In life and work, one always must choose between a lean experience and a rich experience. We choose to offer and encourage a rich experience, filled with learning, prayer, and fun! The Living on Purpose curriculum places a strong emphasis on spiritual formation and social justice. After all, we want the fellows to take advantage of their time here to stretch and grow, and be invigorated by living and working in New Orleans. If the service placements are the bricks in the experience, the curriculum acts as the mortar, holding experiences together, allowing room for growth, and both relating service work to the systemic cycle of poverty and setting the experience in a spiritual context. Working with marginalized communities brings both triumphant joys and and challenging questions. Living on Purpose fellows engage in readings, trainings, and seminars that add understanding to experiences in the field, and stimulate deep spiritual growth. We invite God into our lives and work through corporate prayer and spiritual practice, working always to see Christ’s path and follow Him as best we can. Our curriculum helps Living on Purpose become an incubator to help discern your call, grow your faith, and develop leadership through service and prayer.
Reading list for 2010-2011:
- Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Becoming Who You Are, James Martin
- A New Kind of Christianity, Brian McLaren
- Living Faith, Curtiss Paul DeYoung
- Same Kind of Different As Me, Ron Hall and Dallas Moore
- Race Matters, Cornell West
- Where We Stand: Class Matters, Bell Hooks
- The Little Book of Biblical Justice, Chris Marshall
- A Wing and a Prayer, Katherine Jeffords Schori
- The Art of Happiness, The Dalai Lama
The 2010 conferences, speakers and seminars:
- Rising Tide www.risingtidenola.com
- TEDx NOLA www.tedxnola.com
- Fr Richard Rohr www.cacradicalgrace.org/
- Rev Lonell Wright, All Souls Episcopal Church, Lower 9th Ward, NOLA
- Fr Bill Terry, St Anna’s Episcopal Church, NOLA
- Pastor Don Boutte, Churches Supporting Churches, www.cscneworleans.org/worship.html
- Hamilton Simon-Jones, OperationREACH
- Dr. John Clements, Chair, Tulane University Microbiology and Immunology Dept, former Marine
- Linda Armstrong, Meyers-Briggs workshop
- Undoing Racism Workshop, The People’s Institute