Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• Graduating into a Pandemic Work Environment. Russ Gehrlein writes “I was recently asked what I would say to new college graduates who are entering a radically changed work environment, one that has been altered due to the COVID-19 pandemic that we have experienced for the past 15 months. Here is my encouraging message to them that is grounded in biblical truth and orthodox theology, and that will hopefully offer some practical suggestions.”
• Three Biblical Life Lessons for Launching Your Graduate. Gary Hansen shares three important things graduates should keep in mind during this season of celebration.
• Five Things That I Wish Someone Had Told Me After Graduation. Hugh Whelchel writes “After a lifetime of work, here are five biblical truths that I wish someone had told me when I graduated.”
• How to Crush Your Interview and Land Your Dream Job with Austin Belcak. On this episode of the Crush Your Career podcast, Dee Ann Turner is joined by Austin Belcak, the founder of Cultivated Culture. He and Dee Ann talk about the role of networking in landing your dream job, how to prepare for an interview, tips and tricks to differentiate yourself in today’s world of virtual interviews, and how to use social media to set yourself apart from the other interviewees.

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:

• More links to interesting articles
• The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
• My Review of Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem by Kevin DeYoung
• Snippets from the book Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy by Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Willson

• What Should My Teen Consider When Applying for a Summer Job? Joe Carter responds to the question “My teen wants to get a job this summer, but I’m not sure how to help him apply wisely. What things should I discuss with him about possible positions? How can we consider pay, hours, working on Sunday, work environment/culture, resume-building, and transportation to and from work?”
• What About Work and Vacation? Andrew Spencer writes “We short-change our productivity when we don’t establish regular patterns of rest in our busy lives and use our vacation wisely.”
• Should We Use Matthew 18 For Workplace Conflicts? Laura Baxter responds to the question “How does Matthew 18 apply where there’s a power differential between parties?”
• What If I’m Not The Best At Anything? Seth Lewis writes “Maybe the point of strengths is not to be better thaneveryone else, but to use them to make things better for everyone else.”

• Hope for Hard-Working Moms. John Pletcher writes “Where can moms find fresh doses of new hope, in the midst of all they juggle at work? Several hope-filled insights emerge from a couple of women, undeniably two of the greatest moms in all of history.”
• Working in the Presence of God. Joshua Nangle writes “The best way we can glorify God through our work is by seeking his presence in our work.”
• Called to Lead. My book Called to Lead: Living and Leading for Jesus in the Workplace is available in both a paperback and Kindle edition. Read a free sample (Introduction through Chapter 2).
• 3 Ways to Pastor Working People. Petar Nenadov spoke to John Beckett, chairman of R. W. Beckett Corporation and asked him what advice he would give to pastors about how to serve people in the marketplace. He highlighted three ordinary ways any pastoral leader can serve people in the marketplace.
• Timeless Cautions For Your Day-to-Day Work. Tim Challies shares from John Flavel’s classic work The Mystery of Providence four cautions related to vocation.
• Shelly Milligan: Qualifying the Called. On this episode of the Working with Dan Doriani podcast, Dr. Doriani visits with Shelley Milligan, the Managing Director of the Carver Institute, an organization geared towards empowering Christian faculty and students (particularly at secular universities) to serve and connect university, church, and society.

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Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week

• Godly character is a compass that teaches us to navigate the landscape of work. Dan Doriani
• The concept that our work has eternal implications is critical. Russ Gehrlein
• Whatever you do for Christ, throw your whole soul into it. Do not give Christ a little halfhearted labor, done as a matter of course every now and then; but when you serve Him, do it with heart and soul and strength. Charles Spurgeon
• Work and achievement, without the peace of God in our lives through the Spirit, will never be enough. We need the God whose labor led to real rest, and the Savior who could even sleep through a storm. Tim Keller
• Work is inherently good and a way we reflect the image of God. Jeff Haanen
• The pattern for work: rearranging the raw material of God’s creation in such a way that helps the world thrive and flourish. Tim Keller
• Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are. John Wooden
• What if you’re struggling under an unfair boss or a tedious job that doesn’t take advantage of all your gifts? It’s liberating to accept that God is fully aware of where you are at any moment and that by serving the work you’ve been given you are serving him. Tim Keller
• Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge. Simon Sinek

