An example of how one church is equipping its workplace Christians: St Aldates Oxford in England. They run a vocational workshop, demonstrate how important work is in Scripture, review books, have links for important interviews, and provide an opportunity to sign up for daily inspiration for your working.
Their tagline is "Equipping Christians to work for the glory of God."
I commend the work of Reventure to you. On this website you will find resources and research that will enable you to more effectively express your faith in your everyday working.
The Anglican Diocese of London has a vision of commissioning 100,000 Ambassadors to daily working in the city of London. The concept is that they will represent Christ in their everyday jobs. What a wonderful initiative!
Here is a thorough review of a book I have just ordered :-) Read the full review here.
"Katelyn Beaty wrote this book to encourage women to fulfill their calling as image bearers of God tasked with reigning over creation as God’s representatives and reflecting God’s glory in every aspect of culture."
http://www.saltandlightaustralia.com.au
I once asked a Christian guy how he expressed his faith. He seemed confused by the question. “I go to church on Sunday and worship God. On Monday morning I get on the bus to go to work, and I don’t think about God again until the following Sunday.”
I was shocked by his response. I feel we have a choice.
Do we pretend that our work doesn’t matter to God? Do we check our faith at the door? Do we feel guilty working in our secular jobs rather than going to Bible college and doing ‘Gospel work’?
Or, do we seek to worship God through our work? Do we seek to serve God and others in the way we work, the choices we make, what we say and do at work, how we treat other people?
In effect, the choice is actually between worshipping work or worshipping God through our work. Ironically, when we cut God off from our work, or eating, or relationships… we end up not making those things subject to his control, and we allow those things to replace God at the centre of our decision-making, as the source of our identity and pride and sense of security. We worship the created thing rather than the creator.
The reality is that work was never meant to be the source of all our desire and satisfaction. Until recently, human beings had to work to live. We grew our food, exchanged goods with others and built shelters and made clothes for basic survival. With increasing wealth in many parts of the world, we now have the privilege of living to work. Work has become the potential source of meaning and purpose, not merely the means of earning enough to survive.
Think it through
Are there ways that you live dualistically at work? Is there an obvious or subtle way you make a division between what is sacred / spiritual / good, and what is secular / material / bad?
Do you expect from work what can only be provided by God? Do you expect work to meet your needs: self esteem, security, sense of meaning or purpose?
What does the Bible say?
I love Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of these well-known verses from Paul in Romans 12:1–2:
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
God doesn’t just want to be a part of our lives, he wants to be at the very centre of our lives. He wants us to give everything we have to him, and he will make more of our lives than we can imagine.
Prayer
Dear God, you are worthy of all honour, and certainly worthy of the sacrifice of our ordinary lives. Help us to know how we can worship you in our daily working. Help us to serve you and others in the way we do our work, in our working relationships, and even in the way we set up our workplace. Empower us by your Spirit to be as creative and gracious as possible. We seek to honour you, Amen.
We're on a mission to get Canadians to eat together. Because so much good happens when we do. Learn more at http://eattogether.presidentschoice.ca/
We discussed food and eating in my Theology for Everyday Life class recently.
This video is a great illustration of the biblical concept of the importance of eating, hospitality and building community.
How can you facilitate this in your workplace, neighbourhood or university?
This is the quote that fired up Art Lindsay to write an article encouraging all pastors to be creative in teaching that all our working matters:
"When I read the following quote from William Diehl’s book, Christianity and Real Life, it jumped off the page at me:
I am now a sales manager for a major steel company. In the almost thirty years of my professional career, my church has never once suggested that there be any time of accounting of my on-the-job ministry to others. My church has never once offered to improve those skills which could have made me a better lay minister, nor has it ever asked if I needed any kind of support in what I was doing. There has never been an inquiry into the types of ethical decisions I must face, or whether I seek to communicate my faith to my co-workers. I never have been in a congregation where there was any type of public affirmation of a ministry in my career. In short, I must conclude that my church really doesn’t have the least interest in whether or how I minister in my daily work."
I want you to read the following quote by Archbishop William Temple, and think of the impact it might have on the way you view your work.
"Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of the conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose—all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable."
"Does our working shape us?
Depending on what you do, you might answer that readily in the affirmative, strongly in the negative, or you might just need to ponder it a bit.
I suspect artists would answer readily that their working shapes them. They might not even see their work as ‘work’, more as creative flow. I wonder if someone in a call centre or a labourer on a building site would just as quickly answer in the negative. Work for them simply means money in the bank. They might be working for the weekend when ‘real life’ begins.
