January 2010
Greetings High Calling Network members and friends,
This post was originally an email that went out to members of the High Calling Network. We regularly send out newsletters with information and notifications to our members. If you would like to be a part of that, please join our network. If you join, you can log in to this site and develop a profile. People will begin to recognize you from your profile picture when you leave comments.
It only takes a moment of your time to join, and it’s fun. We look forward to getting to know you.
On to some more substantive news.
Last year we closed membership in our network. A lot of blogs were signing up to partner with us, and it was getting a little overwhelming. We’ve never had the goal of being a huge network, but we’ve always had the idea that we should be a focused network. We’re hoping that people who visit the High Calling Network will find a great collection of writers that address the questions surrounding Christian faith and the workplace.
We quietly opened the network again earlier this week, and we felt that this was a good time to restate the basic purpose and message of the High Calling.
The High Calling: A Brief History
Howard Butt first began articulating his message of lay empowerment back in the 1960s. Having a rather prophetic sense that the Church was becoming ever more clergy and institution focused, Howard began calling on lay men and women to embrace their workplaces as both a holy calling and the primary location for Christian ministry. Howard believed that the work of Christ should be done by Christian people wherever they are. He began the High Calling with radio spots in San Antonio that were meant to encourage lay Christians in the workplace.
That vision has greatly expanded to include the internet and blogs.
What We Are Hoping to Do
The High Calling Network exists to provide creative and new ways for people to tell the stories of faith lived in the workplace. We don’t want to tell anyone what to write about. However, if you are in the network, we’d like to know that you still support the basic idea behind what we are doing. And we’d hope that on occasion, because you are a Christian in the workplace, your postings would align with our basic message.
Please note that we define faith broadly as faith in Christ. And we define the workplace as wherever people work. Some of you work at home with children, others in offices and places of business, and still others in unique ways and places that cannot even be categorized. Wherever you carry out your vocation is your place of work.
We want to be the place that encourages you
The bottom line is this: we hope to be a network that encourages Christians trying to live their faith in the modern world. Christianity is often comfortable when we are sitting in pews. Many of us find it to be much less comfortable Monday through Friday, as we struggle to live like Christ in a secular world. If that is your struggle, this is your network!
With that said, we look forward to a very exciting 2010!
Gordon Atkinson
Senior Editor
HighCallingBlogs.com
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I am a new member to the network, taking advantage of the quiet opening just a couple of days ago. I have been lurking around these pages for a few years though, observing and wondering. Thanks for this precise call, for making clear how murky are the waters between the ocean of faith and the channels of work. Looking forward to being a part of this all.
Charity!!! So awesome to see you joined. I’m smiling. Big.
Welcome, welcome! And that from a reformed lurker.
So glad you opened to new members so I could hop in
What calm and helpful community (from what I can gather as a newbie…)
I am a bit overwhelmed by the number of blogs, the number of people, the massive number of words. I’m not sure where to start…so I found a name, clicked on it, read an entry, and someone spoke to me already! In the immortal words of my children, “Coooool.”