I apologize for not writing here this past week, but I hope at least some of you have been reading my blog from the National Workshop on Christian Unity.

The center of every convention revolves around meeting after meeting in the many windowless, sunless caves that we have created and called “Hotel/Convention Center.” After a period of time you loose all sense of direction and time and staying focused can become difficult no matter how good or important the content. Even when you are in the midst of it you have to wonder how conducive these settings are to learning and decision-making. We set up schools this way too sometimes and we have to at least speculate about the loss of creativity that can be caused by this convenience driven use of space and its inherent vitamin D deprivation. Despite those obstacles, things do get done, which I suppose is a testament to intentionality of purpose. Sometimes we have to overcome even the limitations we put on ourselves in order for good things to happen and to move beyond the things, which may hold us back. Other times we seem to retreat into those caves, both metaphoric and real, avoiding the world until a time comes or until the convention ends and we are forced to reemerge back the way we came and into that world with the hope of transforming it. Just image what possibilities might exist if instead of retreating away from the world to meet, plan, strategize, worship etc., in buildings, hotels, churches, and the other caves we create, we gathered instead out in the world for all to see as participants in creation working transparently for that transformation we seek.