“My faith informs my care,” says Carl Pierce, an emergency room nurse in Tacoma, Wash.
JEFF HIGH
integral part of being people of faith. We need to know what Mineoi knows about God’s love of diverse perspectives and honest questions. There are so many other stories of young adults: sto- ries about first loves, first breakups, engagements, wed- dings, finding a new church home, not finding a church home, spending months unemployed in a new city, find- ing work again.
In our baptismal liturgy we promise to support one another in our vocational callings. So we must listen to the stories of Christians living out their witness in the world. As congregations, we can put these stories of every- day life at the center of our life together. Sermons can include more stories from everyday Christians, maybe even young adults who aren’t part of your congregation. We might consider regularly blessing and commission- ing Christians into their work as a part of our worship. We might set aside time in worship for testimony and for difficult questions that arise at the intersection of faith and everyday life.
My father was right to insist that our Lutheran faith should say something about our everyday lives. May we begin to see ourselves as a community of storytellers.
Download a study guide for this article (free to print/Web members) at
www.thelutheran.org (click on “study guides”).
Try this T
ry these “experiments” in your congregation to help connect faith commitments to everyday life.
• Mission moments: When I was at Hope Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minn., just before the prayers of the people, worshipers would briefly share where they saw God at work—in a day care, in volunteer work and in our partner congregations in Guatemala. For more ideas, see “Testimony” in Practicing Our
Faith, edited by Dorothy C. Bass (Jossey Bass, 1996). • Pastoral ethnographers: Ethnographers are researchers who often travel to other cultures to learn about their way of life. Pastors, too, can use one-on-one interviews with members to learn more about their vocations and visit the workplaces where they negotiate their Lutheran faith (law offices, day cares, grocery stores, farms and more). For more ideas, see Ethnography as Pastoral Practice by Mary Clark Moschella (Pilgrim Press, 2008). • Start a blog: Invite four or five members to post short reflections about how their faith shows up at work, in family and among their peers. Congregations might be surprised at what they learn from these everyday docu- mentary theologies. Want a wonderful example? Visit Carl Pierce’s blog at
www.nursingtheology.blogspot.com.
June 2013 15
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