Corey Willson's PhD Shaping the Lenses on Everyday Work

Cory Willson's PhD has now been published online:
Shaping the Lenses on Everyday Work: A Neo-Calvinist Understanding of the Poetics of Work and Vocational Discipleship

In order to take the theology of work conversation forward, “Shaping the Lenses on Everyday Work: A Neo-Calvinist Understanding of the Poetics of Work and Vocational Discipleship” uses an interdisciplinary methodology that incorporates methods from qualitative research to explore the lived realities of contemporary Christians in their work and church contexts. The first third of the dissertation provides an historical analysis of the early theologies of work written by Pope Leo XIII and Herman Bavinck as well as critical reflection on the leading contemporary theologies of work. These historical and literary analyses outline the necessary methodological and theological issues that must be addressed in a theology of work for the Twenty-First Century. The guiding theological framework of human work is a biblical theology of the missio Dei, the mission of God. This theological framework used to interpret the ethnographic research conducted in three congregations. A concluding chapter draws several conclusions for constructing a theology of work for congregations as well as suggestions for how to cultivate a theological imagination for everyday work in Christians.

Chapter 1: Exploring Work Anew

Chapter 2: Historical Background: Herman Bavinck’s Engagement with the “Social Question”

Chapter 3: Overview of Contemporary Theologies of Work

Chapter 4: A Biblical and Theological Grounding of the Manifold Mission of the Triune God

Chapter 5: An Interdisciplinary Methodology for Cultural Hermeneutics

Chapter 6: A Theology of Work from the Road: Congregational Approaches to Vocational Discipleship

Chapter 7: A Theology and Spirituality of Work Fit for Our Times

Mouw hits the spot - again

Some great thoughts from Richard Mouw [HT Antony Billington]

“My pastor has no idea of the kind of world I live in six days a week.” That came from a prominent businessperson, a venture capitalist, during a lunch we had together when I visited the city where he works.

And even though that particular comment was clearly a complaint, it was expressed in a larger context in which he was speaking quite warmly about his involvement in the local church.

His congregation has good programs for his children, and he and his wife are involved in a small group they find spiritually nurturing. His pastor preaches good, biblically based sermons. All of that is very positive in his mind. What is missing, though, is any sort of connection to his actual daily work experience.

Kingdom Calling - Part 2 ch 5-8

Kingdom Calling

Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good

Amy L. Sherman

Part Two: Discipling for Vocational Stewardship

Chapter 5 on faith and work integration opens Part two with some revealing statistics:

Fewer than 10% of regular churchgoers ... can remember the last time their pastor preached on the topic of work
The Leadership Journal has 152 matches for 'vocation' - 95% of these were on the vocation of the pastorate
The Christian Century only had 9 hits
Discipleship Journal produced 41 - only one of which was about faith and work integration.

Faith and work integration is not on the churches agenda it seems. And yet there are over 600 books on the topic - at least according to The Marketplace Annotated Bibliography by Pete Hammond, R. Paul Stevens and Todd Svanoe (2002).

Sherman draws upon David Miller's research in God at Work (2007). Miller identifies four approaches/ quadrants to work and faith 'integration: 

Each approach has its strengths, but the best approach is one that adopts all four - the everywhere integrator. Sherman and her researchers looked at 15 marketplace ministries to see how many of them adopt an integrator approach.

The ministeries examined were:

• Blackaby Ministries International
• Marketplace Ministries
• Fellowship of Companies for Christ International, 
• Kingdom Companies
• Breakthrough Fellowship 
• Businessmen’s Fellowship USA
• International Fellowship of Christian Businessmen
• Christians in Commerce
• His Church at Work now WorkLife
• C12 Group
• Christian Businessmen Connection
• Kiros
• Life Chasers
• Marketplace Network/Made to Matter
• International Christian Chamber of Commerce (UK)
• Needle’s Eye Ministries

They found that none of them fit into quadrant 4 and none reflected the integrator approach.

It is obvious that much work is to be done!

Chapter 6 opens with an illustration from Doug Spada - the church needs to be an aircraft carrier not a cruise ship: 

What is missing is the teaching of a biblical theology of work coming from the pulpit. We need to hear that work is not a result of the fall.

Sherman lists several labours that God is involved in: redemptive, creative, providential, justice, compassionate and revelatory. She maintains that  pastors can 'explain the ways in which God is a worker, and then encourage their congreants to identify where their own labors fit'.  She then examines some false ideas about work.

