Our first week in the Intensive is going incredibly well. The grounds here are beautiful, and our learning community is going deep into so many aspects of creational theology, spiritual formation, worldview and worship. Fully alive, boy, fully alive.

David Ruis brings so much to the table as we explore the bigger story of creativity, justice, and a story that’s big enough for all human beings to live in, including Christians. There are moments I think that we all just want to stop, be silent for a time in the presence of God and the richness of ideas, and let it soak in. Today, our sessions are on Ignatian prayer, Celtic Spirituality, Creativity and Cultural Interface (Ruis) and tonight we party around the Planet Earth DVDs (creational theology).

We’re preparing as well for a weekend event with David Ruis and myself called FaceToFace for worship leaders, musicians and artists, and an evening concert with myself and David at the Gothic Arches.

I’ll try to keep you posted, but it’s a time thick with glory, authenticity and activity. The most amazing sounds arise from our group worshipping in songs together - the harmonies are so rich, so cool and the textures of hammered dulcimers, guitars and percussion fill the room.

What a privilege to do this. Thanks for praying for us as we go. Past, present and future - so much in so little time.

We’re just finishing an excellent few days with friends Todd Rutkowski, Norm Strauss and the worship community here at the Kelowna Vineyard.

I was speaking in the Canada West School Of Worship (what a great group this year), which Norm leads, and spending some time with the worship community. It’s been a rich time, and we fly back tonight.

Norm and the artists here spend much of their time playing gigs in the city and investing themselves deeply into the artistic community of Kelowna. They embody many of the central ideas and reformations I talk about in The Worship Artisan piece. The language of cultural interface and creational theology marked much of our time.

Pray for them and their work, and our growing friendship. There is a wonderful synergy in what we do at the Institute, and what they do here.

I am in Denver, Colorado right now with a few hundred worship leaders from the Vineyard movement in the US.

It’s a rich time of interaction, retreat and renewal for these GreatHearts who weekly lead the saints before the throne of Grace.

If you’d be willing to pray for us as you read the rest of this post, I’d be very grateful.

I speak tonight on the topic of the Elemental Leader, from 7-10′ish, Mountain time. Then I lead worship tomorrow eve, same time’ish.

Renewing many friendships, new and old, is always the greatest gift to me. A packed Starbucks this afternoon was buzzing with friendship, and moments of shared life all around.

I would appreciate your prayers for great connections, and a strong time for these worship leaders. They deserve it. Praying for my beautiful wife and children would be appreciated as well.

I’ll tell the group, and my family, you’re praying for us.

We’re now taking registrations for our Spring:

Two Week Intensive Certificate in Worship Studies & Spiritual Formation,
April 21-May 2, 2008
Dominion Hill Centre
St. Stephen’s University, New Brunswick, Canada

Spots are still open for this session, featuring:

University Level Study and Certificate (St. Stephen’s University)
Study Retreat Optimally Designed For Creative Leaders
Roundtable Discussion with Scholars
Spiritual Theology & Personal Formation
Trinitarian Worship
Biblical Worship Theology
Emerging Church Reflection
Essential Worship And Church History
Contemporary Worship Leaders From Various Denominations
Studies In Community
Theology Of Aesthetics & Creativity
Creational Theology
Spiritual Formation Of The Leader
Ancient And Historic Worship Forms
Community Learning (3 Voice Learning)
Ignatian Prayer Forms
Celtic & Non-Western Spirituality
Songwriting
Beauty of Dominion Hill Centre in New Brunswick

Live teaching with Dan Wilt, M.Min.; Peter Fitch, D.Min.; Gregg Finley, PhD; Spiritual Director Lorna Jones; Peter Davids, PhD, and others, along with Institute video training offered by N.T. Wright, Matt Redman, John Eldredge, Brian Doerksen and others. Special guests to be announced.

Study Bonhoeffer, Athanasius, Lewis and others side by side with other creative leaders in our unique, small size, roundtable learning forum. Some reading to do ahead of time, so apply early.

Course Fee And Schedule: Please note that this is a roundtable university course, not a church conference or seminar.

Students spend approximately 6-8 hours per week day (approx. 60-80 hours over the intensive) in study, reading or course session, but in a relaxing an informal atmosphere. In addition, some reading (approx. 3-4 books and some articles) beforehand is required, in books ranging across topics and the history of the church.

Our course fee is $2700 CDN (certificate fee, tuition, room and board at Dominion Hill, trainers and transportation while at the event).

Churches are asked to support their worship leader in attending this course.

Reviews can be found here. Some of today’s most influential worship leaders have attended our coursework, and are a part of our Institute community: Reviews.

Deepen as a worship influencer; infuse your creativity with fresh life. Spots are open; join us this year!

