When Karl Olsson completed his history of Faith at Work through 1976, it was first published in the newspaper which Faith At Work circulated to keep the network connected after publication of the magazine was suspended. To celebrate the revival of both the magazine and the ministry in the past twenty years, we have added this final chapter.

To provide some operating capital for the magazine and retain program staff in the face of declining contributions, Geoff negotiated sale of the Shoemaker building in Columbia in 1979. Without the advertising staff of Word, the number of paid subscriptions dropped to 21,000 and board meetings became agonizing reappraisals of programs and possible solutions.

Another search committee for president formed and debates about the style of leadership reflected different expectations about the call and mission of Faith at Work. As a "giveaway ministry," empowering lay-people to see their mission field in the marketplace, some saw the financial troubles as a sign that Faith At Work had finished its work. Those who wanted to continue were divided between conference ministry advocates who wanted prominent name speakers and clear lines of hierarchical authority and those who came through the LTI's looking for team involvement and more local initiative, expressed by Stan Jones as "the treasure is in the people." Like the disciples in Gethsemane, board members struggled to stay awake and make the hard decisions needed.

During the interim, Wally Howard became the acting staff director, sharing the leadership role with Peter Wernett of Field Ministries and Al Hanner of Leadership Development. in a letter to the board, Wally articulated the focus the staff would pursue:

"Faith at Work is a fellowship of men and women who seek to express commitment to Jesus Christ in healthy relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the world, and thus to grow toward a life of wholeness. We see institutional and social issues as necessary and inseparable extensions of individual calls and seek to be as concerned for the life of institutions...as for individuals."

Against the wishes of most Board members, Frank Butler encouraged Florence Pert and Nancy Boyle to pursue the idea of beginning a women's ministry which would be a middle way between radical feminists outside the church and traditional submissiveness inside the church. Marie Moore quietly assisted the birth of the Women's Ministry. Drawing on her experience as a staff member with the LTI program, Marie met with Marjory Bankson and Bonnie Agard to develop the initial design based on Psalm 139. It was a timely birth, given the uncertainty of Faith at Work's survival, and women who came to the first Chicago weekend in March, 1980, felt empowered to lead from the "Turning Points" design in local areas. Four more events were planned for that year!

Meanwhile, the Search committee reached into Faith At Work Canada to select Bruce MacDougall as the new president in 1980. Financial conditions worsened and both Peter and Al found other jobs. By November, their resources exhausted, the board decided that they had to "stop the bleeding" and cease publication of the magazine. The colorful Christmas issue gave no hint of what was coming, but subscribers could see a drastic change when the January issue arrived on newsprint. In that "Growing Older" issue, faces familiar to Faith at Work readers were interviewed about their learnings from major transitions and Wally announced his retirement along with suspension of the magazine. For more than fifty years, the heart of Faith at Work had been the magazine and now it was gone!

People who depended on the magazine for hope and inspiration lost their common link with each other. While local events continued, they became invisible to a wider audience without magazine publicity. Some subscribers chose other publications and the master list of subscribers was swallowed in a magnetic tape snafu. Thousands of people wondered if Faith At Work had died even though some local conferences and local teams continued and the women's ministry began to grow.

The following June, the board met with Mike Murray, a facilitator from Texas, to decide whether to disband or restructure the entire ministry with a leadership team of men and women. Although local teams continued to function on a volunteer basis, cash flow for staff and office expenses kept getting worse. After a thorough process examining five different options, Mike created a line on the floor and asked people to "vote with their feet." Although the logical choice was to disband because all potential resources had been tapped, a new breeze of the spirit stirred! When everyone moved to one side of the room or the other, a majority stood on the side of continuing Faith at Work!

Julia Vrooman's Bequest

The decision was a sheer act of faith. The following year, as though to confirm the decision, a miracle gift of money began to arrive from Julia Scott Vrooman's estate, $31,000 in 1982-enough to supplement contributions and start a newspaper for the 800 donors who remained on the FAW mailing list. Julia Vrooman was a friend of Faith At Work's founder, Sam Shoemaker. At the time of the bequest Irving Harris wrote, " Julia was keenly alive to our country's political issues and also to the crying need in America for changed lives and spiritual renewal. She was convinced that Faith at Work was effectively spearheading fresh church and group activities across the nation." In Julia Vrooman's own words, "My purpose in the distribution of this estate is the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by teaching, preaching, publishing and broadcasting and by other methods suitable for evangelistic and religious work. I am convinced that the revitalization of the spiritual life of America is 'the last best hope' of the world, since without spiritual values, material gains are short lived."
 

1. A New Directions committee was formed with board and field members to seek a new vision.
2. New initiatives were shaky at first. Marie Moore took another job, leaving Bruce as the only professional staff member in Columbia.
3. Barc Wade, editor of the AAA travel magazine in Omaha NE, worked with Bruce to publish a broadsheet called Faith At Work News linking the scattered network once again as the first small signs of growth began to appear.

