Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles
- I Know I Matter to God, But Does My Work? Part 2. In this article, Steve Lindsey explores how our work is directly connected to God’s primary call and purpose for our lives.
- 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).
- A Fresh Approach to Team Building. Russ Gehrlein writes “Based on the experiences that God has graciously given me, let me share some basic principles and wisdom learned by experience, sometimes the hard way, that may help you build your teams.”
- Help! My Job is Just a Job. Bryan Chapell writes “As Christians we need to understand that our occupation actually has a vocation in it.”
Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
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- More links to interesting articles
- The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
- My Review of ~The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team by Patrick Lencioni
- Quotes from the book You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News by Kelly Kapic
- Use Gifts for Others – Be Satisfied. Howard Graham writes “We all seek happiness. We all have gifts. Everyone has needs. Using your gifts for the needs of others creates incredible satisfaction in life and work.”
- Bold Leadership. Bold leaders are focused, resourceful, and committed to what should be. On this episode of the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast, Stanley and long-time host, Lane Jones discuss how leaders can discover what should be.
- Leading Well Begins with Reading Well. Joshua Nangle writes “Regardless of the position we hold within our organization, the Lord has called us to lead well for his glory. One way to lead well is to read well. Reading helps us grow in the knowledge and wisdom of God, which strengthens the foundation our lives are built upon.”
- Global Professionals Can Reach the World for Christ. Larry McCrary writes “Global marketplace workers have numerous opportunities to live on mission through their vocation.”
- What To Do When Work Disappoints. Meryl Herr writes “When work disappoints us, we have a few options. We can endure the heartache. We can attempt a little job crafting. We can even quit. But regardless of what we do when work doesn’t match our hopes, we cannot dismiss our grief.”
- Where Are All The Workers? Jeff Haanen writes “Not only has the pandemic created a labor shortage, it has changed the world of work for all us. We now desperately need to find new ways to infuse life into a weary workforce.”
- Servant Leadership Shrewdness. Howard Graham writes “There are hundreds of leadership attributes a leader may possess, and Jesus — the world’s greatest leader — is the preeminent example of every leadership attribute worth having. Yet, there is only one approach to leadership that Jesus confirms over and over — servant leadership.”
- Leading Well. In this session from the 2022 Ligonier National Conference, Harry Reeder joins Chris Larson to discuss the qualities and character traits of effective Christian leadership.
- How to Do Faithful Work at a Thankless Job. Emily Ellis writes “I don’t see the service industry as drudgery but as a singular opportunity to serve countless people.”
- Virtue and Vice at Work: Humility with Katelyn Beaty. On this episode of the Faith & Work Podcast, Joanna Meyer discusses the importance of developing humility with Katelyn Beaty, acquisitions editor for Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
- All leaders, whether they know it or not, exercise authority by the permission of God himself. Tim Keller
- Success in retirement depends in great measure on the way we lived beforehand. Paul Tournier
- Leadership is rallying people to a better future. Marcus Buckingham
- The biblical worldview has the highest opinion of the most menial of work. Tim Keller
- In the kingdom of God, true greatness is measured by our service, not by the number of our servants. It’s seen not in how high up the ladder we’ve climbed, but in how far down we’re prepared to climb for the sake of others. Sinclair Ferguson
- The greatest leaders are the greatest servants. Tim Keller
- Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called, and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it. W. Tozer
- We glorify God when we use our talents joyfully and effectively. Dan Doriani
- All of life can be a sacrifice to God: the ways in which we listen in class, treat our colleagues at work, respect our employers, and serve our spouses. Alistair Begg
- In our past, present, and future, God’s presence allows us to work with Him as His coworkers. Russ Gehrlein
FAITH AND WORK BOOK REVIEW:
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Patrick Lencioni (The Advantage, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, etc.) is one of my favorite authors. His latest book – The 6 Types of Working Genius – follows his usual format: the first part is a fable that provides a fictional—but realistic—story around Working Genius and its application. The second part is a thorough overview of the model itself.
Lencioni writes that the book is based on two undeniable truths. First, people who utilize their natural, God-given talents are much more fulfilled and successful than those who don’t. Second, teams and organizations that help people tap into their God-given talents are much more successful and productive than those that don’t. He tells us that most people don’t really understand their work-related gifts. As a result, most teams don’t come anywhere close to tapping into their members’ talents and achieving their true potential.
