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Study guide On Mondays: Go into the world H


By Robert C. Blezard


ow do the things we do, learn and say on Sunday relate to the way we live on Monday—not


to mention Tuesday through Satur- day? The answer is “not much” for too many of our faith communities. Growing, successful churches are finding ways to help bridge the divide between Sunday living and the rest of the week.


Exercise 1: Who serves whom? Why does your congregation exist? a. To serve me. b. To serve our members. c. To serve our community. d. To serve God’s people.


• Ideally, which answer is “correct”? Why? In practice, which is usually correct? • What is correct for your congrega- tion? Which is correct in practice for you? For most of your members? • Looking over your church calendar for six months, for whose benefit are most events planned? Which answer—a, b, c or d—is indicated? Which events did you attend (and which answer is indicated)? • Look at your church budget. What are the biggest budget categories (and which answer is indicated)? • Does your congregation have work to do? How? What would you recommend?


Blezard is pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Arendtsville, Pa. He has a master of divinity degree from Boston University and did subsequent study at the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.) and the Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia.


Exercise 2: To be the greatest Many Lutheran churches have found renewed life by following what Jesus taught (in Matthew 20:25- 28 and else- where), namely that greatness


comes through service. Discuss: • How is that evidenced in the article? • Have you seen this at churches in your synod? • How well does your congregation serve its neighbors? How do you know? What does it do well? So-so? Poorly? What could it do better? • If your church began really serving its neighbors, how would that change church life?


Exercise 3: Mission


Mission implies focus, boldness, attention, diligence, action. Think “mission” and you recall the real U.S. Navy Seal Team Six and the fictitious Impossible Mission Force. Think mission in your congregation and what comes to mind? Congregations without a mission can flounder. Examine your congregation’s mission statement and discuss: • Is it strong or weak? Specific or vague? Pollyanna or practical? • When was it drafted? By whom? • What were the assumptions that went into it? • How well does your congregation live up to it? Does it fit the challenges the church faces today? • Is it time to come up with a new mission statement?


Exercise 4: A typical week Track how you spend your time for a week. Make a chart by taking a piece of lined paper and marking each day in half-hour increments, then filling out what you are doing. Assign broad categories of sleep, employment, school, entertainment, faith, house- hold chores, family time, etc. Com- pare your findings as a group. • What category used up the most


time? Second, third, fourth, etc.? Which used up the least? • Where did “faith” fit in? What activ- ities fall under “faith”? • Are the values of faith compatible with those you exercise in the other categories? • Which values are dominant in your life? Which should be? • How would your life change if you put more emphasis on faith activities?


Exercise 5: Busy lives • Is your life busier now than it was 10 or 20 years ago? How has life in general gotten busier, and why? • Do you spend less time on church and faith? • When people’s lives become busy, which activities do they cut out first? • Where do church and faith activities fall in most people’s priorities? • Do most people think of church as a “nonessential” activity? Why? • Has church life been edged out by desires for entertainment and demands of work?


Exercise 6: Downton Abbey Devotees of the PBS series Down- ton Abbey know that the early 20th century brought economic and social changes that spelled doom for many feudal-era estates, but the Crawley family escaped bankruptcy through adaptation and modernization. If there are fans of the show in the study group, discuss how the estate system worked, and how World War I ushered in rapid change that imper- iled that way of life. How did Down- ton Abbey survive? What parallels are there for today’s congregations? What does modernization and adap- tion mean for churches? 


This study guide is offered as one example of the more than 350 that are currently available on The Lutheran’s website. Download guides—free to print and Web subscribers—at www.thelutheran.org (click “study guides”).


26 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org


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