Centered Life: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Thank You Prayer

2007-03-05T16:34:00.000-06:00

Many folk ask about the "Thank You" prayer frequently used by Sally Peters. It comes from an excellent resource, Worship & Daily Life: A Resource for Worship Planners published by Discipleship Resources. Here it is:

Thank you, God for those who, like you,
repair our homes and our hearts:
for electricians who fix our wiring and restore power lines;
for surgeons who repair blocked arteries and remove tumors;
for plumbers who unclog drains and fix leaking pipes;
for therapists who dispel the demons of our mind.

Thank you, God, for those who, like your Son,
teach and guide us:
for teachers who give our children knowledge;
for saints who have taught us the true meaning of faith;
for professors who have challenged and pushed us to think;
for dads and moms who teach us to be uncommonly wise.

Thank you, God, for those who, like your Word,
enrich our lives in the arts:
for singers whose voices make our hearts soar;
for writers whose written word gives us a new perspective;
for musicians who help us hear God's songs;
for painters whose images give us a new vision.

Thank you, God, for those who, like your Spirit,
work behind the scenes and out of the spotlight:
for secretaries who by their work make our work better;
for janitors who clean up after us;
for medical clerks who keep track of our records;
for cooks who make our meals.

We thank you, God, for all the ways in which
the work we do imitates the work you do.
We pray that in our work we glorify you.
We pray that through our work we may reveal you.
We pray that as we work we may be aware of working with you.

Amen.

Vocation & Call Sermons

2007-01-31T10:29:00.000-06:00

Every so often pastors involved with the Centered Life initiative share sermons dealing with vocation and call. Here's a sampling:

I. “Where am I called?” (Luke 2:8-20)
II. “How is God involved in my calling?” (Luke 19:1-10)
III. “Why am I called?” (Acts 4:1-20)

Bob Ericson
Trinity Lutheran Church
Watertown, MN

I. “Living as Found People” (I Timothy 1:12-17 & Luke 15:1-10)
II. “Where is church?”
III. “Living out our callings at. . .” (I Timothy 6:6-19 & Luke 16:19-31)
IV. “What is a centered life?” (II Timothy 1 & Luke 17)

Chris Bellefeuille & Wayne Peterson
St. Barnabas Lutheran Church
Plymouth, MN

“Called Into Daily Life” (John 3:1-5,10 & Mark 1:14-20)

David Whelan
Peace Lutheran Church
Menomonie, WI

“Faith Active in Love” (Galatians 5:13-14 & John 13:1-17)

Mary Kaye Ashley
Como Park Lutheran Church
St. Paul, MN

The companion site to Jack Fortin's lifelong learning course, Living Out Our Callings, also contains some sermonic fodder.

Faith & Work Resources

2007-01-23T12:14:00.000-06:00

In response to a request for faith & work resources:

Jack draws many of his illustrations from Laura Nash’s Church on Sunday, Work on Monday; in turn, Nash draws upon Robert Wuthnow’s The Crisis in the Churches.

If you havn’t already seen it, Paul Minus’ Taking Faith to Work would function as a nice small group resource.

Finally, you’ll find two articles, one short (CNN Money) and the other long (Fortune), on “God at Work” linked here: http://www.marcgunther.com/?p=100

God's Stewardship of Time: Stewardship in Families

2007-01-16T12:40:00.000-06:00

Luther Seminary's Stewardship in the 21st Century initiative this week picks up a The Clergy Journal article penned by Marilyn Sharpe of The Youth & Family Institute, "God's Stewardship of Time." It looks to be a helpful series for our upcoming Connections series on living out our callings at home. Here's a taste:

"Ultimately, though, stewardship is all about time. Time is God's gift of life, measured not in units of minutes, hours, days, and years; but rather measured in opportunities to be present with one another, to love one another as God has first loved us, and to serve one another with time, talent, and treasure."

The careful stewardship of time in the home will provide opportunities to engage the four keys for nurturing faith:
1 - Caring Conversations
2 - Family Devotions
3 - Rituals and Traditions
4 - Family Service

more

Prayers for Podiatrists

2006-11-21T16:15:00.000-06:00

Have you ever prayed for plasterers, podiatrists and prepress operators?

