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faith @ work a s t u d y g u i d e o n t h e i n t e g r a t i o n

o f f a i t h a n d w o r k

Faith @ work a s t u d y g u i d e o n t h e i n t e g r a t i o n

o f f a i t h a n d w o r k

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introduCtionWelcome to our Faith@Work Study Guide on the integration of faith and work. The lessons in this packet are designed to help you reimagine work in an entirely new and God honoring way! A series of key resources will be drawn upon heavily as listed below...

• EveryGoodEndeavor by Tim Keller• CultureMaking:RecoveringourCreativeCalling by Andy Crouch• WorkMatters by Tom Nelson

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ContentsL e s s o n 1 : t h e d i s C o n n e C t o f w o r k f r o m f a i t h .............................. 6

L e s s o n 2 : t h e d e s i g n o f w o r k .................................................................................. 10

L e s s o n 3 : t h e d i g n i t y o f w o r k – P a r t i ....................................................... 14

L e s s o n 4 : t h e d i g n i t y o f w o r k – P a r t i i ..................................................... 18

L e s s o n 5 : t h e d i f f i C u L t y o f w o r k ........................................................................ 22

a P P e n d i x ................................................................................................................................................... 29

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Lesson oneT h e d i s c o n n e c T o f w o r k f r o m f a i T h

r e a d

Read both the Forward and Introduction of EveryGoodEndeavor

B r i e f s y n o P s i s

While our faith indirectly motivates us to evangelize in the workplace and to make charitable donations to churches and other non-profit causes, our faith should most directly impact the WAY we work! Yet, our usual approaches and experiences of work reveal that something is missing. As result, Keller will reimagine work for us …

“[It]willallhangonthisessentialtheology:theknowledgeofwhoGodis,hisrelationtoman,hisplanfortheworld,andhowthegoodnews(orgospel)ofChristturnsourlivesandthewayweworkupsidedown.”

In addition, Keller will redefine our work from being merely an occupation to a vocation …

“Ajobisvocationonlyifsomeoneelsecallsyoutodoitandyoudoitforthemratherthanforyourself.Andsoourworkshouldbereimaginedasamissionorservicetosomethingbeyondmerelyourowninterests.Asweshallsee,thinkingofworkmainlyas a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a person and …underminessocietyitself!”

As we reimagine our work as a vocation, we will need to carefully navigate a series of historical and theological streams that speak to at least a way that faith impacts the WAY we work. All in all, Keller along with Katherine Alsodorf, whose contributions in this book as a former CEO lend real credibility, will expand your vision for your work!

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d i s C u s s i o n q u e s t i o n s

1. Do you “live to work” or “work to live”? In other words, is work everything or nothing to you?

2. Does your work connect with God’s work? Why or why not?

3. Has your church experience helped connect faith & work? Or has it exasperated the disconnection?

4. Did you resonate with a specific historical “stream” of faith and work? If so, why?

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5. How did Keller’s use of the Niggle story contribute to a new understanding of the significance of work?

6. At this point in your understanding, please share your thoughts on following questions …

• Why do you want to work?

• Why is it so hard to work?

• How can we overcome the difficulties and find satisfaction in our work through the gospel?

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a C t i o n P o i n t s

Reread the following paragraph from the early part of the Introduction … “Oneofthehopesourunravelingsocietyistherecovery,oftheideathatallhumanworkisnotmerelyajobbuta‘vocation.’Todaythewordoftenmeanssimplyajob,butthatwasnottheoriginalsense.Ajobisvocationonlyifsomeoneelsecallsyoutodoitandyoudoitforthemratherthanforyourself.Andsoourworkcanshouldbereimaginedasamissionorservicetosomethingbeyondmerelyourowninterests.Asweshallsee,thinkingofworkmainlyasameansofself-fulfillmentandself-realizationslowlycrushesapersonand…underminessocietyitself!”

• Do you find that Keller’s idea of job/vocation is a new one for you? If so, how?

