Reorientation 

Preparing my home and heart for Christmas this year has been particularly bittersweet. Every ornament unpacked: made-from-toilet-paper-tube angel, shimmering blue glass heart heralding “It’s a boy!”, and the bright pink Sugar Plum Fairy frozen mid-pirouette, marks a specific moment in time that has passed — yet will somehow will live into eternity. What a mystery…

What We are Reading & Why

If you have spent any time around CIFW over the past few months, you have likely heard the phrases design thinking, listening tour, or state of work. As we turn the corner toward our fourth year of programming, we have been listening intently to the lived realities of workers — in our city and across the globe. 

What have we learned so far? 

• Pace of life is relentless.

• Relationships are challenging, particularly given the dynamics of our current culture.

• Competing priorities create ongoing tensions.

• Constant distractions make it difficult to hear God’s voice.

• Most of us have an anemic understanding of our identity in Christ, which makes it difficult to see what God is doing in the workplace and how He might be inviting us to join him.

As we continue to listen and learn together, here are a few of the voices that have been helpful fodder as we build tools and programming to serve YOU. Each book is worthy of a reading group or to add to the top of your personal “books I need to read (or listen to)” list. 

Life in Flux: Navigational Skills to Guide and Ground You in an Ever-Changing World
by Michaela O’Donnell, PhD and Lisa Pratton Slayton

CIFW: This book is highly practical, with tangible exercises and proven workshop-y suggestions, yet also infused with deep spiritual wisdom. It is both actionable and devotional in nature — make sure to have your journal and highlighter close at  hand. 

If you live in the Charlotte area and want to hear Michaela in person, join us on October 8 for a CIFW citywide Event — Navigating Work. RESERVE Your Seat Here. 

Overview: If it seems like the world is in a constant state of flux, that's because it is. Our work, our families, our friendships, and our society are always changing, which can leave us feeling disoriented and discouraged. And while lots of people offer "tips and tricks" or "life hacks" to help us cope, the real secret to feeling like we're standing on solid ground is deeper--and we can't do it alone.

In Life in Flux, leadership, career, and vocation experts Michaela O'Donnell and Lisa Pratt Slayton teach the practical skills needed to navigate constant change. When you feel truly at home in your world and with yourself, you can do hard things with great courage. Life in Flux can get you there.

Why Everything that Doesn’t Matter Matters So Much: The Way of Love in a World of Hurt,
by Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth

CIFW: The wisdom and friendship of Charlie Peacock and Andi Ashworth have been woven into the fabric of CIFW from its very inception. They speak life and healing into a fractured and divisive culture. Dignifying the importance of the “small” moments in life which, I suspect we will all come to see, are of similar significance to Mary’s nard, a few loaves and fish, and the widow’s mite. Andi and Charlie reframe what it means to be fully human and to live a faithful life.

Overview: A hopeful and practical model for what it means to be a Christian and a culture-maker in a world of hurt and wondrous possibility, from multi-Grammy winner Charlie Peacock and his wife and author, Andi Ashworth.

Do you feel powerless and overwhelmed by the pain and suffering all around you? Have you ever asked, What can I do to mend the world, my family, or my own life? And if I could, why bother? Does my own small part even matter? If so, here comes hope from two guides who are further down the road. Charlie and Andi have written a collection of letters to Christians and spiritual seekers who think deeply and care acutely about the state of the world and their personal spheres of influence.

It might be said of Christians that our lives are either moving in the direction of the redemption Jesus has on offer, or away from it. Each of these letters is a gentle nudge in the direction of God's powerfully ordinary purpose for each of us, no matter what the future holds, to participate fully in the beautiful, redemptive work of Christ.

The After Party: Toward Better Christian Politics,
by Curtis Chang and Nancy French

CIFW: As Christians, it seems insurmountable to enter into a political conversation with grace, wisdom, and humility. Most of us avoid the proverbial elephant in the room for a very long list of valid reasons. We shut down, tune out, or become cynical or stubborn or silent. But none of these is the way of a disciple. We feel so strongly about the importance of this book that a group of our 412 Fellowship Alumni are working through it together this fall.

Overview: For the exhausted, the hurting, and the faithful, The After Party helps reframe our political identity away from the "what" of political positions and toward the "how" of being centered on Jesus.

This paradigm-shifting book complements The After Party Project — a six-part, video-based, highly interactive curriculum that provides churches, small groups, and individuals with an on-the-ground, biblically based approach to a very complex topic.

In today's political environment, faithfulness to a biblical how of political engagement shines as a radical challenge to both the Right and the Left. If you worry about what politics is doing to your community, your family, and your own well-being, The After Party will transform your political imagination.

It's time for us to go beyond party politics and — as Christians — believe in the true "party" yet to come.

The Wise Leader
by Uli Chi

CIFW: With the 24-7 access to the internet and rapidly emerging application of generative AI, we do not suffer from lack of opportunity to gain knowledge. Yet knowledge is an immediate and dangerous counterfeit for wisdom. Proverbs 8 implores us to listen to wisdom and promises, “Those who find me (wisdom) find life.” This book is a gracious primer on wisdom for all as we journey the path of whole-life discipleship.

Overview: Though we are overwhelmed with information, we often struggle to find true wisdom. Yet those leading or mentoring others, whether in business or in spiritual life, must rely on wisdom’s guidance to lead with purpose and meaning.

With decades of leadership experience in business, nonprofits, and Christian higher education, Uli Chi helps listeners build this foundational virtue. Looking to Scripture as well as art and literature, Chi illuminates the nature of wisdom as fundamentally relational and other-centered. In the context of leadership, biblical wisdom shows us the importance of wielding power with humility. Chi also provides a framework for the formation of character and vision in the lifelong journey of gaining wisdom.

Full of substantive and practical reflections, The Wise Leader both forms young leaders and teaches experienced leaders how to pass on the torch 

Pursuing God’s Will Together: A Discernment Practice for Leadership Groups, by Ruth Haley Barton

CIFW: We feel an appropriately weighty sense of stewardship as we navigate a season of strategic planning. Yes, there are best practices and proven processes that provide a framework for fruitful discussion. Yet we want to move forward with open hands and a sensitivity to the leading of the Spirit. His ways are higher than ours. 

Overview: Meetings can sap our energy, rupture the community, and thoroughly demoralize us. They can go on forever with no resolution. Or they can rush along without consensus just to "get through the agenda." What if there was another way?

Church boards and other Christian leadership teams have long relied on models adapted from the business world. Ruth Haley Barton, president of the Transforming Center, helps teams transition to a much more suitable model — the spiritual community that discerns God's will together. In these pages you will discover personal and group practices that will lead you into a new way of experiencing community and listening to God together.