Thanks to Mary Kaye Ashley, the folk at Como Park Lutheran Church (St. Paul, MN) have.

Mary Kaye's working through a dictionary of occupational titles, crafting weekly petitions for particular professions. She's currently working through the 'P's. Here's a sampling:

Mighty & glorious God, we give you thanks for plasterers and all who work to create shelter for us, places to live & work. Help them to feel Your spark of Creation as they make things new. Lord, in your mercy,
Powerful & loving God, we give you thanks for plumbers and pipe fitters as they go about their work to care for others by bringing clean water & means for sanitation, to serve the health of all people. Help them to know your Spirit as their work touches people they never know. Lord, in your mercy,
Great & gracious God, we give you thanks for podiatrists, and for all others who give care and treatment to people so they may be the feet of Jesus in our world, healthy and strong. Lord, in your mercy,
Mighty & merciful God, we remember today police officers, detectives and special agents. May all who protect and serve seek to do so in ways that bring you glory .Protect them as they go about their work. Lord, in your mercy,
God of direction and detail, thank you for people who do precision assembly. Help them to know that the care they bring to their work makes a significant difference for others in your world. May we all see You in the intricacies of life. Lord, in your mercy,
Glorious & gentle God, we thank you today for prepress operators. As their work helps us to get accurate information in ways that are well-able to be read, and catch our eyes, may they have a sense of the wonder of your creativity and attention to every detail in our lives. Lord, in your mercy,
God of nurture and growth, thank you for the persons in our world who teach preschool and care for children. Give them energy and patience, strength and Your wisdom for the work they do to invest in the future of the world. Lord, in your mercy,
Amazing God, we thank you for those who operate printing presses in our world. May the work they do bring good news to people longing for hope and information. Lord, in your mercy,
Powerful God, thank you for private detectives and investigators. May they serve people's needs for information and justice in ways that reflect Your concerns for mercy and righteousness in the world. Lord, in your mercy,

Sabbatical Opportunities for Pastors

2006-11-16T15:35:00.000-06:00

Two clergy renewal opportunities recently came to our attention:

1) Pastor's Retreat Network
"Retreat centers dedicated to spiritual formation designed for pastors, pastor couples, or ministry teams."

2) National Clergy Renewal Program
Lilly funded grants "to strengthen Christian congregations by providing an opportunity for pastors to step away briefly from the persistent obligations of daily parish life and to engage in a period of renewal and reflection."

Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us

2006-11-07T11:19:00.000-06:00

The folk at Trinity Lutheran Church in Eau Claire, WI commend Adele Ahlberg Calhoun's Spiritual Disciplines Handbook as a new Faith Practices resource. Here's the blurb:

"Fasting. Solitude. Contemplative prayer. Lectio divina.Have you heard about these practices and wanted to try them? Have you wandered from one practice to another not sure quite what to do? Are you overwhelmed by all the to-dos of your spiritual life?We have good desires--for a more intimate prayer life, perhaps, or deeper insight from God's Word--but we don't know how to get there. So we give up our pursuit, tired from wandering aimlessly, and end up feeling guilty and more distant from God instead of closer. In the Spiritual Disciplines Handbook Adele Calhoun gives us directions for our journey toward intimacy with Christ. While the word discipline may make us want to run and hide, the author shows how desires and discipline work together to lead us to the transformation we're longing for--the transformation only Christ can bring. Instead of just giving information about spiritual disciplines, this Handbook is full of practical, accessible guidance that helps you actually do them.Mothers, fathers, plumbers, nurses, students--we're all on a journey. And spiritual disciplines are for all of us who desire to know Christ deeply and be like him. Here is direction for our desire, leading us to the ultimate destination: more of Christ himself. "

Mission in the Neighborhood

2006-11-01T13:53:00.000-06:00

This month's Connections, the e-letter of CenteredLife.org, highlighted a provocative editorial from Doug Wysockey-Johnson and Faith@Work Magazine. Here's a snippet:

"Church programs are great, as long as people come to the church. Most of the world however, is out where we are in our daily lives. Mission is nothing more than attempting to be Christ’s presence to those nearest us in everyday life."

more

New Centered Life Animation

2006-10-26T13:21:00.000-06:00

Hey you! Do you ever wonder what God made you for?

