Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• Christian Work Ethic: Busy for Christ. In this video, Dr. Joel Beeke sits down with Costi Hinn to talk about how Christians should be set apart by their work ethic and how one should wisely steward their time for the glory of God.
• 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).
• 4 Axioms from Spurgeon’s Leadership. J.A. Medders writes “If we boil down his profound insights on leadership, we can create four simple axioms or truisms that apply to church planting and all of pastoral ministry.”

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~ Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate by Steven Garber
• Quotes from the book Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Workby Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

• 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).
• The Sanctity of Labor. Are you working “for the weekend”? Or counting the years to retirement? From his series Christian Ethics, R.C. Sproul explains that work is sacred and we are called to labor diligently to the glory of God.
• Working Without Recognition: Finding Motivation When No One Seems to Notice. Denise Lee Yohn responds to the question “I work on a team at my office. I think I’m doing good work—at least, my reviews are always positive. But that’s about the only nice feedback I get all year. No one is mean, but I don’t receive compliments or “good jobs.” I know I’m ultimately working for the Lord, but I’m starting to feel pretty discouraged. It’s hard to keep going on pure inner motivation alone. What should I do?”
• Advice for New Elders: Take the Low Seat. Ryan Curia writes “If you’re a new elder, you may feel tempted to prove yourself. Taking the low seat means resisting that urge.”
• The Formative Power of Work, Part 2. Robert Covolo writes “Work is never neutral. Work is always forming us. It shapes our habits, our loves, and our character. It shapes the kind of people we become.”
• The Fall, Our Identity & Work. Joshua Nangle writes “The work we do is important in part because it is a wonderful opportunity to reflect God’s creativity, goodness, and beauty to the world, but sin and the desire to be like God continue today. Every person who has career aspirations will be tempted with a false identity that seeks to make themselves bigger.”
• Man’s Plans vs. God’s Intentions (Part 1). Russ Gehrlein writes “Forty years ago, I was let go from my youth ministry position. It changed the course of my career. Now, I can rejoice in God’s leading, provision, and care as he graciously brought my family and me through that tough time. Moreover, I can reflect with gratitude how God worked all things out for his good by using that unexpected blessing to guide me into my Army career.”
• 5 Ways Christians Can Navigate a Challenging Workplace. Scott James writes “Christians working in secular professions and spaces often need to navigate obstacles as they seek to live out an active faith. Proximity to the lost world can be advantageous for laborers of the harvest (Luke 10:2), but it can also be an intimidating environment that threatens to dampen our witness.”
• Making Mercy Common in Commerce with Ken Barnes & Max Anderson. “On this episode of the Faith & Work Podcast, we are able to re-live some of the keynotes from Business for the Common Good 2026 as we dive deep into the transformative role of mercy in the workplace. Dr. Ken Barnes challenges us to redefine leadership through a new lens and ordering our loves appropriately. Max Anderson shares insights on how he has integrated his faith with business practices, highlighting how mercy can reshape company culture. Together, they explore how aligning daily work with a higher calling fosters community and ethical action.”

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Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week

• Whether our lot seems humble or exalted, let us work with all our heart, for the Lord knows and rewards all faithful labor. Dan Doriani
• In the Western mind, we work five days to earn the right to rest and play on the weekend. But God tells believers to start the week with rest before we work. In Scripture, rest is a gift, not a reward. Dan Doriani
• In all our work, we strive to bring credit to God’s name. Dan Doriani
• All honest work is sacred when devoted to the glory of God. Dan Doriani
• We should serve God, restrain evil, and advance love, justice, and mercy at work. Dan Doriani
• Since God is in charge, you can be called to a vocation, but not called to be successful in that vocation. Tim Keller
• Vocations and the occupations that grow from them are mysterious, never neat and clean, for any of us. Steven Garber
• True leadership has nothing to do with one’s position in the organization. Ken Blanchard, Mark Miller
• We often miss opportunities because of our fear of failure. But the biggest failure is the failure to start, which is often caused by perfectionism. John Maxwell

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FAITH AND WORK BOOK REVIEW:
Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate by Steven Garber. Paraclete Press. 272 pages. 2026
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Steven Garber, who was the speaker at my now nearly twelve years ago Covenant Seminary graduation, is also the author of one of my favorite books Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good. We all have favorite authors, those whose writing resonates deeply with us. Like James Dodson, who frequently has written on golf, Steven Garber is one of those authors for me, especially as he writes about vocation. When you read Garber’s books, it is like sitting with him over a cup of coffee (or for him, tea). His books are meant to be read slowly, so as to take all of the ideas in carefully.

Garber tells us that he wrote this book in hopes that we all will see more clearly the meaning of the world and our responsibility in it, a responsibility born of love that it is. He writes about “the proximate”, which gives us room to long for and yearn after what ought to be and what could be done.

Throughout, he shares many stories and conversations about people, locations, films, and books, considering important questions, such as:

• How do we live in a way that connects our deepest longings with our ordinary lives?
• Knowing what I know, what will I do?
• What do you love? What is it that matters most to you? What is it that is most important to you? What is it that is at the center of who you are, of why you are, and of what you are going to do with your life?
• Why do we work? What does our work mean?
• What is our responsibility? What in fact does it mean to be responsible?
• Can we do anything? Should we?
• What do you care about?
• Why do we see as we see? Why do we choose what we choose?
• Where have we come from? What is wrong with the world? Can it ever change? What will the future be? Wherever we are, whatever we believe, these are the questions of being human.

