Here We Go!

With new (ultra-light!) luggage, a new (ultra light!) laptop, and new easy-care hair cut, I’m ready to hit the road for the Everything Must Change tour. Faith at Work is one of the tour sponsors; representing us on the tour is a major part of my job this year.

In my (not ultra-light!) briefcase, I have two new brochures to hand to people I meet: “Tending Your Call: Next Steps,” and “Changing the World: How we can Help.” I’m also reading the book of Acts, because everything DID change once before, and I want to remember our Biblical roots for such a change. Historians tell us that huge change has occurred in the church about every 500 years, and now is such a time. In the last six months I’ve read more on “call” than I had the previous ten years. It seems that the idea of call – that our work and daily life has meaning for the greater good – has been catching on. From Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life to the Monster.com job search website tagline “Your Calling is Calling,” I’m learning language for the conversation on call. I notice that others tend to think of call in terms of their job. Faith at Work is more holistic, encouraging people to know that call applies to four primary relationships: God, Self, Others, and Creation. It’s exciting to me that others are catching on to the importance of people living from a sense of call; that our actions matter in the world, and that personal happiness, societal health, and faithful living are all connected.

I believe that Faith at Work is uniquely situated to help people that are attending the Everything Must Change Tour. We create sacred spaces (retreats, trainings, workshops) and ask questions that help people listen for the Holy. We call this our Sacred Relational Group Process. At the same time, we are a practical organization. We know about the importance of taking small steps to tend your call. We wrote a brochure on it (if you ask for one it will lighten my briefcase). We want folks to be inspired and informed on the tour; then to attend one of our events or use our resources to help clarify what their own next steps are.

Partners

In addition to the personal and organizational preparation, it has been fun and a challenge to work with sponsors of the tour: Deep Shift (Linnea Nilsen Capshaw), Sierra Club (Lyndsay Moseley and Christina Yagjian), and Sojourners (Kevin Lum). Through working with this team, I’m challenged to make sure FAW lives our values, such as printing our magazine on recycled paper with soy ink (we do!), and raising justice issues in our retreats on call. Coming away from a discussion on how to integrate our sponsorships and the event outcomes for attendees, I find myself thinking, “How often do I have a ‘consumer response to social inequity’ (e.g., buying a rubber bracelet to support the campaign to end poverty… but not really getting involved on a personal, or local level to actually end poverty)?”

I am so looking forward to connecting with people out on the road. At the tour sites, I’ll be working our information booth, and asking people some questions about their experience of the tour: What’s the good news? What’s challenging? What’s the next step? I’m looking forward to affirming people’s call in their daily life and hearing their stories: challenges, best practices, what folks need to take the next step toward their work in the world. You will meet some of the people I meet in upcoming issues of the magazine.

I’ll see you on the road!

For more information, go to www.deepshift.org.

Read an Interview with Brian McLaren.
Read more about FAW's involvement in the Tour.