In late May, 1998, Soul Purpose, made its first trip to Holden Village spending two weeks as artistic ensemble in residence at this unique Lutheran retreat center in the Cascade Mountains high above Lake Chelan in Washington. The company of eleven spent almost three weeks on the road, book-ending the Holden residency with church performances in the Seattle area. Prior to “going up the mountain” to Holden we spent two days preparing for the residency at the Gruenewald Arts Guild in Leavenworth. The Gruenewald Guild, directed by renowned liturgical artist and former VU professor Richard Caemmerer, produces art for the church and Christian community. During our two weeks at Holden, the members of Soul Purpose worked part-time jobs in the village in such areas as housekeeping, lawn and garden maintenance, kitchen, tape archive, child care (a/k/a “Narnia), and the ever-popular “Mavericking.” We performed several SP plays and joined in all facets of village life.. The experience was so positive, that another Soul Purpose company returned in May-June, 2001.

The Holden Village trip marked the beginning of an extended period of support from two Lilly Endowment, Inc., grants. The Valparaiso Project for the Formation of People in Faith, directed by Dr. Dorothy Bass, has been supporting Soul Purpose's acquisition of liturgical arts resources, especially books; printing and copying expenses; and travel to special events. In 2001, Valparaiso University was awarded two million dollars by the Lilly Endowment to provide for campus-wide programs in theological exploration of vocation. Soul Purpose received part of this grant in order to focus more directly on the ways in which Soul Purpose members might put liturgical drama to use in their vocations as well as their congregations. Some of this money has been used to support a Soul Purpose intern who serves as an assistant to the director.

Many of you will consider the new approach to travel as the most significant development in the history of Soul Purpose – no more vans! The University's insurance company was no longer willing to underwrite the liability of fifteen-passenger vans. It seems that the safety record of these vehicles has been a bad one, nation-wide. Soul Purpose now travels in the relative comfort of a twenty-three-passenger bus with a professional driver. It's more comfortable – less cozy – but MUCH more expensive. The typical cost of a van trip was $50-$120. The typical cost of a trip using a Fun-Time Coach and a driver is $500-$800. So far, we have relied on our Lilly grant money to make up the difference in cost and we've not increased our fees to churches, but when the grant runs out in two years, we're not sure how we will be able to fund travel.

During the past five years, Soul Purpose has performed at several major worship conferences. In January of 2001, the troupe performed plays, led worship services, and presented workshops at the Calvin Worship Symposium at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In the summer of 2002, we performed at the Christian Formation conference of the Episcopal Church USA at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, NC. (We expect to return to Kanuga in 2004). In addition, we performed for a music and worship conference at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis (a big church!) and at two liturgical arts conferences at Grace Lutheran Church in Hastings, Michigan (a little church, with a big heart!)

After many years of performing almost exclusively on the road, Soul Purpose has, in a sense, come home. Beginning in 2002, the company has been asked to proclaim the Gospel in dramatic form once each semester at Sunday morning services. As always, we work from Lectionary texts to create new plays based on the readings for the day. The Chapel of the Resurrection, at least the main chapel, is inhospitable to the spoken word, so we are learning how to work with microphones. But also, the space has moved us to create using larger gestures and to depend somewhat less on purely verbal communication. It is a great a great responsibility and one that we have enjoyed undertaking, even though it can be a little scary. We hope to see you on the road!