Tour Feedback.

“Feedback sessions” are unnerving for control freaks because we never know how things may turn out, so I approached yesterday evening with a little trepidation. My first question was: “How was the tour?” Most problems mentioned were either out of our control, like the response of the more traditional church, or can be resolved next time, like poor organisation and communication. There were others, which I’ll come back to in a later blog.
On the other hand, the general feel from the team was good. As a first piece it was probably good that we took “Golf” because it gave the team more confidence, having done it before, so they could relax on stage. This helped with flexibility in new locations with less time to adapt, especially in the Vineyard where the seating area was very different to what we are used to, and there were several thick pillars. We had to change several sections of the drama, or it would have been like watching a play in a forest with characters furtively enunciating through the trees…
The next question was “How could we change it next time?” Apart from better organisation and not going on a weekend that was a major part of the churches year, (Largely my fault for not looking at the calendar) some wondered if we could think a bit more about where we go, so we had more congregations like Vineyard, and less like the traditional church we went to. The problem with this, apart from the danger “valuing” our brothers and sisters in Christ according to how they respond to our material, is that very few churches see drama as a integral, prophetic part of worship, so we rather have to go where we can. On the other hand, we do need to work on integrating better with the host church: dropping in and disappearing isn’t terribly good for relationships so we need to look more long term. And it’s 100% better when we can prepare something that the preacher can work from.
This, combined with travel and transport issues, makes me think that we need to have a good rethink about touring and how we work with other churches. I’ll have a good think about that and get back to you.
So overall, the response was positive. The mistakes made this time serve as experience for future planning, and the good sides -the time together and the community we shared- served to bring the team together. Many thanks for your prayers.