This Year's Special Guests

The program for this year's Annual Meeting is provided by our musical-theological friends from SHIFT: Bryan Sirchio, Christopher Grundy, Andra Moran and Richard Bruxvoort Colligan.  Though each of them serves the wider church as musicians, teachers and worship leaders, their work together is to curate the Progressive Christian Artists Network (PCAN) community online and in events across the country.

Their SHIFT program at annual conference centers on worship renewal.  Speaking to any worship style that rings true for your context, they go beyond labels of "traditional" and "contemporary" to model leadership that grounds the people of God in our ancient heritage while stretching us into God's revelatory future.

Through music and discussion, the quad's vibrant style will invite us into some timely and intense questions:  What makes worship vital?  What needs to change in your context right now for your community to truly thrive?  What's at stake?  As a vehicle of theology, beauty and spiritual formation, how does music play a role?  How is worship leadership evolving for faithfulness in the 21st century?

We welcome the talents of Bryan, Christopher, Andra and Richard and open to their gifts.

Richard Bruxvoort Colligan is a member of the SHIFT progressive worship music quad. He loves the Psalms, chocolate, naps, blue and bad jokes. A graduate of United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, he is completing a ten-year immersion in the Psalms and is delighted to be composing, teaching and singing the Psalms wherever he goes. A contributor to "Sing Prayer and Praise", Richard has also published many of his songs through Augsburg Fortress. He lives with his wife, son and animals in Strawberry Point, Iowa. Go to worldmaking.net for more information.

Bryan Sirchio is known and loved by people in churches around Wisconsin, and across the country.  Bryan is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ, and has produced 13 CD's and 4 songbooks in his 24 years of music ministry.  He has gathered three other contemporary musicians to collaborate with him on this exciting project. 

Andra Moran is known in churches of many denominations, but particularly the Disciples of Christ and UCC.  Andra's recorded and print work is used in churches, colleges and summer camps around the United States and Europe.  Her book, "Sacred Stations" will be released in April of 2013.  She and her husband Stephen serve as Creative Directors for Art & Music at The Bridge in Nashville, TN. Andra and her music radiate both a resilient hope and an understanding that life can be complicated.  

Christopher Grundy is a recording artist, minister of the UCC, and an assistant professor of worship at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis. For more than twenty years he has been writing and performing his own brand of "thoughtful, inclusive, singable Christian music" around the country.