The Colchester Vineyard Community, posted some shots from our last What Is Worship? event in the UK in Bury St. Edmunds, hosted by the West Suffolk Vineyard.

What a gift to be with this group of committed disciples of Jesus, and the wider Church that gathered in the region. The venue was both cool and lovely, and the whole experience was a great pleasure.

West Suffolk Vineyard

Colchester Vineyard.

Tonight, in an hour or so, I join a panel of artists addressing questions related to creativity and faith for the student body. We are a musician, architect, and two genres of visual art, and will field some questions from our Student Life Coordinators.

It should be a rich time of exploration, and of deepening our community’s commitment to the creative process. We’d appreciate your prayers for a fruitful time.

I literally get excited when I approach discussions on art and beauty. Even when the conversations focus on what is dark and hideous (as good conversations about art should) about the world in which we live, possibilities so healing make the conversation brim with eternity.

Post Event Note: It was a blast. Great conversation, agreement, disagreement, diverse perspectives. What a joy. Made me eager to hear more from about 20 other voices in the room.

The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies
And St. Stephen’s University
Invite You To:

Lovers And Fighters: A Podcast-In-The-Round
With Host Dan Wilt and Canadian Singer-songwriter Rik Leaf
Where: The iD.Cafe, 32 Victoria St.
When: Today (Friday, Nov. 2) 1:30-3:00

You are invited today, from 1:30-3:00, in the iD.Cafe, to join us for a video PodCast-In-The-Round interview between host Dan Wilt and Canadian singer-songwriter Rik Leaf. Admission is free, and refreshments will be served.

Rik will be sharing some live acoustic numbers, and we’ll be exploring ideas related to the artist’s role in cultural formation, the art of faith, songwriting and other ideas important to today’s creative leader.

Recording will begin at 2:00 pm sharp, so please be present by 1:30 so as not to interrupt the interview.

Followed by an evening House Concert with Rik Leaf and Tribe Of One.

The event will be followed by an evening house concert with Rik and his artists collective (Tribe Of One) in The Red Room at St. Stephen’s University (8 Main St., St. Stephen), at 8:00 pm. Tickets are only $10 each. For more concert information: http://www.scvine.com/index.cfm?i=2521&mid=5&id=31253

You can visit Rik’s website here.

A kind review by Vineyard Records UK (I wouldn’t expect it to be a bad one!) on the What Is Worship? event we just did in Bury St. Edmunds, UK.

Nathan Horner is a wonderful friend, a gifted musician, and a great heart who made this last Worship Artisan 4 day course and the What Is Worship? event come together from the VRUK end.

VRUK - Our Ministry

Just finished a bit ago with the www.WorshipTeleSeminar.com event.

It was a privilege to do it, and great fun. Kenneth is a great guy with a big heart who pulled this thing together.

Here is the web recording of it: Dan Wilt on The Elemental Leader at WorshipTeleseminar.com

which has the notes and the Q & A at the end. I think this is a book I’m working on, and will have the article version out in a day or two. It feels important, on many levels.

For anyone who listens to the teleseminar and goes to our new site at www.theworshipartisan.com before next Wednesday, filling in your email in the Institute Monthly Resource letter box, we’ll email you:

2. and a whack of other media resources to help your worship community in their spiritual formation.

Here is the simple note sheet PDF from the seminar: The Elemental Leader Notes PDF.

Just arrived in Marietta, Georgia, and a few hundred worship leaders and musicians are gathered here. What a great group of faithful creative leaders, and what a great community to call my immediately family in the Vineyard fold.

Mike O’Brien is giving an excellent word on the heart issues of the community of God - specifically related to the idolatries of the age. He has no idea I’m blogging - he must think I’m taking detailed notes. I wanted you to join the fun.

Right now, he’s walking across the front of the stage with a blanket full of lifting weights representing idols of the heart. Nice image - gets the point across. About 8 people have come up so far with big weights, and he’s dragging ‘em along. Don’t try this at home.

I’m prepping for a late rehearsal tonight, and an early morning gathering to get ready for worship in the morning. Musicians work so hard at these things - little sleep and few breaks, and about 5 worship leaders and sets to prep for.

And yet, the expressions of worship at the event are so vital, because the people are vital to God. Why are events important? Because the people who gather are important.

More tomorrow once I get a good nights sleep. I start teaching tomorrow evening (Friday) and Saturday morning, so if you’d be willing to pray for this whole gathering, and these few hundred worship musicians to make spiritual progress, it would be a gift.

Praying as you read this blog post is enough.

I leave tomorrow morning for a brief trip to Georgia, for a gathering of worship leaders and musicians from our Vineyard community there.

