the Zoe conference

So, anyway, I wrote the above on the plane on the way to Zoe. I thought it would be interesting if I wanted to adapt it much after that conference. For those of you who may not know, Zoe is a worship conference held every fall in Nashville. The word "Zoe" means spiritual life, and the accapella singing group releases their annual C.D. with the accompanying book...which always proves to be an invaluable resource of fresh material for the Churches of Christ across the nation. In addition, there are some great speakers: Brian McLaren, Mike Cope, and Randy Harris are the ones I got to hear. Now that almost two weeks have gone by, what tidbits do I still remember from their speeches? I remember Randy starting out by saying he almost cancelled many speaking engagements, including Zoe, because, as of last spring, he felt he had "lost his voice", and had nothing to say. As a college professor, he doesn't need to look for fresh material, he gets fresh faces every semester. But as a sought-after speaker, that's a different story. Apparently he spent much of the summer, hanging out at various monasteries in search of spiritual rejuvenation. Once he got stranded while the tide was coming in on a deserted island in Scotland. And what truth did he come away with? He felt God told him, "If you never preach another sermon, I won't love you any less." That almost seems counterproductive to our constant urging to get members in the church more involved, doesn't it? Yet it reminds me of the teachers who assure the students of their "A", and then say, "now what do you want to do with your time?" Take away the stress, so that one is free to rejuvenate, to rest, to create. Actually, that was the main message of the entire leadership portion of the conference: lots of emphasis on keeping a Sabbath, contemplative prayer, and planned moments of quiet in worship. They said people feeling uncomfortable with moments of quiet during worship service just proves that they really need it.
Well, phone's ringing....gotta go.