The Overflow

I really enjoy the Tulsa Workshop, and have for several years now. My first workshop experience occurred in 1984.  I went with my parents and one of my older sisters, Alicia, and on the last day of the workshop I knocked over a big display of glass figurines and broke about 80% of them on the concrete floor of the expo center. My dad ended up having to buy them all. It was awesome (way more exciting than ACU’s lectures)!

Anyway, I went to a couple of other workshops after that (in ’85 and ’86, and didn’t break anything), but didn’t really become a fan of the Tulsa Workshop until 2004. I’d just recently given myself to Christ after being a drug addict for many years, and had begun training for what would prove to consume my life – ministry.

I attended lectures in 2004, and for the first time in my life I listened and heard what the speakers were saying … things that I’d never heard before. Things the Bible says that I didn’t know were there – Scriptural analysis that, at the time, was hard for me to wrap my mind around. I heard words like “postmodernity,” and really wondered what the big deal was. I was exposed to books, new ideas, and fresh perspectives on issues I thought I’d already figured out.

I’m not saying that the Tulsa Workshop is any better than other lectures or seminars out there, but I am saying it holds a special place in my heart. Looking back, that experience in 2004 is one of the things that caused me to develop a passion for learning. Not simply a passive inclination, but a passion to learn.

Leaders are learners – they just happen to learn things before others, and events like the Tulsa Workshop are such that driven leaders should devour and digest.

I like Tulsa because, in addition to the high quality content and great deals on ministry materials, close friends and family of mine from around the world will be there. It’s like a big reunion for us every year.

If you haven’t already, check out this year’s promo vid:

Here’s a link to the Tulsa Workshop website, and also a link to the Facebook Event Page I created.

Paul Fletcher and I will be there representing San Francisco, and Campus Ministry Unitedwill have a booth set up manned by the CMU Crew (booth #402 if you want to say hello to us).

Also, please keep Terry Rush in your prayers. Terry has been integral in the planning and execution of the Tulsa Workshop for many years. He had a colonoscopy a couple of weeks ago and the doctors found something suspicious. Terry is still waiting to hear back from them to find out the final results – let’s pray this all turns out to be nothing.