CCC Gainesville | Blog
From Todd Best:
Perhaps you’ve seen the announcement recently in the church bulletin about the Opus Project launch event to be held on Friday, Nov. 16 from 7:00 to 8:30pm. We hope that you plan to join us for this important evening of conversation, and I wanted to take a few minutes to explain what the Opus Project is all about and what you can expect from the event.
The Opus Project on Faith, Work, and Culture, out of love for God and neighbor, nurtures reflection and conversation about our shared contribution to the flourishing of society and the renewal of all things.
Opus will include classes, reading groups, and special events in which we read, hear, view and take in various forms of culture, discuss the significance of such things, and consider how we might take steps in cultivating cultural activity for the common good. All this is rooted in the foundational theological vision of God’s grand mission to renew all things through the work of Christ. Some concepts that help us ground this project include: faithful presence, shalom and cultural renewal. We will be unpacking these in the coming weeks.
We’ve been referring to Nov. 16 as a launch event because it is the official unveiling of this new initiative of Christ Community that will have an ongoing presence in the life of our church. The Opus Project has been steadily developing for the last year or so, and there is a good chance you have been involved with it in some capacity. If the term Opus has a familiar ring to it, that’s because our Vision Night last fall was called the Opus Event. That night we had a congregational conversation about our collective callings and work. In many ways, the Opus Project has grown directly out of that event. In the spring of this year, we offered a class on finding meaning in work. Then this summer we hosted the Opus Reading group which met monthly. And this fall’s class on the church and the common good brings us to the present. But until now, the Opus Project on Faith, Work, and Culture has mostly been on the down-low. Now it’s time to launch the larger, fuller version of this project that will include one-time events as well as regularly occurring discussions.
The event on Nov. 16 will include a brief presentation by Rob Pendley and me that will serve as an introduction to the Opus Project, followed by four breakout sessions on our four focus areas: work, arts and culture, social justice and the neighborhood. In order to lay some groundwork and to help us all start thinking in this direction, Richard Horner will be preaching the next two Sundays.
We hope you can make it to this event as we expand our concepts and begin thinking of how we might work for the good of our community. Please check your calendars and RSVP your intent.
Note to families: childcare will be provided at $3 per child, but we need your RSVP.
To RSVP or for more details, email me at toddbest@gmail.com or see Chris Hiatt or Stephen Addcox.
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