Gilles Ste-Croix, Sr. Vice-President of Creative Content for Cirque du Soleil, has recently been confirmed as one of the main session speakers for ARISE, the 2008 Arts Conference! Ste-Croix was part of the original group that founded Cirque du Soleil. Over the years, his creative role has grown. He was Director of Creation for all of Cirque du Soleil's productions from 1990 to 2000: Nouvelle Expérience, Saltimbanco, Alegría, Mystère, Quidam, La Nouba, "O", and Dralion. In 2002, Gilles became Vice-President of Creation and New Project Development and is the driving force behind LOVE, the Cirque show based on the music of The Beatles.

In one of the main sessions of the Arts Conference, Nancy Beach will interview Ste-Croix about the creative process that he and the team at Cirque use to develop their amazing experiences. Find out more about all the great things in store at ARISE, the 2008 Arts Conference, by visiting artsconference08.com.

Click Here to visit the ARISE website to register today. >>

 

Challenges we face in creating weekly worship gatherings
by Nancy Beach

Meeting with worship and arts leaders from all kinds of different churches is one of the privileges that comes with my role at the Willow Creek Association. I’ve sat with worship and arts leaders in settings as varied as Toronto, Germany, New Jersey, Australia, Calgary, and Norway. Yet, in every one of these gatherings, and in dozens more conversations over the phone or through e-mail, these leaders are telling me they face very similar challenges at their churches connected to the weekly worship gathering. This is what I most frequently hear:

• Some people in our church think the music is too loud and edgy.
• Other people in our church think the music is boring and not contemporary enough.
• I’m very concerned about how we can reach such a wide variety of age groups during our worship times. Right now, it seems like nobody in any age group is really happy.
• We haven’t cracked the code of integrating more than one culture into our worship style, and this doesn’t seem very inclusive to our minority groups. How can we become truly multi-cultural?
• People complain that the worship leaders up front don’t dress nicely enough for church.
• People say that we stand up for too long in worship and repeat the songs too many times.
• People want more of the traditional older hymns.
• People want more relevant, current music in church.

Click Here to read the entire article. >>

MOTHER'S CHAIR

DISCERNING THE VOICE OF GOD

JAZZ & MAX