This spring, Chris Tomlin, Paul Baloche & Michael W. Smith are each coming to Canada for their own concert tours. Three great artists, three separate tours, three incredible opportunities. Chris Tomlin will be here in March, Paul Baloche will tour Canada in April and Michael W. Smith will go coast-to-coast in May. So what are we going to do about it? Contest! Giveaway! Free tickets!

Who doesn’t love a great contest? Who doesn’t love free tickets? Who doesn’t love giveaways?

For information, dates, cities and details head over to Unite Productions to see a full list of the Chris Tomlin, Paul Baloche and Michael W. Smith Canadian concert tour dates – www.uniteinworship.com

So here’s how this is going to work..

• You must enter a comment at the bottom of this post letting me know your preferred first, second and third choice for tickets if you win. If your name is picked first, you get your first choice. If your name is picked second, you get your second choice unless your first choice is still available. If your name is picked third, you get your third choice unless your first or second choices are still available. Clear as mud? Awesome!
• After you enter the post, make sure you click the big green “Do it!” button on the giveaway widget below. Post the comment, click the button in the widget and then go ahead and use the widget to tweet and like the post for additional entries. You can also follow me on twitter for one more entry.
• Tweeting and liking the post can happen once per day over the course of the contest and each day will count as a new entry in the contest. Only one blog post comment will count as an entry.
• The contest is open now and winners will be announced on Wednesday, February 8.
• The prizes are provided by our good friends at Unite Productions and they will arrange details for you as far as getting tickets for the correct show.

So.. leave a comment below, come back to the widget here and submit your entries:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

If you are a worship leader and new to the blog, you may be interested in reading through a series of posts I’m just wrapping up focused on different tools and resources to help you do your job better. In this series I talk about books, online tools and different resources I use every week – some every day! – to help me in my job.

The Worship Leader’s Toolkit series can be found here – www.chrisfromcanada.com/worshipleaderstoolkit

I’m excited that Chris Tomlin is coming back on tour in Canada and if I’m honest I’ll say that I’m actually a bit more excited to see All Sons & Daughters will be coming with him. This is a tour you will not want to miss!

All kinds of details available from our friends at Unite Productions.

Were you there?

Hillsong United is coming back to Toronto on Saturday, August 13 and the fine people at Unite Productions have put together a pretty cool contest for you to win tickets.

Would you like to meet the guys in Hillsong UNITED on August 13th? What would you think if we said you could win a MEDIA PASS and be an official photographer for the Hillsong UNITED AFTERMATH event at the Molson Amphitheatre.

Want all the details? Check out the info here on the Unite Productions website.

If you’re interested in picking up tickets and coming to see Hillsong United, they are playing at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto on Saturday, August 13. Tickets are available at iTickets and Ticketmaster. Should be a great night!

Brenton Brown (web|twitter) is one of my favourite songwriters – we do a bunch of his songs at our church. You may do them too and not even know that he wrote or co-wrote them. Everlasting God, Hosanna (Praise is Rising), Lord Reign in Me, Hallelujah, Our God Saves, All Who are Thirsty, Because of Your Love – all of these at least partly written by Brenton Brown. I’d say that’s a pretty good track record!

Brenton and his band are coming to Ontario this week for a few tour dates and I would really encourage you to attend if you are able. Brenton is talented, humble and genuine in his craft. You’ll be impressed by his ability but also his heart for the church and his desire for people to know more about Jesus. Brenton speaks very clearly about some of his own struggles and how those have led him to depend more and more on the love, grace and mercy of Christ. You will be encouraged!

Added bonus? My good friend Joshua Seller (web|twitter) was asked to open each of these dates on the tour so you’ll get the opportunity to hear TWO great worship leaders at every event. Joshua and I have co-written a couple of songs together but I’m not sure if he’s planning on playing either of them as part of these events.

As if that wasn’t enough, Brenton has agreed to be available for a worship leaders’ workshop before every event. Brenton and his band will run these workshops, give you some practical training and be available for Q&A as well. You can get more info on the workshops by sending an email to info@glassjargroup.com

Tickets are available here – TicketWindow

Event info for each of the dates is here -

Wednesday, May 25 – Sarnia Pentecostal Church in Sarnia, ON
Thursday, May 26 – Harvest Bible Chapel in Markham, ON
Friday, May 27 – Waterloo Pentecostal Assembly in Waterloo, ON
Sunday, May 29 – Harvest Bible Chapel in Oakville, ON

I have not been this genuinely excited about a concert announcement in a long, long time.

Monday, May 16 – 7:30pm
The Meeting House
Oakville, ON
Tickets - http://www.itickets.com/events/260187.html

Listen, if you’ve been around the blog for a while you know that I am very serious when I say that if you CAN get to this show, you MUST get to this show. I was part of an event with Gungor back in February 2010 and it was one of the most artistically impacting moments of my life. Here’s video from the event that night -

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSQUFc7r6Dg

So here’s what I want to do. I want to give away a pair of tickets to this event because I want YOU to be there. I really want people to know about this event so I’m going to open up a couple more opportunities for you to enter.

Here’s how you can enter -

1. Comment on the post.

2. Tweet this post and comment again (a separate comment, not the same one) with a link to your twitter status. You can tweet the post and re-comment once a day for a total of seven entries.

3. Post a link to this event on facebook and post a link to your status update. If we’re facebook friends, I’ll check it out. If we’re not facebook friends, I’ll take your word for it :) Again, do this once a day and post a separate comment each time you do that.

I’ll use good ol’ reliable random.org on Wednesday, March 24 23 (I’m the worst for getting dates right! Thanks, Pat!) to choose a winner of two tickets from our friends at Unite Productions.