• How could a new perspective on your work change your experience and our world?

• Begin a list of attitudes and actions that you would like to see change in your work.

Next Meeting: READ Chapter 1 of EveryGoodEndeavor

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Lesson twoT h e d e s i g n o f w o r k

r e a d

Read Chapter 1 of EveryGoodEndeavor

B r i e f s y n o P s i s

As Keller walks us back through the Creation narrative in Genesis 1-2, we see that God was the first to “work” as He creates, cares, and cultivates the physical world. His work was good as Keller summarizes …

“Inthebeginning,then,Godworked.Workwasnotanecessaryevilthatcameintothepicturelater,orsomethinghumanbeingswerecreatedtodobutthatwasbeneaththegreatGodHimself.No,Godworkedforthesheerjoyofit.Workcouldnothaveamoreexaltedinauguration.”

In the perfect Garden of Eden, God then commissions Adam and Eve to continue to work the created earth. Considering that work was present in the Garden long before sin enters, we realize that work is good and absolutely necessary for humanity to fulfill its divine purpose. As a result, it becomes appropriate to envision work even as one’s worship to God …

“WhatistheChristianunderstandingofwork?…[It]isthatworkisnot,primarily,a thingonedoes to live, but the thingone lives todo. It is, or it shouldbe, the fullexpressionoftheworker’sfaculties…themediuminwhichheoffershimselftoGod.”–DorothySayers

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d i s C u s s i o n q u e s t i o n s

god’s work 1. Our Bible opens with a classic work week in Genesis 1. What verbs denote God’s work?

2. Our Bible opens with a classic work week in Genesis 1. What verbs denote God’s work?

3. What do we learn about work since God not only worked but called His work “good”?

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Man’s work

1. This first work week in Genesis 1 isn’t just about God’s work. It is about man’s work too. Read Genesis 1:26-30 and 2:15-20. What verbs denote man’s work given by God?

2. Have you ever lost your job or experienced a period of unemployment? Why can it be so hard?

3. Why does our work matter at all?

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a C t i o n P o i n t s

Reading back through Genesis 1-2, fill out the table below placing verbs in each column. As you fill out the table, pay special attention to compare and contrast God’s work and Adam’s work in Genesis 1-2 with your own work today …

g o d ’ s w o r k a d a m ’ s w o r k y o u r w o r k

• Imagine a scenario in life in which you won the lottery or could retire not having to work the rest of your life. Specifically, you could have enough money that you don’t have to do anything yourself (mow grass, cook, clean, turn on TV, etc). While we dream of this lifestyle on vacations or looking towards retirement, what would it really be like?

• Since Paul says in Colossians 3:23 that “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord,” find 3 ways you can THANK God this week for your work … Do you find this easy or hard?

Next Meeting: READ Chapters 2 and 3 of EveryGoodEndeavor

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Lesson threeT h e d i g n i T y o f w o r k – P a r T i

r e a d

Read Chapters 2 & 3 of EveryGoodEndeavor

B r i e f s y n o P s i s

While many human cultures and philosophies have demeaned work in general or certain kinds of work specifically, the biblical narrative reveals that the divine commission to work is a mark of human dignity. In fact, God originally intended that ALL humans, made in the image of God, could find dignity in ALL kinds of work on earth as Keller states …

“WorkhasdignitybecauseitissomethingthatGoddoesandbecausewedoitinGod’splace,ashisrepresentatives.Welearnnotonlythatworkhasdignityinitself,butalsothatallkindsofworkhavedignity.”

Even the vocational choice of Jesus in His first coming defies certain philosophical expectations about the dignity of certain kinds of work as Philip Jensen states …

“IfGodcameintotheworld,whatwouldhebelike?FortheancientGreeks,hemighthave been a philosopher-king. The ancient Romans might have looked for a justand noble statesman. But how does theGod of theHebrews come into theworld?Asacarpenter.”

