Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• A Leader Others Want to Follow. My next book is tentatively titled “Be a Leader Others Will Want to Follow”. Over the years, I worked with many talented individuals, some of whom wanted to move into a formal leadership position. In addition, I mentored several emerging leaders. I would often tell them that I wanted them to be a leader that others would want to follow. The book will discuss 35 leadership attributes that are important for those who want to be a leader others will want to follow, as well as some applications of those attributes. I’m in the early stages of editing the book at this time, and would appreciate your prayers if you are so inclined. Thanks.

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 ~ Agents of Flourishing: Pursuing Shalom in Every Corner of Society by Amy L. Sherman
• Quotes from the book Working in the Presence of God: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Work by Denise Daniels and Shannon Vandewarker.

• The Myth of Work-Life Balance. Steve Lindsey writes “There is a lie at work here; namely, the pitting of our daily activities of vocational work against what we think of as life itself. In other words, we’ve disassociated what we see as life-giving and deeply fulfilling activities from our daily labor.”
• Burnout: What It Is, Why It’s Everywhere, and What We Can Do About It. Michaela O’Donnell shares this helpful “video article” about burnout.
• 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).
• Understanding Truth at Work Through Scripture. Our friend Russ Gehrlein was a special guest on the syndicated radio programThe Plumb Line, hosted by Jay Rudolph, on Monday, June 17. Russ and Jay discussed the importance of truth-telling in work and life. Here is a partial transcript of part one of their conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity.
• Cultivating Faithfulness at Work. Renita Reed-Thomson writes “A faithful worker is one who is willing to complete a job regardless of their personal feelings. They don’t only do the jobs they like but they consider all the tasks that need to be done for the flourishing of the customer, the work environment, and the company.”
• The Way Home Podcast: David Bahnsen. On this episode of The Way Home Podcast, Daniel Darling visits with David Bahnsen about his new book Full-Time Work and the Meaning of Life. Here is my review of the book.
• Four Big Lessons of “Little” Time. John Pletcher writes “When you are fretting over resources and delays in progress, let God encourage and motivate you. Trust the Father’s perfect timing for all you need.”
• How to Find Work-Life Balance Through Sabbath Rest. Andrew Spencer writes “Left unchecked, our work can demand all our time and energy, leaving no room for rest. It can rob us of Sabbath. It can diminish our delight in God’s creation.”
• Going to Work in a Genesis 3 World. Eric Schumacher writes “After the fall, outside the garden, work is not a pretty picture. Yet that’s the context in which we all work today.”
• How Do I Know God Called Me to This? Russ Gehrlein writes “I challenge you to step out boldly into the roles God calls you to. You will see Him work through you to bless others.”
• Are Vocation and Occupation the Same Thing? In this short video, Bryan Chapell addresses this question.
• Does God Care About How I Work? Scot Bellavia writes “Ultimately, it is a question of stewardship: What are we doing for the Kingdom of God with the time and money we are given, whether at our office or from our home?”

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Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week

• The biblical worldview has the highest opinion of the most menial of work. Tim Keller
• Following Christ means viewing our entire life (including our work) as service to God and others rather than as a means of getting something from this world. Jordan Raynor
• All honest work is sacred when devoted to the glory of God. Dan Doriani
• Our work should be done in a way that honors and worships God and that serves God and others. Kara Martin
• If we believe our work is a calling from God, we will “work heartily, as for the Lord,” seeking to glorify God and love others well by being the very best nurse practitioners, entrepreneurs, teachers, artists, carpenters, and executives we can possibly be. Jordan Raynor
• If we fully integrate our faith at work by submitting to our employers, loving our neighbor by meeting his or her needs, working with integrity, and serving in accordance with our gifts and calling, then our labor will have eternal value. Russ Gehrlein
• Our work can only be a calling if someone calls us to it, and we work for their agenda rather than our own. For the Christian, this means working for the sake of our Savior. What is his agenda? To glorify God and love our neighbors as ourselves. Jordan Raynor
• Your calling, when you find and embrace it, will result in the merging of your skills, talents, character traits, and experiences. John Maxwell
• A person’s career or vocation can become an idol. The person becomes so obsessed with getting ahead or making it to the top that both God and family take second place. Jerry Bridges
• We’re compelled, by the Giver of good gifts, to pursue our callings with excellence. We’re compelled to create by our Creator. And yet, we’re servants of Christ. We are not to bring glory and honor to ourselves, but to our Creator. Daniel Darling