As the Vrooman bequest continued to come, Bruce and the Board decided to launch two new programs: "Think Tanks" for a cross-section of people to dream a new future for Faith at Work and "Elim Days," which provided regional reunions for people touched by Faith At Work in the past. Out of those two projects, Bruce hoped to catalyze energy for a new vision. But after an exhausting travel schedule which took him to every center of Faith At Work activity, he still could not find a clear sense of the future and, in December of 1984, Bruce offered his resignation.

The environment beyond Faith at Work was also changing. Women went to work in droves during the 80's, men too were stretched thin, and the pool of volunteer workers simply dried up in many churches. Faith at Work Teams, which relied on the relational skills of women during the build-up of Field Ministries under Heidi Frost and Peter Wernett, began to "run out of steam." Faith at Work had to find other ways of offering a relational experience of biblical reflection and personal growth that did not depend upon paid staff or geographically-cohesive teams. The Women's Ministry developed the practice of using an anchor pair of people, usually from a single church, to sponsor a weekend event based on a tested relational design from Faith At Work. It proved to be a durable pattern that did not require much ongoing organization.

The search committee created a new model for leadership of Faith at Work by looking for a combination of male/female, lay/clergy experience. The first step was to ask Marjory to serve as interim director, expanding her role from the women's ministry. Marjory's first goal was to get a magazine in print once again. Barc Wade and Pat Minard, helped with layout and publishing in Omaha while Marjory solicited articles as she traveled to Faith At Work events around the country. Committed to the vision of teamwork, she put Dick Meyer's small group column on the first page of the magazine and was careful to give visibility to men and women in featured articles. The board decided not to make it a subscription magazine for fear of killing the fledgling enterprise, so the new master list grew slowly on a newly-purchased computer and the heart of Faith at Work began to beat again, though faintly.

Generational Shift

As new people were attracted to Faith at Work, we noticed a generational shift from leadership by the "Builders" (persons born before 1928) to the much smaller generation of "Bridgers" (persons born between 1929 and 1945). By the mid-80s, Bridgers were coming into positions of responsibility in church and society although the WW II generation of Builders maintained control of most senior positions. Younger people, particularly women seeking a more public voice, had been attracted to Faith At Work by the LTI and Seminary programs and were ready to offer their gifts in shorter relational settings. However, most were not yet able to make significant financial contributions and, without the help of Army contracts or Lilly funding, the LTI program was suspended in 1985.

A questionnaire was developed to provide statistical data for better planning and fundraising purposes. Data showed that many FAW respondents were older, wealthier and better-educated than the average churchgoer so Duke Roberts began a more systematic effort to undergird the ministry with endowment funds rather than spending the Vrooman bequest for operating funds. A gift by Nandor and Hilda Kiss got the Living Gifts Fund off to a good start and other signs of life began to appear.

Policy guidance during the interim was provided by the Board, chaired by Dom Luppino. At the fall board meeting in 1985, Florence Pert stated, "Our purpose is to build new models of ministry that are signs of the Kingdom, always testing our programs with the question, 'Is this the way the Kingdom of God operates?' " It was an extension of the four basic relationships into conscious mission and a clear validation of the path that the search committee took toward shared leadership, inclusive decision-making and deeper commitment.

When the board chose Marjory Bankson as the new president in 1986, it signaled a new era of lay leadership for Faith at Work. A "Bridger" educated at Harvard and Virginia (Episcopal) Seminary, Marjory had demonstrated her gifts for outreach and administration during the interim period and brought rich experience of inward/outward journey from her membership at Church of the Saviour in Washington DC. While she concentrated on the magazine and gaining visibility for Faith at Work once again, board members functioned as her partners in ministry. She hoped to restart the magazine, regrow the network and rebuild a financial base for whatever future God envisioned for Faith at Work.

Older members of the Board provided guidance and protection during the first few years: Dom Luppino as chairman, George Williams as treasurer, Duke Roberts with help from Adaline Bjorkman and Frank Butler worked on the endowment fund. Florence Pert, Nancy Boyle, and Maggie Everett guided the women's ministry and Yager Cantwell became its champion. In the field, Libby Hall mentored the yearly St. Simons Faith At Work conference and the Nebraska Faith At Work team modeled healthy covenant community with training for incoming members and close ties to West Hills Presbyterian Church in Omaha.

Women of the board gathered ahead of the board meetings to connect, pray and make policy for the women's ministry so they could also serve with the men on other committees. Each year a new design was added to the list of available weekends and some areas developed a pattern of yearly offerings (Maine, NYC, Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Tidewater VA, Florida, Nebraska and California). Because of the biblical base and rotating leadership, the women's events offered creative opportunities for theological reflection to about 300 women each year. Many did not have those opportunities in their own churches, so once again, Faith at Work was able to pioneer a model that people could use elsewhere. On the 10th Anniversary of the Women's Ministry in 1990 Steve Gehring, chairman of the board, affirmed the women's ministry for being "a silk thread that held Faith At Work together during the 1980s."

