2004 Consultation: St. Paul

Everyone seems to agree. Something special happened at the 12th annual consultation of the Coalition for Ministry in Daily Life. Held at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN, the weekend of April 16-18, 2004, this gathering was “excellent,” said longtime CMDL leader Bill Diehl, “one of the best consultations ever.”

According to numerous responses to an online evaluation survey, the excellence came from no single source. Rather, it resulted from a rich convergence of factors.

It was partly a matter of the theme chosen for participants’ attention. “Empowering Christians’ Ministry in Daily Life – The Role of Congregations/Parishes and Theological Seminaries” pushed us close to the heart of Christian faith, centering on the two institutions most critical for awakening and sustaining Christians’ implementation of their faith in everyday life.

Many of the seventy-plus consultation participants were people whose passion and activity are focused in these two vineyards, and they relished the opportunity to learn about each other’s labors, deriving personal strength and fresh ideas from the sharing process.

The St. Paul event was special, too, because of the experience and skill that the twenty-one speakers and panelists brought to their assignments. In keeping with the Coalition’s mission of gathering people and organizations from a wide spectrum of churches and traditions, some of the consultation leaders were Evangelicals, some mainline Protestants, and some Catholics. Clearly, this is a theme that is bit-by-bit gaining a more prominent place on the horizon of the whole Christian community.

The setting for the event also contributed to its success. This was the first CMDL consultation hosted and co-sponsored by a theological school, and Luther Seminary took its role seriously and performed it splendidly. Consultation participants were impressed by the school’s commitment to the ministry-in-daily-life movement, as witnessed by the quality of participation by seminary leaders and faculty, and by the way Luther’s Centered Life initiative is transforming congregations into support centers for their members’ ministries in daily life.
 

Other consultation highlights included:

-Presentation of the Forum for Faith in the Workplace’s fourth Carolyn Dickerson Minus Award to John Lewis, Associate Rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and Director of the Center for Faith in the Workplace, San Antonio, TX

-Reminders of the international character of this movement by the presence of two participants from Canada and three from Europe

-Election of Christy Trudo, Jack Fortin, Jennifer Levering, Kathryn Palen and John Lewis to the CMDL board

-Participation by nine consultation attendees in a subsequent CMDL reflecting and planning retreat, from Sunday through Tuesday, at the Mt. Olivet retreat center outside St. Paul

-Announcement that the 2005 annual consultation will be in New Haven, CT. on the weekend of April 1-3, hosted by the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, at the recently renovated campus of Yale Divinity School.