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FAITH AND WORK BOOK REVIEW:
Agents of Flourishing: Pursuing Shalom in Every Corner of Society by Amy L. Sherman. IVP. 338 pages. 2022
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I read the author’s book Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good for my “Calling, Vocation and Work” class at Covenant Seminary – one of my favorite faith and work books – and looked forward to reading this book. In this book, which focuses on local outreach, Sherman aims to encourage and equip congregations to seek the flourishing of their communities—based on a conviction that this is a central mission of the church in our time.
The author begins by defining biblical flourishing and contrasts it with prevailing secular understandings. She then reviews the church’s identity and mission as royal priests called to advance flourishing in our communities. She introduces the Thriving Cities Group’s “Human Ecology Framework,” which serves as the organizing schema for the remainder of the book. The framework describes six arenas of civilizational life, or endowments. The following chapters take up each of these six endowments. The author writes how contemporary U.S. congregations are contributing positively to the health and strength of the endowment. The stories included illustrate some specific strategies that churches could take to advance flourishing in that realm of community life. The hope of the author is that these stories will inspire congregational leaders to imitate the strategies or try additional ones. The author concludes the book with the next steps you can take in your congregations to live into the calling of being agents of flourishing in your communities.
This is not a book that needs to be read quickly, as the author points out. It would be a good book to read and discuss with your church leadership team how you can apply these strategies or develop new ones.

Below are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• The problem isn’t that we want to flourish. God wants that for us too. The problem is our definitions of human flourishing fall short of God’s.
• True biblical flourishing involves the good of others as well as our own good. Flourishing is meant to be a shared experience.
• We were made for a purpose. Humans were created to image God in the world, offering up our worship to him alone, and to reflect his character in the world. We were made, in short, for worship and mission.
• God’s vision for the world is shalom—universal flourishing. He has called us to join in his mission.
• We are made for God; thus, we are made for beauty. And we were designed to delight in, dwell upon, and meditate on that beauty.
• God’s will is that his people deal with one another and with others in justice.
• Work is an avenue for our enjoyment and a means by which we bring flourishing to others.
• God desires his creation and his children to flourish.
• People are charged with ruling creation, but this dominion is to be servant-hearted.
• Each believer has opportunities within their spheres of influence to apply the healing, restorative work of priests and the culture-making work of kings.
• We are agents of flourishing. We’re to practice reigning—deploying our gifts in loving, sacrificial ways that bring flourishing to others.
• Prayer is vital to every missional journey. It is how we express our reliance on the Holy Spirit’s equipping grace.

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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 3: Surrendering the Calendar. Here are a few helpful quotes from the chapter:

• While working hard may be positive, constantly being hurried and having the pressure to perform at a frantic pace is not.
• Your desires, responsibilities, and even obligations may not be bad in and of themselves; but if our first priority is not offering ourselves to God and pleasing him, then we will quickly find ourselves desiring the wrong thing, working for ourselves and being pulled away from focusing on what God wants for our work.
• When we offer ourselves to God, we are then given new things to do during our days. Or we may be given new ways of doing the things to which God was already calling us.
• When you surrender your calendar, you open up yourself to letting go of your expectations for the day and allowing your schedule to be shaped by God’s intentions for your work.
• By surrendering your calendar and to-do list to God each day, you allow God to change the way you think about your work, change your motivations for work, and eventually change the way you structure your work, including what you put on your to-do list and your calendar- transforming who you are in the process.
• When we do our work as living sacrifices, we begin to engage in life as people who see our lives as Christ’s life lived through us, for the glory of God.