Norine's Notes
Norine's Notes
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EFM
Here are some of our EFM group members 2003-2004 working on Spiritual Autobiographies. Norine, Moses, Carol, Anne, Tina, Sharon, and Carol
LiAnne, Carol, Norind, Moses, Carol, Elizabeth, Anne, Margie, DeeDee
The following is an article I wrote for the Proclamation about my experience with EFM that also tells what EFM is all about.
EFM Opens the Door to Experiencing Our Ordinary Lives In Extraordinary Ways By: Norine Labitzke
Sometimes I feel like I am drowning in the tumultuous sea of life on this planet in 2004. I am bombarded with headlines of atrocities in my community, my church, and my world. Words like “terrorist,” “suicide bomber,” “abuse,” “murder,” “violence,” “schism,” “scandal,” “war,” “drugs,” and “more violence” assault me from every screen and speaker in my environment. It seems the news is getting worse and my sensitivity to the victims of all these despicable acts is increasing, but, believe it or not, so is my inner peace. I have the Education for Ministry (EFM) program at St. John’s to thank for that. During this past year I have found new positive ways to respond to this increasing barrage of atrocities. EFM has helped me merge my journey on the path of faith with my journey down the path of daily life. For years I read the announcements in the bulletin, or heard the occasional reference to EFM, but I did not know what it was all about. Last year a friend suggested I participate, so I looked into it. It was pointed out to me that we are called to ministry at Baptism. We pray for our ministry at the end of the Eucharist when we say: “And now, Father, send us into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you and with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord.” We all need to minister on whatever paths our daily lives take us. This does not mean we have to learn a new vocation or live a different life. It simply means we need to see differently the things we are already doing, and do them in the name of Christ. An effective way to do this is to become informed through a theologically based program that teaches us to respond to the moral and ethical challenges of today’s complex world. This is the core of EFM. EFM is a small group program where the participants examine and expand their own beliefs and see how they relate to the current culture, so they can become effective ministers in this world. The group provides a safe place to try out and express new ideas and receive loving support or challenge. There are two key components to EFM that make it so effective. It involves an intense reading and study program that covers Christian tradition: Old and New Testaments, church history, ethics, liturgy, and theology. Then we are compelled to do something with this study in our daily lives. Every week we look at a story or current event. We examine it from what we know of Christian tradition and our current culture so we can come up with a new understanding of that event within the perspective of our beliefs, rather than as something segmented off from our spiritual life. Thus Scriptures and church teaching become relevant to the here and now. Before my involvement in EFM I tended to separate or compartmentalize parts of my life. Some of my work and social experiences led me to rather cynical conclusions about human nature that I tried to keep out of my spiritual and family life. EFM, thru the method of theological reflection, has helped me bring together the different ways I had of looking at the world so that my intellectual and spiritual responses can come together as a single, meaningful whole. I am learning to choose the behaviors, values, and lifestyles that are consistent with the way I want to live my Christian life. One concrete example of this is that now I start off every day with prayer and meditation. This can be as brief or as in depth as my time allows. Since I feel a magnetic pull to my computer during my waking life I had to outsmart myself a little to do this first thing in the morning. What worked for me was signing up for some daily prayers and inspirational messages on email. Through practice, I have been able to muster up enough self discipline to start with what I refer to as “my emails from God” before checking the news headlines or anything else. This gives me a sense of God’s peace and presence which puts a whole new perspective on the rest of the day’s events. It also reminds me to pray and do a little reflection before being pulled down again in the undertow of the high, rough seas of another cultural disaster. I just put on my Christian armor, my life preservers. It’s hard to drown when Jesus, who walks on water, is holding my hand. For more information, go to: http://www.sewanee.edu/EFM/EFMhome.html |
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