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Welcome to stewardshipparish.org!
| | The site serves as a resource guide and online forum for church leaders working to share the challenge of living a gospel-based lifestyle with their communities. If you're new here, please read our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). Consider helping us by submitting stories and spreading the word about our site!
Our sister site, GospelLiving.org, seeks a general Christian audience, and provides many more resources (consider adding yourself to that site's mailing list, as well). |
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Identifying a Church's Core Values
Posted by Paul on Monday, February 21, 2005 - 05:17 PM (744 Reads)
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Angie Ward argues in an article for Christianity Today that parish leaders would do well to identify the "unstated, underlying purpose" that really drives their church. In "Discerning Your Church's Hidden Core Values", she tells stories of churches who have struggled with "official" stated goals that are in conflict with a community's unstated values.
Common core values identified by Ward include: "Don't rock the boat", "We can find something wrong with anything", "The world isn't safe, so we will protect you", "Visitors are welcome to come back, if they really want to", and "Saved by grace but living under law." Core values change slowly, but the first step to addressing them is to know what they are.
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comments?  
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Small Group Guides for Faith & Work
Posted by Paul on Sunday, December 19, 2004 - 11:49 PM (644 Reads)
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Check out these two offerings for use by small groups in addressing the Faith & Work connection:
Finding God @ Work: Practicing Spirituality in Your Workplace by Gregory F. Augustine Pierce. Published by ACTA Publications. This new offering is a guide for six weeks of small-group faith-sharing meetings, and follows up Pierce's other recent book on the subject, Spirituality @ Work.
The World of Work by Edmund Flood. Published by RENEW International. This small-group guide takes "a close look at the complex reality of our work—the demand for increased skills, job insecurity, job-stress, and work-family conflicts—in the hope of finding those opportunities that are offered us as Christians."
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comments?
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Slow Church
Posted by Paul on Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - 02:19 PM (690 Reads)
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The xFiles blog ("An electronic walk of discipleship in a postmodern world") offers some thoughts on Slow Church: A Community Fighting the Speed Demon.
Eric Evers writes, "Reading about slow food, slow cities, and other aspects of 'Slow Life' made me wonder what a 'Slow Church' might look like. And I think it's something we would do well to consider. For we are certainly in captivity, in this culture, to the demon of speed. And while quickness isn't intrinsically bad, I think it's worth thinking about how we've turned 'Fast' into an idol. Is faster always better? Our world certainly seems to think so. But I'm pretty sure it's not always healthy, especially for Christian communities."
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comments?
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Avoiding Mistakes In Ministry Placement
Posted by Paul on Friday, September 17, 2004 - 03:25 PM (720 Reads)
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BuildingChurchLeaders.com features an article by Jamie Atkins, Director of Ministry Placement and Body-Life Team Leader at The People's Church in Franklin, Tennessee. In "10 Ways NOT to Place People into Ministry", Atkins writes, "As director of ministry placement, I've made my share of mistakes. Here are some of the biggest I've made. I share them so you don't have to repeat them!" The article explores some of the best (and worst) ways to identify the right ministry for individuals, set expectations, get them started, and support them.
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comments?
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Visiting the Workplace
Posted by Paul on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 12:32 PM (665 Reads)
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Pastor Doug Self writes on BuildingChurchLeaders.com about "Seeing People on the Job: Making a difference through pastoral care in the workplace". "Since people attend church only a few hours a week," says Self, "I try to invest some of my time with them where they spend much of their time: at work...unusual opportunities for ministry to the community occur more often when I try to bring pastoral care to the workplace. There's no formula for successful marketplace ministry. In fact, sometimes it's threatening to venture out. I'm more at home in a church setting, where I know what's expected of me. But I continue to go outside the church walls and look for ways I can care for people pastorally in the department store, on the job, on the sidewalk. For me, meeting people on their turf is what the Incarnation was all about."
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comments?
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Tending Our Gardens
Posted by Paul on Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - 10:54 AM (1170 Reads)
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“What have you done with the garden entrusted to you?” — Machado
Bishop Robert Morneau uses the analogy of gardens we are called to tend in order to describe Christian stewardship. He identifies our bodies, relationships, planet, decisions, emotions, political system, technology, history, mind, arts, money and supplies, and soul as areas God gives as gifts we are meant to receive, develop, and share. God wants us to use everything we have to bring about the kingdom in our lives and the world around us.
Read on for an article that expands on these areas and offers questions for each to help in discernment.
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Read more... (10921 bytes more) 173 Comments
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Daily Life Faith in a Multi-Context World
Posted by Paul on Friday, August 27, 2004 - 02:20 PM (663 Reads)
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"Context matters! If it did not, our Bible would be a lot shorter," writes Pete Hammond on the Intervarsity Ministry In Daily Life site. In his recent reflection "Applying Christian Faith In a Multi-Contextual World", he starts by reflecting on the different audiences targetted in scripture. The article goes on to talk about different occupational groups and ideas for how faith communities can support them: "Today’s resurgence of ministry-in-daily-life or marketplace ministry has given rise to a wide variety of guilds or networks of believers within specific industries. In addition, the hundreds of books about various jobs, workplaces, and issues have appeared." It also briefly discusses other contextual differences, such as different social contexts, racial and ethnic background, gender, and family background.
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Random Quote
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First, there's the job--where the goal is simply to earn a living and support your family. Then there's the career--where you trace your progress through various appointments and achievements. Finally, there's the calling-- the ideal blend of activity and character that makes work inseparable from life.
-- Robert Bella
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Gospel Living
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We have another site that's not just for parish leaders. Check our our sister site:
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