Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• Why Isn’t There a Greek or Latin Term for ‘Theology of Work’? Jacqueline Isaacs writes “When working on a writing project recently, I found myself typing “theology of work” and “faith and work movement” many times. This made me wonder why we don’t have an easier shorthand phrase for this increasingly common area of focus.”
• A Leader Worth Following. My new book A Leader Work Following: 40 Key Leadership Attributes and Applications to Masteris available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. Read a sample of the book (found under the book cover in the above link).
• Faithful Business: ServiceMaster and Organizational Faithfulness in Ordinary Work. Kate Martin writes “Most importantly, ServiceMaster wanted to raise the question of God in the marketplace, seeking to honor God in every word and action.”

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 ~ Faith & Work: Galvanizing Your Church for Everyday Impact by Missy Wallace and Lauren Gill
• Quotes from the book Working Blessedly Forever, Volume 1: The Shape of Marketplace Theology by R. Paul Stevens

• Work as Mission Breakfast: Faith in the Business World. At a recent breakfast in Dallas, Bob Doll, former Chief Equity Strategist at BlackRock and Nuveen, shared serious workplace wisdom on navigating today’s turbulent market and experiencing Christ’s resurrection power at work.
• Why Do You Want to Work After Retirement? Mark D. Roberts writes “It’s crucial to understand that working in retirement does not necessarily mean “working for pay.” The point is to be productive in some way that matters, to make a difference in the world, or, as the Bible would say, to be fruitful.”
• 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).
• 5 Ways to Keep Learning After College. Donald Sweeting writes “Christians are learners by definition. That’s what the word “disciple” means. Being a student is a mark of being a Christian.”
• Five Timely Reminders About Work and Vacation. Jacqueline Issacs writes “Today, we are highlighting five articles that explore these subjects in greater detail. We hope the authors’ insights encourage you to take a deeper look at rest and discover new ways you might practice it in your daily life this summer.”
• God, Art, and the People Who Make It: A Conversation with Ron Adair, Illustrator. On this episode of the Working with Dan Doriani podcast, Ron Adair joins Dan to talk about his work as an illustrator, which has spanned decades and produced beautiful portraits for all kinds of uses. Ron talks about what it takes to be a successful artist and why art is valuable for the Christian life.
• The Extraordinary Adventure of Ordinary Work. In this excerpt from Why Your Work Matters: How God Uses Our Everyday Vocations to Transform Us, Our Neighbors, and the World, Tom Nelson writes “One of the primary ways we tangibly love our neighbors is to do excellent work in our various vocations.”
• A Call to Humble Work. Renita Reed-Thomson writes “When we work, we do it with humility, knowing that we have something to offer that is needed. We work hard, and we do it with excellence, looking up to God as our role model for working, and to others for contributing to their flourishing.”
• Brick by Brick: The Inspiring Story of Ole Kirk Christiansen. In this excerpt from their book Five Mere Christians: Binge-Worthy Biographies That Show You How to Glorify God in Your Work, Jordan Raynor and Kaleigh Cox write “Few people know Ole Kirk Christiansen’s story, but once you do, you’ll never look at a pile of shiny LEGO bricks—or your own work—the same way again. Here are three ways Christiansen’s life serves as a model for working believers today.”

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Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week

• Work is as much a basic human need as food, beauty, rest, friendship, and prayer; it is not simply medicine but food for our soul. Tim Keller
• There is dignity in doing our secondary callings (i.e., working, parenting, citizen-ing, caring for an elderly parent, etc.). When our secondary calling of work is elevated over other secondary callings, a dignity shortfall occurs. Luke Bobo
• 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
• The sabbath is about restoring diminished. It’s about replenishing the drained. It’s about repairing the broken. It’s NOT just an off day. Tim Keller
• God has placed you right where you need to be and has empowered you with all the skills you need to do your work for His purposes and glory. Russ Gehrlein
• We are here to glorify Christ in our daily life. We are here as workers for Him, and as workers together with Him, let us see that our life fulfills this purpose. Charles Spurgeon
• 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
• No matter what you do, your job has inherent purpose and meaning because you are doing it ultimately for the King. Who you work for is more important than what you do. Greg Gilbert and Sebastian Traeger
• Even in our successes, we can, and should, praise God for giving us both the means and opportunity to be successful. Tim Keller