FAITH AND WORK BOOK REVIEW:
Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem by Kevin DeYoung. Crossway. 128 pages. 2013
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More often than not, when you ask someone how they are doing these days, they will respond how busy they are. Most of us probably feel the same, but are we doing anything about it, or do we just accept that this is the way life is today? Pastor and author Kevin DeYoung tells us that when it comes down to it, we are all busy in the same sorts of ways. We are all very busy, but not with what matters most. He tells us that busyness is as much a mind-set and a heart sickness as it is a failure in time management. His hope is that you will find this short book highly practical and accessibly theological.
The book is arranged as follows:

• Three Dangers to Avoid
• Seven Diagnosis to Consider
• One Thing You Must Do

The author’s hope is that you’ll find a few ways to tackle your schedule, several suggestions for reclaiming your sanity, and a lot of encouragement to remember your soul. He tells us that we are so busy with a million pursuits that we don’t even notice the most important things slipping away. He tells us that when our lives are frantic and frenzied, we are more prone to anxiety, resentment, impatience, and irritability.
Busyness does not mean you are a faithful or fruitful Christian. It only means you are busy, just like everyone else. But we should not only not ignore the physical danger of busyness, we need to remember the most serious threats are spiritual. DeYoung tells us that when we are crazy busy, we put our souls at risk.
He tells us that the challenge is not merely to make a few bad habits go away. The challenge is to not let our spiritual lives slip away. The dangers are serious, and they are growing. And few of us are as safe as we may think. He tells us that our understanding of busyness must start with the one sin that begets so many of our other sins: pride.
He addresses a number of topics regarding busyness in this short book including pride, pleasing people, controlling others, doing things we haven’t been called to do, family, our time online, rest and spending time with Jesus.
Below are 10 of my favorite quotes from the book:

• Stewarding my time is not about selfishly pursuing only the things I like to do. It’s about effectively serving others in the ways I’m best able to serve and in the ways I am most uniquely called to serve.
• Many of us are simply overcome—hour after hour, day after day—by the urge to connect online.
• Most of us would find new freedom if we didn’t check our phones as the last and first thing we do every day.
• If my goal is God-glorifying productivity over a lifetime of hard work, there are few things I need more than a regular rhythm of rest.
• Pursuing a pattern of work and rest means more than an annual retreat or a weekly Sabbath. It means quite practically a daily fight to get more sleep.
• The antidote to busyness of soul is not sloth and indifference. The antidote is rest, rhythm, death to pride, acceptance of our own finitude, and trust in the providence of God.
• We have to believe that the most significant opportunity before us every day is the opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus. We won’t rearrange our priorities unless we really believe this is the best one.
• Making consistent time for the Word of God and prayer is the place to start because being with Jesus is the only thing strong enough to pull us away from busyness.
• We won’t say no to more craziness until we can say yes to more Jesus.
• It’s not wrong to be tired. It’s not wrong to feel overwhelmed. It’s not wrong to go through seasons of complete chaos. What is wrong—and heartbreakingly foolish and wonderfully avoidable—is to live a life with more craziness than we want because we have less Jesus than we need.

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

Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy by Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Willson

Drawing on years of research, ministry, and leadership experience, in this new book Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Willson explain why Sunday morning worship and Monday morning work desperately need to inform and impact one another. Together they engage in a rich biblical, theological, and historical exploration of the deep and life-giving connections between labor and liturgy. In so doing, Kaemingk and Willson offer new ways in which Christian communities can live seamless lives of work and worship.

This week we complete our review of Chapter 6: The Psalms Singing God’s Work Into Ours. Here are a few takeaways from this section:

• The psalmists appear to believe that worship in the sanctuary can enable a worker to more clearly interpret their work—and the marketplace as a whole—in the light of God.
• Contemporary workers need to regularly and physically withdraw their bodies from the economy of the world. Worship needs to physically gather the bodies of workers into a worship space so that they may stop and examine the economy of the world in the light of the deeper economy of God.
• The message of Psalm 50 on this point is simple: while God might delight in your workplace offerings, God does not need any of it. Both God and the world will survive just fine without you. For the weary worker, this is profoundly good news. You may rest.