UPDATE: Thanks for taking part in this, everyone! Thanks to random.org the winner is comment number… … 15!! Congratulations Vanessa Austin – I’ll be in touch to let you know how you can get your tickets.

Here’s a quick hit version of what yesterday looked like – our first day of recreate 2011

• Breakfast at Merridee’s (of course!) – got to finally meet Matt Armstrong, great to connect with Jeff Berry
• Lunch in Nashville with two new real life friends – Jenni Catron and Stephen Brewster from Crosspoint. Thankful for their generosity, insight and encouragement. Also thankful for the chef at J. Alexander’s – wow!
• Back to Merridee’s to see a roomful for recreate folks, old and new
• Hotel.. quiet.. downtime.. rest..
• Aloft for meet & greet – really surprised by how many people in the room I didn’t recognize, LOVED meeting so many of them last night. Heard some incredible stories in that first two hours of conversations.
• Over to Clearview Baptist Church for our first evening program thanks to Word Music – they did it right. Great to see Anne Mabry and her team pull off a great event.
• Jason Castro – he of American Idol fame
• Patrick Ryan Clark – worship leader/songwriter from Dallas. Best line of the night – “Next year my label is going to have Coldplay open for me.”
• Chris August – brought the house down. I have known of Chris and his music but had never really listened until last night. This guy is the real deal – talented, intelligent, creative. Please please please support this guy and buy his music so that he can make more of it.

The fine fellows of the David Crowder Band are making their way north this fall and our friends at Unite Productions would like you to be there! I’ve got two tickets to giveaway to one of the eight shows happening across the country.

Here’s the date/venue information -

OCT 6 – David Crowder*Band Tour – MONTREAL :: Quebec
OCT 7 – David Crowder*Band Tour – OTTAWA :: Ontario
OCT 8 – David Crowder*Band Tour – TORONTO :: Ontario
OCT 10 – David Crowder*Band Tour – HALIFAX :: Nova Scotia
OCT 12 – David Crowder*Band Tour – WINNIPEG :: Manitoba
OCT 13 – David Crowder*Band Tour – SASKATOON :: Saskatchewan
OCT 14 – David Crowder*Band Tour – EDMONTON :: Alberta
OCT 15- David Crowder*Band Tour – CALGARY :: Alberta

Tickets are available now through the Unite Productions site.

So how can you win? Leave a comment on this post, hit the little tweet or like buttons at the bottom of the post – make sure you let me know that you did in your comment. You can enter once through a comment, once with a tweet and once with a facebook like and you should probably only enter if you’re actually planning to attend the concert if you win.

I’ll get some help from www.random.org in choosing the winner next Friday, September 17 Thursday, September 16. Good luck!

UPDATE: Congratulations to Luke Gervais on winning the tickets. Sorry to those of you who were waiting until the last day to enter. I’ll have more giveaways soon!

I will have some posts coming this week to talk about my experience at re:create but, first, let me tell you about one of the most profound things I was a part of.. ever.. in my entire life.. in the history of the world. Seriously.

If you follow Christian/worship music, then you are probably familiar with the name Michael Gungor. He has written songs that are being sung in churches all around the world – Friend of God, Say So or Wrap Me In Your Arms. You may know those songs and maybe you even sing them but, I promise, you have not heard the best of what Michael Gungor has to offer.

This week at re:create we were part of what I could only describe as a holy moment. 10 incredibly talented musicians, 13 songs, 60 minutes of creativity, passion, devotion and honesty packed in to one incredible holy moment.

“Beautiful Things” is the name of Gungor’s new CD (which releases tomorrow) but it is also the live experience that they have created to accompany the CD. You might call it a concert.. but you’d be mistaken. “Beautiful Things” tells the story of creation, fall, redemption and restoration through music, video and spoken word in a way that brought a room full of “creatives” (whatever that means!) to its knees, figuratively, and to its feet, literally. There was weeping, whooping, silence, cheering and the realization that we were witnessing the birth of something new – something very real – that is about to invade the world.

Am I going over the top on this? Honestly.. No. The only thing that I would be able to compare “Beautiful Things” to would be the U2 tour that came through town in the fall. And yes, there’s been much hype on that tour – justifiably so. The Gungor experience left me in the same kind of place as my night with Bono and the boys. Someone said to me this week that the only thing that they could use to compare Gungor was a live show by Sigur Ros. “And,” they continued, “it compares.” That is high praise.

So, can I give you a taste of what it was like? Sort of. Check this out –

How can you find out more?

Gungor – www.gungormusic.com
Twitter – www.twitter.com/gungormusic
iTunes – “Beautiful Things”

So what can you do? Let me suggest three things –

1. Buy the CD and support the band. You might feel it’s your God-given right to steal music and “share” it from friend to friend but.. honestly.. these people need your money. Quit being selfish and vote with your wallet.

2. Go and be a part of the live experience. There are tour dates listed now on their website.

3. Tell someone else about the CD and the “Beautiful Things” events. If music like this is going to spread around the world it will only happen because people who have been moved by it introduce it to others who will be moved and will tell other who will then be moved. So do it – introduce Gungor to someone who loves good music and good artistry. They will not be disappointed.

And, finally, let me say that this experience, for me, would not have happened if it wasn’t for the community and the event of re:create. Worship leaders, you know that there are a zillion worship conferences for you to attend every year. There are all run by good people who have good intentions and good desires for the church. But if you are looking for something more, something different, something challenging, you owe it to yourself to investigate re:create and be a part of it. More on that later.

Image from stripspiritual

I’m really looking forward to the Chris Tomlin & Kristian Stanfill concert in Toronto at Queensway Cathedral on Saturday night. Any blog friends going to be there?

Let me know!