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FAITH AND WORK BOOK REVIEW:
Faith & Work: Galvanizing Your Church for Everyday Impact by Missy Wallace and Lauren Gill. Redeemer City to City. 287 pages. 2025 
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If  you are a pastor or leader and looking to bring a faith and work context to your church and city, this is the book for you. Written by two leaders in the field who bring a wealth of experience to the subject, the book provides a proven roadmap to follow. The resources in the appendices are more than worth the price of the book.

The purpose of the book is to help pastors and lay leaders to catch a vision for the importance of equipping your church members to integrate their faith with their work – discipling them to live with Christ every minute of every day. The authors tell us that while workers spend about two thousand hours a year at work, they only spend about fifty hours a year at church and around fifty-two hours per year volunteering in churches and other nonprofits. They go on to tell us that if you want your church to be relevant to the day-to-day lives of your congregants and those in your city who don’t yet know Christ, addressing faith and work is essential.

The book is organized as follows:

• Section One: Explains the “why” behind faith-and-work initiatives.
• Section Two: The “how” portion of this book, providing practical guidance for implementing the principles explored in section one.
• At the end of the book is included a “Getting Started Guide” that offers practical steps to quickly incorporate faith and work in your existing church activities.
• In the appendices are provided numerous supplementary materials to equip you as you seek to build out faith-and-work initiatives in your context.
• At the end of each chapter are helpful “Reflection Questions”.

The book goes over the Faith-and-Work Framework for Unleashing the Gospel, which focuses on what the Bible calls us to, daily, as disciples of Jesus. The authors also introduce us to the Heart-Community-World framework, a key tool for developing the integrated leader as it reveals how the gospel impacts everything: our hearts, our communities, and the systems and industries in our world.

The authors tell us that the integration of faith and work takes place at three levels: the individual leader level (both you and those you serve), the church level, and the city level.

This is a book filled with helpful resources for leaders who want to bring a faith and work context to their churches and cities. It would be an excellent book to read and discuss with your church leadership team.

Here are 10 of my favorite quotes from the book:

• Work is a key mechanism for discipleship because so much of who we are is intertwined with the work we do, and work is part of God’s unfolding story to redeem the world.
• All of our work allows us an opportunity to serve as redemptive agents for God’s work, no matter our industry.
• Work is the ultimate sphere you must penetrate in order to call your people to a deeper relationship with God.
• The opportunity for your congregants to love their neighbors as themselves in and through their work is key to utilizing their work hours for God’s glory.
• Achieving excellence at work is another way we can love our neighbors, as a sustainable workplace keeps people employed.
• A leader who has integrated faith and work is one who realizes the gospel changes how they interact with others through their work.
• Faith-and-work-integrated leaders are the key to building a faith-and-work-integrated church or city.
• Building the leadership team is the most critical step to the long-term success of implementing faith-and-work efforts in your setting.
• It’s crucial to prioritize the integration of faith and work into the church’s core practices.
• If all you can do at this time is add work-based examples into your sermons, you are making big cultural progress and impacting your entire congregation with minimal incremental effort.

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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 11: The Beatific Vision and the Marketplace. Here are a few helpful quotes from the chapter:

• Prayer is work, working with God who prays with us and in us.
• If we can even for a moment stop and ask about a specific work we have undertaken, asking whether there was a compassionate dimension, a judging factor, a surge of creativity, a consummating dimension, or a providential-sustaining action, we can see God in our work.
• We are walking sanctuaries of God. Workplace spirituality is shoe-leather spirituality.
• In our final workplace, the new heaven and new earth, all work will be play and worship. But for now, we have a foretaste of that beatific work experience in the next life.
• The kingdom is crucial for understanding and practicing marketplace theology.
• Whatever gifts, talents, and personality you have now will be present and exalted in the new heaven and new earth.
• Your calling, which I assume is to help people, does not end with death, or worse still with formal retirement. It continues into eternity.