In Centered Life's new 3 1/2 minute animation, Astick Figeur (pictured at right) opens up the big life questions of meaning, identity, purpose, and belonging. Take a peek.

Twin Cities Workplace Ministries

2006-10-18T10:04:00.000-06:00

Jack just passed along a link to Twin Cities Workplace Ministries, a "coalition of workplace ministries whose vision is: To be a unified point of contact serving the Twin Cities Workplace by equipping followers of Jesus Christ to actively engage in life and community transformation."

The site boasts a City Wide Event Calendar, a gateway to Twin Cities "luncheons, Bible Studies, Conferences, Events, and more. . ."

Even if you don't live near the Twin Cities, you might take interest in the following:

Workplace Minute Radio, "one minute of encouragement from people around the nation sharing what it means to integrate their faith and their work."
Dear Pastor: a link to a PDF "message from the workplace." Here's an excerpt:
"I love our church and have a heart to serve, but I want to understand my purpose and ministry as it relates to my work."

Faith & Work: Where is God on Monday?

2006-10-10T08:18:00.000-06:00

Last month the folk at Opawa Baptist Church (New Zealand) began a series entitled Faith & Work: Where is God on Monday?

The series blog records a few work related prayers and petitions that resonated with folk. Here's a sampling:

"May my conversations be significant,
May my meetings be blessed,
May my path cross the paths of others who love you,
May my path cross the paths of others who don't know you,
May my touch be your touch of infinite gentleness,
May my words be your words of wisdom."
- i. Mary Fleeson, Life Journey, A Call to Christ-Centred Living, (Lindisfarne Scriptorium)

and

The Lord is my Pace setter - I shall not rush
He makes me stop for quiet intervals,
He provides me with images of stillness which
Restore my serenity,
He leads me in ways of efficiency through
Calmness of mind,
And his guidance is peace.
*
Even though I have a great many things to
Accomplish each day, I will not fret,
For his presence is here,
His timelessness, His all importance, will keep
Me in balance
He prepares refreshment and renewal in the
Midst of my activity,
By anointing my mind with His oils of tranquility,
My cup of joyous energy overflows.
*
Truly harmony and effectiveness
Shall be the fruits of my hours,
For I shall walk in the Pace of my Lord
And dwell in His House forever.
*
- Psalm 23 (paraphrase by Nigel)

The series looks to draw from a NavPress publication of the same name, Where is God on Monday? by Alistair Mackenzie and Wayne Kirkland. Here's the jacket blurb:

"We spend most of our lives at work––teaching, cleaning, filing, building, and managing. Yet often Christians feel as if our "nine to five" employment possesses little relevance to their Sunday morning rituals. Nothing should be further from the truth. The everyday work of a Christian is our opportunity to serve and worship the Creator."

Connecting the Dots between Faith and Daily Life

2006-10-04T11:48:00.000-06:00

Several members of one Centered Life congregation participated in a two day retreat where, together with their pastors, they explored God's call in their life.

At CenteredLife.org / Calling: The Basics you can listen in as each person reflects on the connections they have made between their faith and daily life.

Here's a sample:

". . . every moment is grace, God is present in what I'm doing . . ."

Brent's Story

Faith as a Way of Life

2006-09-26T14:27:00.000-06:00

Christian Scharen, director of the Faith as a Way of Life project at Yale's Center for Faith & Culture, is working on a new book. Tentatively titled Gathered to be Scattered: A New Vision of Pastoral Leadership For Faith As A Way of Life, the work seeks to:

"develop, sustain, and legitimize reflection on Christian faith not simply as a set of propositions to believe, commandments to obey, or rituals to perform but as an integral way of life."

You can browse some early drafts here:

Summary
Preface
Introduction - Pt. 1
Introduction - Pt. 2
Introduction - Pt. 3
Introduction - Pt. 4

In the Preface, Scharen acknowledges the difficulty of concrete theological reflection on the concerns of daily life; we quickly defer to a "primary language" of "feelings, experience, and pragmatism."

To aid the practice of theological discernment, he passes along a simple template penned by his colleague Miroslav Volf. In any given situation we might ask:

god.
who is god.
what is god doing in the world.
how is god achieving this.

us.
who are we.
where are we going.
how are we supposed to get there.

connecting the two.
what should we ultimately trust.
how should we order our loves, provisional and ultimate.

