Mark your calendars for June 25-27, 2010 to join us in Divide, CO (same little city) for our second annual outdoor worship festival and family gathering. Yes, we will worship like crazy, but we will also enjoy connecting with people from all over, prayer ministry, teaching, and some serious encouragements.

You won’t believe how absolutely incredible this place is! The location is called the Lost Dutchman Resort. It has a huge indoor/outdoor theater, trout ponds for fishing, recreation equipment, camping (even for RV’s!), a huge bath house, and incredible views and trails over 480 acres! More info to come later in the year…

If you want to stay in touch, however, with our plans, our discussions, and ideas you will need to join us in our private NING network just for the friends of the Worship Circle.

If you want to share (or enjoy) photos, videos and stories from Worship@8500 weekend 2009 then we invite you to join us in our private NING network and let’s share!

Much love to you all, and many thanks to the scads of beautiful people that made it all happen, especially Upstaged Mobile Stages for the amazing outdoor, mobile stage!

Ben Pasley

Elephants at 8500

Thanks to everyone who helped pull it off, and to you for, as we said, burning gas and spending dollars to be there. If you’d like, post a comment of your favorite moment. It will make us feel like we did something awesome for you.

10:00 am – Ben Pasley: Chair and Microphone, Vol. 1
Performing new songs and songs from the first Chair and Microphone album, Ben will kick off our day festival with encouragements and simple songs of devotion.

10:45 am – Aaron Strumpel: Chair and Microphone, Vol. 2
Focusing on meditations and conversations from his own solo album, Aaron will share his heart for people, his heart for God, and his beautiful skill on the guitar.

11:30 am – Karla Adolphe: Chair and Microphone, Vol. 3
Using both piano and guitar Karla is able to weave a very personal picture of her own love journey with God while bringing the heart of the Psalmist to life.

Folk-bluegrass-singer-songwriter fusion, Tim and Laurie will blow you away with mandolin, guitar, violin, viola, (and more) weaving a bright, energetic tapestry of affection toward God.

The Thorntons are a husband-wife duo, and write songs out of their journey with God, and whether the emotion is rejoicing, enduring, reckoning, or resting, each sing hits its mark of expressing some part of the human journey.

Having completed a digital-only EP, Until, a full-length album, The Bluing of the Sky, and being featured on Enter the Worship Circle: Fourth Circle as songwriters and artists, The Blackthorn Project is now doing some experimenting in recording an album by…not being confined to the idea of recording an album at all, until after spening some time releasing ongoing songs in a Simple Series. Find them first on theblackthornproject.com for free download, and later through iTunes and other digital distributors.

Aaron’s been getting a lot of attention for the already released first album in the set, Elephants. Said attention is coming from publications like Relevant, Christianity Today, USA Today, and bloggers everywhere. It has also been overheard in preschools and the secret meeting halls of kings.

The award winning folk duo Karla Adolphe and Caleb Friesen, hailing from Winnipeg, Canada will fire up the stage with an energy and color rarely heard in the folk scene. More like a rocket ride through the countryside than an afternoon stroll in the garden, Jacob and Lily need a stage as big as Worship@8500 just to get started.

In just two short years Jacob and Lily have played over 300 shows and performed at some of Canada’s most prestigious festivals including: The Winnipeg Folk Festival, Blue Skies Festival, Trout Forest Music Festival, BarrieFolk, an official showcase at the 2007 NXNE festival, MARIA Manitoba Music Showcases at the 2006/2007 OCFF, Creston Valley Music Fest, Gateway Festival, Great Woods Music Festival, Harvest Sun Music Festival, Winnipeg Fringe Festival, Fallout Artfest in Minneapolis, The Harvest Moon Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival Lunchour Series, SNACC Music in the Ruins Series, and the Winnipeg Folk Festival Young Performers Showcase.

Jacob and Lily’s debut album, The Cathedral, was nominated for the 2007 Canadian Folk Music Awards Best New/Emerging Act. Jacob and Lily were selected as one of 5 Co-Winners at the 2008 Mountain Stage NewSong Contest, and were also selected to perform live on the internationally broadcast Mountain Stage radio/television show.

Crucial to Todd Berger’s music is the message of love in action.

On his first solo project, And Have Not Love, Todd Berger uses Psalms-inspired lyrics to drive home the message that maybe all we need is love after all. “The whole album, the songs, the theme, has to do with applying our love and taking action. Love being the motive,” says Todd. It’s a peace, love and hope message that’s as old as time, but never redundant.

Released in early 2009, the album is a new sacred work for listeners who are tired of the “worship” cliché, but still long to experience God in the moment. Employing acoustic and non-traditional instrumentation along with samplings and backbeats, Todd creates an unconventional expression of the sacred. The outcome is a multi-cultural, multi-genre spin on the acoustic/pop genre—a musical ideological “place of peace in the midst of a musical war-zone,” says Todd. It’s a style that serves him well.

• 10:00 am – Ben Pasley: Chair and Microphone, Vol. 1
  Performing new songs and songs from the first Chair and Microphone album, Ben will kick off our day festival with encouragements and simple songs of devotion.
• 10:45 am – Aaron Strumpel: Chair and Microphone, Vol. 2
  Focusing on meditations and conversations from his own solo album, Aaron will share his heart for people, his heart for God, and his beautiful skill on the guitar.
• 11:30 am – Karla Adolphe: Chair and Microphone, Vol. 3
  Using both piano and guitar Karla is able to weave a very personal picture of her own love journey with God while bringing the heart of the Psalmist to life.
• 12:15 pm – Short Break for Lunch
• 12:45 pm – The Blackthorn Project: Tim and Laurie Thornton
  A folk-bluegrass-singer-songwriter fusion Tim and Laurie will blow you away with mandolin, guitar, violin, viola, (and more) weaving a bright, energetic tapestry of affection toward God.
• 01:45 pm – Aaron Strumpel: Elephants and Birds
  An experimental double album set of worship and exploration of the human condition is Aaron’s new works entitled “Elephants” and “Birds.”  Put on your seat belts for a journey of sounds and emotions that will bring us close to the face of the Father.  Todd Fadel, Todd Berger, and David Wilton will sit in.
• 02:45 pm – Jacob and Lily: Karla Adolphe and Caleb Friesen
  The award winning folk duo hailing from Winnipeg, Canada will fire up the stage with an energy and color rarely heard in the folk scene.  More like a rocket ride through the countryside than an afternoon stroll in the garden, Jacob and Lily need a stage as big as Worship@8500 just to get started.
• 03:45 pm – Todd Berger: Village Thrift
  The innovative writer and performer who brought you Village Thrift: Circa 2005, and his solo release just this year is an accomplished worship leader who weaves urban influence, gospel, and rock together to try and mix a music bed than can keep up with his own vocal energy.
• 04:45 pm – Short Break for Dinner
• 05:00 pm – Tim Coons, Solo
  From Greeley, CO Tim is a working singer-songwriter and worship leader who just recently released a double disc set called “The Deadly Sins and the Beatitudes” in the folky haunting spirit that makes him so unique.  Enjoy.
• 05:30 pm – Fourth Circle Worship Circle Jam
  All the  performers from the Fourth Circle album:  Ben and Robin Pasley, Aaron Strumpel, Karla Adolphe, Tim and Laurie Thornton, and Caleb Friesen will mix it up with other artists and create an extended set of worship, music jam, and improvisation fury that will take us right up to the end of our fantastic day together!
• 07:00 pm – Finish
  
  Also with special musical guests:
  Tim Coons
  Todd Fadel
  Josh Rosen
  David Wilton