GreatHeart Mike O’Brien and others have pulled this regional gathering of our VineyardSoutheast USA regional worship community together (Vineyard Southeast Worship Community), and it will be a privilege to speak and lead worship among these ChangeTheWorld’ers.

I’ll try to blog during the event as well, to let you know all that’s happening. I’ll be doing main sessions on What Is Worship? (a reformation of our worship worldview), and The Elemental Leader (an exploration of spiritual formation and the heart of the creative leader), and filling in with some workshops.

I’ll also be giving away some free resource media CDs and other things letting the guys know about the Institute and our passion to form creative leaders by equipping them with study in worship ideas Past, Present and Future.

It’ll be a blast, and I look forward to seeing a gaggle of good friends there from our wider fam.

If you’re a worship leader/artisan, you’re invited.

The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies and St. Stephen’s University, in partnership with Vineyard Records UK, are hosting:

The Worship Artisan UK: A 4 day certificate short course in Worship Leader Formation,
Sept. 24-28, 2007, at the beautiful
Westwood Retreat Centre in Huddersfield.

Worship artisans from all streams of the Church are invited. In a roundtable learning environment, and with our 3 Voice Learning model, we’ll engage present and ancient voices as we explore studies in spiritual formation for artisans, creational and Trinitarian theology, philosophy of creativity, Ignatian prayer, great thoughts in community, worship worldview, renewing our creative leadership, emerging worship reflection and much more. A brief pre-course reading list will be sent to all applicants.

Here’s the 2 minute video invitation from yours truly:

To all my UK worship artisan friends, I’d love to see you there. Westwood is a lovely old Anglican church that an architect artfully transformed into a stunning retreat centre. The view alone is worth coming for! We’ll do the roundtable course with 15 people maximum, and I’m encouraging leaders to come with a “learning partner” - i.e. a friend from their community. Cost is £500, covering full SSU course tuition, accomodations and meals for 4 days.

Details are here on the The Worship Artisan UK Flyer And Application.

The Institute Website: www.TheWorshipLeader.com

St. Stephen’s University Website: www.ssu.ca

I taught in PEI on Sunday for Palm Sunday, and it was a privilege. We stayed with the liturgical year in focusing on the striking texts surrounding Palm Sunday.

Using the passage from Matthew 21 on the royal welcome into Jerusalem, I spoke about what happened, and what happens, when Jesus comes to the “city of peace” (spoken of in real terms and as a metaphor for the human community, and the individual human heart):

When Jesus comes, he brings a vision… that will change you.

When Jesus comes, he brings a battle… that will need you.

When Jesus comes, he brings a gift… that will heal you.

We moved in and out of the realities of Jesus prophetically embodying the nation of Israel, and what his coming meant. Then, we took into the wide world of today, and included the individual’s responses to God in these three arenas.

It was a blast telling some of my own journey as well, through some very intense spiritual encounters at the beginning of my faith that locked me in for the long haul, and some visions of how justice can be enacted by every man, woman and child in the world.

When Jesus comes, the “city of peace” gets disturbed and disrupted, but to the end of a glory we could not taste another way. Jesus spent the first night he came to the city of peace in Bethany, from “beth ani,” which means “house of death.” From death to life, it seems the journey will always be.

It was a fresh message, and it felt good to preface Easter, both for myself and the community there, by considering Jesus’ entry into the city.

We’re in the middle of the Parenting From The Inside Out Seminar here in Prince Edward Island, and its been fantastic. Anita is really in her element doing these, and its such a privilege to team up with her and take the more background role.

Last night and this morning, she went through ideas in Parenting Philosophies, Character Development, Cultivating The Garden of your child’s heart, Obedience, Discipline and more.

Tonight I open up Identity and Destiny (who you are, and who you’re becoming), and we crack into the father end of parenting. Lots of small group and group interaction have really opened all of it up in beautiful ways.

We got a chance to run up to the North Shore of the Island (Anita calls it “my island;” i.e. her island). It is breathtakingly beautiful, even in winter, just like the Anne of Green Gables film.

Must go now to prepare for the evening.

I head to Edinburgh, Scotland along with pal Matt Frise, this Wednesday for 12 days. I’m leading What Is Worship? conferences in Edinburgh, Scotland and in Bristol, UK, as well as a retreat for the staff of Vineyard Records UK.

My prayer is that I can get in a bit of songwriting time as well; I’m deeply moved by old architecture and green, rocky landscapes, so hopefully some works of worship will flow from the venture.

Your prayers would be appreciated for us and my family, even now as you read this post, and for Chris Whitelock (Vineyard Records UK), Graeme Campbell (Edinburgh worship leader) and Matt Turrigiano (Bristol worship leader) as they pull elements together and serve their communities.

Here is a site for Edinburgh, and for Bristol.