Friday, September 6, 2013

Staff Covenant 2013-2014


This year our staff's covenant has the theme of "practicing resurrection." The beautiful thing about our covenant is that what "practicing resurrection" means, is different for each and every one of us on staff at the Service-Learning Center.  We don't know, exactly, what will be...but I hope that as the year goes on we will receive glimpses of what it means to "practice resurrection." I pray that as we further reflect and act on the words in this covenant, that they will lead us individually, and as a community. 


Service-Learning Center 2013-2014 Staff Covenant:

We practice resurrection, we don't know what will be
with joy, we commit to:

Fostering a community that values 
individuality
cultivating conversation and
imagination

Honoring the progress of
small steps and unhistoric acts.

Seeking justice within God's
improbable grace.

We don't know what will be; we practice resurrection.


  This year I hope our staff is able to foster imagination, participate joyfully in unhistoric acts, seek justice, and overall be a group of individuals who "practice resurrection" in all of its knowns... and unknowns.


-Kelsey Stark, Communications Coordinator

1 comment:

Bryan said...

Once upon a time, I worked in the service-learning center at Calvin College, and occasionally I stop by this blog to see what kinds of conversation are happening. I like this staff covenant. Berry's notion of practicing resurrection has been firmly lodged in my mind since I encountered "Mad Farmer Liberation Front," and I was glad to see the reference in your staff covenant. In my own wanderings through the milieu of popular culture, I encountered these glimpses that seem to me to allude to a practice of resurrection.

Macklemore's song, "Starting Over" mentions these lyrics:
"If I can be an example of getting sober
Then I can be an example of starting over"

and Mumford and Sons' song, "Roll Away Your Stone"
It seems that all my bridges have been burned,
You say that's exactly how this grace thing works
It's not the long walk home that will change this heart,
But the welcome I receive with the restart

I think it is interesting to reflect on the significance of catching glimpses like these in music in particular. We don't just glimpse the lyric and sound once, but instead we hit the repeat button again and again. In the process, we practice attending to the glimpses of the practice of resurrection. I am thankful for those glimpses that linger as they do in a song.

-Bryan Kibbe (S-LC '06-'08)