Well, after an amazing Two Week Intensive Certificate Course and some rest, we have some evaluations coming back in from the 10 worship leaders/artists who joined the Institute family. Canada, the US, Australia and the UK were represented in this amazing 12 days sojourn.

I am stunned by how each of the Two Week Intensives is so very unique, as it is built around the learning community that has formed for that brief time. I feel like a part of a new fellowship of companions each time, and my only heartbreak (for fixing later, I note) is that I’m not able to bring everyone who has participated in Institute events together at one time! A reunion is in order.

We pray that God would bring the right people, for the right mix, for each, and that it would be its own unique “fellowship of the ring” (to use a Tolkien metaphor) for a season of discovery.

I put in a few of this group’s quotes here, as it is both encouraging to me to continue on in this dream of the Institute for the creative leaders of our generation, and important to me to present these wordes for your encouragement.

For those that wonder in the emerging Church world, there is hope and joy ahead for the creative community of the 21st century Church. There are too many GreatHearts living and breathing among the worship leaders of this generation for us to fail in this key role in the Church and in culture. I meet them every program. This one is no exception.

QUOTES FROM THE TWO WEEK INTENSIVE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM 08

“This intensive came at a perfect time for me. I was reminded of the reasons I began leading worship and was encouraged to follow what God has placed in my heart. Learning concepts about the hugeness of God’s story and experiencing such a rich time with such wonderful people is a blessing I will never forget.”

“The Institute Intensive has given me a great thirst for God and his people.”

“Whenever I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I look to the Institute, and I have hope.” (ed. note: “Ha.”)

And my personal favorite:

“This whole experience was a huge gift that God just placed in my arms. It has been a “marking point” in my life that I will always refer to. I stepped into the waters that are compelling me to get into my wee boat, push away from shore and take the journey of a lifetime. I have a better understanding of what I believe, how God sees me, a changing worldview, an expanding God-view, an appreciation of creational theology, a reverence for the “imagebearer” in myself and others. It’s been so rich.”

CHEERS TO A RICH INTENSIVE, AND TO A GROWING COMMUNITY OF FORMATIONAL CREATIVE LEADERS IN THE CONTEMPORARY AND EMERGING CHURCH!

A video clip from a meal at our Two Week Intensive the other week. From dear friend and greatheart Naomi Lippett.

Alright, this is way too fun. Hang drums, the precious dulcimer, and now this. Maybe the future of music is found in instruments that evoke a sense of mystery when played - or when simply looked at!

Marcodi Releases Harpejji - Guitar / Piano Hybrid |

Here are some shots from the ancient/future concert the other week at the Gothic Arches on Facebook.

Thanks to Jen Jewett, organizer, percussionist and wildheart extraordinaire.

Facebook Photos at Gothic Arches.

My blog friends and emerging worship conversationalists, I’m just thrilled, over the moon, tickled deep red about this. So many of you have asked, now, we’ve done it.

Cheers to the formation of the worship and creative community for the now of our generation, and toward the centuries ahead. Hope you can make it.

PRESS RELEASE: THE INSTITUTE GOES ONLINE THIS SUMMER 2008!

Dan Wilt, the Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, and St. Stephen’s University are pleased to announce the Summer launch of our new series of ONLINE short courses for worship leaders, creative influencers and pastors.

Announcing ESSENTIALS BLUE: Studies In Worship Theology And Biblical Worldview. Via iTunes U, FaceBook and other print and media technologies, the Institute is now innovatively equipping the 21st century worship community online.

Details on the course can be found at: www.ssu.ca/theinstitute/online

Here’s the info on Facebook.

Sign Up today for our inaugural Summer 2008 course in July! First 10 applicants receive a special launch gift - a copy of the new St. Stephen’s Book Prayer Book from our St. Stephen community.

Song As Sacred Action: Learning From Native Americans
Dan Wilt

In a small, Native American community center in eastern Maine, a group of friends gathered from towns on both sides of the Canadian/US border. A potluck and music-sharing evening had been arranged between the communities on the Pleasant Point reservation, and an air of joy and festivity filled the room. By the time I arrived with my children, the music had started and we were soon serenaded with a guitar and fiddle weaving together reels and jigs – engaging the whole, ethnically-mixed group in contagious humming and irrepressible foot-tapping.

