Photo credit: Eternity News
Those who have followed the journey of Workship will know that in December I handed the manuscript for a sequel to my editor Charmain, at Graceworks Publishing in Singapore. I can now announce that book is in final stages of preparation and will be called Workship 2: How to Flourish at Work.
Today I received the Foreword written by Windy Simpson, OAM, business guru, an Australian national treasure, and a woman who has been inspirational in living out her faith in all her work. I hope the following excerpt whets your appetite.
I have had the amazing privilege of working in a number of senior leadership roles in the technology and government sectors across the Asia Pacific, from Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, to Taipei, Manila, Bangkok, Phenom Penh, Jakarta, and Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland. I find it fascinating to compare how people in these different cities work, how they lead, how they create businesses, new products or services, and what people will do in order to obtain fulfilment from their work.
In each of these great cities, what also stands out is something they all have in common: not only does work occupy a large part of people’s lives, it is becoming more complex and, increasingly work is how people identify and define themselves. Workers are hungry for career guidance, advice on issues such as how to work with difficult people, how to navigate challenging ethical choices, how to handle stress and balance the demands of their jobs with family. I have seen these questions asked by women, by men, and every cultural, language and income group, and I am convinced there is a deep human desire in each of us to understand “What is the true purpose of our work?” While there are numerous books to help us discover our purpose, Wall Street Journal best seller Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life” being just one, we are still left with the real-world challenges of integrating our faith with our everyday work.
So here is the good news… the wait is over!
Many of us in the world of business appreciate practical wisdom, so when I read Kara Martin’s Workship 2, I knew I had found just the tool. Baby-boomers are often asked to mentor the next generation of leaders and yet struggle to find practical, accessible tools to use with their mentees. Many Gen X, Gen Y and Millennials crave the sense of being valued and equipped which they get from being mentored but often don’t know how approach a mentor or frame the deeper questions relating to the application of Faith to work. From Singapore to Shanghai, from Manila to Melbourne people are wrestling with questions like: How do I do my work God’s way? How do I bring His purposes alive by my work? Is there a Biblical framework for how I decide how to work?
Workship 2 lays out these deeper issues of how to work God’s way in a simple accessible way and concludes with probing questions and a relevant prayer.