Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• In Working for Christ, There Are No Dead-End Jobs. Alistair Begg writes “Whenever you find Christians who don’t give their best to their work, you have found Christians who have forgotten who they’re working for.”
• Lisa Slayton: Wisdom for a World in Flux. “Life under the sun has always been a life in flux. And yet, in our world today, we are experiencing change at a dizzying pace. On top of that- our awareness of the brokenness in the world feels limitless. But our limitations as humans remain. More than ever we must slow down and discern ever-more-clearly, the voice of God calling us to our particular places, causes and communities- and the work that is ours to do, today. On this episode of the Wisdom Series, on Faith, Work & Rest, Lisa Slayton offers rich wisdom from her many years accompanying leaders to do just that.”
• 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).

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 ~ Church Planting Is for Wimps: How God Uses Messed-Up People to Plant Ordinary Churches That Do Extraordinary Things by Mike McKinley
• Quotes from the book Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Workby Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

• Gentle and Lowly: A Conversation with Pastor and Author Dane Ortlund. On this episode of the Working with Dan Doriani podcast, Dan visits with Dane Ortlund, pastor and author of Gentle and Lowly, as they explore the heart of Christ – his gentleness toward the penitent, his costly, enduring love, and how this vision reshapes everyday Christian life, from how we see ourselves to how we love our families, coworkers, and even those who have hurt us.
• Man’s Plans vs. God’s Intentions, Part 2. Russ Gehrlein writes “In my last article, I discussed a pivotal moment in my life when I was unexpectedly released from a youth ministry position, and how this led to a transformative career journey that only God could have orchestrated. There is more to the story. First, I will share the details of how God led me into a different calling, and how this ultimately benefited my family, helped others, and glorified him.”
• 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).
• Our Work Matters to God (Even If Our Church Doesn’t Say So). Denise Lee Yohn writes “Here is the truth I keep coming back to: our work matters to God, and God matters to our work.”
• Ministering to the Marketplace: What Can a Pastor Do? Dr. Bill Fullilove writes “How can a pastor develop a sensitivity to life in the marketplace without having spent years in it? There is much we can do.”
• How Do I Balance My Career Ambitions With My Faith? Robert Plummer answers that question in this episode of Honest Answers.
• The Lies Workaholism Tells Us. Scott Sauls writes “For most of my career, I have functioned as if my worth depended on the quality, intensity, and output of my work. That is the deep lie at the center of workaholism, which is a disease with many faces.”
• When Your Dream Dies, Find a New Dream. Russ Gehrlein writes “I invite you to join me on a journey through the three phases of my career: from matheducation, to ministry, and to the military. While my dreams to pursue the first two careers were similar, I can now say with confidence that my third and predominant career was never a dream, but God used it in a mighty way. What He did for me, I believe He can do for all of His children who trust Him.”
• What Great Leaders Do Differently with Mark Miller. Leading today means delivering results while navigating constant change and still showing up for your people, and many leaders are feeling the strain. On this episode of the Blanchard Leaderchat podcast, Mark Miller, co-author of The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do, shares what it looks like to lead differently in that kind of environment. Grounded in the SERVE model, he offers practical ways to create clarity, build trust, and stay focused on performance without losing sight of people. It’s a grounded look at how strong leaders balance results, growth, and sustainability, for themselves and their teams.

---

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
• The true measure of leaders is not the number of people who serve them but the number of people they serve. John Maxwell
• Work and vocation are not identical. Vocation entails service in the place where God has given gifts and a desire to make a difference in this world. Dan Doriani
• Instead of striving to be served, Christian leaders strive to serve. Harry Reeder
• The biblical worldview has the highest opinion of the most menial of work. Tim Keller
• Work is inherently good and a way we reflect the image of God. Jeff Haanen
• The pattern for work: rearranging the raw material of God’s creation in such a way that helps the world thrive and flourish. Tim Keller
• What if you’re struggling under an unfair boss or a tedious job that doesn’t take advantage of all your gifts? It’s liberating to accept that God is fully aware of where you are at any moment and that by serving the work you’ve been given you are serving him. Tim Keller
• I’m prepared to contend that the primary location for spiritual formation is the workplace,” wrote the late pastor and scholar Eugene Peterson

---

FAITH AND WORK BOOK REVIEW:
Church Planting Is for Wimps: How God Uses Messed-Up People to Plant Ordinary Churches That Do Extraordinary Things by Mike McKinley. Crossway. 128 pages. 2016
***

I read this book to prepare for an event with several seminary students who will also be reading this book, some of who may become church planters. In this book, Mike McKinley shares his story of planting a church. He writes that he has learned that God uses messed-up people like himself to plant churches that look utterly unremarkable to the world, and in His kindness, God does amazing things through those churches.

He hopes that the book will inspire some people to become church planters, encourage others who are in the middle of the church planting journey, spur pastors of existing congregations to invest heavily in church planting, and give all church members a better sense of how they might love and pray for church planting teams.

McKinley tells his story of spending a little over a year on staff at Capitol Hill Baptist Church (CHBC), and then planting a church that would be called Guilford Baptist Church with seven other people thirty miles away in Sterling, Virginia.

As he tells his church planting story, he addresses subjects such as diversity (the church was in a location in which there were several Spanish speaking people). He goes on to state that it seems like we should intentionally plant churches that will, as much as possible, welcome and engage people who are different and diverse with respect to age, gender, personality, and nationality.

McKinley takes us through the “game plan” that he developed while on staff at  CHBC. This would include meeting with members of CHBC who might be interested in church planting. He would also meet with other church planters and pastors in the area where we were going to plant, and become more involved with the public teaching at CHBC. The long-term goal was to start a gospel work about forty-five minutes outside of Washington, D.C.

He looks at both church planting (starting a congregation from scratch) and church revitalizing (reviving the ministry of an almost dead church). They share the same goal: raising up a faithful gospel witness where none exists. He shares advantages and disadvantages of each. In the end, he pursued church revitalization.

He would begin as the pastor of Guilford Fellowship on June 1, 2005. On his first Sunday, they changed the name back to its original name: Guilford Baptist.

He writes that what Guilford Fellowship needed most fundamentally was someone to preach God’s Word to them.

He writes about the importance of church membership, indicating that it is essential to know who belongs and who doesn’t, and who is accountable to whom. So, one of the first things they did was to establish a proper membership roll. He then worked on the church’s existing mission and vision statements, statement of faith, and constitution and by-laws. Overall, they spent about a year and a half cleaning up the church’s organizing documents.

He then addressed the issue of church leadership, deciding to implement, like CHBC, a plural eldership. He discusses training men in the church for small group leaders and new elders (the training outline is included in an appendix).

They would eventually plant a Spanish-speaking church, called Iglesia Bautista Guilford Mission Hispana.

He honestly addresses the problems in his marriage during the time he was planting the church. He states that planting a church can be brutal on your marriage.

This was a helpful quick read about church planting and revitalization.

---

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 3: Sacred Work. Here are a few helpful quotes from the chapter:

• One of the ways we can engage God’s purposes in our work is to recognize the ways that the work we do is meaningful.
• Any work that enhances human dignity, gives people autonomy, exercises creativity, results in useful and needed goods and services, contributes to healthy relationships, or provides healthy rhythms of work and rest can be redemptive work.
• God can use our work to shape our own character and soul.
• Working hard and acting with integrity at work were frequently mentioned as ways people could be mindful of the sacred in their work.
• Workers explained that their Christian beliefs influenced the ways they saw others and interacted with them at work.
• Toil, while unpleasant and difficult to go through, can ultimately lead to a redemptive experience of resiliency and thriving at work.