Others might need to ponder this.
The question troubles us mostly because we are dualistic in our work. Work is something we tend to separate from our character. It is something we ‘do’ rather than something that shapes who we are. It is separate from our faith also, and once we talk about shaping, we have to ask who is shaping us, and into what mould?
Something I wrote for a great website. Check it out!
I've finally picked up a copy of Gene Veith's "God at Work". I have seen it quoted by people I admire such as Tim Keller, Katherine Leary Alsdorf and Mike Baer.
I've only had time to read the first chapter, but I already feel like I'm going for a long walk with a good friend, and the scenery is spectacular.
It is about a theology of vocation, and those familiar with my writing, will know that I'm pretty committed to the idea that God is interested in all our work, paid or unpaid, whether 'spiritual' or 'secular'.
Veith spends the first chapter deconstructing some of Martin Luther's re-envisioning of vocation with some helpful illustrations.
As an example, I say grace before each meal, and I often thank God for the hands that prepared it, but I am thinking of widening my gratitude to include those who grew, refined, transported and sold the food components to me as well!
As Veith says, "It is still God who is responsible for giving us our daily bread. Though He could give it to us directly, by a miraculous provision, as He once did for the children of Israel when he fed them daily with manna, God has chosen to work through human beings, who, in their different capacities and according to their different talents, serve each other. This is the doctrine of vocation."
In the NIV Faith & Work Bible edited by David Kim, there are various stories by Christians in the workplace. Here are some wonderful thoughts from a professional photographer who talks about photographs capturing "common grace", God's blessing which is poured out on those who have faith, and those who do not, as he provides for all of creation, restraining evil and preparing the world for the return of Jesus (Matthew 5:45; 6:26–34).
"In my work, I can't capture God's image, but I can help people—whether or not they trust in God—see his effects. Sometimes I try to do this by highlighting obvious objects of marvel... Mostly, though, I enjoy capturing shots of ordinary, weathered and even ugly things. And I love finding hidden, unexpected beauty.
"God's grace is at work in my world in ways I cannot understand. Yet somehow I can feel the effects of his Spirit in the beauty I experience, even in the most unlikely places."
Click here for the Salt & Light website
In my first job as a journalist I found a number of time pressures, and challenges to my faith, including ethical issues, and a culture marked by swearing and alcohol abuse.
As a young Christian, this was a difficult environment to work in. I felt very underprepared. What was a faith response to this alien world of work?
Some Christians told me to be good, not to be impacted by what I saw or heard or experienced.
Some told me to look for any opportunity to share the Gospel.
Some told me my duty was to use my position to do promote Christians or the church.
Some told me to keep my head down and pray.
Some told me that faith was only for Sundays.
I tried to get my pastor to help me, but he had difficulty understanding or engaging with my world of work. The teaching on Sunday was about spiritual matters rather than everyday issues. The application was usually confined to four options: pray more, read my Bible more, evangelise more, and/or do more things at church.
When I came across ethical issues, there seemed to be no wisdom in the Bible, or in church. How did I stand firm when a strong-willed boss wanted to exaggerate a story or reveal a source or invade someone’s personal grief?
I ended up being tempted to live two separate lives, the Christian Kara running youth group and Bible study, and praying during services on Sunday. Then there was the reporter Kara who was slightly more risqué with her language, and attitudes, and behaviour from Monday to Friday.
In my heart I knew this was unsustainable. It felt like a double-life, and it was impacting on my relationship with God, and with others.
I was living a life that was not integrating faith and work. I was dis-integrating!
Think it through
What are some of the responses you have experienced or seen to a faith crisis at work?
Are you tempted to withdraw? Or Resign? Or just begin acting like those around you?
What does the Bible say?
In a magnificent piece of rhetoric, Paul mocks those who have become ‘rich’ in the eyes of the world. In fact, as Christians, we value very differently things such as career, wealth and even truth and ambition:
For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive [by grace from God]? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labour, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. (1 Corinthians 4:7–13)
Being a Christian means being different, but that does not mean we have to flee our context, just recognise that we live by a different set of values and a different standard of truth. There is no shame if in Christ we are seen as ‘the scum of the world’.