Chapter 7 looks at approaches that have been used to help congregations discover their gifting. She makes some good comments about the weakness of many of the 'tools'. The main one being is that they are primarily designed to help people serve the church.

Chapter 8 examines the characteristics of vocational stewards: servanthood, responsibility, courage,humility and being prepared to share power. Again the theoretical underpinnings are illustrated with excellent examples from the workplace of people who exhibit these important characteristics.

Kingdom Calling - Introduction

My copy of Amy L. Sherman's Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good has just arrived. My first impression is that this book is a dynamite! If it it delivers what it promises then it will certainly be one of the books of the decade!

The introduction starts by looking at the depressing picture portrayed in Michael Lindsay's Faith in the Halls of Power. Lindsay interviewed 360 evangelicals who are in top jobs, he found that their lifestyles were no different for their peers. In some cases the only difference their Christianity made was a plaque on the wall or a cross around their neck. She contrasts this with Proverbs 11:10a: 'When the righteous [tsaddiqm] prosper, the city rejoices...' She maintains that this implies that 'by the intentional stewardship of their time, talent and treasure the tsaddiqm bring nothing less than foretastes of the kingdom of God into reality.' 

For this to happen we need to 'take vocation more seriously' (p. 20).

She coins the brilliant term 'vocational stewardship', by this she means:

the intentional and strategic development of vocational power - knowledge, platform, position, influence, skills and reputations - to advance foretastes of God's kingdom.

She sees vocational stewardship as an essential strategy and she has written this book to help implement that strategy.

Contents

Foreword by Reggie McNeal

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Glorious Vision of Proverbs 11:10

Part I: Theological Foundations
1. What Does a Rejoiced City Look Like?
2. What Do the Righteous Look Like?
3. Why We Aren't the Tsaddiqim
4. How the Gospel of the Kingdom Nurtures the Tsaddiqim

Part II: Discipling for Vocational Stewarship
5. Integrating Faith and Work: The Status Quo is Inadequate
6. Inspiration
7. Discovery
8. Formation

Part III: Pathways of Vocational Stewardship
9. Deploying Vocational Power: Four Pathways
10. Pathway 1: Bloom Where You're Planted
11. Pathway 2: Donate Your Skills
12. Pathway 3: Launch Your Own Social Enterprise
13. Pathway 4: Participate in Your Church's Targeted Initiative

Conclusion: Rejoicing the City
Afterword by Steven Garber
Appendix A: Key Theological Themes Undergirding Vocational Stewardship
Appendix B: A Discussion Guide for Congregational Small Groups
Appendix C: For Further Information
Appendix D: Index of Profiles by Vocation

Workplace ministry - Mark Greene

What full-time Christian minsters need to know about secular work

1. All Christian are involved in full-time Christian ministry. There is no such thing as part-time Christians. Never use the term "full-time Christian ministry" to describe only those with a role in the church or a church-related activity.

2. There is no sacred-secular divide. It’s not the activity that makes it secular, it’s the attitude and approach.The term secular shouldn't only be used to describe work that's done outside of church.

3. Serving Christ is not all about church-related activities.

British evangelicals and the problem of work Stuart Weir EvQ 83(2) (2011)

The recent issue of Evangelical Quarterly 83 (2) (2011) contains an interesting article by Stuart Weir, a PhD student at Edinburgh, on 'British evangelicals and the problem of work'. In it updates John Stott's reasons for the withdrawal of evangelicals from social involvement. But what is intriguing about this paper is what he promises to look at in his PhD:

What is required ... is a theological account that shows how all works which co-operate with the agency of the Spirit, regardless of an agent's faith, will be redeemed for the new creation. Any work performed in cooperation with the Spirit is one that will be eschatologically redeemed by virtue of its divine empowerment. Because of the divinity of the Holy Spirit, pneumatology should indeed take theological primacy in such discussions about human work. [Footnote: My forthcoming doctoral research aims to provide an account of this claim.] (p. 146)

Sounds like a worthwhile project! His final section goes on to say:

In light of the gradual reconciliation between British evangelical theology and the value of everyday work, Stott wishes to reinvigorate serious reflection on human works with a focus upon the doctrine of God, theological anthropology, christology, soteriology and ecclesiology. Striking by their absence in this list of theological repairs are pneumatology and eschatology.

