Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• Pursue the Caller, Not the Calling. Ryan J. Pemberton writes “Calling wasn’t so much about writing or theology per se. Rather, it was about daily offering up all that I am—my passions, experiences, talents—as I faithfully embody these gifts in a community that witnesses to Christ’s “follow me.” It was only when I loosened my grip on what I believed to be God’s static, specific call on my life that I was free to once again follow the One who called in the first place.”
• One Sentence That Changed Everything.  Dan Rockwell shares ten helpful tips on how to prioritize people.
•  4 Leadership Styles that Trigger Peak Performance John Maxwell writes “Most teams don’t naturally get better on their own. Left alone, they don’t grow, improve, or reach championship caliber. Instead, they tend to wind down.”
• 5 Enjoyable Weekend Habits That Set You Up for Success. Sujan Patel suggests trying these five weekend habits in order to set yourself up for a successful work week.
• The Stories We Live By. Steven Garber writes about the courage and compassion that marked William Wilberforce, a man with a very public vocation born of a very personal faith.
• Top 40 Christian Communicators in the U.S. Brad Lomenick shares this interesting list.
• To Tell the Truth About the World. Carey Bustard interviews J. Mark Bertrand, a novelist, essayist, and lecturer who lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he is an elder at Grace Presbyterian Church.
• Top 30 Must-Read Leadership Posts for September. Paul Sohn shares this helpful list of leadership articles.
• Busyness…The Curse of the Age! Dave Kraft writes “How are you doing? Are you busy here and there, or have you discovered what He wants you to do and are staying focused on and faithful to that?”
• What’s the Difference Between Coaching and Mentoring? On this episode of the 5 Leadership Questions podcast Todd Adkins, Brad Lomenick, and Barnabas Piper discuss the differences between coaching and mentoring, how to do them well, and when each is ideal.
• 25 Books Top CEO’s Recommend You Read. John Rampton shares 25 books recommended by some of the top CEOs in the world.
• Getting Off to a Fast Start. Mark Miller discusses five mistakes that new leaders commonly make.
• Execution. In this “Minute with Maxwell”, John Maxwell discusses what it takes to execute.
• 5 Leadership Questions Podcast. In this episode of The 5 Leadership Questions podcast Todd Adkins and Barnabas Piper talk with Matt Perman, the author of What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done, an excellent book that I am re-reading and discussing with friends in a Faith and Work book club at work.
• The 11 Questions Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Ask Themselves. Dov Baron writes “The authentic leader is an evolving leader, a growing human being and a self-questioning individual.
• Four Leadership Personalities: What Color are You? Eric Geiger writes “With our leadership team, we use the Insights Discovery tool to help each other understand our unique personalities. The tool is validated and has proven helpful to our team in serving and communicating with one another.”
• Serving Those Who Are Food Insecure. Abigail Murrish interviews Dr. Abigail Borron is an assistant professor of agricultural communication at the University of Georgia. In her opinion, having the opportunity to work on the complexities of both culture and food security is a privilege.
• 7 Characteristics of the Bottleneck Leader. Ron Edmondson writes “In an organization, the bottleneck is many times the leader. When this happens, progress stalls, growth is limited and people are frustrated.”
• The First Great Commission. Check out this sermon from Scott Sauls, from his series “Leave it Better: Faith, Vocation & the Mission of God.
• How I Work: An Interview with Trevin Wax. Joe Carter writes “A key component of TGC’s view of gospel-centered ministry is the integration of faith and work. We seek to help Christians work with distinctiveness, excellence, and accountability in their trades and professions. To aid in this effort we’re launching a new series, “How I Work,” in which we ask people to share their shortcuts, tools, and routines that help them do their jobs or fulfill their vocational roles.”

