Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

• Young Men, Don’t Let AI Steal Your Work Ethic. Seth Troutt writes “How might we disciple young men to embrace their identity as workers at a time when the future of work feels so up in the air?”
• 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).
• Help! My Coworkers Claim to Be Christians but Don’t Act Like It. Miranda Carls responds to the question “I work as an administrative assistant in a public school system. This has been challenging and often discouraging, but I’ve also been able to share my faith with non-Christian colleagues. My bigger challenge is actually fellow Christian colleagues, some of whom are so liberal I’m not sure what parts of the Bible they believe. Do you have any advice on how to share Christ with people who think they’re already walking with him?”

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 ~ How to Get a Return on Failure: Fail Smarter—Return Stronger by John Maxwell
• Quotes from the book Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Work by Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

• Amy Sherman’s Keynote Address from Creative Arts Collective’s Creative Summit 2026. “The Creative Arts Collective was honored to have Dr. Amy Sherman, Senior Fellow at Sagamore Institute’s Center on Faith in Communities, give the keynote address at the 2026 The Creative Summit: Exploring Faith, Vocation, & Imagination at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Through her engaging talk, Dr. Sherman encouraged attendees about the pursuit of faith and work integration in a talk titled, “Art for Good: A Vocation of Love”.”
• 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).
• Becoming a Questionable Worker with J.R. Briggs. “Uncover the secret sauce to transforming your work and relationships—by asking better questions. J.R. Briggs reveals how mastering this art can deepen your faith, foster genuine connections, and even reshape your understanding of how to walk as Jesus did. Briggs, author of The Art of Asking Better Questions: Pursuing Stronger Relationships, Healthier Leadership, and Deeper Faith explores why so many of us struggle with questions—culturally, perceptually, and practically—and how this impacts our faith-driven work. He shares surprising insights from his research, including the staggering statistic that Jesus asked over 300 questions in the Gospels, yet only directly answered 5. Whether you’re leading a team, parenting, volunteering, or navigating your own career, this episode of The Faith & Work podcast will inspire you to prioritize the art of asking and live with greater curiosity, purpose, and faith.”
• Your Calling is a Zigzag. Will Parker Anderson shares six lessons from his zigzag journey that he hopes will encourage you in whatever season you’re in.
• Homemaking: Divine, Not Demeaning. Charisse Compton writes “This week, as you go about the work of your home, generously open your hand and your heart to satisfy those the Lord has given you.”
• What a 6th-Century Monk Can Teach Exhausted Workers Today. Gage Arnold writes “The answer comes from Benedict of Nursia, a monk who lived 15 centuries ago but developed a theology of work that is surprisingly relevant for the dilemmas of 2026.”
• The Sports Betting Problem: A Conversation with Steve Moehrle, Accountant and Professor. Accounting professor Steve Moerhle joins Dan on this episode of Working with Dan Doriani to talk about his interest in sports betting: how it’s grown in recent years, and how the market value of these companies is an indication that they are betting on people to lose a lot of money through gambling. Steve and Dan cover the ethics of gambling, the traps the industry uses, and what it looks like to use your money wisely.
• How I Think About AI in My Medical Practice. Joel Cho writes “We ought to start by remembering with confidence that our sovereign triune God is still on the throne. All wisdom to use this technology must be found in the theological principles that flow out of the pages of his living Word.”
• The Meaning of Mundane Work. Robert Covolo writes “In Christ, ordinary work becomes both an act of worship and a means of loving our neighbors.”

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Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week

• Any work that is useful to others and done with excellence is deserving of honor. Tim Keller
• Whereas the man of the world sees work as a necessary evil by which he seeks to earn a living and, at the most, make himself rich, the redeemed man sees work as worship. Conrad Mbewe
• When you think of the things in your life as a ministry, instead of a career or a hobby, or even just a family, it changes everything. Scott Drew
• The godly man exerts himself with all the strength and giftings that God has given him to fill his time with fruitful labor. Conrad Mbewe
• All work done well has a dignity in the eyes of God. Tim Keller
• 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
• 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
• A calling is something you have to do. A dream is something you want to do. Calling is doing what you are created to do. John Maxwell
• Therefore, do not be discontented with your calling. Whatever God has made your position or your work, remain in that, unless you are quite sure that He calls you to something else. Let your first concern be to glorify God to the best of your ability where you are. Charles Spurgeon

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FAITH, and WORK BOOK REVIEW:

How to Get a Return on Failure: Fail Smarter—Return Stronger by John Maxwell. Forbes Books. 184 pages. 2026
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Best-selling leadership author John Maxwell asks what separates successful people from unsuccessful people? His answer is that successful people know how to deal with failure in a positive way so that they get a positive return on failure—an ROI. He tells us that if you want to be as successful as you can be and reach your full potential, you need to learn how to get a return on failure.

Maxwell has written on failure in the past, most notably his 2000 book Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes Into Stepping Stones for Success. Each chapter of this new book ends with helpful Discussion Questions and Action Steps to implement what was taught in the chapter. These sections are helpful whether you are reading the book individually or with others.

Maxwell asks what if failure is actually necessary for you to become successful, to reach your full potential? He responds that the most successful people succeed because they deal with failure positively.

Among the topics covered in the book are leveraging failure, putting distance between failure and fault, the cycle of success, learning to reject rejection, fear of failure, learning through failure, bad misses and good misses, emphasizing strengths over weaknesses, and leading others through failure.

This is a helpful book on how to deal with failure in a positive way.

Here are 15 helpful quotes from the book:

• Even though you have failed, that doesn’t mean you are a failure.
• Give yourself grace and choose to focus on your ups more than your downs.
• To use failure as an investment in your future, you have to find the benefits in every failure and use them to learn and grow.
• 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.
• You can let failure beat you down, or you can use failure to make yourself better. The choice is yours.
• Developing character is a never-ending process, and our response to failure is a major determining factor for who we are.
• If you learn—no matter how difficult a time you have or how catastrophic a failure you experience—you will improve. You will become a better person, a better leader, and a better worker in your profession.
• Everything worthwhile is uphill. If you want to get anywhere in life, you will need to accept this truth. It’s the only way you will be able to get a return on failure.
• One of the most important concepts we must accept to get a return on failure is that hard never ends. We must embrace the idea of again.
• Every failure is a learning opportunity. The more you fail, the more you have the potential to learn.
• Bad misses move us backward. But good misses can move us forward when we know how to get a return on them.
• If we want to be successful, we must know our strengths and focus on using and developing them, not our weaknesses.
• Life isn’t about what happens to you. Life is about how you respond to what’s happening to you.
• You need to help others by leading them through failure so they can be successful.
• If you pursue opportunities, you may fail, or you may succeed. But if you don’t pursue opportunities, you will always fail.

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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 5: Protecting Others. Here are a few helpful quotes from this chapter:

• We think that faithfulness in our current moment may require less attention to ourselves as Christians and more attention to others.
• Christians, especially those in positions of power and leadership (which is many of us!), have a specific faith-based responsibility to fight for those who are othered, which in the majority of workplaces is not Christians.
• Workplace leaders rarely openly discuss religious discrimination, how it relates to other kinds of discrimination, or what can be done to rectify it or, better yet, prevent it in the first place.
• Part of being a faithful Christian at work is your awareness of and concern for those who are not Christians.
• There are many things that we as Christians can do—and even have a responsibility to do—to protect the rights of non-Christians in the workplace, born out of a radical commitment to the imago Dei.