Pete's Family

Are you ready to change?

noreply@blogger.com (stpetesnet) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:37:11 -0600

Are you ready to change? Here are some effective strategies for making it happen.

Special Presentation by Carol Geiger.

Listen to this lesson from Building Healthy Families (3/2/08)

Overcoming the status quo

noreply@blogger.com (stpetesnet) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:32:51 -0600

Family systems try to protect the status quo, and will sabatoge efforts to change. Here are some insights on how this process works.

Special Presentation by Henry Stribling

Listen to this lesson from Building Healthy Families (2/10/08)

Problem Child?

noreply@blogger.com (stpetesnet) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:31:52 -0600

Is it a problem child, or a problem family? Love your family enough not to force them to carry the burdens of the issues you won't deal with.

Listen to this lesson from Building Healthy Families (1/20/08)

See the Need

noreply@blogger.com (stpetesnet) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:25:28 -0600

Jesus was really good at seeing the needs of people's souls. He saw the needs He could do something about, and He saw the ones where there was no opening to minister.

Listen to this lesson from Building Healthy Families (1/13/08)

Never Too Busy

noreply@blogger.com (stpetesnet) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:24:35 -0600

Jesus was never so busy with His important Messiah responsibilities that He didn't have time to care for needy souls. We should never be too busy either.

Listen to this lesson from Building Healthy Families (1/6/08)

Lesson 1: Exploring Vision, Mission and Major Strategies for the Church Today, as Jesus Might See It

noreply@blogger.com (stpetesnet) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:19:18 -0500

Listen to Lesson 1 of Come Forth! - from Building Healthy Families (9/30/07)

Post-Lesson Summary and Additional Comments

Jesus is calling us to “come forth” and fulfill his purposes for our families and our respective roles within them. This four lesson series aims to offer a biblical perspective on the purpose of families and parenting so that we might align our conceptions and actions for loving and serving our spouses, children and families with what the Designer of families has in mind.

This Lesson 1 lays a foundation for the series by exploring God’s purposes for the Church universal. Why? Because these purposes will set boundaries for discovering His purposes for families. The latter must align with the former.

The Church universal is an organism - the “mystical Body of Christ”, as we say every Sunday during worship. It is, therefore, not an organization. Yet it does organize itself in various important ways to aid in the accomplishment of its work and witness. Most organizations adopt a vision statement and a mission statement to empower their work by bringing greater clarity and focus to it. They adopt strategies and tactics to accomplish the work. In Lesson 1 we will work together to explore how Jesus might have written a Vision Statement and Mission Statement for the Church and what He might list as major strategies to accomplish the mission. Guidelines for the exercise:

· “Begin with the end in mind.” A vision statement shows us the ultimate end we hope for and informs the related mission statement. A mission statement states more immediate ends that inform the organization’s daily work. Remember, if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.

· a great Vision Statement is motivational – it appeals to the emotions and energizes us. It paints with words a vivid picture of what we hope will be the outcome of the work set out for us in our mission statement. It answers WHY we bother to do the work at all.

· a great Mission Statement clarifies WHAT work the organization is undertaking (and by implication what it is not taking on). What we define as our work must be stated with as much precision as possible. In can be big or small, but it must leave no doubt about what we are aiming at. And it must be obvious that everything about it contributes directly to making the Vision come true. The mission must fully align with and serve the vision.

· Strategies are the handful of big ideas for doing the work set out in the mission statement.

· Tactics are the major tasks supporting the implementation of a given strategy. They are a high level “do list”.

To prime the pump for the exercise I offered suggestions as to how Jesus might have viewed his own work on earth in terms of vision, mission and strategies. Here ‘tis: VISION – receive all that the Father has promised Him, so that He is ruling and reigning the cosmos, with all things fully reconciled to Himself; MISSION: “I will build my church”; STRATEGIES: descend (incarnation); live a perfect life so he can be a perfect, atoning sacrifice for all sins; rise from the dead (defeat death); pour his life into 12 men (apostles) by loving, training and modeling to them; etc.

After the group exercise and excellent, very diverse collective feedback, I offered the output of my own efforts on this exercise (augmented below):

Vision: Revelation chapters 4, 21 and 22 (these chapters are part of the literal vision Jesus gave John through an angel; the words paint amazing pictures of where we are headed as the Church)

· Perfect Love, peace, joy, righteousness, fulfillment

· the kingdom fully realized

· resurrection bodies without corruption, no pain or suffering; meaningful and creative work to do

Mission: Be and make true lovers.

· “be” = Great Commandment – love God and people

o “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

o "If you love me, you will obey what I command.” John 14:15

o “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.” John 14:21

o "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. John 14:23

o “He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.” John 14:24

o “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies[how we use them – all that we do] as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Rom 12:1-2

· “make” = Great Commission – make disciples (learners) who obey my teachings – that is, become true lovers

Strategies: every member of the Church can be identified in part by the following five regular activities of true lovers:

· Savor: Revel in an intimate relationship with Jesus through worship, sacrament, prayer, listening to Him speak through his Word, etc.

· See: See and care about the needs of the world and people as Jesus does – as they really are – and as they ought to be! We do this through the compassionate “eyes of the heart.” And we do it through a renewed mind obtained in part from the study of God’s word, the study of his world, and the accrued wisdom of our daily experience.

· Serve: Respond, as led by the Holy Spirit, to the needs we perceive - of believers and non-believers alike. “ . . . [L]et your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. “ Matt 5:16.

· Show: Let our habits and manners point to an attractive, fulfilling, “abundant” and different way of life – communal, sacramental, etc.; pursuing different (kingdom) means and ends and not those of the dominate culture; being in the world, for the world, but not of the world; being transfigured people radiating God’s light.

· Sow: Share the word of God in season and out of season, as and when prompted by the Holy Spirit. Always be prepared.

Assignment - to be completed by Lesson 4: begin preparing vision and mission statements for your own family. What is Jesus calling you to come forth and do and become as a family?

Part 2, Lesson 7: TRADITION: Telling the Story and Connecting to Something Larger than Ourselves