Dare Great Things For Christ

When it comes to leading others, Christians out to have a distinct advantage.  After all Christians who lead believe that they are leading in the hand of God and following his lead.  But what does this advantage actually look like?  One spot where we can see it particularly is in our belief that our sins can be forgiven.  How does our claim about the forgiveness of sins impact the world of work?  In this second on our series on the Christian advantage I want to explore the power of mercy to transform our vision of leadership.

Christians have long professed that we are at the same time like everyone else and different.  We’re the same because we are human just like anyone else but we’re different because we have received the grace of Christ.  Well if this is true then our leadership will also be the same and different.  Our leadership will have to follow the same laws as everyone else and the same structure but we should also be leading with the grace of Christ.  I wanted to find out what this meant and share a short course with you.  A series of talks on this subject to help you appreciate the Christian advantage.

So far in this series on the four anchors we’ve looked at how God is the secret to human success.  How this is expressed firstly by the family being anchored by God and how it’s extended by our work being anchored in our family.  In this next conference I take a look at how our culture stands to benefit by being firmly anchored in our work and the key role that Catholic business leaders play in transforming the culture by bringing the values of the Gospel through their families and through their workplace into the heart of society.

Whether we like it or not all of us have to work every day.  So what’s the secret to working with satisfaction and fulfillment?  In this third segment in our series on the Four Anchors I explore what work could look like when it is anchored soundly in our identity as who we are.  And in particular I take a look at how that identity of who we are is given to us in a profound way by our family.  Just as our family can be anchored in God our work can be anchored in our family and the values that they give us. 

Faith and family values just seem to go together but why is this so and what happens to our family values if we separate them from faith?  Many young families today are doing just that trying to see if we can maintain a family without necessarily linking it back to God.  On the other hand the Catholic church consistently teaches us that God is the key to family unity and to family greatness.  But what does this mean?  In this second part of our series on The Four Anchors we explore the real blessings that faith represents for our families.

As we try to navigate our way as Catholics in a modern world many of us wonder what the recipe is for true success.  Everyone wants a happy world and a healthy country but many people aren’t very clear about what role the Church or God has to play in giving us those.  In fact, however, there is a very clear recipe.  And I like to call it the four anchors.  In this five part series I am going to walk you through those four anchors and give you practical tips on how to implement them yourself. 

Most people want to see some positive change in our culture.  But many people struggle to know exactly what this should look like.  Are we struggling just for struggle’s sake or is there an end goal that we are supposed to be striving towards?  In this last part in my series on cultural leadership I wanted to give you the big picture.  Looking at Matthew 25 where we can understand why Jesus wants us to impact culture.  Namely, as an act of love for him.

All of us want to make a difference for Christ in our culture today.  But most of us don’t know where to begin.  A wide variety of issues competes for our attention.  One thing the Catholic church has consistently argued is that the family is the root of society.  As the family goes so the world will go.  Maybe this is why for the Catholic church so much attention is spent on developing family ties.  Why is this so, however?  And what importance should we give the family in our own efforts to transform the culture for Christ today?

Most Christians today recognize the importance of engaging our culture with the Gospel.  Changes are afoot that would radically alter the way that we raise our families and understand our fundamental freedoms.  This sense of urgency has led many to find the most effective ways to impact the culture.  How do we transform a culture before it transforms us?  One of the most overlooked methods, however, is the simplest: the direct encounter we can have with the people around us.  If cultural leadership were football, this would be the ground game, and this is the method our Lord, Himself, showed us. 

By now any Christian who follows events in the world knows how important it is for us to act.  The news headlines are filled with reports of things that are happening and calls for us to get involved.  On the other hand Christians are equally convinced that we need to pray.  Prayer is a part of our spiritual tradition and something our Savior commanded us to do. Is there a connection between the two?  Is there really a value to prayer when so much of our brain space is taken up by issues, and confrontations, and worry about the future.  I think there is and I want to make a case for it.