Sometimes it seems we are disconnected from those around us. The temptation is to try and 'fit in'.
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! ...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’.
Created to work
I was reading in my Bible the story of how God created the world and a couple of things jumped out at me.
First of all, God works! Lots of times we think of work as bad, but if God does it, it must be good.
Secondly, we are made in the image of a God who works, and that means we are made to work. While that might not thrill some of you, it shows that working is part of what makes us fully human. It’s a way of us developing our gifts and serving others.
Thirdly, we are not meant to work alone. God created Eve not just to keep Adam company, but to work alongside him in the Garden. We are meant to work with each other.
The other thing I love about the creation story, is that one of the first bits of work God gave us to do involved using our imaginations, he asked us to name the animals. We use our creative intelligence to help give what God made more meaning and purpose. How cool is that?
Faith-inspired teaching
I know a woman who is a teacher and she really loves her job. Not that it is always easy. One Year 9 class she had, the kids just didn’t want to be there. They were difficult and rude, and she really struggled with them. She kept pouring her energy into coming up with creative lessons, and showing she cared about the kids. Sometimes they ignored her. She was tempted to think the effort wasn’t worth it.
Then, slowly, things began to change. Some of the girls would approach herin the playground and ask her questions. More of them started really participating in class.
By the end of the year, she told the class she was going to throw a party to celebrate how much they had learned. At the party some of the students came forward and thanked her for all the effort she had put in. They apologised for how rude they had been at the beginning of the year, and gave her a present and a card. She told them that she had learnt more from them, than they had from her. How cool is that?
'Workship' shortlisted for Australian Christian Book of the Year
I am honoured that Workship: How to use your Work to Worship God has been shortlisted for Australian Christian Book of the Year. It is a wonderful selection of books this year.
Turning your work into a form of worship
An article on my book Workship, following up an interview with Katrina Roe on Sydney's Hope 103.2FM. The full article is available here.
Below is an excerpt:
Do you devote all your time to your career, or is your work just a means to an end? How does your work fit into your spiritual beliefs?
They’re questions worth thinking about, considering work consumes the majority of our daily lives.
In a new book titled Workship: How to Use your Work to Worship God, Kara Martin proposes a holistic way of viewing work as a form of worship.
A former TV reporter and now a lecturer at Mary Andrews College, Kara draws from her own experience working in her dream job in the TV industry...
Working for God through our Work
My latest blog post for Jimmy Young's Stirring our Affections. Working for God will lead us to do excellent work, and will ease the struggle we have working for human masters. You can read the full article here.
Below is an excerpt:
In my last blog for Stirring Our Affections, ‘Working With God Through Our Work‘, I talked about the need to see ourselves as Christ’s ambassadors in the workplace (2 Corinthians 5:16–20), working with God to accomplish the tasks he has set for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).
However, it is also important that we see ourselves as working for God primarily...
Recovering from Workaholism
Have you ever thought about your relationship with your work? Becoming a workaholic, letting work become your idol, can be a subtle thing. Here are some ideas from Greg Richardson for recognising when it is happening, and some spiritual practices for refocusing your heart on God.
Read the full article here.
God's Entrepreneurs
An article I wrote for my organisation Seed.
“Entrepreneurship was a means to align faith and their work, reducing the tension between the two that existed in other work environments.”
For the last five years Mitchell Neubert and colleagues at Baylor University in the US, have been investigating the relationship between faith and entrepreneurialism.
The results have been surprising.
Read the full article here.
4 ways Christians can stand out at work
Bethany Jenkins reveals four ways we can be distinct in our workplace:
1. Be known as fair, caring, and committed to others.
2. Be known as generous.
3. Be known as calm and poised in the face of difficulty or failure.
4. Be known as authentic and integrated.
These ideas are backed up with biblical reference points. Read the full article here.
The future of work
Andrew Laird from Life@Work interviewed me (Kara Martin) about the challenges facing Christians in the future of work. Here is part of my response:
I think that there are some really pressing problems that Christians need to have a voice in. For example, the growing disparity between those who work too hard, and those who don’t have enough work. There is a growing gulf between those two groups. I think this is a really big challenge for Christian businesses and leaders to think about.