But the provision of a pneumatology of works is essential. Such an account would open the door to discuss how some of the world's works which might be included in the new creation. God himself will bring the new creation into being through a transformation of this world. Such a hope for this world stems from what Jesus taught his followers to pray: 'Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven' (Matt. 6.10). The kingdom will not be a distinct place from the world, but will eventually spread throughout this world like yeast does in bread. Finally, through the purifying fires of Christ's judgement, a transformation of this creation will emerge.

An account which shows that the agency of the Spirit in cooperation with human works should, and must, take primacy in discussing the world's work if common grace theologies are accepted. This pneumatological emphasis must draw eschatology into play because pneumatology is automatically an eschatological matter. Not only does the Spirit presently encourage and empower eschatological anticipations of the new creation (Rom. 8.18-25), but he is also the one who will bring the fulness of the new creation into being at Christ's second coming. If the world can periodically work 'in the Spirit', then particular works might be caught up in the purposes of God for ultimate redemption.

His doctoral dissertation is entitled: 'Non-Christian’ Work and the Holy Spirit: The Empowerment of Good Work and the New Creation.

Work - a Bible study

This is a study I wrote many years ago. I've just uploaded it to scribd:

Work – a Bible study

Work – a Bible study

The purpose of this Bible study is:
• To hear what the Bible has to say about work
• To start to develop a Christian view of work; and
• To help each other to become more Christian in our work

Points to consider
1. Why do we work?

2. Is God concerned about our work?

3. Which of the following are work and which are not? Why?

Cleaning the bathroom
Reading
Counselling
Watching TV
Praying
Sleeping
Washing dishes
Stamp collecting
Gardening
Surfing the Internet
Blogging

4. Are there any jobs more important than others?

5. Are there any jobs more ‘spiritual’ than others?


Genesis 2:2
Psalm 8:3-6
Psalm 90:16,7
Does God work?

Genesis 1: 27-28
What does imaging God involve?

Genesis 2:15
Is work a result of the fall?


Genesis 3:17-19
What effect did the fall have upon work?

Exodus 20:9
Has the fall removed the privilege of work?

Isaiah 28:23-26
What help can we expect from God in our work?

Proverbs 6:6
2 Thess 3:10
Is it sinful to be unemployed?

Proverbs 31:10-31
Are there any jobs that a man/ woman can do that a woman/ man cannot

Rev 14:13
Is 65:22-25
Will we work on the new earth?
Will there be any jobs we won’t need on the new earth?

Final points to consider

1. Are there any jobs a Christian should not do?

2. Should we be fulfilled in our work? If we are not what can we do about it?

3. How can we be more Christian in our work?

4. How can we support each other in our respective work?

Vocational Calvinism by Ray pennings

Ray Pennings has a fascinating piece in this week's Comment: Vocational Calvinism. He writes:

Reformed, Calvinist teaching regarding work can be summarized as follows:

1. God works, and we are called to bear His image;
2. God derives satisfaction from His work;
3. God provides for us through our work;
4. God has commanded man to work, and to work within the framework of His commands;
5. God holds us accountable for our work and expects to be acknowledged through it;
6. God provides particular gifts designed to meet particular needs in the advancement of His kingdom;
7. The Fall has radically affected our work. Work became toil;
   thorns and thistles frustrate our efforts. Fallen man seeks to glorify
   himself rather than his Creator through work;
8. Work is an individual as well as a social activity;
9. God takes pleasure in beauty, and the Scriptures do not focus simply on the functional and utilitarian aspects of work; and
10. Christ worked as part of His active obedience, and the believer's work through Christ is part of that obedience.

McKnight on work

Scot McKnight is working through Darrell Codsen's excellent little book on work: The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work.

I'm really pleased that Scot is drawing this book to people's attention. It's one of the few books that treats work as being worthwhile in itself and not viewing work as a just a mission field, a place to share the gospel.

Towards a Christian view of work

The modern concept of work has little in common with that of Genesis. In contemporary society our whole identity is too often tied up with "what we do", our employment. The fruit of this identification of work with employment and identity is that we have marginalised the unemployed. They are the outcasts.

The biblical story of creation. fall and redemption provides a useful framework in which to look at work.

The creation narrative is highly subversive(Hasel 1974; Walsh 1992; Wenham 1987). It undermined ancient near Eastern worldviews and continues to subvert contemporary ideas about work:

• Work is a necessary means to an end (i.e. leisure and wealth)
• Work is a necessary evil
• Work is the earning of a wage

Creation

The first thing to note is that work is not a product of the fall. It is a part of the creation order. This undermines any notion that work is a necessary evil. God works and expects his creatures to work as well. Melakah, the ordinary word for human work (Wenham 1987: 35), is used to describe the activity of God: God works. This is in refreshing contrast to Greek gods who spent their time eating and drinking.

