Tag Archives: lectureships

California trip

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(Photo by Erik Tryggestad, Christian Chronicle)

Oh, that’s right. I have a blog. Sorry, but sometimes life gets in the way of blogging. I used to have a “post or die” mentality, making sure that I had something out five times a week. Now I accept the fact that the world somehow goes on turning, even when I can’t put anything up here.

I was at the Pepperdine Lectures last week, representing Herald of Truth. Before that, I got to speak at the Long Beach Church of Christ; it had been ten years since I’d visited that wonderful congregation. 30 years ago (wow!), I spent two summers out there. I also went on two Spring Break campaigns there, and they helped support us while we were in Argentina.

I visited the Inland Valley Church of Christ in Ontario, California, on that Sunday evening. My friend Carlos Gonzales is the worship leader there. They have a strong bilingual church, with Tom Allen, a Bolivian native, as their preacher.

Before going to the lectures, I had joked that I was going there as Juan Monroy’s handler. Turned out to be more true than I realized. Juan spoke twice, had a book signing and received an award from the university. I spent most of my time with him, driving him back and forth from the campus and making sure that he had what he needed. Ammiel Perez from Cuba was also there and needed similar attention. I’ve had brothers serve me in the same way when I’ve traveled to other countries, so it was a pleasure to get to minister to these men.

Saw a few people, but mainly in passing. To all those I missed, or barely spoke to, I offer an apology. I would have loved to have had more time to visit, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.

I’m grateful for workshops and conferences that allow us to gather and be fed. After hearing one of the main lectures, Juan said to me: “This has been so good for me. I’m all the time teaching others… once in a while, I need to be fed as well.” Amen to that.

Summits and lectureships

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This week was Summit at Abilene Christian University. Working for Herald of Truth, I stay pretty busy during those times. We try to take advantage of such gatherings to raise awareness of our ministry. In Abilene, we had a booth in the exhibit area and an informative breakfast. Our staff also wore shirts with our logo on them during the week.

Still, I got to take in a few classes. Here are a few highlights:

  • Gordon Dabbs spoke on evangelism. I only got to hear one of his three sessions. In that session, he was discussing prejudices against Christianity that exist among non-Christians.
  • Reg Cox talked about building the church around small group gatherings. Their church has found a geographic organization to be the most effective for improved body life. (He ministers at a church in the Denver area)
  • Josh Ross, in the one session I heard, talked about a special Jubilee Sunday they had at their church. His description was quite moving. I highly recommend reading the account Josh posted on his blog last summer.
  • Jerry Rushford gave some fascinating descriptions of the lives of William Gladstone and Samuel Johnson. There are few things as captivating as a skilled historian talking about interesting characters from the past.
  • Donald Miller proved to be as skilled a speaker as he is a writer. His lesson about not expecting “mountaintop” experiences here on earth was timely and inspiring.

Next week I’ll be at Harding for their Lectureship. I get to speak each evening from Sunday through Wednesday on the book of Ecclesiastes. I hope to get to hear some other people as well; I hear myself far too often.

[Photograph by the amazing Tammy Marcelain. Check out her blog and also look at her photography website and Marcelain Photography blog. The last few years, most of the pictures of me and other members of the Herald of Truth staff have been taken by her.]

How do you get invited?

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Can I come in?

All right, o wise readers of mine, I’ve got a question for you. How do you get invited to speak at lectureships, workshops, etc.? For obvious reasons, it’s a plus for our ministry for our people to be visible and one of the best ways to be visible is to speak at public gatherings. For that reason, our ministry team is being asked to get more invitations to speak. But just how do you go about that?

To me, calling somewhere and asking to speak is really poor taste. It reminds me of what I used to do in first grade, when I would invite myself over to Stephen Templeton’s house every afternoon. I would ask Stephen: “Is it OK if I go to your house today?” and he was too nice to say no. Then my dad overheard me one day and told me not to do that anymore. Guess what. Stephen never invited me to his house again.

When I was in college, there were guys who practically lived outside the chapel office, begging for their chance to speak. I felt that I should wait for an invitation. It’s been over 25 years. I’m still waiting.

While living in Argentina, we worked with Amway for a while. One basic principle we learned was that you can’t promote yourself. Their teaching was that you build up your sponsor in people’s eyes, then they stand up and build you up. You talk about how great they are, they talk about how great you are, and everybody’s credibility increases. They taught that if you tried to promote yourself, you’d end up losing.

So do you have any suggestions for us? Should we swallow our pride and make the call, asking to be invited to speak? Should we call people we know and ask them to call these places? Or do we keep doing what we’re doing now, trying to make the most of the opportunities we get?