I think also that there are opportunities in the areas of Christian concepts such flourishing, well-being, servant leadership, and work and rest where Christians have something really significant to say to the working world. The idea of purpose and meaning is another big one – people increasingly want ways to think about that which maybe the Christian narrative can help with.
See the full response here.
Interview about "Workship"
Thanks to Andrew Laird of Life@Work and City Bible Forum for asking to interview me and posting this video :-)
A summary of the first section of Workship
Only a three days until the launch in Singapore!
Work is Sacred
Here is another great video resource from the Made to Flourish pastor's network.
"The first thing God did was work and build and create. The first thing He commanded us to do was to work the garden. As soon as you frame work as a sacred task, that changes everything. At that point, your work can be done as worship to God and love for your neighbour!"
—Chris Neal, Associate Pastor of Student Ministries at NewSong Church in San Dimas
Stewarding our work
A devotion I wrote for the Salt & Light community.
I have two adult children. Right from the moment they were born I realised that I had to be careful in the way I thought about them. They are not my children, they are a gift from God.
God has given me stewardship over them for as long as I live. They are a beautiful and treasured gift, but I try and make sure I hold them lightly.
This reframing has been helpful as the kids have grown. When my daughter contracted leukaemia when she was six, I didn’t see it as God trying to take her away from me; but I accepted the possibility he might be asking me to entrust her back to his care.
When my son went through a time of rebellion, I had to acknowledge that I couldn’t make him believe, because he wasn’t mine. However, I could continue to love and care for him, and model relationship with God, and pray.
My recognition that I am a steward of my children is the same attitude that I bring to my work, and it is a biblical premise. In Genesis 1:26 God gave humanity work to do, to be stewards over his creation. In Genesis 2:15 he tells Adam to work the earth and keep the garden.
Work is a gift because we have an opportunity to be steward over whatever responsibility God has given us: to love that work, do the best we can with it and offer it back to God as a form of worship.
Not only does God give us work to do, he also gives us what we need to do it well. We read in Genesis 2:8 that God planted a garden and placed humans in it. Further on we read that God provided everything humans needed to work and live. The garden is the source of food, and in verses 10–12 we read that there are rivers and a variety of resources: ore, including gold, and resins for building and construction, and onyx stone, a precious stone possibly used for trade.
God also gives us the gifts and skills we need to do the work. In the Old Testament we see this in the famous story of Bezalel in Exodus 31 who is given gifts of wisdom and creativity and skill.
Think it through
Do you see yourself as a steward of the work that God has given you to do? How does this reframe the way you see your work?
How has God prepared you for your working (provision, gifts, relationships)?
What does the Bible say?
The key stewardship verses are Genesis 1:27–28, often known as the creation or cultural mandate:
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’
Our role is to take the materials of the earth and use them to fill out the creation. We have a responsibility to look after and care for all that we see. Our working is the most significant way we fulfil this command from God.
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Thank you for this amazing responsibility you have given us to look after and take care of all the aspects of creation that are before us.
Help us to be worthy stewards of the relationships you have given us; our houses and possessions; the financial resources you have entrusted to us.
Help us also to use our working to creatively care for and sustain creation in a way that serves you and expresses love toward others.
If we have opportunity in our working, help us to use our imaginations to be creative in filling creation with good things and services.
Guide us, we pray,
AMEN
The Benedict Option or the Augustine Calling
Here is James K A Smith's comment on the latest fad. I love the conversation between Augustine and the Roman General Boniface who wanted to leave his post and become a monk:
"What held you back from doing this," Augustine reminds him, "except that you considered, when we pointed it out, how much what you were doing was benefitting the churches of Christ? You were acting with this intention alone, namely, that they might lead a quiet and tranquil life, as the apostle says, in all piety and chastity (1 Tim. 2:2), defended from the attacks of the barbarians."
Augustine wants 'faithful agents of the coming kingdom who answer the call to public life and administer the common good in this [age] of our waiting.'
Smith contrasts this 'Augustinian calling' with the 'Benedict Option' of Rodney Dreher which is about setting up an alternative Christian society.
Guinness: The Missional Drink that Changed the World
I always thought BAM was Business as Mission; but Beer as Mission? Read the full article here.
