Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• Moses Had Doubts About his Calling – Do You? (Part 1). Russ Gehrlein shares part one of a two-part article that will explore the long conversation Moses had with Yahweh at the burning bush.
• Your Job is More Than a Mission Field. Jordan Raynor writes “Using our jobs to make disciples is clearly one of the ways our work matters for eternity. But it’s far from the only way.”
• 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).
• Living Out the Lord’s Prayer at Work. Mike Sharrow writes “What would it mean for followers of Jesus in the marketplace to embrace the invitation of the Lord’s Prayer in business?”
• Many Jobs, One Calling: Women at Work. Megan Dickerson reviews Called to Cultivate: A Gospel Vision for Women and Work by Chelsea Patterson Sobolik.

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
• More links to interesting articles
• The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
• Faith and Work Book Review ~ Over Coffee with the Mouse: Life and Leadership Wisdom from 32 Years at Disney and Beyond by Mark Rucker
• Quotes from the book Working in the Presence of God: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Work by Denise Daniels and Shannon Vandewarker.

• The Problem with Our Productivity Obsession. Ben Brophy writes “My worry for Christians like me who love efficiency and productivity is that we’ll labor under the delusion that if we maximize a bit more, we can control our lives and complete all our work. But this is a rejection of our status as creatures. We aren’t meant to be perfectly efficient.”
• Seasons of Leadership. Steve Graves writes “Both individual leaders and organizations can’t stop growing.”
• 4 Ideas to Help Us Make Better Use of Our Time. Ana Avila writes “God is the one most interested in you and me using our time well.”
• Wax On, Wax Off: The Importance of Practicing the Basics in Our Faith. Russ Gehrlein writes “We may not get the encouragement we think we need or deserve, but we press on anyway, knowing that God loves us, that he has good plans for us, and that suffering and trials build up our faith.”
• How Do You Think Heaven Will Shape Your Work. On this episode of the Denver Institute for Faith and Work Podcast, the hosts talk to Jordan Raynor and discuss “The Great Commission”, Heaven, and Raynor’s latest book The Sacredness of Secular Work: 4 Ways Your Work Matters for Eternity (Even When You’re Not Sharing the Gospel).

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Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week

• If you are going to please God, it doesn’t matter whether a supervisor is present, for God is always looking at the heart. R.C. Sproul
• Whatever work we have, the greatest joy about the job is that we get to be there with God. He has come to us. He is with us every day. Whatever we are doing, he is there. He will help us. He will turn it for our good. John Piper
• The Lord has called each of us to use our chosen vocations in intentional ways to win the respect of outsiders and make disciples of Jesus Christ. Jordan Raynor
• If God has called us to do ordinary work, and if it is work which He wants done in the world, then He will indeed be present in it. Russ Gehrlein
• Work is one area where we show the world that Christ is our greatest treasure. John Piper
• Don’t let success go to your head. Don’t let failure go to your heart. Tim Keller
• All who are called to be elders are called to the sheep-intensive work of shepherding. They are called to exercise their leadership together for the benefit of the flock. Timothy Witmer
• Our vocational successes are not luck. There is no such thing as luck – period. It’s God’s providence. John Piper
• God wants you to value workmanship over success. He wants you to take enormous pride in work well done and give far less thought to how much money the work makes. Tim Keller

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FAITH AND WORK BOOK REVIEW:

Over Coffee with the Mouse: Life and Leadership Wisdom from 32 Years at Disney and Beyond by Mark Rucker. Houndstooth Press. 152 pages. 2021
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This quick read – comprised of short chapters followed by helpful questions of application – is by a leader who during his thirty-six-year professional journey had success at three different companies, in about eighteen different roles.

Periodically throughout his life, the author would request a coffee chat with an informal mentor, respected colleague, his pastor, the family’s financial advisor, or a close friend, in an effort to work through challenges or simply seek advice. As he advanced in his career, he found more and more individuals requesting the same of him. All of this morphed into a “Leadership and Life Lessons” file of wisdom he collected and shared along his professional journey, and that became the backdrop for this book. The book shares lessons and insights he learned along his journey, many positive and a few that are not. The author’s motivation for sharing them is to help you become a better leader and person.

The author touches on an incredible amount of information in this short book. One would hope that other books will follow in which he expands on some of these subjects. Among those topics he writes about are talents and gifts, hard work, valuing people, making sure the right people are in the right roles, the 30-50-20 rule, the need to know yourself before you can begin to know others, life’s challenges, the drive for excellence, flexibility and adaptability, learning from our leaders – both what to do and what not to do, and building your “career board of directors” and scheduling those coffee chats.

Below are my favorite quotes from the book:

• Hold on tightly enough to your team members that they know you care. But when they are ready to leave you for bigger and better opportunities within the company, don’t hold on so tightly that it hurts your hands.
• Make sure the purpose and values of the organization you are joining align with yours.
• In the end, you will realize it is what you did for others that really matters!
• It is from great leaders that we learn what to emulate.
• I believe it is not what you have done and experienced in life that is most memorable but how you have led and impacted those around you while accomplishing great things together.
• It is in difficult times that you will find your purpose in life and the opportunity to lead responsibly.
• There is nothing more important than being committed to loving care and service to others.

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

We are reading Working in the Presence of God: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Work by Denise Daniels and Shannon Vandewarker. This book was recommended by the Nashville Institute for Faith + Work.

The Amazon description of the book reads in part:
“How do we invite God into our everyday lives? Working in the Presence of God discusses the incorporation of spiritual disciplines into the ordinary rhythms of everyday experience. God is already present and active, so by becoming aware of workday rhythms and focusing on where various spiritual practices might be implemented in our jobs, we can be transformed into Christ’s likeness through our work.”

This week we look at Chapter 1: Liturgy of Commute. Here are a few helpful quotes from this chapter:

• By paying attention to the way we begin work, we begin the habit of paying attention to where God might be at work throughout our day.
• Anytime there is a new beginning—whether the start of a day or the start of another shift of work—God’s presence, kingdom, mercy, and grace are yours to receive and to be formed by as you go about your work.
• Your commute is shaping you whether you know it or not. How you begin your day will affect how you go about your work.
• God can transform your commute—whether it is mundane or stressful, short or long—into an experience of worship and attentiveness to the Holy Spirit.
• By expressing surrender both at the beginning and the end of the day, we place our control back into the hands of God, who has ultimate control over our lives and work in the first place.
• One way to create a liturgy of commute is to write down a list of things you want to surrender to God, people for whom you want to pray, and things for which you want to thank God. Take this list with you and start going through it as you pass your commute’s landmarks.