Vocation Bulletin Board

2006-09-06T13:36:00.000-06:00

The past issue of Connections, Centered Life's monthly e-letter, featured the following activity:

Use colored push pins to create a vocation bulletin board, a map of congregants' Monday-Saturday callings in God's world

Purpose
To visualize the congregation turned inside out, a gathered AND scattered community.

Summary
Use colored push pins to create a vocation bulletin board, a map of congregants Monday-Saturday callings in God's world.

Steps
1. Find a large cork bulletin board.
2. Locate relevant maps. Depending on the desired degree of detail, gather some combination of neighborhood, city, region, state, nation, and world maps.
3. Gain knowledge of the locations in which your congregation lives out its scattered callings.*
4. Insert push pins to as visual representation of these callings.

* For example, you might conduct a congregational audit or just make pins available and invite folk to push them in where appropriate.

Tips
1. Consider using colored push pins to distinguish types or domains of calling (e.g., home = blue, workplace = green, community presence = yellow).
2. Add commentary (use yarn to make a line to an explanatory call out blurb) for some of the pins. For example, consider rotating photographs or narrative descriptions that give a face to the pins.

References

Activity inspired by a snippet from: Dickhart, Judith McWilliams. Church-going Insider or Gospel-carrying Outsider? A different view of congregations. Chicago: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 2002. Out of print.

"The main point of this book is that lay members, who have information about the world, are Gospel-carriers into their daily places. Another step in re-balancing vision is to visually demonstrate this concept by re-drawing the congregation's boundaries to include its members daily places.

Ask members to construct a pin map that includes both their home places (blue pins?) and work places (green pins?). Use the map to imagine ways to announce the Gospel to people in those scattered communities." p. 121

Of Some Earthly Good: An Introduction to Vocation

2006-08-22T07:30:00.000-06:00

Here's an excerpt from an eBook published by the Lutheran Church of Australia:

"Vocation has had a chequered history in the western world. For many centuries it was confined almost exclusively to the church, which used the term to designate those who had an ecclesiastical function.

At the time of the Reformation, Martin Luther and John Calvin broadened the theology of vocation along New Testament lines so that it referred to the life of every Christian in three major areas of communal living: the family and economics, the state, and the church.

In the centuries after the Reformation the doctrine of vocation was distorted to such an extent that it left a bad taste in the mouth. People were taught that God had placed them in their particular station in life, and any attempt to change the status quo was an act of rebellion against the Almighty. This distorted version of the doctrine of vocation was used to justify the preservation of the existing social structures in which many people, especially women, were oppressed and kept in their place.

Today in the church we are almost back to pre-Reformation times: vocation is what a pastor or priest has. Outside the church vocation refers to ones occupation. So we have vocational education in which people are instructed in the skills required to take their place in the workforce, and we have vocational guidance, where school-leavers (mainly) are given some help in deciding which career-path they might follow."

more

Cultivating Missional Systems

2005-11-10T13:07:00.000-06:00

A few weeks back Luther Seminary played host to the 2005 consultation of the Gospel and Our Culture Network. Titled Cultivating Missional Systems, the event reported back findings from a three year research project on, you guessed it, embedding missional church ideas in larger systems of congregations. The rationale here is twofold: 1) congregations risking change will seek out structures of support if they don't already exist or are not adequate to the challenge, 2) congregations lacking adequate structures may realize missional ideals, but only in the short term. Isolated congregations lack the external resources to make long-term succession possible.

Here then are four highlights from the consultation and its chief sponsor, Church Innovations:

Change
Drawing on the work of Everett Rogers (Diffusion of Innovations) and Ronald Heifets (Leadership on the Line) distinctions were drawn between technical and adaptive challenges. Technical challenges presume clear problems, a clear solution, and a strategic plan to bridge the gap between them. Adaptive challenges concern underlying matters of "habits, values, and attitudes". The misidentification of an adaptive challenge as technical results in great heartache and woe. For example, the example offered by Pat Keifert of Church Innovations, take weight loss. When considered as a technical challenge, the strategic response is quite clear: eat less and exercise more. The continued existence of overweight people and a diet book industry suggests that weight loss is not in fact a technical challenge. So then, how can we rightly distinguish technical and adaptive challenges. Moreover, what interventions are required to respond, and before that to desire and imagine responses to, adaptive challenges?

