Convocation #2

by Leif Kehrwald

Along with Mayra Torres and Sherry Wagner, I attended the second national convocation of the "C3 Initiative." C3 stands for Creating a Culture of Calling. St Charles is one of 24 Christian congregations involved in the project which seeks to "promote a congregational culture of vocation that helps Christians of all ages discover their callings throughout life and equips them to live their vocation in the church community, at home, and in the world."
 
The primary focus of this meeting was to draft an action plan for the first year of the project. Here is a short summary of our draft action plan. (Note: we need to discuss the plan further with the entire C3 Team along with other key leadership groups in the parish, e.g. staff, GIFT, Multicultural, etc.)

​Draft Goals

• Deepen individual spiritual growth through understanding how God is actively involved in each person’s life.
• Deepen congregation’s spiritual growth through discovering and living God’s call for our church community.
• Broaden our ability to include (integrate?) all cultures in the church because we are all enriched when everyone is included.
• Create avenues for neighborhood members who are spiritual but not religious to join the journey, since God has a call for them as well.  (future)
• Take the risk to try new ways/partnerships.

 
Draft Framework

1. Designate next year’s theme, reflective of the work we are doing here (test on age groups).
2. GIFT content resides at the center and drives the curriculum of most other faith forming aspects of the parish.  Theme anchored in calling, curriculum curated/developed, sequenced and calendared.  Then ask program managers and small faith sharing groups to dovetail.  Identify the big things to be in sync.
3. Seek opportunity to co-sponsor or join catechist, staff and ministry leaders training with Ascension.
4. Pilot different formats – 3-5 small intercultural groups during Lent for 6 weeks or lined up with GIFT, 5 people in self learning? (by culture?).  (check with Judy Ludwigsen and Kathy Smith.)  Small groups could alternatively be  an opportunity to extend and expand what we are doing at GIFT.
5. Intercultural relationship building
   1. develop friendships with people of other cultures
   2. consult with ethnic persons & groups and get their advice on vocabulary of calling

 
Our C3 Team will continue to meet throughout the summer to hone our goals and action steps. We welcome your comments, questions, suggestions, and ideas. Please join us on this journey to create a culture of calling at St. Charles.