• People are never fit for a divine call until they are overwhelmed and floored by the glory of God. Bob Smart
• The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. Frederick Buechner
• When I get the ball back after my last warmup pitch, I always think of Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for man.” It’s easy to go out and pitch to impress people and to impress teammates, but the reality is God is giving you the ability to be out there. It’s almost a form of worship to give everything you have for His glory. By doing that, not only is it glorifying to God, but my teammates know I’m giving everything I have on the field. Steve Cishek (St. Louis Cardinals pitcher).
• What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle and giving 110 percent all the time. Coach K
• Don’t pretend things are easy when they’re challenging. People won’t trust you if they think you’re faking. Dan Rockwell
• Aligning personal passion with organizational objectives creates performance sweet spots. Dan Rockwell
• Expectations establish trust so set them clearly and early. Brad Lomenick
• Organizations learn by making decisions, even bad ones. Patrick Lencioni
• The problem is too often they (meetings) and boring in a meeting happens for the same reason as in a book or movie – when there is not enough compelling tension. Meetings should be intense. Patrick Lencioni
• Any time you engage in shaping the beliefs, thoughts, and development of others, you are engaging in leadership. Ken Blanchard
• Desire greatness! But bend your definition of greatness to the one He gives us Remember, in Jesus, obscurity and greatness are not opposites. Zack Eswine
• Be a Rising Tide as a Leader, instead of a crashing wave. Rising tides lift all boats, while waves erode, crash & cause chaos. Brad Lomenick
• The greatest accomplishment is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall. Coach K
• It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit. John Wooden

Faith and Work Book Clubs – Won’t you read along with us?

Kingdom Calling: Vocational Calling for the Common Good by Amy L. Sherman

I first read this book in a “Calling, Vocation and Work” class with Dr. Michael Williams and Dr. Bradley Matthews at Covenant Seminary two summers ago. King Jesus is on a mission to bring restoration in every sphere of society and has invited His followers to join Him in this Kingdom-advancing work. Learn to deeply, creatively and intentionally steward your vocational power in ways that advance foretastes of the coming Kingdom of shalom for our neighbors near and far.

It’s an excellent book, so let’s read it together. This week we’ll look at Chapter 8: Formation:

• Faithful vocational stewardship is not only about doing, it’s also about being.
• Discipling for vocational stewardship involves not only the work of inspiration and discovery but also an emphasis on formation.
• The danger here lies in people acknowledging the position, knowledge or skills they possess-but then over-esteeming them.
• Preparing believers for wise vocational stewardship begins with cultivating at least four key character traits: servanthood, responsibility, courage and humility.
• Servanthood. Congregants who steward power well see their primary identity as servants. To nurture this attitude among their flock, church leaders can begin by teaching the Hebrew word avodah. This term is used to express three notions: worship, work and service.
• Avodah also includes God-dependent prayer as we undertake our work, God-focused attention as we do the work with him as our audience and God-guided love for others as we consider the kinds of work we should do.
• Another ancient word can also help church leaders seeking to shape their people for vocational stewardship. This one is vocare, a Latin term meaning “to call.” It is the root of our English word vocation.
• Our fundamental vocation (calling) is that of a servant. Our work is fundamentally about serving others. Congregants who deeply grasp this are more prepared for vocational stewardship than those who don’t.
• The tsaddiqim practice seeing and perceiving rightly.
• Courage. To accept responsibility for acting in a world of injustice and brokenness takes courage. And courage is not something our culture regularly calls us to. Our culture idolizes comfort, happiness and safety.
• Church leaders encourage the development of godly courage in their members when they call those members to participate in doing the work that truly matters to God. That work is his mission of pushing back the kingdom of darkness with fresh expressions of the kingdom of light. It is the work of bringing foretastes of justice and shalom to broken people and broken places.
• Humility. Many church leaders are in congregations filled with individuals with significant vocational power. Stewarding that power well requires deep humility-a character trait with which highly successful, competent people sometimes struggle.
• The first part of the work of formation involves church leaders seeking to develop within their members the character of compassionate, engaged, humble servants. The second part of this work involves educating congregants in the right manner of deploying power-namely, doing so in a way that accords with how God manages his power.
• God manages his power by sharing it, and we must imitate that modus operandi.
• Made in God’s image, we have talents from him and authority to use them. We have vocational power. And it is God’s gift.
• In this world, there are power disparities. Some people possess more power than others. That is just a fact. Another fact is that middle-and upper-class American Christians are among the world’s powerful. From our position of relative power, we are called to avoid despising those who, in the eyes of the world, are not powerful. We are called to see the poor and the dispossessed as more than just poor and dispossessed. We are called to see their potential, their dignity, their latent capacities. We’re called to labor with them. We do not impose our vocational power on them or even use it for them. We are called to bring it alongside them.