Breaking the Rules

Those friends of mine who have accompanied me to Tulsa Workshop can attest that I have some rules to live by while at workshop. (Many of these have been formed by my friends and I have adopted them!) I have developed these over 21 years of attending ISWW! *You ALWAYS go hear hear Marvin and Terry - even if there is another message you want to hear at the same time. That's why they make tapes/cds. *You NEVER eat at a place that you can eat at when you are at home. *You ALWAYS look at every booth before you buy anything. *You MUST KNOW that all singing groups sound much better live than they do on their CD. *You MAY experience guilt at skipping classes to chat with friends you haven't seen in a long time, but do it anyway. *You ALWAYS stay until Sunday morning, when the workshop is really over. Anyhow, that's the Dobber's guide to Tulsa Workshop. I broke some of those rules this weekend, but it's OK. It's been a great time. I will leave tomorrow at noon and head for Conway, AR. I will be speaking at University Church of Christ Sunday morning. If you're in the area, come join us! Today I was able to visit with several friends I haven't seen in a while. I hope John Alan Turner will post his analysis of the booth space for us all to enjoy. It was classic. I visited a little with Craig Hicks, but he was with his real best friend. I saw my friend Bud Meyer once, but that was it. I was surprised to see my old college friend James "high head" Evans from Canton, MS. To the left is Gerry Parker (Wyoming), Ray Downen (Missouri) and Bill Denton (Mississippi). Great to see these brothers in person. We usually only get to visit via e-mail. Mark and Laura Cremeans from Church of Christ Disaster Response Team have a booth here, and I enjoyed visiting with these precious saints. Hugh Gower and wife were at the Crossview booth. He is one of our relief partners! I also met a brother from University church of Christ in Monroe, who remembered my visit back a month or so ago.

I met several people today who read my blog - they recognized my picture (that's scary!). The blogger community is so cool. We ate lunch at the Rib Crib, and it was very good. I did get to hear John Mark Hicks and Bobby Valentine's class today. It was great to see them, and to meet some of their friends.

There was a lot of excitement in the air about tonight's session. We were led in some praise and worship by Watershed Worship and Acappella. Then the Zoe Worship Team came on stage with Brandon Scott Thomas and led us for about 40 minutes of praise. It was an awesome time. The first speaker of the night was Max Lucado. This was followed by Bob Russell. Bob is the preaching minister for the 24,000 member Southeast Christian Church in Kentucky. Both messages were good. Bob's message was delightful. He was complimentary of our singing, and even requested 728B! Both messages seemed to be received well by the nearly capacity crowd. Bob invited us all to the North American Christian Convention, which takes places in June and will feature some of our Church of Christ speakers. Sounds like a great event!

Back on the Coast... let me just thank Chris Lockhart for going the extra mile for me. He will be speaking tomorrow night (Saturday) at 7:00 if anyone in the area would like to come and visit and encourage him in his message!

I did pick up some books here, but maybe I'll share those with you tomorrow. Below: It's not a great picture, but it is Brandon Scott Thomas leading the Zoe Worship Team in a fantastic set of worship songs tonight.

Below: An Out Here Hope Remains reader from Little Rock, Arkansas!