items of interest

'EMERGING CHURCHES' OFFER MYRIAD FORMS OF WORSHIP

"Welcome to the Journey. Church starts when the lights go down at 10:30 a.m. The room is bathed in yellow, dancing candlelight. Don't feel like listening to the sermon? No problem. Spend the time writing a prayer request at the journaling station, a table off to the side with parchment and six Celtic crosses. Since the Journey began meeting three years ago in a rented room at Front Range Community College in Westminster, worshipers have sought to connect with God in ways most people don't associate with church. They paint. They read their own poetry. The imitate the chanting of monks. 'The Journey is just a little different,' said Michael Noel, the Journey's 29-year-old, Baptist-trained co-pastor.... Noel is among a small but growing group of young evangelical Christian pastors preaching the gospel of the 'emerging church,' a movement that began as an effort to reach young adults but now is attracting a wider audience by emphasizing community, freedom in worship style, and connection to Christianity's past....

"Defining a church as emerging can be difficult because such groups take so many forms. That elusiveness, in fact, is part of the character of a movement that shuns structure and hates being put in a box. 'There is no formula,' said Sally Morganthaler, a Denver author and consultant who works with emerging churches nationwide. 'If you're going to become a model, then you become a franchise.'...

"Throughout its history, evangelical Christianity has shown it can change with the times, altering methods but not the message. Generally, evangelical Christmas stress a conservative theology, the authority of the Bible, and the importance of winning new converts."

Eric Gorski
Excerpted from "The un-churches" The Denver Post
December 21, 2003

J.M. SMUCKER & CO. FIRST MANUFACTURER TO MAKE NO. 1 ON FORTUNE 500'S LIST OF '100 BEST COMPANIES TO WORK FOR'

In a January 6, 2004, interview with National Public Radio's Wendy Kaufman, Richard Smucker talked about what has made him and his co-CEO (and brother), Tim Smucker, find their company at the number one spot on Fortune 500's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" list.

The Ohio-based company, which employees 2,930 workers, was one of 1,000 companies proposed for the list, and came in at the top of the 300 companies seriously considered. According to a Fortune magazine article about the list (January 12, 2004, by Julia Boorstin), the 107-year-old Smucker business, which makes jams and jellies, operates on a "simple code of conduct set forth by their father and CEO No. 3, Paul Smucker: Listen with your full attention, look for the good in others, have a sense of humor, and say thank you for a job well done." In the post-Enron business world, the Smucker family's ethics clearly are sending a compelling message.

As Richard Smucker noted in the NPR interview: "We don't have any of the razzle-dazzle perks no pet insurance, no massages on site. It's really kind of 'back to basics.' Hopefully, [we're] living the Golden Rule. It ... seems maybe it's gone of out of style, but it never really goes out of style." Apparently the Smucker's employees agree. The key votes in the list's survey come from the workers themselves.

After 30-year decline, spiritual interest among college students shows increase

"More than two-thirds of college students express a strong interest in religious or spiritual matters, according to a survey. Seventy percent of student said they had attended religious services in the past year, and 78 percent said they discussed religion or spirituality with friends. Seventy-three percent said their religious and spiritual beliefs had helped develop their identity. Students also expressed a high degree of religious tolerance and acceptance of nonbelievers: Seventy percent said people can grow spiritually without being religious. Preliminary results of the survey, conducted in the spring by the Higher Education Research Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles, were released [recently]. The respondents numbered 3,680 students—most of them juniors—at 46 public and private colleges across the country.

"Researchers decided to conduct the study after noticing a shift in the attitudes of students in the annual survey of college freshmen that the institute has administered since 1966. The results showed a sharp decline over the past 30 years in the number of students who listed 'developing a meaningful philosophy of life' as a primary objective. That goal was ranked first by students in the late 1960s, but it ranks eighth today, with being 'very well off financially' topping the list. Based on the earlier findings, researchers did not expect students to care much about spirituality. 'We were most surprised by the high level of spiritual and religious interest displayed by the students,' said Alexander W. Astin, director of the research center at UCLA, who is one of the leaders of the survey. 'Higher Education is often seen as a bastion of secularism,' he said, 'but the fact is that students are very interested in these issues.'"

Jeffrey R. Young
Excerpted from the article: "Survey Finds Spiritual Leanings Among Most College Students"
The Chronicle of Higher Education Reprinted with permission
November 28, 2003