Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• Why am I Still Working? Russ Gehrlein writes “Let me reflect on this loaded question for a few minutes and expand on what I could have said in more detail. Perhaps it may be of value to others like me who are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
• Entrepreneurial Leadership: A Conversation with Tom Gibbs, President of Covenant Theological Seminary. On this episode of the WORKING with Dan Doriani podcast, Thomas Gibbs joins Dan to talk about leading new ministry ventures from the very beginning.
• News with Eternal Perspective: A conversation with Kathleen Wadkins, The Pour Over. For those who have ever felt discouraged by the relentless feed of news, The Pour Over delivers news to your inbox with an eternal perspective. Kathleen Wadkins, Head of Content, joins Dan on this episode of WORKING with Dan Doriani to talk about how faith in Jesus informs her and her organization as they read and communicate world news to their readers.

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 ~ Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry by Paul Tripp
• Quotes from the book Working Blessedly Forever, Volume 1: The Shape of Marketplace Theology by R. Paul Stevens

• Leadership.  Here is a message titled “Leadership” based on 1 Thessalonians 5:12-15, from Bryan Chapell’s series “Misson at Work”.
• 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).
• Godly Leadership. In this devotional from Alistair Begg based on 1 Samuel 12:1-3, he states “Leadership of any kind is very vulnerable. If you work at the front of a classroom, lead an industry, operate in politics, or serve in pastoral ministry, you’re routinely in the spotlight and before people’s scrutiny—and that can be a challenge.”
• Purpose and Calling in the Third Third of Life: A Biblical Perspective. Mark D. Roberts writes “Those of us in the third third of life often yearn for a clear and compelling sense of purpose in this season of our lives. The typical retirement narrative, with its emphasis on recreation and relaxation, sounds appealing in a way. Yet we realize that we need more meaning in life than this narrative offers.”
• 2 Ways Leaders Can Exemplify Humility to Those Under Their Authority. In this video, Gavin Ortlund discusses how to cultivate humility in a gospel-centered way.
• Seven Faith & Work Books Worth Your Time. Jacqueline Isaacs writes “Our friend and IFWE contributor, Dr. Stephen Presley, recently highlighted five helpful books for pastors. I wanted to contribute my own list of recommendations for our readers who may be in different life stations to expand your thinking about faith, work, and economics.”
• This Ain’t Working: AI and the Future of Work. Kara Martin writes “Whatever your age, whatever your initial response to AI—optimist or doomsayer—we are all intrigued as AI forces us to question what it means to be human. There is good thinking—even good work—to be done as we ponder how AI can become part of our world in a good way, not a destructive one.”
• Mere Christians: Peter Greer. On this episode of the Mere Christians podcast, Jordan Raynor visits with Peter Greer, author of Lead with Prayer about how to “leave the phone off the hook” to commune with God while you work.

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Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week

• 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
• The word “ministry”, in its simplest form means to serve. We’re all called to serve, to be ministers, no matter what our job or profession is. David Hataj
• The problem of the workaholic, for example, is not that we love work too much, but that we love God too little, relative to our career. Tim Keller
• One of God’s good gifts of grace to us is the Sabbath of rest and worship. Paul Tripp
• All work – paid and unpaid – is good, but it needs to be boundaried by the practice of Sabbath. Peter Scazzero
• My goal at the end of each day is to feel satisfied because I gave my very best, but my goal at the beginning of each day is to be dissatisfied enough to try to improve on yesterday. John Maxwell
• Our passion is to know that we are fulfilling the purpose for which we are here on earth. Os Guinness
• Real Work is a contribution to the good of all and not merely a means to one’s own advancement. Tim Keller
• Your success stops where your character stops. You can never rise above the limitations of your character. John Maxwell

