Editorial: As a workshop ends, may new work begin

Forty-five years ago, Churches of Christ hungered to reach the lost. A grassroots movement, led by believers including Alan Bryan, resulted in the creation of soul-winning workshops across the U.S. — from Pensacola, Fla., to St. Louis to Seattle.

These workshops were designed for the people in the pews. They provided more than just inspirational messages. They included how-to classes on parenting, financial management and marriage enrichment. They were real and relevant.
The Tulsa Workshop was many things to many people, but never dull.
Most of those workshops have disappeared, and the end of the Tulsa Workshop after 40 years saddens us. We will miss the annual, 90-minute drive up the Turner Turnpike from our offices in Oklahoma City to fellowship with Christians from around the world. We give praise and heartfelt thanks to Marvin Phillips, Terry Rush and the countless others who labored tirelessly to make the workshop work.

Francis Chan prepares to speak to thousands during the Tulsa Workshop in 2013. (PHOTO BY ERIK TRYGGESTAD)
The Tulsa Workshop was many things to many people, but never dull. The event sometimes drew criticism for bringing in speakers from outside our fellowship. At times these speakers made us uncomfortable, but they also challenged us to give a defense for the hope that is in us.

Whether you attended and supported the workshop or not, we pray that the event’s clarion call to reach the lost will continue to motivate you — and all of us — to the uncomfortable business of soul-winning.

Even as we say farewell to the workshop, we see its legacy living on.

Easter is coming, and with it the annual gatherings for Lads to Leaders and Leadership Training for Christ, or LTC.

Across the nation, thousands of our young people are preparing for the conventions. They’re memorizing Scripture, learning sign language, scripting puppet shows, producing videos. If we guide them with love, if we serve as examples of evangelism, they will take the Gospel to the world in ways we can’t fathom.

In them, may that same, soul-winning hunger live on.