The conference ministry was another story. With escalating facility costs and more time constraints, attendance had been declining. Fewer people were attracted to local teams. St. Simons, where Libby Hall and Nancy Boyle consciously cultivated a flow of incoming talent, was a happy exception. To test the possibility of periodic reunion-style conferences, Lee Van Ham coordinated the first national conference in more than a decade. At Malvern, PA, 250 people came to engage with popular author, psychologist and former priest, John Bradshaw and Marble Church Pastor, Florence Pert, around the theme The Church 2,000. Although it broke even financially, without support by a local team, the conference required enormous energy for the office staff.

Vision and Venture Project

The Church 2,000 conference again raised the question about identity and priorities, so the board hired Dick Broholm and Doug Johnson in 1991 to facilitate a Vision and Venture process of discernment and direction. There was no question now that the top priority was the magazine, followed by promoting relational designs and developing new relational resources. Using the image of wearing two hats, the board named its role as extended staff as well as policy-making. It was another way of seeing the male/female, lay/clergy teamwork which the board had envisioned five years earlier. The Vision and Venture Project resulted in new emphasis on serving where God's call and gifts could be activated, thus strengthening conscious identity as a working board.

When the lease in Columbia expired in 1992, the board affirmed Marjory's leadership by moving the office to Falls Church VA, near her home. The move marked a new level of clarity about "being church" with ministry in the marketplace. New writers joined the roster of regular columnists and ministry in daily life became the touchstone. The language of vision, call and gift-evoking began to appear in the magazine more frequently as the Editorial Board increased the size to 24 pages, shifted from six to four issues a year and moved the layout operation to Washington DC, where Marjory could integrate production with other mailings.

Magazine readership climbed toward 20,000 and it became more important to find someone who could handle new computer technology that would make sending and receiving articles by e-mail possible. In a serendipitous series of connections, Bill Johnson came through a temporary employment agency and stayed to complete the dream of a lay/clergy male/female staff team. Ordained as a Southern Baptist, 35-year-old Bill brought energy and enthusiasm for ministry and computer use to complement Marjory's relational and writing skills. Without additional help in the office, Marjory and Bill continued to rely on volunteer help from lay people with a heart for ministry.

Nancy Boyle became the first female chair of the board in 1995 to guide Faith At Work in its transit to the next millennium. In a conscious effort to attract the next generation of people who see their call in the places of daily life and work the board added enough new members so that half are Boomers under the age of 50. The magazine consciously encouraged younger writers. Under the guidance of the NuGen Committee, a new design, "Who Am I? Where is God?" was developed for younger men and women. With a wider spread of age and experience, the bi-annual Convocations included training and techniques from the LTI program which had been so effective in preparing an earlier generation.

An explosion of small groups occurred during the 80s and 90s, fueled by Boomers entering their middle years. Twelve-step groups like AA, NA, OA, Al Anon and ACOA flourished widely, and suddenly there was new interest in the role Sam Shoemaker played in the early days of AA.

Other small groups included hospice support, mentoring, counseling, women's, spirituality, individual church study groups, and workplace quality circles. Many were initiated or led by people with Faith at Work background. New audiences reached for materials by Lyman Coleman, Bruce Larson, Lloyd Ogilvie, Elizabeth O'Connor, Marjory Bankson, Keith Miller, Amy Harris and others from the magazine. Like one candle lighting another, a sea of changed lives has spread far beyond the circles where Faith at Work began in New York City.

Faith at Work reached its 70th birthday and 40th anniversary of incorporation in 1996, with new energies stirring and the "silk thread" of continuity still visible.

The call of Faith at Work is still inviting people into a vital relationship with God, self, others and the world through the magazine and weekend events. If anything, the Bible has become even more important as a unifying story of God's revelation in an increasingly secular society. Relational Bible study stands at the heart of every event, every publication and every representation of Faith at Work as we invite people to know God more intimately. The Board still begins each meeting with relational Bible study and sharing which sets the framework for decisions by consensus.

Looking back on the past two decades, it is clear that Faith at Work has been able to develop new models of ministry that are signs of God's kingdom through the Women's Ministry, the Vision and Venture Project and now, the NuGen Initiative. The St. Simons Conference continues to introduce people in the Southeast to relational theology, and recurring weekend events draw a regular core of practitioners who are changing their churches because they themselves come back renewed. For a younger generation suffering from biblical illiteracy, the relational experience of connecting God's story, my story and our story has been revolutionary for some and healing for many. Using a single biblical story allows participants to "soak" in the ancient stories which have provided inspiration and guidance for generations of Christians. And for a local team of 3-4 people, the task of initiating, marketing, leading and being financially responsible for a Faith at Work event is a learning situation that many churches do not offer lay people.

As Karl Olsson said in his previous chapters, our ways of understanding conversion, commitment and community have indeed changed over the years, but what has not changed is the centrality of God, the presence of Jesus Christ and the power of biblical faith among the "church scattered" as leaven in the world. The new Faith at Work logo, a flame breaking through circles representing gathered communities, speaks to more emphasis on the power of the Spirit to make us a living body of Christ.

As we move away from the clericalism and classism of earlier decades, the Holy Spirit is clearly at work in the world, calling lay people into ministry where we live and work-like the First Century church. And now more than ever, we can claim the value and vision of our name, Faith at Work.