Coram Deo ~

Looking at contemporary culture from a Christian worldview

Working for Better BOOK CLUB

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 the Preface: Why This Book? Here are a few helpful quotes from the chapter:

  • One of the best ways we can live out our calling as Christians in the workplace is to radically embrace those who are different from ourselves.
  • That is what you will find in this book: a research-based examination of how religion and spirituality enter the workplace, how American workers see the connections between faith and work, and how organizational leaders can understand and lead religiously diverse, faith-friendly workplaces.
  • At the end of each chapter, we have provided some reflection questions. These questions will be useful to individuals or groups.
  • In most chapters we also include questions that are designated for faith communities.

Chapter 1: A Look at How the World is Changing

  • At all levels of business in the United States, employees no longer want to leave their faith behind when they go to work. As workers increasingly bring their faith to work, it creates new challenges for leaders in handling religion in the workplace.
  • Organizational leaders need tools for how to foster respectful expression rather than suppress religious identity.
  • We conducted a first-of-its-kind set of research projects to form a data-driven approach to identifying and proposing solutions for the challenge of fostering faith at work.
  • Rather than concentrating solely on the kind of employee we are, our own expressions of faith at work, and our personal responsibility and morality, we can examine the values of the workplace as a whole and work to advance justice, fairness, human flourishing, and the common good.
  • When we put our research alongside the traditional understandings and approaches that have characterized the Christian faith-at-work movement, five key tensions emerged that show where the gaps are between assumptions and realities. We explore each of these tensions across a pair of chapters describing the pressures building and suggesting how they might be resolved.
  • We make the case that the exclusive claims of Christianity actually demand an embrace of others in the workplace, regardless of their faith commitments, belief systems, or worldviews.
  • We are arguing for the equivalent value and dignity of each person and for an approach to Christianity in the workplace that recognizes and centers on such.
  • Using compelling real-world stories, research insights, and practical applications, we hope to provide new information, ideas, and guidance for Christian workers, Christian workplace leaders, and pastors and church leaders who want to see all people flourish at work.
  • Our primary goal is to help those in the Christian faith community consider how to adapt their approach to a changing world in which older ways can get in the way and newer ways open the way.

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.