One of my favourite writers Os Guinness ("The Call") is related to the Guinness family, continuing the tradition. As the article explains, the founder, Arthur Guinness was a man of faith. Born in 1724 in a family where his father was an archbishop, he embodied the words that were his family motto: Spes mea in deo (My hope is in God). His influence from the famous revivalist John Wesley inspired and enabled him to use his God-given talents in entrepreneurship as a vehicle to follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Wesley’s mantra which is known as the statement, “Make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can” profoundly impacted Arthur Guinness’ perspective in life and his wealth.
In mid 1700 in Ireland, there was a phenomena called “The Gin Craze.” An overwhelming large number of people were drinking whiskey and gin as their primary beverage. Water was deemed unsafe due to the micro-organisms and mysterious diseases found in water unbeknownst to everyone. The parliament forbidded the importation of liquor in 1689, so the Irish and British began making their own. This led to excessive drunkenness resulting in a poverty-ridden, crime-infested time. Statistics show that every sixth house in English was a gin house.
Arthur Guinness was infuriated with this drunkenness. He constantly prayed to God to do something with the alcoholism on the streets of Ireland. In fact, he felt God calling him to “Make a drink that men will drink that will be good for them.” He then developed a dark stout beer called Guinness. Guinness contained so much iron that people felt full before they can drink more pints. During its creation, the alcohol level was lower than gin and whiskey.
With the preserving influence of the salt and penetrating influence of light, his life truly exemplified Lord’s mandate to be the salt and light of the world.
Working with God through our Work
In my last article for the Website Stirring our Affections, “How Our Work Shapes Us“, I talked about the power of work and a workplace to influence us, sometimes positively, and sometimes negatively. We can be subtly conformed to the culture around us, as Paul warns in Romans 12:2, “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.”
In this article, I address the following questions:
How can we resist those forces seeking to change us?
How can we work with God and his Spirit to be transformed?
How can we take up the role of Jesus in being agents of reconciliation?
How can we have our affections stirred, even as we work in an environment that does not honour Christ?
Worshipping God as a mechanic
This is the inspiring story of Alfonso, a mechanic who runs his own repair business, and uses his work as a means of helping others. His church helped him get his business established. A great story of redemption, and using one's work to worship God and serve others.
Working with God devotion
A devotion I wrote for the Salt & Light community (http://www.saltandlightaustralia.com.au/).
I think it is possible to be creative in the way we work with God in our daily work.
I love reading the stories the Gospel Coalition has collected of everyday people who seek to worship God through their work (http://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/tgc/tag/vocations/).
There is Mark, the chocolate maker, who works with excellence, serving and accepting every customer, and who has compassion and philanthropy as the foundation of his business. Faith is a freelance art director who works with integrity and persists in the face of injustice, and who cultivates a humble willingness to listen and accept. There is Ken, the judge, who sees himself as a steward of justice under God for his purposes and under the people for their protection. Esther is a florist who sees herself as bearing God’s image as a cultivator, and who sees the beauty of flowers as nourishing others. Then there is Riccardo, a teacher, who sees himself as an instrument that God uses to help children learn and grow.
We can be conscious of God as the one we truly work for, and ensure our work is brought under his sovereignty. We can seek to serve him and others in and through our working. While we work, every activity, every encounter, every word spoken or written is offered to God in gratitude for the privilege of working for him and others.
Think it through
Do you see your work as an opportunity to work with God?
How can you be creative, promote justice or demonstrate God’s love in your working?
What does the Bible say?
The Bible teaches that work was created as a good thing. It is part of the way human beings were made, in the image of a creative and working God. He made the garden and then placed human beings in it to work the ground and take care of it.
All this work was meant to be done in partnership with God, as revealed in the beautiful scene of naming the animals in Genesis 2. God brought the animals to Adam, and Adam named them.
Right from the start the sacrifice system was a means of submitting our work to God. We were meant to bring the best efforts of our work (in an agricultural society the finest animals and produce) and offer them in gratitude to God.
Very early on, Cain’s failure to bring the best was deemed inadequate (Genesis 4), and his sacrifice was considered less worthy than Abel’s.
Much of the raging of the prophets in the Old Testament concerns a misuse of work: unjust measures, slavery, retaining rather than sharing wealth, greed and charging interest.
These themes are continued in the New Testament where Paul tells us twice to ensure we submit all things to God, including our work:
1 Corinthians 10:31 — “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God”, and
Colossian 3:23 — “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters”.
