Every month we have a book that we do an on-line book study. In October it is on "The Summons" by John Grisham. Book studies give you a chance to discuss different ideas with a variety of people. It is the electronic version of the discussion around the water cooler. "The Summons" is a page turner. It makes you wonder what you would do if you found a large amount of cash. Would we handle it the way Ray does or would we be more transparent.

It’s almost state fair time. Then it’s Labor Day, which is immediately followed by the kids going back to school. Then Wednesday September 17th, is “TAKE YOUR PREACHER TO WORK DAY”.

“Why would I want to do that?” You ask.

There are several good reasons:

ONE, is to give your preacher a chance to see where you spend a significant portion of your life. People’s faith lives are put into action in their calendars. Why not include your pastor, priest, rabbi or imam in your weekday calendar, instead of just on Sunday,Saturday, or Friday?

Last Tuesday the Work and Worship Vision Team met to discuss the vision of the Institute. It meets once a quarter to try to grasp the big picture rather than getting bogged down in the details. We discussed what are topics that the Institute should be attempting to engage people in conversation about. What issues need to be raised in the business community by the faith community. Some ideas are:
1. The disparity between Executive Compensation and the average worker compensation.

I have been a controller at several small companies. It allowed me to be involved in many aspects of the business from looking for new space to paying the bills. I liked the aspect of understanding the whole system of the company. It wasn't always easy to act with my values. Sometimes my values ended up changing sometime I would think " If this situation doesn't change I will have to quit." I was lucky that the situation always seemed to change and I never had to quit.
Sara

My favorite Christmas was the first year my mother moved to Minneapolis after her stoke. She and I are both early risers so I took off Christmas morning to pick her up at 5:30 a.m. The goal was to let her see her Grandchlidren, ages 6 and 3, discover their presents from Santa. This was the first time in almost 20 years my mother had spent Christmas in my home. For years I had made the trek to Grand Rapids Minnesota. It was a great morning with the kids finding their Santa presents and Mom staying for most of the day. In the years that followed mother was too sick to come to my house so for me that was a brief shinning Christmas memory.

A 3-D bookstudy is where a Work and Worship staff member or volunteer comes to your organization and leads a bookstudy in person. This is a great way to get book studies started at your company or church. We use the on-line book studies we have already developed to facilitate discussion. A 3-D bookstudy can be done at the same time as an on-line book study. Contact mat@workandworshipinstitute.org to set one up today.

ABOUT THE WORK & WORSHIP INSTITUTE:

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Over the years I spent at seminary I felt a growing awareness that there was a great opportunity in connecting the business world I came from and the church world I was entering. As I worked with other non-profit organizations, I too thought of an organization that could facilitate connecting faith based organizations and corporations. In Hebrew the word for work and worship has the same root. Work life was not in a separate compartment from worship life. The organization would focus on work and worship. At first I relegated the idea to the trash bin labeled "Another of Sara's Crazy Ideas". God kept dragging the idea out of the trash. It just wouldn't die. Thus The Work & Worship Institute was born.