Reflections
CONGREGATIONS AND WORKPLACE FAITH
By Pete Hammond
Four diverse Presbyterian (USA) congregations are working away at affirming the ministry of their members in the work world. They are developing the conviction that the church should be the church when it is scattered in the world on Tuesdays too!
In the First Presbyterian Church of Brunswick, NY they have banned the "L" word-- laity cannot be used because of its negative connotations ("uniformed and not involved"). Pastors Harry Heintz and Kate Kotfila have shaped the Sunday liturgy to affirm the calling of all their members by using 1 Peter 2:9-10 as a frequent benediction. They identify the members as the "ministers" in the weekly bulletin (Ephesians 4:11-12.) Pastoral prayers include intercession for various Monday through Friday issues, headlines, and environments most Sundays. The church office staff are reworking the congregational database to include the workplace industries of all members. Currently they have identified large numbers of people in working in healthcare, education, law & government, and research. Work is also being done on identifying members in the service trades. Plans are to form guilds, or study and prayer groups for people in these various industries to explore Scripture and issues they face, as well as to pray for each other.
Last fall the church hosted a day long "Marketplace Foundations Seminar" for about forty members and guests on a Saturday. The seven-hour event began with a panel of guests in a talk-show format much like Oprah or Donahue. Three out-of-town guests talked about their work and faith experiences in advertising in New York City, government in Washington, DC, and health care in upstate NY. During the day, lectures, discussion groups, a quiz entitled "Bible Laity Jeopardy," small group Bible studies focused on work witness, and a lecture probing where the church is Monday through Friday were included in the program.
Community Presbyterian Church of Danville, CA sponsored a similar event in the fall. Its four workplace panelists came from within the congregation. Similar topics and activities were explored, with the topic of mentoring the next generation of Christians in the marketplace being added to the seminar content. On Sunday, Danville's three worship services included a music and slide presentation featuring pictures of over thirty members of the church in their various workplaces. Twelve hundred worshipers saw full color pictures of brothers and sisters in education, day care, retailing, carpentry, technology, the arts, volunteering, and healthcare as the music team sang about "Christ being where your heart is." A few months earlier, Senior Pastor Scott Farmer had led the congregation in a dedication of workplace symbols. Members brought items from work to offer themselves to the Lord. Aprons, calculators, chalk, tools, schedules, a phone and uniforms were piled on the table as Scott then prayed for the symbols and their users in the week to follow. Many commented on the profound impact of that ceremony on their self-perception and sense of calling by God.
(These two seminars in New York and California were presented by a senior InterVarsity Marketplace leader and a PCUSA elder, who developed the materials that were used, and recruited panelists and mentors from across the nation. For information about this emphasis and a variety of resources now available contact us at the address below.)
Rivermont Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, VA has been chipping away at affirming all its people in ministry for several years. Pastor Lowell Sykes did his Doctor of Ministry studies on "Christians Called to Their Daily Work" at McCormick Seminary in 1992. A committee of congregational members collaborated with him all through the process. A commissioning service on Labor Day weekend was designed, where members brought symbols of their workplaces to the communion table for dedication of themselves to serve Christ in the contexts of family, community and workplace.
Co-Pastor Wayne Meredith worked with a continuation of this committee which expanded its membership to several sister congregations in the city. This group now sponsors the "First Monday Club" each month. Up to 200 people come from work for lunch with a program that features believers talking about their faith-work journey. One lunch program was a panel of local journalists in newspaper, radio, and TV. I imagine their news was especially enjoyed and critiqued by believers in the weeks that followed.
Christ Presbyterian Church in Madison, WI held a unique summer adult series for Sunday School last year. The two merged adult classes focused on the theme "Where Is The Church On Tuesday: Discovering One Another." Each Sunday, three or four members from a defined workplace were interviewed in an Oprah Winfrey-type panel. Some of the featured workplace contexts included government service, school teaching, parenting, retirement, construction, healthcare, sales, and law. Questions were posed by an interviewer probing first the workplace realities, then the faith journey, and finally mixing the two together.
Attendance was up 23% from the previous summer, as members were invited into each other's weekday worlds. On the Sunday for doctors, the liver and kidney transplant surgeon's beeper went off in the middle of the interview and he left. The interviewer dismissed the other panelist, who was a pediatric surgeon, and invited the two surgeon's spouses up to discuss the challenge of family life with their spouses being constantly on-call. Pastor John Smoot arrived from his studies in Scotland to lead this congregation in the fall.
How is your congregation supporting the ministry of its members in their Monday through Friday world of work, community and family life? Let us know so we can tell the story and encourage others.
Pete Hammond is a PCUSA elder, a Presbyterians For Renewal board member, a veteran staff member of InterVarsity who directs the Marketplace ® division, and is the creative developer of the new Word In Life Study Bible . He and his wife Shirley live in Madison, WI and commute to Chicago regularly to see their five grandchildren.
Copyright ©1995, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Marketplace ministries, 6400 Schroeder Rd., Madison, WI 53711.
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