Prayer
Dear Lord,
It is so tempting to separate the spiritual and the everyday. We want to see you as special. We want to see your church, your Word, prayer and faith as significant and different from the everyday.
Help us to see that we can fill ordinary things with spiritual life by surrendering them to you, and seeking to serve you through them.
Take the ordinary work that we do: housework, study, paid jobs, volunteer work, caring for others, unpaid work… as an offering to you.
Help us to see the creative and meaningful ways we can serve you and others through our working.
AMEN
Reflections on the Karam Forum, Chicago
Along with PJ, Scott, and Gerry from the ON Steering Committee, are Keith, Gary, Keith, Dave and I, representing five theological colleges in Australia at the inaugural Karam Forum.
In early March I had the opportunity to go to the Karam Forum, held at Trinity International University. I was the lucky recipient of a scholarship from Reventure. Here are some reflections.
Gathering with 180 other people whose desire is likewise to affirm workplace Christians in their ordinary work, is a heady experience. Particularly when quite a few of them have written seminal books on the subject.
There was Bill Peel, who has written Bible studies and produced DVDs on connecting with non-Christians in the workplace. Scott Rae, who with Kenman Wong wrote "Business for the Common Good", a wonderful introduction to a new vision for economic and workplace transformation.
Will Messenger was there, telling me the story of the "Theology of Work Project". Initially it was going to be a book, looking at all the verses in the Bible that deal with work. After examining 859 passages, in context, it is now a commentary covering the whole of the Bible. The website receives 350,000 hits a month.
I chased Amy Sherman ("Kingdom Calling") around the campus of Trinity International University, in-between speaking engagements, pitching my idea of exploring what workplace Christians need to learn to be effective for God at work.
I was embarrassingly effusive in front of Tom Nelson whose book "Work Matters" is impressive, but it was this article in "Leadership Journal" in February 2014 that had really struck me:
"Against a backdrop of pindrop silence, I asked the congregation I served to forgive me. Not for sexual impropriety or financial misconduct, but for pastoral malpractice. I confessed I had spent the minority of my time equipping them for what they were called to do for the majority of their week.
"With a lump in my throat, I feebly grasped for the right words. I wanted to confess that because of my stunted theology, individual parishioners in my congregation were hindered in their spiritual formation, and ill- equipped in their God-given vocations. Our collective mission had suffered as well. I had failed to see, from Genesis to Revelation, the high importance of vocation and the vital connections between faith, work, and economics. Somehow I had missed how the gospel speaks into every nook and cranny of life, connecting Sunday worship with Monday work in a seamless fabric of Holy Spirit-empowered faithfulness."
I also spent a couple of hours with Alistair Mackenzie, an effable New Zealander whose "Zadok" paper on how the church can equip workplace Christians had inspired my own work with churches.
There were two big surprises flowing from the conference:
• The content that was being given there was not particularly new. It was Faith and Work 101, an introduction to the concepts of sacred secular divide, and to the need for churches and theological colleges to respond to the opportunities to affirm workplace Christians.
• We in Australia are not very far behind. Or, perhaps I should say that we face the same challenges: churches that are reluctant to move beyond a sermon series. Colleges where this teaching is on the periphery rather than integrated into the teaching. A lack of insight in how integrating faith with teaching subject areas can be done in an integrated way, especially in areas such as business.
There was some excellent content. Amy Sherman’s ideas for enlivening teaching and utilising innovative assessments was especially useful. Kevin Vanhoozer’s encouragement to focus on Christ as the centre, and his challenging of the artificial fragmentation of curriculum into Bible, Theology, History and Practical, were breaths of fresh air. Tom Nelson’s TED talk with a vision for the impoverished in our community was inspiring. As was Vincent Bacote’s exhortation to engage the world of our working with imagination, hospitality and hope.
However, it was the networking and conversations that proved most fruitful. Even the unexpected opportunities, like chatting with Mandie about her fresh expression church plant in a pub, or with Timothy about his innovative use of Logos software, or Devan’s desire that Christians speak and present professionally.
Part of the networking was the chance to gather as a group of five Australians from theological colleges in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane; to compare notes and resources, and to discuss innovations in our own teaching and college interactions.
We travelled on the magic carpet of the generosity and vision of Lindsay McMillan and Reventure. It was an eye-opening ride.