Prayer
Lord of all truth, give us wisdom as we work, to make good choices and to uphold your truth. Give us grace that we can live well with those who have a different set of values. Give us compassion that we can be alongside others who might be finding it difficult at work. Give us courage to stand up when we are tempted to give in to the prevailing attitudes. Give us eyes to see where you are at work, and to work alongside you. When we are reviled, help us to bless; when persecuted, help us to endure; when slandered by others, help us to seek ways to please those who mean us harm.
Photo credit: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4042/4551825739_d876a20066_z.jpg?w=240
One of the criticisms I have seen of Christians attempting to engage publicly is that we are overstepping. For most people outside the church, Christianity is seen as a religion, a set of beliefs that you choose to believe. It is a private affair, and should not impact on anyone else. Unfortunately, this is sometimes the view inside the church as well!
In this mindset, the Gospel is a belief that Jesus died to save us from our sins so that we could go to heaven when we die.
This is such a poor description of what the gospel and Christianity is all about.
In fact, the gospel is the good news that Jesus’s death and resurrection signalled a disruption in human history, that changes everything: who we are, what we think, what we do, how we relate to other people…
Let us think about this from the concept of worship.
Worship is what we focus on, and give honour to. You worship what you think about all the time, what you make sacrifices for, what you love. When we think about worship, we tend to think about religious or spiritual things; but the reality is that often we give our attention to other stuff: our job, our money, our kids, our possessions…
As Christians, we need to worship God in the midst of everyday life. That is, we need to consider how all the mundane activities that occupy our time, the places where we are, and the people that we connect with, can be transformed by the gospel.
There are some great reasons why we should embrace this concept of whole-life discipleship. In doing it we acknowledge God’s sovereignty over our lives, and the whole world. It helps us to apply Jesus’ teaching and example to our whole lives. Jesus told stories about the workplace, he touched people, he went to weddings, he made jokes, he got upset about injustice, he spent time developing flourishing friendships... It helps us to access the empowering of the Spirit for the everyday activities, conversations and relationships that make up our lives.
What can you do to worship God in everyday life?
• Wash up (and every other activity) to the glory of God.
Now you may think this is too trivial to God. English author and church leader Tim Chester has written a short book titled: A theology of washing the dishes!
Your kitchen sink is a holy place. All you have to do is offer up washing of the dishes to God as a sacrifice of praise, sharing his delight in creation and serving others in love.
You can use these times of everyday activity to trace God's handiwork in creation, in the cleansing, in providing all we need.
You can use washing up time to talk to those in your house for pastoral care. This is not wasted time for God, you can honour him in the activity.
In washing up you restore order from chaos. You bring shalom.
• Think through your relationships and how they can more accurately reflect the kingdom.
How can we work with God in our relationships? Your family? Your friends? Your work colleagues? Your church family? Pray for people. Pray before conversations. Seek God’s best for the other people he has placed in your life.
• Ask God to reveal your stumbling blocks in walking closely with Him in everything.
What is holding you back from worshipping God in the everyday? Romans 12:1–2 says: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” So offer your whole self to God, including every thought, and word and activity. See what he can do with it. It will be so much better than what you can do by yourself.
I just started writing fortnightly devotions for Salt & Light, who aim to bring biblical encouragement to the inboxes of Christians in their workplaces, every workday.
I will be working through material in my book, so some of the following will be familiar to regulars to this blog.
Here is my first devotion:
My Dream Job
There I was, the opportunity of a lifetime! I was offered my dream job: television reporter for a brand new regional station on the south coast of Sydney. All the university study, the freelance work, the hospitality jobs to help pay the bills, the hundreds of applications… Finally, it all paid off.
I was pretty green as a reporter. Most of what I had learnt was in a lecture room. I had managed to get several stories published, and worked in several radio stations, but the demands of TV reporting were completely different.
Firstly, there was the brevity: two minutes and ten seconds to convey often very complex stories. That means communicating both sides of the story, including an interview or two, in approximately 390 words!
Secondly, there was the need for images: in TV news, no pictures means no story. Sometimes we had to be very creative about what pictures we would use, especially if we were talking about something that had already happened.
Thirdly, there was the need for teamwork: for papers and radio I had basically worked alone. For TV I had to work closely with the camera operator, the editor and the News Director.
Fourthly, there was the pressure: I could take a day to write a story for the paper, radio was more demanding, but TV was insane! Three to four stories a day, every day. Each story took at least two hours to shoot, interview, write and edit.
Fifthly, there was the pecking order: to survive the pressure of putting a 30-minute news bulletin to air every night there was a strict hierarchy, and being the junior reporter, I was on the bottom. I had to do what I was told, when I was told, and try not to stuff it up.