Essentially, ALL kinds of human work possess dignity because they are a continuation of God’s work to create and cultivate the earth. As humans create and cultivate the natural world, the resulting development will be consistently referred to as “culture making” as Wolters writes,

“The earth had been completely unformed and empty; in the six-day process ofdevelopmentGodhadformeditandfilledit–butnotcompletely.Peoplemustnowcarryontheworkofdevelopment;bybeingfruitfultheyfillitevenmore;bysubduingittheymustformitevenmore…asGod’srepresentatives,[we]carryonwhereGodleftoff.Butthisisnowtobeahumandevelopmentoftheearth.Thehumanracewillfilltheearthwithitsownkind,anditwillformtheearthforitsownkind.Fromnowonthedevelopmentofthecreatedearthwillbeasocietalandculturalinnature.”

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d i s C u s s i o n q u e s t i o n s

chapter 2: 1. What influences have shaped your view of work? (family, media, experience, philosophy, etc)

2. How do different human philosophies diminish the dignity of certain kinds of work?

3. Specifically, what kinds of dichotomies do we most often seen in relation to work?

4. Could even your worst imagined job still have dignity? If so, why?

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5. How does our being made in the image of God relate to the dignity of our work?

chapter 3: 6. In Genesis 1:28, God directs Adam and Eve to “fill the earth and subdue it.” How do their tasks as gardeners in Genesis 2 fulfill this creational mandate specifically?

7. In many ways, gardening becomes “the pattern for all work” according to Keller. What are the elements of this “pattern” that we see modeled in all other professions?

8. In what ways can we consider work to be “culture making”?(Supplementary reading = Andy Crouch’s CultureMaking:RecoveringOurCreativeCalling

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a C t i o n P o i n t s

• What biases has this lesson revealed about your view of work?

• How can you honor people in jobs this week who are typically disregarded or unvalued?

• “Referring to Keller’s quote below, how does your work involve creating and cultivating that which God has entrusted to man?”

“Whenever we bring order out of chaos, whenever we draw out creative potential, whenever we elaborate and ‘unfold’ creation beyond where it was when we found it, we are following God’s pattern of creative cultural development. In fact, our word “culture” comes from the idea of cultivation. Just as he subdued the earth in his work of creation, so he calls us now to labor as his representatives in a continuation and extension of that work of subding.” - Keller

Next Meeting: READ Chapters 4 of EveryGoodEndeavor

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Lesson fourT h e d i g n i T y o f w o r k – P a r T i i

r e a d

Read Chapters 4 of EveryGoodEndeavor

B r i e f s y n o P s i s

Humanity finds divine purpose in work primarily as a means to benefit and serve one’s community in love and with excellent competence. As a result, this motivating purpose for work reshapes our choice of work as Keller states …

“Thequestionregardingourchoiceofworkisnolonger‘Whatwillmakemethemostmoneyandgivemethemoststatus?’Thequestionmustnowbe‘How,withmyexistingabilitiesandopportunities,canIbeofgreatestservicetootherpeople,knowingwhatIdoofGod’swillandofhumanneed?’”

Such motivation also exalts ALL kinds of work whether in the garden or in the city or in the home or in the church or in government and whether with pay or without pay. As result, ANY work done to lovingly benefit one’s community would naturally benefit the community most greatly if it were done with excellence and competence as William Diehl states …

“If the call of the Christian is to participate inGod’s ongoing creative process, thebedrockofourministryhastobecompetency.Wemustuseourtalentsinascompetentamanneraspossible.”

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d i s C u s s i o n q u e s t i o n s

1. Remember back to Lesson 1 when Keller defined vocation as …“A job is vocation only if someone else calls you to do it and you do it for them rather than for yourself. And so our work should be reimagined as a mission or service to something beyond merely our own interests. As we shall see, thinking of work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a person and … undermines society itself!”

• Does this concept of both “calling” & “vocation” seem to fit with the biblical text? Why?

