a hotel or in a host home. Billeting in homes is fine, as long as it is a quiet environment and has internet connection. On the other hand, we do know that it’s often simpler to provide hotel rooms, which is fine too.
Publicity Considerations
The host church is responsible for advertising in the local church, region, and through their email list, as well as producing and distributing handouts, posters etc. We suggest the sponsoring church have a page on their website with all the pertinent information (i.e. registration info, contact phone numbers, map of church or directions, accommodation information). Additionally, Oil of Heaven will promote the event through our network of friends. We generally will send e-vites 4 weeks prior to the event and a reminder/follow up about 7-10 days prior to the event. We try to include emails of local Lutheran congregations within 50 miles of your zipcode. We encourage you to design conference graphics that represent your congregation oryYou may borrow the conference description and/or the graphics from our website. We tend to re-use conference descriptions from time to time, so you might want to create your own. You may also contact us to request graphics or pictures for use on the web or in promotional materials that you put together.
Sound and Worship Considerations
We like to have several periods of worship during our conferences. If your congregation is comfortable with contemporary worship, we would love for you to showcase your worship team or else we can use CDs. If this is the case, then a CD player will be required in the venue as well as a sound person to operate it. If your congregation is uncomfortable with contemporary worship, the Lutheran Service Book provides plenty of good stuff for us to use as well. In that case, you will need to provide an organist/pianist to play the accompaniment. Also, feel free to record the workshop, but we ask that you give us a set of the recorded sessions before we leave or mail them to our office.
Registration and Resource Considerations
The hosting church is responsible for the conference registrations. The local church is tasked with determining an appropriate amount charged to registrants in order to cover all the hosting expenses (i.e. airfare, accommodation, meals, etc) as well as the cost of any printed materials distributed. Any extra monies collected that are above the expenses belong to the hosting church/ministry. While we do not have any set speaking fee, we do need to break even on the trip, so we do graciously accept whatever amount the Lord lays on your heart. Additionally, we would like to have the host church adhere to our desires that that no one is turned away for lack of funds.
Spiritual Considerations
A prayer coordinator needs to be assigned by the hosting church to cover the conference in prayer. Oil of Heaven also has a team of intercessors praying for your conference and your church. While our team leads the workshop/conference and our intercessory team offers spiritual covering, we do ask that the local ministry leader of the hosting church open the sessions with a welcome, prayer, and a release for our speaker and team to minister.
Cancellation Policy
We reserve the right to cancel a speaking engagement, with plenty of advance notice, should the Lord direct us to do so. Please understand this would only be in extremely rare circumstances. If you must cancel a conference, contact us as soon as you become aware that it will not happen. The date you have booked is very hard to fill and airlines will often times have byzantine mazes to recovering travel money spent, etc. Hopefully we can reschedule, but if you choose not to, you will have to arm wrestle with the airlines to get your money back. Just putting the bottom line up front!