Think it through
What are the pressures of your job?
How do the pressure of your working impact on your faith?
What does the Bible say?
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11:23–30 of the pressures of his working, and how he suffered:
I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
His encouragement is that his weakness made him rely on God more. In chapter 12 he says that Christ’s power is revealed in our weaknesses. As he says in verse 10: “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Let the trials and tribulations of our work drive us to our knees in prayer.
Prayer
Loving Lord, thank you for sustaining Paul through all his trials and sufferings. Help us to learn from his example, that we might acknowledge our weakness, and our need for you. As we face this day, help us to draw on your strength and power. Glorify yourself in us and through us, in our workplace. Amen.
Here is a review of a great book by my friend Graham Hooper, using Proverbs and Psalms to think through the application of wisdom to the everyday, particularly work settings.
Photo credit: http://www.senseability.com.au/?page_id=2
In the NIV Faith & Work Bible I mentioned last week, there are various stories by Christians in the workplace. I was particularly struck by a paediatric occupational therapist describing her work from a faith perspective.
Her work is in a children's hospital. She massages, assesses, realigns, stimulates healing, mostly through play. As she says, "I play for the glory of God."
An important biblical truth in her working is that people are made in the image of God. This means that all the children she deals with, whatever their level of ability, are equally worthy of dignity and care.
She describes her last patient of the day, a nine-year-old-girl who cannot talk, is wheelchair-bound and has little control over her movements.
As the therapist stretches her muscles lovingly she describes her working with these words, "Biomechanically, I am preventing contractures. But theologically, I am affirming her status as God's image-bearer, showing her that she is worthy of my best work."
All our working has a theological dimension. All our working can be done in a way that worships God and demonstrates his character to others.
NIV Faith & Work Bible, Genesis 9:6, Image of God, Deeper at Work.
Here is a terrific article that will set out hearts and spirits straight when considering our working this year. I love this quote:
"We want the investments we make with our time and money and creativity and talents to be investments that last into eternity, and they will when they beautifully reflect the bigness and goodness of our God, whether very explicitly in ministry or more subtly in secular work."
I was so excited when the Faith & Work Bible arrived. While reluctant to indulge in bibles centred around specific themes or topics in the fear that it might prejudice my exegesis of the Word, I think this volume has a number of commendable features: I love the stories from the perspectives of different workers, and how their faith impacts their working. There are 75 such testimonies.
There are 45 excellent core doctrine pieces that relate work to theological principles including God as Creator, humanity as the image of God, common grace, incarnation, sin and disordered desires, the future—New Jerusalem.
There are also some thought-provoking essays: "Faith and Work" by David Kim; "The Gospel and Work" by Jon Tyson; "Our Need for Theology" by Richard Mouw; and "Finding our Story in God's Story" by Nancy Ortberg.
The text is the NIV 2011.
This is a great resource for going deeper with God in your working; perhaps a New Year's resolution? Or for Bible study groups wanting some fresh material to consider and debate.
It has been prepared by Christianity Today, and edited by David Kim, Executive Director of the Centre of Faith and Work at Redeemer, New York.
You can see an interview with David Kim and a sneak preview of the Bible here.
Well-known blogger Sarah Bessey
"If teaching or preaching or writing or managing or leading or painting or film-making or delivering babies or studying astro-physics or whatever it is makes you feel more whole, then darling, do it all to the glory of God and you’ll see that the way it makes you come alive will stain your entire life with joy."
I do enjoy Sarah Bessey's writing, especially when she quotes one of my favourite authors, AS Byatt, AND when she basically summarises my book Workship.
Are leaders made or born? Author and TED speaker Simon Sinek dispels myths about leadership and reveals the one thing that good leaders always get right on this episode of Inside Quest with Tom Bilyeu. Combining aspects of biology and psychology within the context of the human condition, Simon Sinek's unique approach to leadership has revealed surprising insights on how humans interact in business.
A friend sent me this YouTube clip which is an EXCELLENT resource for leaders. It is about creating an environment where people can flourish. There is a section on leading Millennials (people born since 1984) which is really helpful. You can jump between the topics listed on the bottom.
Although Simon seems to imply that moral behaviour is a consequence of the environment; most of what he says has strong biblical foundations: we are social beings, our focus should be on loving/caring for those around us, we should be vulnerable about our mistakes and our need for help, the importance of work, and needing to develop meaningful relationships, as well as learning patience.
When we understand how people were created to be, we are better able to lead effectively.