Songs And Sacred Acts
Our hosts were from the Passamaquoddy tribe (part of the Wabanaki confederacy, meaning “people of the dawn”), and they warmly welcomed us to the gathering. After a few more songs, a group of young men began to gather in a sacred drum circle for the next expression of the night. They seemed to be both chatting and offering prayers as they prepared themselves to play, enrobing their hands and large drum in smoke from a smudge pot, while they breathed in the strong vapors.

Video cameras and audio recorders were poised, ready to capture the thundering beauty of the energetic native sounds we had come to know and appreciate. Then, a young man from the circle stood, and walked over to the microphone. His eyes and face revealed the striking characteristics of an ethnic heritage that is said to reach 600+ generations into the story of this area.

“The songs we will do are sacred songs of our people,” he proudly said. “For that reason, we ask that there be no video-taping or recording of what we are about to do.” My immediate response was to sigh with sadness. For anyone who has ever been stirred by the communal, impassioned performance of a native drum circle, capturing it in some form of media for others to behold is a rare opportunity.

I turned off my recorder, honored his request, and lingered in the raw celebration of tribal history and spirituality embodied in their intricate melodies and rhythms.

Music As A Shared Experience
The next day, I spoke with a good friend who had organized the non-native contingency of musicians. He had spoken to one of the drum circle leaders, and discovered a fascinating truth about their view of the sacred music they played, and why we were asked to turn off our recorders.

In the eyes of the tribe, it seems, their sacred music is not a commodity to be somehow captured and passed around for enjoyment or spectating after the performance. The very essence of the music arises from those participating in the live, sacred moment. The sacredness of the music is intimately tied to the shared, live experience of praying its themes together, and both the music and the focus of the music may be dishonored when we seek to document the event for a second-hand listener.

The tribal “pow-wow songs” (i.e. the ones we were allowed to record) were historically written to make money for the tribe – by playing them for the white man. Pow-wow songs were created, in effect, to be a loophole in the native vision of music. They are a necessary accommodation, enabling the tribe to survive in a system ordered against them.

In ceremonial music, the music is sacred because of its focus, and our shared experience. In fact, the music is the shared experience for the players and those gathered – our fellowship is an essential instrument in the offering.

For the Passamaquoddy, the playing of the music, and the community praying with it, creates a sacred space not meant for mass consumption. In ceremony, the beating of prayers to the sky becomes more important than the actual musicality of the playing. In summary, the music is not the center point in the experience, but rather the playing of that music. In many ways, Passamaquoddy sacred music is all about the moment of encounter, and the community’s participation in that moment, together.

The High Goal Of Communal Worship
While we may not fully embrace this view of intentionally sacred voicings of music, there is an insight here to be gleaned from our native brothers and sisters. In today’s contemporary Christian music experience, the gift of documenting music in media is that it multiplies a powerful message, and to some degree extends to us the experience embodied by the recording. However, our view of worship, employing music that is explicitly directed toward interacting with God should possibly undergo some reflective scrutiny.

According to this native view of sacred music, the fact that this past Sunday our church connected with God, through shared songs, may have been the highest goal to which our gathering could attain. As the worship leader, I am deeply aware that our band sounded great in some moments, and similar to a train wreck in others. And yet, without veiled spiritualized attempts to justify a flawed performance, the fact that we shared a common voice through those songs may be a higher goal to be celebrated than the pristine execution of the music (have you ever been to a music execution before? I sure have; I’ve even led the proceedings!)

Connected In The Music Of Worship
The next time you gather with a body of believers to sing the songs of faith, consider this view of sacred music brought to us by our native brothers and sisters. The music that you jointly make with the group gathered is the gift itself, offered exuberantly to God, in that moment. See yourself as an integral part of this sacred experience, whether you sing on the stage or from your seat, and share the vitality of the music with those playing and singing near you.

We may not want to skip recordings all together, but if we are attentive to the living moments of worship we share with others in our churches, we may find ourselves more present to our community’s shared moment of worship ¬– and more fully engaged with the One we adore.

We just finished a stunning two week intensive.

I’m now going unconscious. Will update in a few days. In the meantime. listen to the mp3 at the post below, again, 1/2 way through the poem, with the dulcimer in the background, it begins.