Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread. Joshua Nangle writes “In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus is teaching us to trust in God not just for long life, a future spouse, or that dream job. Rather, he wants us to depend upon God for his provision during every day of our lives and for everything.”
• Mere Christians: Jena Viviano Dunay. On this episode of the Mere Christians podcast, Jordan Raynor visits with Jena Viviano Dunay, founder of Recruit the Employer, about how Christians can think redemptively about layoffs.
• 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).
• Assuming It’s Legal, Your Work Is a Calling from God. Confex Makhalira highlights three important implications that the doctrine of vocation has for every Christian.

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 ~ The Leadership Lessons of Jesus: A Timeless Model for Today’s Leaders by Bob Briner and Ray Pritchard
• Quotes from the book Working in the Presence of God: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Work by Denise Daniels and Shannon Vandewarker

• How Can I Press on After an Unsuccessful Season of Job Seeking? Russ Gehrlein writes “There may be some who are looking for work (or a new job) and need a biblical perspective on how to deal with a long and disappointing job search. Perhaps it’s time to share my experiences and some Scriptures that apply to these situations and offer a bit of hope and encouragement.”
• Mere Christians: Jeremy Swafford. On this episode of the Mere Christians podcast, Jordan Raynor visits with Jeremy Swafford, CFO of Southeast Restoration, about how to cultivate a Jesus-like others-obsession.
• Building a Relationship-Centric Workplace. In this excerpt from his book Working from the Inside Out: A Brief Guide to Inner Work That Transforms Our Outer World, Jeff Haanen writes “Relationships are the marrow of workplace culture: between management and employees, employees and fellow employees, and employees and customers. They’re the heartbeat of a school or company, and they’re also a source of tension, pain, and ultimately why people Quit.”
• Values-Based Investing and the Post-Christian Marketplace Bob Doll joined Collin Hansen on this episode of the Gospelbound podcast to discuss several topics, such as sharing faith in an increasingly hostile-to-faith world, moving the work of the church out of its four walls, and stewarding everything God has given us, including our wealth.
• Mere Christians: Shane Kimbrough. On this episode of the Mere Christians podcast, Jordan Raynor visits with astronaut Shane Kimbrough about how to worship while you work on earth and in the heavens.

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Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week

• Living the mission of Jesus means taking your faith into your work and your life and praying for it to change people’s hearts toward God. Tim Keller
• No one has ever been called to do something he or she wasn’t suited for. Calling always matches who you are. John Maxwell
• Your work is your mission field, and because of that, there is a God-given dignity in what you do. Bryan Chapell
• God created people to be His coworkers in expanding His kingdom on earth. He is present in the work of His children in order to meet the needs of humankind and bring glory to Himself. Russ Gehrlein
• Our “work should be looked upon – not as a necessary drudgery to be undergone for the purpose of making money, but as a way of life, in which the nature of man should find its proper exercise and delight, and so fulfill
• itself to the glory of God” Dorothy Sayers
• When we begin to understand God’s perspective on work, then we realize that it is actually a form of worship. Bryan Chapell
• Every leader leads while being in desperate personal need of the full resources of God’s grace. Paul Tripp
• The tasks we do are made glorious not primarily because of the glory in them but because of God’s purpose for us. Bryan Chapell
• Your calling, when you find and embrace it, will result in the merging of your skills, talents, character traits, and experiences. John Maxwell

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FAITH AND WORK BOOK REVIEW:

The Leadership Lessons of Jesus: A Timeless Model for Today’s Leaders by Bob Briner and Ray Pritchard. B&H Books. 244 pages. 1997
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In this book, written from the perspective of Bob Briner, the Gospel of Mark is used to teach the leadership lessons of Jesus – the greatest leader history has known – in seventy-five short chapters. The authors tell us that human leaders come and go, but the legacy of Jesus has grown greater with the passing of each century. They believe the leadership principles Jesus embodied are applicable in any area, whether an office, a school, a small business, a multinational corporation, or a volunteer organization, and I agree with that.
This is an enjoyable book on the leadership of Jesus, though certainly not a deep dive. It could be read as a normal book, or devotionally, where  you read one of the short chapters each day.
Here are twenty-five of my favorite quotes from the book:

• God has specific plans for each one of us, and we must do our best to determine what they are and submit to them.
• Leaders are always teachers. To be an effective long-range leader, you must teach with authority. You must be prepared. You must know what you are talking about.
• A leader’s words, as vitally important as they are, will only go so far and impact so many unless they truly represent the reality in his or her life.
• A leader is disciplined. If you expect discipline among your followers and lack it in your own life, your followers will first lose respect for you and then grow to resent you.
• Prayer and solitude do not cut into a leader’s time or lessen his or her effectiveness; rather, they add to and multiply that effectiveness.
• A good manager makes the existing system work to his or her advantage; a good leader questions the system, making the changes necessary for improvement.
• Unity is essential. Don’t be afraid to eliminate the source of disunity from your enterprise. It’s your responsibility as a leader.
• Leaders are called to faithfulness more than they are called to success.
• Leaders need to be aware of the effect they have on those they lead.
• Nothing will raise a leader in the eyes of his followers more than when he or she effectively handles a crisis.
• Great leadership is responsive leadership acting on quality information.
• The ideal leader combines vision with the kind of common sense that makes his vision a reality.
• The best leaders are the most thankful people on earth because they realize that everything they have is a gift from God.
• An effective leader understands his mission, is able to articulate it, and keeps both himself and his followers from getting diverted.
• A wise leader will resist the impulse to do things himself in favor of allowing his followers to learn and grow by doing it.
• It is important for leaders to understand that it is not only immediate results which count but also the long-range impact the results will have.
• A quality leader often leads his troops into battle. He doesn’t always just send them.
• Wise leaders understand that in every human endeavor of any scope or magnitude, there will be tough times. Difficulties will occur.
• A leader cannot—and should not—tolerate disloyalty.
• Maintaining focus is one of the most important ongoing responsibilities of leadership.
• Nothing harms an enterprise and those involved in it more than the unfaithfulness of a leader.
• Every leader needs to be able to make the enterprise’s purpose known and meaningful.
• True leadership is not a matter of having a title, a position, or an overwhelming personality. Leadership is first and foremost a matter of the heart.
• Leaders are the people who show the way because they have a clear sense of where they’re going.
• True leaders take time for people.

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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 begin Part Three: Reflecting on Work. Here are a few helpful quotes from this section:

• In reflecting on our work, we train the ears of our hearts to listen to the voice of God our shepherd, guiding us in the ways we are created to work and tuned to hear our deep identities in the midst of that work.
• Through reflection, God can bring clarity, peace, and a sense of direction for the Christian worker.
• Practicing the Sabbath allows us space to reflect on the ways God is at work and the opportunity to engage in relationships with others.