Jan 7, 2010

State of the Network Address

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