Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Love God, Love People

Hello! So last week each MY team wrote up a "covenant" for their team, outlining how we wish to live and grow this year and ways in which we will seek to keep each other accountable. It's a beautiful illustration of our commitment to one another and to God, so I wanted to share ours with you:
TEAM COVENANT
We commit to prayer as our first response in struggle for and with each other and our neighbors.
We commit to relate to one another:
- by laughing together
- by praying together
- by hugging it out
- through sincerity and vulnerability
- peacefully, by going directly to one another when there is conflict and always seeking restoration
We commit to listen:
- readily
- intentionally
- with open and humble hearts
- patiently
- without trying to fix each other
We commit to affirming one another by:
- building each other up according to our needs
- acknowledging the good things we see in each other
- listening to one another’s dreams
- encouraging each other in our creativity
We commit to seeking accountability in:
- following through with our commitments
- voicing our struggles
- our daily walk with God; this includes
                regular scripture reading
                prayer
                seeking God’s presence in our daily rhythms
                asking each other where we are or are not seeing God in our lives
We commit to incorporate creativity in our household and our ministry:
- We will create space to nurture and share each other’s artistic gifts
- We will challenge each other to explore new artistic areas
- We will seek to acknowledge our Creator and his creative spirit
- We will acknowledge that our creative gifts are from God
- We will worship and make music together weekly
We commit to seek justice:
- by cultivating justice as a desire of our hearts
- by striving to grow our awareness of injustice in the world, our city, and our home.
- by challenging one another to confront injustice
We commit to being good stewards, wisely using everything with which we’ve been entrusted:
- We will be fully present in our silence and our sound
- We will be generous and hospitable to our neighbors and each other
- We will be attentive to the needs of the homeless
- We will exercise together regularly
- We will respect our bodies, our budget, and our teammates by not hoarding food and by taking only what we need because all our provision comes from God
- We will reduce waste, recycling and reusing when possible
- We will remember that all of our resources belong to God, including our stipend. With that, we vow to spend wisely what we’ve been given by Mission Year. We are committed to talking through big purchases and seeking our teammates’ opinions about wants and needs.
In all things we will seek common ground and celebrate differences. In all things we will strive to worship God with our actions and attitudes, with our time and possessions. In all things we will strive to live simply. In all things we will seek to remember God’s faithfulness in past struggles, his present call, and his promise to make all things new. In all things we recognize that the goal of our lives in Christ.

Until next time,
Tracy