Ever thought about hosting a Living Word workshop in your area? You just might have the time of your life.

Judy Keiper of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Portland, Oregon recently took on the lion’s share of responsibility when her church hosted a Crossways International Living Word workshop —and she came away from it feeling exhilarated.

"You get out of something what you put into it!” Judy tells us. “After Pastor Butch Olson made the initial decision for Holy Cross to host the workshop, he left me in charge of working out the details. It required a lot of time and planning, but the rewards were great.”

Judy immediately began a series of phone calls with Karen Roed-Rick, the Director of Events at Crossways International. Day by day, she worked out her strategy for promoting the workshop, and making it as successful as possible. She was keen on making sure that all the needs of the presenter from Crossways International were taken care of, and worked hard to create a warm and hospitable atmosphere for all attendees.

She also devoted a lot of energy to publicizing the event in advance. “Two to three months prior to the workshop date, we began to send out mailings to area churches and pastors, other church-affiliated groups, and to mailing lists supplied to us by Crossways International. We sent out a hundred packets on three different occasions. The packets contained workshop endorsements from other organizations, a promotional letter from Pastor Olson, and a personal invitation from me. We also put 1,000 flyers into the mailboxes of congregational members from six different churches in our area. Finally, we took out a few low-cost advertisements in the local newspapers, which were a great asset for publicity.”

When the day came for the week-long workshop to begin, participants came out in droves. Everyone was intrigued and delighted to see how the biblical narrative comes alive with the graphics used in the CI courses. Pastors from several different denominations attended, and, as Judy says, “When pastors attend, you know the materials are a winner!” Ms. Keiper adds, “The rewards of being a host were great—especially the opportunity to network with other committed Christians. I would do it all again without any hesitation.”

Meanwhile...

...at another Holy Cross Lutheran Church —this one in Overland Park, Kansas —workshop planners share similar thoughts and insights. Associate Pastor Helen Svoboda-Barber and Alan & Kathie Walter found it “very rewarding to see people immersed in the Word for an entire week and so eager to quench their thirst for spiritual nourishment.” Here they offer the following tips for promoting their Living Word workshop: Send mailers to multiple churches in your local area. Use other church-related events to get the word out. For example, at our June Synod Assembly, at which there were 500 attendees, we included a Living Word promotional brochure in the conference registration packet distributed to each participant. Our Senior Pastor Michael Peck made announcements about the Crossways workshop during all three Sunday morning worship services for five weeks prior to the event. For two months in advance, we ran articles about the upcoming workshop in the church newsletter. We arranged to have a notice printed in the local newspaper—free of charge! Local businesses, the library, and the coffee shop agreed to let us display flyers about the workshop.

Please contact us with your questions (& pictures!) and tell us about your own experiences with Crossways International's materials and resources.