Head, Heart, and Hands

The Faith Formation team at the Catholic Community of St. Peter in Charlotte, NC understands the importance and power of alignment. They’re working on a faith formation plan that will align head, heart, and hands.

Each month throughout the year, they will conduct a whole-community intergenerational learning program focused on some aspect of the Bible. Their “head” goal for the year is to enhance every member’s biblical literacy and help them see the relevance of God’s Living Word in their lives.

Following each intergenerational session, all parishioners will be expected to do an activity from Vibrant Faith @ Home, carefully selected to pertain to the topic of the month. Their “heart” goal for the year (and beyond) is to empower people to share about their faith at home.

Also, each month members will be encouraged to participate in a designated service/immersion activity. Their “hands” goal for the year is to get all members to recognize that learning about the Bible (head) and sharing faith at home (heart) should automatically lead to works of mercy and acts of justice for the sake of others (hands).

Here’s an example from their plan:

October
(Head) – Intergenerational Session on Introduction to Lectionary Year B
(Heart) – Vibrant Faith @ Home activity Sowing Seed
(Hands) – Refugee Event Serving with Catholic Charities
(Heart) – Vibrant Faith @ Home activity Welcoming the Stranger

That’s alignment.

As you plan your faith formation programming for next year, think about how you can align head, heart, and hands.

 -Leif Kehrwald

 

This Might Mess with You…It is Still Messing With Me

 

                  

 

“Your projects are not God’s project. YOU are God’s project.”   

This sentence crossed my newsfeed last week, and I kept mentally coming back to it all week.  It was posted by Todd Hunter, an Christian pastor and author.

“Your projects are not God’s project. YOU are God’s project.”

WOW.

How does that change how you view your ministry?

~ Nancy Going

Try This

In my last congregation I tried something that I wish I would have done more of over 26 years of working in churches. I’m convinced that if I would have spent less time running around planning and implementing programs and more time doing this one thing, ministry would have looked different and the results would be profound. What is this one thing?

Going to homes.

Here’s what happened. I had co-written a curriculum called “Full Circle: Triple-A Training” with my friend Lyle Griner. I wanted to test it out. So I asked a couple parents to help me. I said to them, “invite 10-12 adults to your house for dinner who are important to you and your kids. You make the dinner and I’ll do the rest.”

That’s it. It was not hard. It didn’t take a ton of phone calls, flyers, bulletin announcements and registration forms. So we gathered. It was a mix of people. They were not all members of our church, in fact, only a couple were. They even Skyped grandma in from Iowa. We had neighbors, co-workers, aunts and uncles. It was a lively bunch. We had a great dinner then we spent the next couple of hours talking about and doing faith practices. We practiced little things that you can do every day that can nurture faith. I encouraged each of them to write a letter of affirmation and faith to a young person. We shared what kinds of things they are already doing. We laughed together, questioned, listened and prayed. I left feeling energized and inspired.

This is where people live most of their weeks, in the home. This is where we need a regular ebb and flow of the presence of Christ being acknowledged and practiced. This is where we can make all the difference in the world with our families by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So I invite you. Just try this. You may need to drop something to open up some time to do this, but it will be worth it. Little by little, one family at a time, you begin to lead cultural change. Families will be inspired to nurture faith right where they are. Get out there where life is happening and go to homes.

~ Tom Schwolert

Make THIS Kind of Space in Your Summer

 

As we tell the stories of “best practices” on this blog, I want to hold up what many of you are doing this summer.  

I had this amazing ministry experience that I still miss.  For ten years straight, I was able to serve at two or three Group Workcamps every summer.  My schedule hasn’t allowed me to go for the past several years, and I miss it.  And here’s why: despite sleeping on a cot in a school classroom with a bunch of people I hadn’t met before the week began, it never got old.  Let me repeat that:  It never got old.  That has little to do with me or my adaptability.  Of course, each Workcamp week was different with a fresh blend of staff and kids and adults and community residents. But the most wonderful reason it never got old, was because it was this uniquely created space for the work of the Holy Spirit.  We got it ready, and then we waited.  And we watched.  And we taught the kids and adults to wait and watch. This is a critical aspect of a mission experience that we rarely talk about.