Church FutureFinder
Church Innovations commends the Church FutureFinder as one response to these questions.

"Church FutureFinder is a database of current and historical congregations. It can be accessed online at http://www.churchinnovations.org/churchfuturefinder. Once you register at the website for FutureFinder, you enter at the appropriate level to enter data and obtain reports. CFF is in use in several seminary courses, getting ready to be launched into a seminary internship system, and available for congregational leaders to play with."

Small Groups
What would it look like to engage small groups, not as a program, but as a strategy for ministry?

Dwelling in the Word
Finally, consider this framework for moral deliberation: dwelling in the word.

Vocation & Identity

2005-06-05T15:23:00.000-06:00

This morning, I discovered a back issue of Lutheran Partners (March/April 2004) devoted to "Vocation and Identity". Here are some highlights:

"Vocation: Using a Useful Doctrine" by Stanley Olson
"The concept of vocation is useful when we consider the church as steward and proclaimer of truth. . . .Every Christian is called to know the truth, not for the sake of knowledge but because true understanding and true speech serve God’s purposes. Each Christian is called to reflect on life through faith’s normative historical expressions so that his or her words and work will be toward the heart of (“in accordance with”) God’s work."

"In Search of Quotes" by William A. Decker
Decker seeks, but fails to find, the source of Luther's oft quoted counsel to maids and cobblers. Here it is:
"The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays — not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship."

And here's Decker's rousing conclusion:
"Housekeepers who sweep floors clean, shoemakers who make quality shoes, governors who wisely administer, scientists who explore God’s visible creation, and pastors and rostered lay ministers who use their God-given skills to teach and preach the life and work of the crucified, resurrected Lord of Life all have a place and role and purpose in the world which God has made and loves through the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord."

The Closet, the House and the Santuary

2005-04-12T16:26:00.000-06:00

Jack just dropped off a copy of a 1981 essay from The Christian Century. Here are some highlights:

"The locus for prayer/worship is threefold: the closet, the house and the sanctuary. Each has its unique place within the disciplines of the faith. Each has its own limitations if allowed to stand alone. And each offers reinforcement when exercised in concert with the other two.

Picture them as forming a three-legged prayer/ worship stool. If one or two of the legs are taken away, the result is a precarious balancing act. To overemphasize or place more importance on one of them will elongate that leg. To minimize, discredit, misuse or ignore another will shorten that leg. A tilted stool does not provide a solid foundation on which to trust one’s weight."

---------------------------

"Some churches have created worship teams to plan the service, as an attempt to counteract one pastor "doing unto" the congregation. But who is to say that a team of ten persons will not also "do unto" the congregation -- and even more so as they add up their creative ideas? Inviting such participation is really an attempt to rope the house and drag it into the sanctuary.

In any renewal, let the sanctuary stick to its role of the public and corporate recital of the drama of grace. Then let us find ways to train sensitive lay leaders who can enable house worship. And let us also encourage and support those persons and groups that are providing spiritual direction for solitude, seeing that their efforts are vitally linked to renewal of the total worship life of the church."

You'll find the full text here.

Living Out Our Callings in the Workplace

2005-01-07T16:43:00.000-06:00

Richard Bliese, Academic Dean at Luther Seminary, kicked off this year's Mid-Winter Convocation, Living Out Our Callings in the Workplace . Here are a few excerpts from his first presentation, "Living Ambidextrously in the Real World":

"the decisive mistake of monasticism was not that it followed the path of strict discipleship and mission. Rather, the mistake was that monasticism essentially distanced regular Christians from the notions of discipleship and mission, thus permitting these twin concepts to become the extraordinary achievement of only a few 'religious' people."

"This two-worlds thinking. . . divides Christian groups into two categories: the 'premium' disciples and the 'regular' Christians from whom little by way of discipleship and mission is expected."

"Real mission work becomes the reserved domain of the new monastics, that is, the clergy and their few faithful friends with whom some of the ministry is shared."

"[But] God is at work in the world with two hands."

"The role of mission has been taken away from the monastery, away from all special "mission agencies," and given back to the baptized believer to be carried out daily in the real world."