Karla Adolphe is off on her new tour with two dates in the States and a bunch in Canada from now through June.  Here is her tour calendar!Karla, as you know, is our featured artist on the latest and greatest Chair and Microphone, Vol. 3 and on the Fourth Circle.  (Yes, there are 4 in the series.)  She is also an accomplish folk artist and singer songwriter who is presently writing a new album, recording songs with David Wilton, and laying plans for an amazing new musical environment scheduled for web release in July along with the new creative works!

Don’t forget:  Karla will be a featured performer at Worship@8500 this summer, July 19th.  More details? Want to register now?

People. My people. Let’s come together!  Let’s come together for a weekend in July where we can get to know one another better, encourage each other, worship, and receive spiritual fuel in our gas tanks as leaders and pioneers.

Register for the whole weekend called Gathering@8500 on July 17-19th and receive some awesome teaching and ministry from the Worship Circle team on the Kingdom, worship ministry, building the family, and maturing in Christ.  Only 100 slots available for $75 each.  More details here.

OR Register for just Worship@8500 on Sunday, July 19th!  This 10-7 day will be full of your favorite Worship Circle artists, a big band stage, a view of Pike’s Peak from the 40 acre private ranch, food, fun for the kids, and plenty of room to spread out and enjoy an all day picnic while bathing in the presence of the Lord.  It’s a worship music festival!  More info here.

It is so important to get registered now.  Hotels in Woodland Park are crazy scarce so check Cripple Creek and Colorado Springs, tons of local parks are available for camping, and we have some camping available on the festival grounds.  We also have group discounts! See www.worshipat8500.com for even more details.

Many of you have purchased Ben’s first book Enter The Worship Circle and enjoyed the creative, unconventional style and themes. Well, we wanted you to be the first to know that Ben has announced his intent to self publish three small works inside of 2009! The first book called “Tom and the Goldfish Bowl” is scheduled for a late Spring release.  The first third of the book–in its early draft form–is available for free at Churchthink.com!  This handy, dandy widget (above) can be downloaded to your computer’s desktop, sent via email, or pasted to most any web location to display the podcast updates to Churchthink.com. Just click the “Options” button at the bottom.

Get 50% off of the single issue price of the Worship Circle book when you put theyloveme in the coupon code through March.

It’s true!  We are hosting, for the very first time, a summer gathering for all our fans, friends, and family who want to join us for three days of worship, hiking, teaching, picnics, and a full day music festival in Woodland Park, Colorado!  We wanted you to mark your calendars and make your plans.  We will soon post a page for registration and information on lodging, schedules, music, etc. but we just had to get the word out so you could plan.

The gathering dates are July 17, 18, and 19th. Festivities will begin on the morning of the 17th.  Sunday the 19th is the first of, hopefully, many more summer music festivals to come in Woodland Park.  There will be some registration cost to attend so we can cover things like cookout food and musicians, but it will be light, and lodging options would include hotels, camping, RV’ing, and host homes in the region that you secure.  Mark the calendar!

No elk were harmed in the taking of this picture.

Using our superpowers…well, actually, using Chris Wang’s brilliance as a web technician…we finally conquered the challenge of getting charts, lyrics, tutorials, and ALL the free stuff in our webstore to you quicker than ever before.  Now, when you want to grab something to help you lead worship or learn a song you just click the “download arrow” beside the product and “bam!” it is ready to be saved to your computer immediately.  You don’t have to go through the checkout cart for free products anymore!  Wheeeeee!  Don’t forget to use the handy “search form” in the upper left of our store for even faster finding…we have tons of songs.

We are so thankful you are part of the Worship Circle as we move into 2009. To celebrate you, and the recent improvement in our store function, we want to offer this store coupon worth one free MP3 download of your choice.  It will last for one week from this post (this will be our custom in all our blogposts in 2009!).  Coupon: oneforfree

I don’t think I am all that generous, really.  I like my stuff.  Today, when I was whipping through my iPhoto looking for a pic to post and a thoughts to share I hit this photo of me in Cuba back in the summer.  I don’t think I wrote much about my trip…

We met for a worship and ministry time at this little home fellowship.  We didn’t meet in the home but we sat out on the front porch on makeshift benches and chairs under a rickety dripping roof, listened to some music from a radio hotwired through a window with tattered wires, and prayed for and encourage each other for a couple of hours.  I sang a few improvisational worship songs in my terrible Spanish.  I brought a guitar to play on the trip with the intent to give it away–it is my usual custom when going to the Third World where folks just can’t get much of anything.  The young man holding the guitar was the only person who answered “yes” when I gathered the key worshipers and singers and asked, “Who would practice every day and learn worship songs if they had a guitar like this one?”  I gave it to him.

Now, I thought this post would be about looking around for ways to be a sporting giver this year, but now I think I am more impressed with the young man who stood up and said, “yes,” more than I am with my small gift.  This could be your year to hear God speaking to you about an opportunity to serve, a chance to work hard and love…maybe this year is your year to say, “yes!”  For inspiration, if you are of age, go see Jim Carey’s new film “Yes, Man” for inspiration.