The fable introduces us to Bull Brooks. We learn how work almost ruined him, and what he learned that changed everything for him. Bull tells us about work, from his father mowing the lawn to the first few jobs he had out of college, and suffering from the “Sunday Blues”. He eventually started his own firm – Jeremiah Marketing – but even there, in the third year of their start-up, Bull noticed that with increasing frequency, he was more irritable than he should have been.
This led to collaborating with his team on what was making him irritable. They eventually come up with the idea that there are six different kinds of work (Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanizing, Enablement, and Tenacity), that someone has to do in order to get anything done, and that no one is great at all of them, which means most people are pretty bad at some of those things. As they worked through the six kinds of work, each team member tried to focus on what they loved doing, that is, what kind of work gives them energy and joy. The team eventually came to the realization that in addition to the six categories of genius (a God-given talent, a natural gift that gives you energy and joy and that you’re usually good at doing), the team realized that each person will have two geniuses, two competencies, and two frustrations. Given this information, the leadership team then began rethinking how they would organize, staff and manage their work.
An individual Working Genius assessment has been developed (for more information, go to www.workinggenius.com), which more than a quarter of a million people had already used at the time the book was written to identify their geniuses and improve their careers and their teams. The assessment itself is a forty-two-question survey that takes about ten minutes to complete. There are certainly some similarities to Marcus Buckingham’s work on strengths. What sets the Six Types of Working Genius apart from other tools is its application to the specific activities involved in any kind of group work. In addition, a team tool is available to help groups use Working Genius to transform how they work together.
Lencioni tells us that each of us has two areas that are considered our true geniuses. These are the activities that give us joy, energy, and passion. As a result, we are usually quite good in these areas. It’s best for us and the organizations we serve if we can do much, if not most, of our work in these areas. In addition, two of the six areas of genius would be considered our working competencies. These are the activities that we find neither completely miserable nor completely joyful, and which we can do fairly well, perhaps even very well. Finally, each of us has two types of work that drain us of our joy and energy, and we call these our working frustrations. We usually struggle in these activities. In addition, a genius can also be primarily responsive or disruptive.
I believe that this will be a very helpful book for individuals and teams. A criticism is that some unnecessary adult language was sprinkled throughout the fable portion of the book.
Below are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
- Just because you’re good at a task or an activity doesn’t mean you like doing it all the time.
- All of us have to find a way to push through and do our best when we’re not in our areas of genius, or even competency.
- Work is meant to be dignifying and fulfilling for everyone, and that God created each of us to contribute in unique ways.
- A leadership team cannot be cohesive if its members don’t understand and tap into one another’s geniuses.
- When people in an organization understand and are transparent about their areas of genius—and frustration—leaders can make adjustments that bring about significantly greater contributions from employees.
- When people in an organization know that their geniuses are being utilized and appreciated by their managers, they are going to come to work with more passion and enthusiasm, and they are going to be much less likely to abandon the organization during difficult times.
- Those who find themselves trapped in work that gives them no joy or energy almost never succeed, and certainly don’t thrive. They get burned out.
Faith and Work Book Club – Won’t you read along with us?
Rather than sharing better time-management tips to squeeze more hours out of the day, Kelly Kapic takes a different approach in You’re Only Human. He offers a better way to make peace with the fact that God didn’t create us to do it all.
Kapic explores the theology behind seeing our human limitations as a gift rather than a deficiency. He lays out a path to holistic living with healthy self-understanding, life-giving relationships, and meaningful contributions to the world. He frees us from confusing our limitations with sin and instead invites us to rest in the joy and relief of knowing that God can use our limitations to foster freedom, joy, growth, and community.
Readers will emerge better equipped to cultivate a life that fosters gratitude, rest, and faithful service to God.
This week we look at the first half of Chapter 7: Do I Have Enough Time? Clocks, Anxiety, and Presence. Here are a few helpful quotes from this section of the chapter:
- Clock time has become the main way we now experience time. And this shift to the dominance of clock time has affected us in important ways.
- The problem is that we have changed our expectations and how we relate to time, with the result that we try to do more than we ever used to: that “more” includes not only work but all the other areas of life. This makes us feel perpetually hurried, disappointed, and in a state of longing.
- The more interconnected we are between our jobs, homes, and leisure, the more accelerated our lives feel.
- Even if we don’t “work” more actual hours than we used to, we still don’t feel that we ever rest, because work never begins or ends, and because digital technology allows us to fill every open moment with a quick diversion.
- Clock time and modern technology foster in us the belief that we can and should be doing something every moment we are awake. Productivity and diversion now rule us, leaving no quiet empty spaces for the mind and body.