Member Mission Newsletter #33 – Christmas, Children, and Youth and our Missions     

 

This month:

A PARENTING STORY
• The mission of parents

RESOURCES -- for our missions with children and youth

• Whole Community Catechesis in Plain English
• Our Whole Lives 

THREE OTHER STORIES
• Praying the offices daily
• Praying about the law firm’s work
• A church draws on member mission for stewardship teaching

FOR MEDITATION
• Going places?  Yes!

 

 

A PARENTING STORY

The mission of parents

 

Parenting with Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility was the resource for a six
session course on parenting offered by the Meridian School District of Boise, ID.  Led by two school counselors trained in the approach, its purpose is to prepare children to face real world consequences for the choices they make and to let the consequences do the teaching.  A broad range of issues from the early years through the teens are dealt with.  They include situations such as: helping young children to learn money management; the working mother who comes home to find it a cluttered mess; and the father talking with his son about avoiding drug use.  MMNews heard of this course while visiting our daughter who had just moved to Boise and praised the course's usefulness with her second grade son and kindergarten daughter.  It works and the children are happier.  Talk with your school's administration and your school board about offering such a course.  The authors are Foster W. Cline, a child psychiatrist, and Jim Fay, an educator and former school principal.  A website will direct you to training events and a wide variety of resources.  Go to www.loveandlogic.com or phone 800-588-5644 or fax 800-455-7557.         

     Contact: Elizabeth S. Hall, 5223 N. Brookfield Pl., Boise, ID 83713; 208-938-5730; elizahall@aol.com

 

RESOURCES -- for our missions with children and youth

 

Whole Community Catechesis in Plain English by Bill Huebsch outlines a 50-50 contract between a congregation and its families.  Families promise what they will do at home and in the congregation to form their children as Christians and to shape their family life around Jesus Christ.  The congregation promises what it will do to support its families as centers of Christian life and formation.  The specifics of the contract vary by congregation and are drawn up by parish leaders on the one hand and by the families on the other.  Annually, families – all households can participate – meet to discuss the contract and decide whether or not to commit themselves to it.  Sample contracts are included.  Also, outlined is a method for parish-wide reflection on the Gospel for the week.  While written for Roman Catholic settings, any congregation can adapt and use this resource.  It is printed by Twenty-Third Publications, 185 Willow Street, P. O. Box 180, Mystic, CT 06355; 860-536-2611 or 800-321-0411; www.twentythirdpublications.com; $10.95.

 

Our Whole Lives is a full curriculum for sexuality education from kindergarten age through high school – even adulthood.  MMNews learned of it via a letter to the editor in the Christian Century of 8/23/05.  It is the joint work of the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian-Universalist Association of Congregations.  The leader guides for Grades 7 - 9 ($75) and Grades 10 - 12 ($60) have been reviewed here by MMNews.  The helps for the leaders are complete and their spirit is both sensitive and comprehensive.  The content clearly calls for trained leadership.  Parents, clergy, and lay leaders who want to explore the curriculum as a resource can secure copies from the UCC Bookstore at 800-537-3394 or the UUA Bookstore at 800-215-9076.  For training information, visit http://www.ucc.org/justice/sexuality.htm  > under Subdirectories on the left, click on Our Whole Lives > under Information on the left, click on your choice of Training, Training Schedule, or Organizing a Training.

 

THREE OTHER STORIES

 

Praying the offices daily

Mary reaches for her prayer book after lighting the St. Francis candle.

How is God at work in your prayer time?
“God gives me awareness of his presence.”
How does God help you to pray?
“God helps me to let go.”
[As a third order Franciscan, one of her annual vows is to pray the daily offices.  The daily offices are Morning and Evening Prayer from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.]

 

  
Praying about the law firm’s work

 

The unit leader of a large international law firm had just gotten word that the terms he proposed in a negotiation for a large project with a client were well received.  The top officers in the firm were pleased.  One responded, “We’ll keep our fingers crossed.”  The unit leader replied, “Say your prayers.  As my retired clergy father says, ‘Crossing your fingers only leads to arthritis.’”   When the unit leader and the officer discussed another client opportunity via email a few days later, the same officer said, “We'll say our prayers on this one.”   Incidentally, all of the email exchanges were copied to the other senior officers as standard procedure.
     Contact: Anonymous

 

A church draws on member mission for stewardship teaching

 

[For his part in the stewardship teaching this Fall at St. Gregory’s, Deerfield, IL, Bill Roberts wrote a series of three essays “to re-imagine Stewardship not in terms of ‘taking good care of the resources entrusted to us by God,’ but as ‘reclaiming,’ ‘recovering,’ and ‘rescuing’ the resources entrusted to us by God.  In other words, to use the theological word, these [were] Essays on the Redemption of Time, Talent, and Treasure for the building up of the Kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven.”  For his essay on talent, Bill drew on member mission.  Since stewardship teaching is year-round these days, you may find it useful.  For the other two essays, see  http://www.stgregoryschurch.org/News.cfm.]
 
Last week, we re-imagined Stewardship as “redeeming the resources God has entrusted to us for building up God’s Kingdom on earth.” And we looked at redeeming the resource of Time.  This week we turn to the resource of Talent.

 

In his book, When the Members are the Missionaries, Wayne Schwab distinguishes between “body-missions” and “member-missions.” Body-missions are missions undertaken by St. Gregory’s as the Body of Christ, either within the congregation (e.g., the Altar Guild or Youth Commission) or beyond it (e.g., feeding the hungry at the Christ Church, Waukegan, Community Meals Program or sending Care Packages to our troops in Iraq.

 

Member-missions are the missions that each of you, as individual members of the Body of Christ, undertake in your daily mission fields – in your homes, where you work, in your local community, in the wider world, where you relax or enjoy your leisure time, and even including St. Gregory’s.

 

Body-missions and member-missions need missionaries. You act as a missionary whenever you work to redeem your particular mission fields by using your Talents to increase caring (“Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?”); to increase fairness (“Will you strive for justice. . .”), and to increase reconciliation (“. . . and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?”).

 

In our Christians@Work class, we ask these questions:
What has God been telling me or doing through my life in this mission field?
What am I working on right now in this mission field?
How am I able to exercise love (caring), justice (fairness), or peace (reconciliation) in this mission field?
Are there any conditions inhibiting love (caring), justice (fairness), or peace (reconciliation) in this mission field?
Has anything been happening that leads me to desire a change in this mission field?
What change is needed to increase love (caring), justice (fairness), or peace (reconciliation) in this mission field? What will I do to achieve this change considering my gifts [i.e., Talents], limitations, and convictions?

 

So as our Redemption Campaign continues to unfold, please consider this question: “How might I redeem some underused or neglected talent that God has entrusted to me for building up God’s Kingdom on earth?”
     Contact: The Very Rev. Bill Roberts, St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church at Deerfield and Wilmot Roads, Deerfield IL 60015;  847-945-1678; WilliamsInk@msn.com

 

FOR MEDITATION
          
Going places?  Yes!

 

Overheard comment from a clergy person: “My church is not going any place.”
Context: The clergy person in a downtown church was commenting on the lack of response to various programs and activities.
Solution: Look at where the laity go once they leave the church – namely, everywhere!  The “church” in the baptized is going everywhere!  Everyone – not just clergy and lay leaders – look for and ask about what the other members are doing Monday to Saturday to make their daily places more loving and more just.  Look, ask and be heartened!  Through them – and all of us –  the church is going many places!