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The 2008 tour has come to a close. However, Brian and friends are collaborating on another round of gatherings in the fall of 2009. If you are interested in hosting a gathering, contact Linnea Nilsen-Capshaw at info @ deepshift.org. Brain's Reflection's on Tour (from brianmclaren.net): Part 1 I'm down to my last few hours before leaving for a trip to Africa to be part of the Amahoro-Africa gathering in Kigali, Rwanda. Before I finish (actually, start) packing, I want to thank everyone who participated in our recent eleven-city Everything Must Change tour. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life, and I believe that the ripples from our eleven gatherings will spread with good effect for many years to come. As you can imagine, I'm unspeakably grateful to Linnea Nilsen Capshaw, founding partner of Deepshift.org, and colleague in this tour. Wise, sensitive to the Holy Spirit, gifted, highly competent, cheerful, fun-loving, and prone to erupt into laughter ... she's been a pleasure to work with. Add to that pleasure the joy of working with Tracy Howe - our worship leader and co-producer of the tour CD, and Eric Haines - a man with many super-powers which include technical wizardry and old-fashioned helpfulness, and Jo and Will Burgess - newlyweds who helped us with all sorts of logistics before and during the tour. Then I'm so grateful to all our sponsors - Emergent Village, the Sierra Club, Sojourners Faith and Justice Churches, the One Campaign, Mars Hill Graduate School, and Faith at Work. To our official sponsors, I'd have to add my friend Ian Morgan Cron and the good people of Trinity Church in Greenwhich, CT, who generously covered basic expenses for one of our events. We truly were partners in this tour, and we've truly become friends as well. If you don't know about these organizations, I hope you'll take a few minutes to check out their websites - and maybe get involved. I'm equally grateful to two other groups of people ... ... I'm so thankful to our amazing hosts in all eleven cities. Each host team worked so hard and was so hospitable. We truly couldn't have done this without the amazing organizers, promoters, registrars, chair-movers, refreshment-preparers, packet-packers, musicians, tech people, prayer-leaders, station-preparers, and other volunteers who radiated love and joy in each city. And then there were the local voices who participated in our panels ... You were amazing! And finally, I want to express my thanks to all those who came to the events in Charlotte, Dallas, Boise, Tampa, DC, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, the Bronx, and Goshen. What an amazing thing - for people to devote a Friday night and all day Saturday to engage with global crises and to learn how the message of Jesus equips us to make a difference. We had people in their teens and people in their 90's and everywhere in between. We had Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox ... plus quite a few who wouldn't call themselves Christians at all, but were interested in learning how they can work with Christians for the common good. We had people of all skin tones and political persuasions, and a good mix of women and men as well. My only regret ... well, I'll save that for another post. For now, I just want to say thanks once more to all these people, and also to those who wished they could have been there but couldn't make it. Many of you prayed for us, and for me in particular, and again, I want to say thanks - thanks to you and thanks to God for you. Part 2: Reflections on the Everything Must Change Tour, Part 2 I really have only one regret about the tour - well, make that two, no actually three. First and most significant, I wish we had kept the gatherings smaller and had a lot more time for personal interaction. I did my best to be available during breaks, meals, etc., but I still wish I had more chances to talk to people in more depth on an individual basis. The people I had a chance to meet were so interesting and their stories were so compelling - but I know I missed the chance to meet probably half of the people or more in each city. I told Linnea last week that if I we do another tour, instead of working for large groups in each city, I would seriously consider limiting each gathering to maybe 75 or so, and emphasize even more that this would not be a "learning event" as much as a "training trainers" event. I don't now how the finances would work for something like that, and in the end I'm glad that everyone who wanted to come was able to come this time, but that's my only significant regret. Second, I wish we had more high school kids present. Maybe if we do another tour, we should do one just for high school students. My feeling is that the emerging generations have a natural "get-it factor" in regard to the EMC message ... and it would be a delight to encourage and network them. And third ... ... I wish we had figured out a way financially to give every attender a copy of the CD of songs from the tour. That would have been a worthwhile take-away ... although it's still easy for folks to buy or download the songs online ... we just didn't think of it in time. I guess one other regret comes to mind ... and that's that the people in Charlotte didn't get to meet the folks in the San Diego, and the folks in the Bronx didn't get to meet the folks in Charlotte, and the folks in Seattle didn't get to meet the folks in Goshen, and so on. If you had met these people, you would know why I feel this way. Looking ahead ... well, I'll save that for another post. Part 3: We have a growing list of potential hosts who would like us to bring "Everything Must Change" to their city, and we're considering doing so in Fall 2009. Stay tuned ... In the meantime, if you haven't yet signed up for our regular newsletter, I hope you will, and let other folks know about it as well. You can sign up here ... In the months to come we'll be sending out resources to help you put the EMC message into action - in your life, your home, your faith community, your work, and our world. For example, here's the version of the Lord's Prayer that we sang on the tour, simply ascending a scale five tones and then coming back down: 1. Our Father above us and all around us … And if you haven't yet checked out Everythingmustchange.org ... that will be a main place to share ideas, links, and ways to keep the change process unfolding. OK ... now I REALLY have to pack for Africa ...
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