Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• Work as Worship. On this episode of the Ask Pastor John podcast, John Piper responds to a question based on “I’ve been reflecting on a few verses in Ecclesiastes lately, particularly Ecclesiastes 2:24, 3:13, 3:22, and 5:19. Those texts repeatedly speak about enjoying the fruit of our labor as a gift from God to be enjoyed. But I struggle a bit to know exactly what that looks like in real life.”
• Does God Really Care About My Job? In this video, Bryan Chapell tells us that our jobs are important because they are a primary place that we are reflecting our God in what we do and how we do it.
• “Our Secular Vocation” Interview. This conversation is part of an interview between  J. Daryl Charles, senior fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy, and CRCD’s executive director, Dr. Jordan Ballor.

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 ~ You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful (How to Discover and Fulfill the Callings That Unfold Throughout Your Life) by Karen Swallow Prior
• Quotes from the book Creation Regained: Biblical Basis for a Reformational Worldviewby Albert Wolters

• 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).
• What Do Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians Teach Us About Work? Russ Gehrlein writes “In this article, I have collated over twenty excerpts from nearly every chapter of my book, Immanuel Labor – God’s Presence in our Profession,that highlight what the Apostle Paul teaches us about the theology of work in his two epistles to the Corinthians.”
• 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).
• Understanding Joy (And Getting More of It). What does it really mean to experience joy, and how can we cultivate more of it in our daily lives? In the video “Understanding Joy (and Getting More of It)”, Michaela O’Donnell dives into practical, faith-rooted insights that help you recognize joy, embrace it fully, and invite it into every corner of your life. Whether you’re navigating challenges or simply seeking a deeper sense of fulfillment, this video will inspire and equip you to live with a joyful heart.
• Cars with Honda Quality: A Conversation with Tom Schoupe, Manufacturing President. Tom Schoupe is retired from his role as President of Manufacturing for Honda in Alabama. When Dan Doriani was an interim pastor in Birmingham, he had the chance to sit down in person with Tom and talk about his years in the industry. On this episode of Working with Dan Doriani, hear Dan and Tom talk about how to add humanity to the process of making cars. Motivated by Christ’s character and work, Tom has endeavored to make high-quality cars, love his employees, and create joyful opportunities for Honda drivers.
• Abraham Lincoln: The Anguish of Leadership. In this edition of the Leadership Briefing, Albert Mohler offers leadership lessons through an examination of the life, legacy, and dark moments of leadership of President Abraham Lincoln.
• A Reflection on Job Security. Russ Gehrlein shares some biblical principles that apply to a major reorganization, a good example from the Old Testament that might encourage, and some personal wisdom to better prepare readers for when this happens in the future or to help them recover from it if they are in the midst of it now.
• Healthcare in War-Torn Places: A Conversation with Anne Reitsema, CEO. Anne Reitsema is the CEO of Medair, a Christian humanitarian organization that serves vulnerable people in hard-to-reach places in times of crisis. On this episode of Working with Dan Doriani, Anne joins Dan to talk about how she leads in hard places during challenging times. When pressured from multiple sides, Anne relies on her faith, her friends, her coworkers, and her belief in the value and dignity of life to maintain her capacity to lead others toward healing.
• How Did Vocation Inspire Martin Luther to Launch the Reformation? Hugh Whelchel writes “Luther’s belief in the doctrine of vocation would inspire believers from John Calvin to John Winthrop and the Puritans to believers today who continue to labor in everyday professions for the glory of God.”

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Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week

• The Sabbath is for us. It gives us regular times of rest without feeling guilty that we are not being productive. It calls us out of the distracting clamor of our daily lives into worship, reminding us that our identity, meaning, purpose, and hope are found in the Lord alone. Paul Tripp
• Sabbath is God’s gift to us. It welcomes us to step away from our labors and remember who we are and who he is, so that in submission and rest we may once again find life and strength in him. Paul Tripp
• Joy in labor is possible only when you are thankful that God has provided you with a job and the ability to work. Paul Tripp  
• The very first way to be sure you are serving God in your work is to be competent. Tim Keller
• If you make any work the purpose of your life—even if that work is church ministry—you create an idol that rivals God. Tim Keller
• Work of all kinds, whether with the hands or the mind, evidences our dignity as human beings—because it reflects the image of God the Creator in us. Tim Keller
• 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
• True greatness, true leadership, is achieved not by reducing others to one’s service but in giving oneself in selfless service to them. Oswald Sanders
• God has placed us where we need to be and has empowered us with all the skills we need to do our work for His purposes and glory. We must shine the light of Christ in dark places and become part of His work to bring common grace to all who are made in His image. Russell Gehrlein

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FAITH AND WORK BOOK REVIEW:

You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful (How to Discover and Fulfill the Callings That Unfold Throughout Your Life) by Karen Swallow Prior. Brazo Press. 146 pages. 2025
*** ½ 

This well written book grew out of a talk the author gave in 2021 at an event hosted by the Rabbit Room. The author tells us that she is not going to tell us what our calling is, but hopes that the book will help show us how to discover and fulfill the various callings that unfold throughout our lives.