• What is the primary purpose of our work? In other words, what does God desire we do through our work?

2. How ought this purpose for work determine one’s selection and motivation in their work?

• Furthermore, what happens to the worker and society when this purpose isn’t pursued?

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3. How is God revealed in both “modest jobs” and “social roles” like parenting and voting?

4. Read 1 Thess. 4:9-12. Why would an unwillingness to work be one of the most unloving things you can do? In fact, what would happen to our society if we all choose not to work?

7. Keller refers to the “ministry of competence” as he then quotes Dorothy Sayers who says, “the church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him to not be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours and to come to church on Sundays. What the church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.” ... How is competency in one’s work a demonstration of one’s love?

• Why does Keller see “competence” as a value that can enhance our ministry of work?

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a C t i o n P o i n t s

• Retrace your career story. Specifically, why did you pursue your degree and/or profession?

• It is easier to see how loving service ought to motivate our work as we consider the helping professions, but how do others in business, engineering, etc see their work as loving service when the customer can often be unseen or at least not directly in front of them?

• Keller states that the central question we should be asking is “How, with my existing abilities and opportunities, can I be of greatest service to other people, knowing what I do of God’s will and of human need.”

• How does this question impact your selection of a degree or profession?

• Also, how does this question impact your motivation in this degree or profession?

• What adjustments might you need to consider this week in your profession?

Next Meeting: READ Chapters 5-8 of EveryGoodEndeavor

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Lesson fiveT h e d i f f i c u l T y o f w o r k

r e a d

Read Chapters 5-8 of EveryGoodEndeavor

B r i e f s y n o P s i s

Despite the glorious and satisfying design God had for humanity’s work, our daily experience of work often looks and feels nothing like what He intended from the beginning. Sadly, work so often can be fruitless, pointless, selfish, and even idolatrous for us!

As a result, it is common that many will experience great disillusionment and disappointment in work as evidenced by a 2013 Gallup poll that identified 3 different kinds of employees and tracked their level of engagement in work over the last 12 years …

t h e t h r e e t y P e s o f e m P L o y e e s

1 engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound con-nection to their company. They drive innovation and move the organi-zation forward.

2 not-engaged employees are essentially “checked out” They’re sleepwalking through their workday, putting time--but not energy--into their work.

3 aCtiveLy disengaged employees aren’t just unhappy at work; they’re busy acting out their unhappiness. Every day, these workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish.

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With nearly 70% of employees not engaged or actively disengaged over the last 12 years, it is no coinci-dence that the TV comedy, The Office, became so wildly popular because it captured a sad reality that many experience Monday to Friday every week. Hence, Tom Nelson summarizes …

“TheOfficesaystousthatwewerecreatedtowork,yetunresolvedtensionsfilltheairofeveryepisode,andwearelefttoponderthatworknowisnotwhatitreallyouttobe.Dailyweareconfrontedbythesoberingrealitythatourwork,theworkersweworkwith,andtheworkplacesinwhichweworkarenotasGodoriginallydesignedthem.Inamyriadofwayswearepainfullyremindedeachandeverydaythatweliveandworkinafallenandcorruptedworld.Likemanyotherthingsinlife,workinthisless-than-perfectworldisamixedbag.”-TomNelson

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

18% 16% 17% 17% 17% 15% 15% 20%

56%

26%

54%

30%

53%

30%

55%

28%

54%

29%

59%

26%

55%

30%

50%

30%

51%

29%

54%

28%

53%

28%

52%

29%

52%

30%

20% 18% 19% 19% 18%

EngagedNot EngagedActively Disengaged

(http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/162953/tackle-employees-stagnating-engagement.aspx)

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d i s C u s s i o n q u e s t i o n s

1. Keller highlights 4 key ways that sin in Genesis 3 has corrupted our “work” …

• Fruitless … How can work seem so fruitless and at times so unfulfilling?“In all our work, we will be able to envision far more than we can accomplish, both because of a lack of ability and because of resistance in the environment around us. The experience of work will include pain, conflict, envy, and fatigue, and not all our goals will be met.” -Keller

• Pointless (Ecclesiastes 2:17-20) … How can work feel absolutely pointless?