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FAITH AND WORK BOOK REVIEW:
Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry by Paul Tripp. Crossway. 2012
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This is a book for pastors. The author tells us that it is a diagnostic book. It is written to help pastors take an honest look at themselves in the heart and life-exposing mirror of the Word of God to see things that are wrong and need correcting and to help them place themselves once again under the healing and transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul Tripp tells us that as a pastor, in this book he attempts to pastor other pastors.
A key theme in the book is the disconnect between the private persona of pastors and their public ministry life. He writes that the grief and concern he has about the state of pastoral culture in our generation, coupled with his knowledge and experience of transforming grace, has driven him to write this book.
In this book he shares stories from his own life and from those pastors that he has counseled. The book is a detailed exposition of what happens in the life of a person in ministry when he forgets to preach to himself the same gospel that he gives to others.
Among the topics he addresses in this book are identity, how we prepare seminary students for gospel ministry, spiritual maturity, living in isolation from the body of Christ, the condition of the heart, fear, preaching the gospel to yourself, Sunday morning, mediocrity, awe, arrival, self-glory, and a pastor’s private devotional life.
I always appreciate the writing of Paul Tripp. I found this to be a bold and honest book for pastors by a pastor who has counseled hundreds of pastors. I recommend that all pastors consider reading the book.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• Biblical maturity is never just about what you know; it’s always about how grace has employed what you have come to know to transform the way you live.
• Danger is afloat when you come to love the ideas more than the God whom they represent and the people they are meant to free.
• The ultimate purpose of the Word of God is not theological information but heart and life transformation.
• It is absolutely vital to remember that a pastor’s ministry is never just shaped by his knowledge, experience, and skill. It is always also shaped by the true condition of his heart.
• It is essential to know the heart of the man behind the knowledge, skill, experience, and ministry strategy before you call him to pastor God’s flock.
• My experience with hundreds of pastors is that many sadly function in a regular state of gospel amnesia. They forget to preach privately to themselves the gospel that they declare publicly to others.
• The ministry you are doing is never just shaped by your gifts, knowledge, skill, and experience. It is always also shaped by the true condition of your heart.
• If your heart is in functional awe of the glory of God, then there will be no place in your heart for poorly prepared, badly delivered, functional pastoral mediocrity.
• We must always, always, remember that the theology of the Word of God is not an end in itself but a means to an end, and that end is a radically grace-transformed life.
• Perhaps there is no more powerful, seductive, and deceitful temptation in ministry than self-glory.
• Many pastors out there are seeking to lead and teach well, but it is simply not fueled or directed by the devotion of their hearts to their Savior. Their Christianity is more an institutional discipline than a personal relationship.
• I am convinced that when busyness intersects with arrival, one of the first things that goes is private worship.
• Here’s the bottom line for anyone in ministry: you must always be careful to carry a dual identity with you, no matter where you are or what you are doing. You must think of yourself not only as an instrument of the work but also as a recipient.
• Public ministry is meant to be fueled and propelled by private devotion. When this is absent, you and your ministry change in ways that are potentially harmful to you and to the people you have been called to serve.
• Pastor, there is no congregation you need to preach to more than yourself.
• One of the scandals of hordes of churches is that no one is pastoring their pastor.
• No matter how many people look up to you, whatever influence your ministry has collected, and no matter how long and successful your ministry has been, your ministry will never be about you because it is about him.

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Faith and Work Book Club – Won’t you read along with us?
We are reading through Working Blessedly Forever, Volume 1: The Shape of Marketplace Theology by R. Paul Stevens.  In this volume, the first of three, Stevens explores the shape of marketplace theology, its posture and methodology. Marketplace theology is the science of working blessedly forever.
This week we look at Chapter 4: Thinking and Praying about Work. Here are a few helpful quotes from the chapter:

• It is important to note that the command to work was given before the fall and hence work is meant to be a blessing and not a curse.
• Toil and frustrating work, and conversely, the idolatry of work as in workaholism, are the result of the fall.
• The cosmic scope of God’s redemption means that everything affected by sin and the curse can be redeemed including human work.
• Most good work in this world extends the kingdom of God and brings shalom and human flourishing.
• Our work will last, and we will work in the new heaven and new earth.