Service learning experiences at their core provide a profoundly rich space for the Holy Spirit to move.   

We need to name the arena for Spirit’s activity as the CENTRAL reason why mission experiences matter so much. 

VFM’s past director, Dr. Paul Hill often describes how the Spirit moves at camp, and creates the experience of awe in participants.  At camp, the ways in which we are allowed to experience the power God, (the means that the Spirit uses) are Creation and Christian community.  

In service, the experience of awe can and does happen just as powerfully.  It just happens in the midst of the messiness of the world instead of away from the world. In mission experiences, the Spirit works through people whose lives are so different from mine (but not really), and a local community that has been willing to create space for the Spirit to work among and through them. 

The work matters too, but not as much as this Spirit space.   

What the Spirit does in both cases is brings people together. What both camp and mission trips do is to allow both kids and adults to experience powerfully uncomfortable immersion in Christian community. And that community in both experiences shapes and changes them in a myriad of ways.

Providing space for the Spirit to move in people’s lives is an (perhaps THE) essential gift and task of what it means to be in ministry leadership. And like any other task related to the Spirit, it can be misused. 

But that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be pursued.  
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  2 Corinthians 13:14.  

~~ Nancy Going

Portions of this post previously appeared on FirstThird.org

The Facts of Life

Did you or your kids watch “The Facts of Life” TV show? It was a show about a group of teenage girls at a boarding school who learn many of life’s lessons and go through adolescent struggles under the guidance of their loving housemother “Mrs. G.” While it was a sit-com and we could laugh together about the funny predicaments they often found themselves in, it also touched on some basic principles that teenagers often need to learn as they grow up. Things like telling the truth, forgiveness, acceptance and others were common themes that “Mrs. G” had discussions about with the girls around the dining room table.

It reminds me of some of the important principles that my parents taught me growing up and how they have shaped me into the person I am today. And I too find myself having those dinner conversations about similar things. One thing I will never forget my mom saying is, “Jesus loves you, and that’s a fact!” It took me several years to really discover what that meant and what she was trying to express. You see, love isn’t always a feeling we experience with “warm fuzzies” and hugs. Love, in terms of the kind of love we receive from God, is a love that is unwavering. It is a love that does not change even when we change or turn away from it. It is a love that does not depend on our performance or our ability to follow all the rules to the letter and get everything right. It’s simply a fact. The fact that God will never leave us and God’s love will always welcome us in despite of our shortcomings and mistakes. You and I need this love. Our teenagers need this love. Unfortunately, sometimes we find ourselves as parents withholding our love so we can get our teenagers to act the way we want them too. That’s when we must ask ourselves, “how can I show my unwavering love for my son or daughter in the midst of the disagreements, the stretching of boundaries and the moments of lost trust?”

One of the best ways I have found to do this is to let them know you love them when there is no reason to at all other than you simply want them to know it. The expression of love is not tied to an event, a performance, a hello or goodbye, or when they are having a hard time, it’s merely expressed at a random moment. These are all important times to express love, but don’t we as parents want our children to know that our love for them is not tied to any conditions. So here are some things you and I can do:

– Write them a letter. Don’t tie it to any particular event, just do it because you want them to know that you love them, and that’s a fact!

– Spend time with them without any motives. Go for a walk or a drive. Take them for coffee or ice cream “just because.”

– Don’t give up on traditions. Just because they have gotten older doesn’t mean the traditions aren’t important anymore. They are holy moments that send the message that they are important and loved.

Most of all…tell them that God loves them and that’s a fact! No matter what, no strings attached. And nothing can separate them from that love.

~ Tom Schwolert