Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• Faithful Presence in the Public Sphere. On this episode of the How to Reach The West Again podcast, Tim Keller explains why Christians living out their faith in vocations and other public spaces is crucial for a missionary encounter. Missy Wallace casts a vision for viewing our jobs as one of the primary venues for putting our faith into practice. Artist Makoto Fujimura invites us to see artists as bridgebuilders between the church and the world.
• Skills to Explore Your Calling. In this message from the Center for Faith & Work Los Angeles Annual Conference, Joanna Meyer discusses “Skills to Explore Your Calling”. Meyer is the Founder & Executive Director, for Women, Work, & Calling and the Director of Public Engagement at the Denver Institute for Faith & Work. She is also the author of the book Women, Work, & Calling: Step into Your Place in God’s World.

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 ~ Finding My Vocation: A Guide for Young People Seeking a Calling by William Boekestein
• Quotes from the book Working in the Presence of God: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Work by Denise Daniels and Shannon Vandewarker

• 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).
• Working with Dan Doriani: Steven Garber. On this episode of the Working with Dan Doriani podcast, Doriani visits with Steven Garber, author of Visions of Vocation. Garber was also the speaker at my Covenant Seminary graduation ten years ago.
• Say No to Retirement and Yes to Redirection. Peter Markgraaff writes “Retirement is an opportunity for a redeployment, a recalibration, a reset, revival, reform, and a new trajectory.”
• I Feel Trapped in My Job – What Should I Do? On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, Tim Keller answers the question “How do I as a dad teach and train my young kids about the divine value of work?”
• How the Sabbath is Missional. Nicholas J. Weyrens writes “You no longer have to anxiously toil but are free to taste his rest every week. So, close your laptop, turn off your phone, and leave the dishes for tomorrow. Worship him by giving unhurried time to his Word and prayer. Rest your body by taking a nap. Delight in a good meal with those in your church family. Enter into God’s Sabbath rest, the fullness of which you can begin to taste now through these ordinary means.”
• A Call to Purposeful Work. Alistair Begg writes “You were made in the image of God and created for good works. No matter what your station in or stage of life, you have work to do today in God’s creation. Be sure to do it heartily, to the best of your ability.”
• More Biblical Guidelines About You and Your Boss (Part 1). This is Part 1 of a two-part article which is an excerpt from Russ Gehrlein’s excellent book Immanuel Labor – God’s Presence in our Profession.
• What’s the Hurry? Scot Bellavia writes “Unless you are a first responder, there are few jobs where a true emergency—something involving violence or threat of danger—occurs regularly. While events arise that expect our immediate attention, they are rarely life-or-death situations. Yet we treat them and much else in our work culture as if they have to get done—and stat!”

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Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week

• It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts. John Wooden
• Retirement from a lifelong vocation can be difficult, especially for those with Protestant work ethics. Properly, though, the laying down of a vocation after many years of work is a kind of Sabbath, a kind of reward for service rendered. Gene Veith
• The greatest leaders are the greatest servants Tim Keller
• Success in retirement depends in great measure on the way we lived beforehand. Paul Tournier
• If the point of work is to serve and exalt ourselves, then our work inevitably becomes less about the work and more about us. Tim Keller
• Success in life and ministry isn’t God’s endorsement of your character but rather a revelation of his. Paul Tripp
• What’s wonderful is when your calling and your job are one and the same, for this is where a sense of true fulfillment and godly satisfaction will be found. Dave Kraft
• Leadership is not about being in charge. It’s about taking care of those in your charge. Simon Sinek
• It has been said that most people today worship their work, work at their play, and play at their worship. Burk Parsons

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FAITH AND WORK BOOK REVIEW:
Finding My Vocation: A Guide for Young People Seeking a Calling by William Boekestein. Reformed Free Publishing Association. 180 pages. 2024
*** ½

This book on vocation is written by a pastor and primarily aimed toward young people, though I believe it will provide value to all ages. The book is divided into three major sections:

• Pondering Vocation
• Preparing for Your Vocation
• Practicing Vocation

There are then five brief appendices that look at common questions you might find yourself asking as you think about your future.
As the author wrote the book, he interviewed dozens of people who exemplify godly work. He includes their stories and advice at the end of each chapter.
The book is heavily footnoted, with contributions from throughout church history.
The book is intended as a guide for young people trying to figure out what to do with their lives. As such, it is also for the parents of young people.
The author covers a number of subjects including vocation, work, calling, working well, rest, managing money, and others.
I recommend this book to young (and older) adults as an introduction to the subject of vocation.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• Our “master-vocation” is to love the Lord supremely and our neighbor as ourselves.
• As a subset of our master-calling, our particular callings are how we love God and others with the skills the Lord has given us.
• Your vocation is the unique way in which God has chosen you to fit into his great plan.
• You can glorify God in whatever work you undertake, provided it is noble work.
• Legitimate work must serve God by serving people.
• God placed us in his world to work for his glory.
• Work is good, but broken.
• Work is both where and how we show others the practical power of the gospel in everyday life.
• Work is hard. But it is good.
• Every believer has a vocation, a calling to glorify God in his or her station.
• The best work—the only truly God-glorifying work—is performed out of gratitude to God. And this is true no matter how difficult or seemingly fruitless the task.
• Good work also requires convictions informed by sound theology. To work well you need to take your theology to work!
• Given the vocational freedom we have today, you should begin by evaluating yourself and the fields that might become your lifelong occupation with the input of trusted advisors, committing the matter to God in prayer.
• All legitimate work is good. No one kind of worker has greater value before the Lord. But some callings allow us to do more good than others.
• In your quest for satisfying work, you can easily neglect family. You must not.
• We are the hands and feet of God in the service of others.
• To honor God’s intention for balanced living, you need a theology of rest that you implement on a daily and weekly basis.
• Near the start of your working years, you need to develop a biblical attitude toward money and the accumulation of wealth.

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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 10: Prayer of Examen for Work. Here are a few helpful quotes from the chapter:

• When we begin carrying the burden of our work on our own shoulders, we come to believe that we are not co-laborers at all—but rather sole laborers, isolated and alone, set on serving the work no matter the cost.
• By practicing daily reflection on where we saw God at work or even where we missed God’s activity, we awaken to the reality of God’s presence around us and through us.
• The Examen for Work systematically explores what happened in our workday. In the examen we look at, turn over, and see from all directions the events that we experienced throughout the day.
• Engaging in the Prayer of Examen for work on a regular basis trains our minds and hearts to pay attention to God in different ways.
• Think of the examen for work like looking through a magnifying glass: it will magnify both the blessings and the challenges in the context of God’s loving care.