Twas the Night Before Ministers' School

I'm at Tan Tar A Resort in Osage Beach, Missouri on Monday night, waiting for Minsters' School to begin tomorrow. I'm nervous about faculty arriving safely and on time. Other than that, I'm not really worried about anything. I think this is going to be a great couple of days.

First thing tomorrow is getting the registration going, and our registrar and assistant registrar are really great and have everything under control. The we have opening worship at 1:00 and the worship team has been here tonight checking sound and set up and everything, so that should go well. Then I give some welcoming remarks as the dean of the school. Then we have a faculty presentation, then supper, then an evening faculty presentation.

That's day 1!

Several board members ate supper together tonight, and we had a really good conversation about future schools and trying to work together with the conference and what topics to cover. But mostly the conversation was about what the overall ethos of the Ministers' School should be.

As for me, I really want it to be a place to slow down and engage in thoughtful conversation with each other that doesn't necessarily involve hearing someone list off the "top ten" ways to do something. I want it to be meaty, edgy. I want Ministers' School to go deep. I want it to be challenging. I think most of the people on the board want that too. I do not want it to be a technical workshop. I want it to be a theological event.

I don't necessarily want to leave Ministers' School with answers. I want a chance to really wrestle with the questions. Am I weird? I mean, if I'm the only one who want an experience like that, I hope someone tells me. There are dozens of technical workshops all over the state, the region, and the country for that matter - all year long. I hope that Ministers' School offers something different. That's the ethos I want.

Well, we will see what 2009's School ends up being. The way we have it pictured, it is going to be a lot of social/theological/cultural reflection with maybe a few practical ideas thrown in here and there. We'll see if that becomes reality, and we'll see how people like it. It's going to be a fun couple of days, to be sure.