WMLT — Installation of Rev. Bart Day, Executive Director of Life Together

Found on the Witness, Mercy, Life Together blog:

 

Today, 1 August 2011, Rev. John Barton Day was installed as the Executive Director of Life Together (Office of National Mission). Rev. Bart Day fills a new position created by the restructuring that the Synod enacted in convention in July 2010. The convention divided all of the Synod’s program areas into two Offices: the Office of International Mission (Witness and Mercy) and the Office of National Mission (Life Together). In his position of the Executive Director of Life Together (Office of National Mission), he is responsible for Schools, Youth, Stewardship, RSOs, District and Congregational Outreach, and Worship. President Harrison preached at Rev. Day’s installation, while District President Ray Mirly conducted the Rite of Installation for Executives of the Synod.

President Harrison preached on Sunday’s gospel reading, Matthew 14:13 – 21, the feeding of the five thousand men. He noted how the Bible has much to say about koinonia (Life Together). We note that frequently in the Scriptures koinonia (Life Together) occurs around the breaking of the bread. When he addressed Rev. Day regarding his new position, President Harrison quoted the following passage from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book Life Together:

District President Mirly, Rev. Bart Day, and President Matthew Harrison
So often Christians, especially preachers, think that their only service is always to have to ‘offer’ something when they are together with other people. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking. Many people seek a sympathetic ear and do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking even when they should be listening. But Christians who can no longer listen to one another will soon no longer be listening to God either; they will always be talking even in the presence of God. (Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. “Life Together.” In Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, 5:1-139, 1987, 98).

President Harrison then said to Rev. Day, “You have a lot of listening to do — to your staff, to the church, and to the Lord… Once you feel that it is your job to tell the church how things ought to be, then it is time to leave.”

After the installation service, Rev. Day and his family were received at a reception in the cafeteria, the de facto “fellowship hall” (koinonia / Life Together hall) of the LCMS International Center for cake, punch, and coffee.

 


 

Rev. John Barton Day

Executive Director of the Office of National Mission

(Life Together)

Rev. John Barton “Bart” Day joined the Synod staff July 1 as executive director of the church body’s new Life Together department that will include national mission functions of the synod.

Since 1997, Day has been associate pastor of Memorial Lutheran Church in Houston, and has served since 2005 as headmaster of Memorial Lutheran School.

Day’s new position at the LCMS International Center was formed in response to adoption of resolutions calling for restructuring the national Synod by reducing its seven program boards and some staffed commissions to two elected policy boards: one for national mission work and one for international mission work.

Ministry areas in the new Life Together department will include Lutheran schools (through the high-school level), youth, stewardship, worship, Recognized Service Organizations, “The 72 — Partners on the Road,” Black ministry, Hispanic ministry and other ethnic ministries, and other ministries for equipping congregational outreach and renewal.

Day’s service to the church also includes leading or participating in numerous mission trips to countries such as the United Kingdom, Mexico, Nicaragua and Kenya. He is a member of the board of directors of The Friends of Westfield House, which supports the Evangelical Lutheran Church of England’s seminary that is located in Cambridge, England. Also, Day — an accomplished vocalist — is a frequent presenter and instructor at worship conferences.

Day holds a bachelor’s degree from Concordia College (now Concordia University Nebraska), Seward, Neb., (1992), and a Master of Divinity degree from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis (1997). He is pursuing additional advanced degrees from Notre Dame University, South Bend, Ind., and Concordia University Nebraska.

A native of Carlyle, Ill., Bart and his wife, Julie, are blessed with five children.

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