Themes that come up often in the book are metanarrative to narrative, the idea of responsibility, ordered and disordered loves, having eyes that see and ears to hear, the eyes of our heart, habits of the heart, needing to make peace with the proximate, what it is to be human, and to be a signpost.

The author tells us that a hint of hope is something we can all live with, and in fact we cannot live without it.

There is much to ponder on in this excellent book. Here are some of the quotes I found most helpful from the book:

• Vocations and the occupations that grow from them are mysterious, never neat and clean, for any of us.
• Hopes and dreams, longings that we wake up to and go to sleep with, keep us keeping on for the years of our lives, and yet at the end, there is still more to be done.
• Perhaps along the way our best work becomes a signpost of what might be, of what could be, of what should be—though in the end, they are only a signpost, and yet they are a signpost.
• Hope is hard, especially with more knowledge of what is and is not in the lives that are ours. Often, the farther we go, the harder it is to hope.
• Making peace with the proximate is the way we all have to live, if we are going to live, keeping our hearts alive to the meaning of our lives, and to the meaning of life.
• Always and everywhere virtues are habits of heart, the characteristic ways we think and say and do all day long in the push and shove of ordinary life for ordinary folk.
• Virtues direct us to who and why and what we should be.
• Only when we put into practice what we have heard will we understand what we have heard, because what we do with what we know is crucial for a good life.
• Always and everywhere, integral to knowing the truth is doing the truth.
• Most of the time the most ordinary work is the most important work.
• Wherever we are, unique as each one is, we are first of all, most deeply of all, people who long for meaning.
• What we care about is central to who we are, to our sense of self and of our place in society, the choices we make about anything and everything born of our answer to that question.
• To love and to be loved are the greatest of gifts.
• Learning to care about the right things in the right way is what a good life is all about—and when we miss, we miss the meaning of our lives, and of life.
• At the end of the day, we live for windows into what is, to what could be, and to what someday will be, signs as they are, foretastes as they will only be. Seeing them for what they are, and are not, is another way of making peace with the proximate.
• Vocation is at its heart about seeing ourselves implicated, for love’s sake, in the way things are and the way things should be.
• It is only if we see vocations as common grace for the common good will our cities and societies flourish.
• To know the world and still love the world is the most difficult of all vocations—and yet it is what it means to be human, fully and truly human. But to choose that will cost us, which is why, sometimes, there are tender tears.
• Something honest and true is worthy of being called a marriage, even if the marriage is never everything that the pretense of perfection promises—and if we have eyes that see, that is a gift.
•  The stories of our lives are always stories of journeys, of a beginning and then an end—an end that we hope for, and at other times an end that we resist.

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Faith and Work Book Club – Won’t you read along with us?
Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Work by Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

Please join us in reading this book on faith and work.
From the Amazon description:

“In a world where workplaces are becoming increasingly diverse, Working for Better by Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels offers a timely guide for Christians navigating the modern faith-at-work landscape. Drawing from over twenty years of research and personal insights, Working for Better presents a groundbreaking exploration of how to express Christian faith in professional settings without compromising beliefs or alienating others.

Through detailed studies involving focus groups, surveys of more than 15,000 workers, and interviews with over 300 individuals, Ecklund and Daniels identify five key tensions in the faith-at-work movement. With compelling stories and practical applications, Working for Better addresses the need for Christian workers and leaders to adapt to cultural shifts, offering guidance for a more redemptive presence at work. Each chapter concludes with thought-provoking questions for individual reflection or group discussion, making this book an essential resource for anyone seeking to integrate faith with their professional life. Whether you’re a Christian worker, workplace leader, or pastor guiding others, Working for Better invites you to consider how to flourish in a rapidly changing world.

As workplaces continue to evolve, the ability to maintain one’s spiritual values while contributing positively to the organizational culture becomes ever more crucial. Working for Better not only equips readers with the wisdom and tools needed to face such challenges but also inspires them to become agents of change, promoting a more inclusive and harmonious work environment.”

This week, we look at Chapter 2: Secular Work. Here are a few helpful quotes from this chapter:

• In spite of all of the efforts of the faith-at-work movement, the most common opinion is still that faith belongs in sacred settings, such as church and Bible study groups, but has very little to do with the daily activities of work.
• The large majority of workers do not see their jobs as a calling.
• Our research shows that those who agree that the primary reason they work is to make money are less likely to feel a sense of calling in their work
• The closer the work is to a caring profession, or the more relational it is, the easier it is for Christians to see how that work could be a manifestation of Christian convictions.
• Among those Christians we interviewed, there was a consistent lack of imagination for how their jobs could be viewed as in any way connected to their faith.
• Our research shows that the experience of calling is often perceived to be a privilege of the privileged.
• People at the top of their organizations are more likely to agree that their work is a spiritual calling than those at the bottom of their organizations
• Those who see their work as a calling also tend to feel their work is important beyond making money—thinking more about achieving personal fulfillment and making a difference in the world through their work.