I had the opportunity to attend Vineyard Music’s National Worship Leaders Retreat East last week in Black Mountain, NC.  While I was there I was truly blessed in many ways.  I was able to connect with friends old and new, worship amongst 70+ worship leaders, and connect with a small group that laid their lives out on the table for us to seek God’s will in all the dark and light corners of our lives.

One of the major highlights was that I was asked to play banjo during the worship set led by Dan Wilt (worshiptraining.com) and Ryan Flanigan (reformworship.com).  The set consisted of ancient prayers, classic hymns, modern worship songs, and a couple of modern folk songs that don’t typically fit into our worship set mold. Those songs however did point the congregation before us to the Lord most high.

Ryan Flanigan, Dylan Mckeeman, Dan Wilt

Instrumentation in the set consisted of a hammered dulcimer, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, djembe, keyboard, and banjo.  The instruments blended to create a timbre that harkened back to the roots of American music yet was familiar to today’s worshiper.  In the midst of the ancient and future tones the Holy Spirit blessed the retreat with an intimate and unique worship experience.

I was also blessed with the opportunity to sit down with Ryan Delmore and David Linhart (two Vineyard recording artist) and discuss roots music’s role in worship today.  I’m listening back to the recording and gathering some notes for my next blog post.

Thanks to Ryan Flanigan for encouraging me to start blogging again.  Go check out his stuff at www.reformworship.com

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