LSTC Learning Communities: Faith, Work, and Economics

Sunday, October 8 – Sunday, October 29

We invite you to join us this fall for a remarkable 4-part series, sponsored by LSTC Learning Communities, that explores the topic, “Faith, Work, and Economics.”

Rev. Wayne N. Miller will lead this dynamic course for 4 Sundays, beginning October 8 from 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. CST. Or you can join Wednesday’s session beginning October 11 from 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. CST.

As Bishop Emeritus, Rev. Wayne N. Miller served bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, from 2007-2019. His administration was marked by a deep commitment, stemming from 23 years of congregational ministry, to help the congregations and communities of the synod to embrace renewal, growth, and positive change. He has been an adjunct instructor of Christian Thought at Aurora University, a founding board member of Suicide Prevention Services of the Fox Valley, and a member and presenter for a special judicial commission on Domestic Violence in the Faith Community. From 2016-2018 he served as President of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, where he continues to serve on the Executive Committee. In addition to leading the synod program staff, he preached and taught regularly in the synod’s congregations and shared his perspective and insight in his column for the synod supplement in Living Lutheran.

Whether bishop, pastor, follower, parishioner, or community member, join us as Rev. Miller takes us on an exploration of our relationship to our work, and guides us as we use faith, work, and economics as a lens for understanding ourselves, our world, and the secret of living life well.

Session Summary

For most adults, the activity that consumes most of their waking hours is work. And the absence of meaningful work in our lives creates feelings of anxiety, and shame. But for many, the experience of work is also empty and exhausting, to the point that we often work for the sole purpose of being free from work.

Although we may speak of our work as our “vocation” only a few people experience work as a direct calling from God, or even as an expression of who we are as people of faith. And this disintegration of the relationship between our faith, our work, and our sense of participation with others in a sacred economy, conspires to undermine our mental, spiritual, relational, and physical well-being.

In this 4-part course, Retired ELCA Bishop, Wayne Miller, explores the Biblical and confessional underpinnings of the organic relationship between Faith, Work, and Economics as a lens for understanding ourselves, our world, and the secret of living life well.

Session 1: The Model
Sunday, October 8
Wednesday, October 11

We live in a fragmented existence that separates our faith from our daily life and alienates us from ourselves. This session will introduce a wholistic model for how to re-integrate Faith, Work, and Economics, leading us toward a fuller understanding of “vocation.”

Session 2: Connecting Faith and Work
Sunday, October 15
Wednesday, October 18

What is the nature of work? How does it appear in various arenas of our lives? All work is, in some fashion, an expression of morality and in order to understand this, we must also look at an important distinction between morality and ethics.

Session 3: Connecting Work with Economy
Sunday, October 22
Wednesday, October 25

Although work is often implemented individually, it is a fundamentally social endeavor. This week, we will ask: how do we go about the task of coordinating our individual work with the work of others to create an economy? What are the various economies in which we live and work?

Session 4: Connecting Various Economies with Faith
Sunday, October 29
Wednesday, November 1

This session sees Ethics as an expression of holding economic structures and activities accountable to basic principles and values of Faith. Together, we will ask: what is the specific role of the Church in leading the economy back into an ethical and satisfying arena for vocation?

LSTC Learning Communities: Faith, Work, and Economics

Session Summary

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