Here are a few random workshop reflections.

1. The love and encouragement Terry and I experienced was at times overwhelming. I received only one negative comment about the program and it didn’t come from the direction you might expect. It was from a member of the Disciples of Christ (See reflection #2). Obviously, the people who were most critical of what we did weren’t at the fairgrounds.

2. My biggest regret about the program I put together was that I didn’t include a few Disciples of Christ speakers in the mix. When I was putting it all together I assumed that the Disciples folks wouldn’t be interested in what we were doing. For some that was true, but not all. Not everyone within the Disciples of Christ is “liberal” just as not everyone within Churches of Christ is “conservative” and not everyone within Independent Christian Churches is “fundamentalist.” In the age to come, the streets will have no names and all the labels we’ve used to describe, belittle, and caricature each other will be consigned to hell. Hopefully, in future conversations we’ll find ways to include representatives from Disciples churches who want to be a part of the conversation.

3. Nothing frustrated me more than the sound and visual miscues. I wish there were an easy way to correct the problem, but as some have already noted it seems to happen every year. I’ve been trying to figure out why. Here are a few contributing factors I’ve noted. A. We get what we pay for. We put the workshop together on a very limited budget and we always end up stretching ourselves in the audio/visual production category. B. The pavilion is not the most conducive environment for what we are trying to pull off. C. We pack our schedule so full during the day that we never have time to do a technical rehearsal. The evening session each night is our first rehearsal and it shows. D. We make too many last minute changes. We put singing groups on the stage at the last minute and speakers hand us powerpoint and dvd’s to play five minutes before they go on stage even though they were asked to send us their stuff at least a week in advance. (Mild frustration with my fellow preachers is showing here.)

I know some are worried that the outcome of all this unity talk with Christian Churches will be that Churches of Christ will start using instruments. There’s nothing to worry about here. We’re still trying to figure out how to use microphones.

4. I didn’t get to attend many classes but the feedback I’m getting is that Mark Moore and Bob Russell were great. Of course the usual suspects keep being mentioned as well.

Last Sunday Greg Pittman and I swapped churches. He preached at Garnett and I preached at the Cedar Ridge Christian Church. On one level, it’s not that big of a deal. Both of our congregations had guest preachers. But on another level, it is quite significant. It’s not something that would have happened ten years ago.

The folks at Cedar Ridge were incredibly gracious and I had a great time preaching to them. I’ve heard nothing but good stuff about what Greg did at Garnett.

Greg will also being doing a class on leadership at the workshop this Thursday.

There was a time in the Stone-Campbell Restoration movement when travelling preachers would find themselves preaching one Sunday in a church that used an organ and then the next Sunday preaching in a church that didn’t. For the most part, it wasn’t that big of an issue. They even joked among themselves about how they were preaching in either an “organic” or “non-organic” church.

What happened on Sunday was a big deal, even though it really wasn’t. That’s the way it should be.