• Selfish (Genesis 11:2-4) … How can work reveal our selfishness?

• Idolatrous … How can work reveal our idols exactly?

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2. In what ways have cultural factors further distanced work from its visible benefit to others? For example, how has industrialization and the rise of a knowledge and service economy placed greater separation between someone’s job and the end customer’s benefit?

3. What kind of expectations of fulfillment ought we to have in our work today?“As products of the Depression and two world wars, my parents’ and grandparents’ generations were grateful to have work of ANY KIND because it helped them and their family survive. But members of my children’s generation are utterly dissimilar. They insist that work be fulfilling and fruitful, that it fully fit their talents and their dreams, and that it ‘do something amazing for the world,’ as one Google executive describes his company’s missions … While the circumstances shaping my parents’ generation perhaps gave them a lower view of work than the one found in the Bible’s description of creation, so my children’s generation has a more naïve and utopian view of work than is suggested by the Bible in its description of the world’s fall into sin.”-Keller

4. How does the impact of sin upon work extend beyond individuals to systemic structures and self-interest groups within our societies?

“A life of self-glorification makes unity and love between people impossible. It leaves us with the dreary choice between making the self an idol (which leads to disunity of individualist cultures) and making the group an idol (which leads to the suppression of individual freedom in tribal or collective cultures). The two things we all want so desperately – glory and relationship – can coexist only with God.” -Keller

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5. How has sin distorted our approach in choosing work? How should we choose our work?“One of the reasons work is both fruitless and pointless is the powerful inclination of the human heart to make work … the main basis of one’s meaning and identity. When this happens … [work] becomes a way to distinguish myself from my neighbor, to show the world and prove to myself that I’m special. It is a way to accumulate power and security, and to exercise control over my destiny.” - Keller

6. While work poses great frustrations and failures now, what will work look like in future?“There will be work in the paradise of the future just like there was in the paradise of the past, because God Himself takes joy in his work. In that paradise, you will be useful in the lives of others to infinite degrees of joy and satisfaction; you will perform with all the skill you can imagine.”- Keller

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a C t i o n P o i n t s

• Referring to the passages from Ecclesiastes below, how should we respond to work now even with all of its frustrations and failures?

“There is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot.” - Ecclesiastes 3:22 “Find satisfaction in all their toil – this is the gift of God”-Ecclesiastes 3:13

“Fools fold their hands and ruin themselves. Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” - Ecclesiastes 4:5-6

• Some of the frustrations and fruitlessness of work can lead us to overwork. As a result, how do we practically maintain a healthy balance between work and rest today?

• How should we perceive of competition and ambition within our world today? In other words, how can such tendencies be destructive? On the flip side, how can they be good?

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• How ought we to handle our positions in authority if actions that led to our ascension to such a position have created a guilty conscience?

• As you conceive of work, do you tend to the extreme of being “idle” not working at all or do you lean toward the other extreme where you have made your work into an “idol”?

• How can you correct this tendency in your work this week?

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appendixB o o k s

Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch

Joy At Work: A Revolutionary Approach To Work by Dennis W. Bakke

The Person Called YOU: Why You’re Here,Why You Matter, & What You Should Do W/ Your Life by Bill Hendrick

When the Kings Come Marching In: Isaiah & the New Jerusalem by Richard Mouw

Work MattersbyTom Nelson

w e B s i t e s

http://www.faithandwork.com - Tim & Redeemer Presbyterian’s Center for Faith & Work

http://www.dts.edu/hendrickscenter/resources/faithandwork/ -DTS’s Faith & Work

http://saddleback.com/connect/ministry/Saddleback-at-Work/lake-forest -Saddleback@Work