She tells us that the first calling of every human being is to bear witness to the God who created the world and that we are all called to this work. Work itself is a good that is part of God’s original design and therefore contributes to human flourishing. She writes that while work and calling do overlap at times, they are not the same.

In this book, the author addresses a number of topics, such as work, vocation, calling, passion, desires, hobby, job, limitations, discerning our calling, truth, goodness and beauty. She quotes frequently from other writers, especially poets.

She writes that finding work that aligns with our passions, desires, and gifts is, of course, ideal, but that doesn’t always happen, and that is okay. She tells us that merely having a desire or a passion inside us does not necessarily mean we will receive a call from outside that will fulfill that passion. In fact, being paid to do what you love has, for most of human history, been the exception, not the rule.

She tells us that there is no magical formula or perfect job just waiting for us. Such an understanding encourages us to pursue different interests, develop different skills, and accumulate a range of experiences – and see them all as an ongoing part of pursuing our calling, knowing that God will use it all.

The author tells us that a vocation can be fulfilled in a paid or unpaid position. It might begin as a hobby and then become a job or career – or it might be something we devote our whole lives to and never get paid to do or gain public recognition for doing.

Work is part of what it means to be human and to imitate our Creator through the creative nature of work—can fall into various categories: hobby, job, career, and vocation. A call requires both a caller and the called. It is not our job to be called. Rather, it is our job to answer the call.

The author tells us that passion is inside and a calling comes from outside. They don’t always entirely coincide, but sometimes they do.

She writes that a view of calling that puts “spiritual” work above other kinds of roles distorts our understanding of both ministry and work. Rather, every Christian is called to “full-time ministry,”

A key point is that vocation is not about being able to fulfill our desires, pursue our passions, or follow our bliss. Vocation is about being called by others to serve. Vocation includes work, but it is more than just a career, job, or source of income. Vocation is one way you fulfill your purpose, the role (or roles) for which you were created.

The author writes that if you pursue truth, goodness, and beauty in all your work, all your play, all your ways, and all your days, you will find your calling.

I found this to be a helpful book about work, vocation and calling.

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Faith and Work Book Club – Won’t you read along with us? 

Creation Regained: Biblical Basis for a Reformational Worldview by Albert Wolters

This book is recommended by the Center for Faith & Work. They write:

“Few contemporary books have been cited as often by those who are writing about taking up callings and vocations faithfully. This serious little book walks us through the key Biblical themes of the goodness of creation, the seriousness of the fall into sin, the decisive redemption gained by Christ, and the implications of working out the promised hope for a creation-wide restoration. With the keen eye of a philosopher and the passion of a Bible scholar, Wolter’s offers one of the definitive, concise books about a Christian worldview.  One of the most important books for those of us in CFW and highly recommended to understand a uniquely Christian view of cultural and vocational engagement.”

As we read this this book we now look at Chapter 4: Redemption. Here are a few helpful quotes from the chapter:

• The redemption achieved by Jesus Christ is cosmic in the sense that it restores the whole creation.
• Redemption is not a matter of an addition of a spiritual or supernatural dimension to creaturely life that was lacking before; rather, it is a matter of bringing new life and vitality to what was there all along.
• If the whole creation is affected by the fall, then the whole creation is also reclaimed in Christ.
• What distinguishes a reformational worldview is its understanding of the radical and universal import of both sin and redemption.
• If Christ is the reconciler of all things, and if we have been entrusted with “the ministry of reconciliation” on his behalf (2 Cor. 5:18), then we have a redemptive task wherever our vocation places us in his world.
• Jesus’ ministry clearly demonstrates that the coming of the kingdom means the restoration of creation.
• The temptation to categorize the creation into good and bad areas must be resisted.
• A genuinely biblical worldview recognizes that a real battle rages between God and his adversary for the control of creation.
• The sum of our discussion of a reformational worldview is simply this: (1) creation is much broader and more comprehensive than we tend to think, (2) the fall affects that creation in its full extent, and (3) redemption in Jesus Christ reaches just as far as the fall.