For the Greeks and Romans work was "unleisure" (Vanderkloet 1980: 21). From a biblical perspective work is positive not negative. It is part of what it means to be image bearers of God. Imaging God involves work. Thus, work can, in and of itself, bring fulfilment, it is not a means to the end of pleasure. To be human is to work (Dow 1987:13). This is in stark contrast to the Babylonian creation stories.

In the sixth tablet of the Enuma Elish humans are created so that gods do not have to work (Walton 1989 :22)

Blood will I compose, bring a skeleton into being,

Produce a lowly, primitive creature, "Man" shall be his name: I will create lullu-amelu - an earthly, "puppet"-man.

To him be charged the service that the gods may then have rest...

(Enuma Elish VI.5 in Winton Thomas (1958:12))

In Atrahasis some deities become tired of their work and rebel: "The gods' solution is to create [humans] to do the work" (Walton 1989: 21). Work is seen as a punishment; in the biblical narratives work is a privilege and a divine commission.

For the Greeks to be a manual labourer was to be considered part slave; freedom to pursue leisure was the only worthwhile life. In Gen 2: we have God creating humans out of the earth presumably as a potter with his hands! Here God vindicates manual labour.

What is often supposed to be the so-called second creation story places the creation of humanity in the context of work. There was no-one to work the ground, so God created humanity (2:5-7). Work (abad) in this context takes on a stewardship function. Work is important so that the garden can be cultivated. This echoes the supposed Priestly creation story where part of the human task of imaging God is to subdue the earth and rule over the living creatures(Cf Hall 1986;1990)

Work is integral to the human task of stewardship, hence work is not merely for humans to eat and feed others (pace Houston1980:162), or to earn a wage. It is part and parcel of developing and continuing the task of creation began by God.

We can concur with William Tyndale:

There is no work better than another to please God: to pour water, to wash dishes, to be a souter (cobbler) or an apostle, all is one; to wash dishes, and to preach is all one, as touching the deed, to please God.

Fall

Work is deformed by the fall. Its direction has been changed. Instead of meaningful work we can expect toil. The boa constrictor of toil has swallowed the warthog of work. Abad becomes itstsabon.

Itstsabon used only 3 times in the scriptures: twice in Gen 3 the other in Gen 5:29. It has been translated as sorrow, pain and toil. As a result of the fall, childbearing and work become a painful toil.

The work in developing the garden and producing food to eat is hampered by thistles and thorns. The mandate to fill the earth and subdue it is not rescinded it just becomes that much harder.

Redemption

Genesis 1-4 can only hint at the redemption of work: the warthog of work can now swallow the boa constrictor of toil - thanks only to the redemptive power of the cross and resurrection. Work and rest go hand in hand. It is this aspect that can help redeem work. Work without rest results in workaholism; rest without work results in laziness. The jubilee legislation and the decalogue are rooted in these creational aspects of work and then rest and are designed to bring a measure of redemption to work.

The punishments that come as the result of human sin i.e. infertile ground, that leads to toil, and banishment are standard curses, the remedy for which is obedience (cf Lev 26; Deut 28).

Many jobs are boring, repetitive and tedious, these jobs - if technology for instance were done responsibly before God - could be transformed. It is an obedient use of appropriate and responsible technology (Monsma 1986) that could relieve the frustration and tedium from jobs. If businesses and factories were run in obedience to biblical norms then jobs could be redeemed. Unfortunately for many employment is little short of slavery.

We can catch glimpses of redeemed jobs this side of the eschaton. We can, however, look forward to the toil that resulted from the fall being undone at the consummation. The thorns and thistles will be no more: there will be a whole transformation of the creation(Gowan 1986: ch 4).

There will be work in the new earth, it will however be work that is meaningful and not frustrating or tedious.

References

Graham Dow "What place does work have in God's purpose" Holy Trinity Papers (1987)

Donald E. Gowan Eschatology in the Old Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986)

Douglas J Hall Imaging God: Dominion as Stewardship (Friendship/ Eerdmans, 1986)

Douglas J Hall The Steward: A Biblical Symbol Come of Age (Friendship/ Eerdmans, 1990)

Gerhard Hasel "The polemic nature of the Genesis cosmology" Evangelical Quarterly vol 46 (1974) pp 81-102

James M. Houston I Believe in the Creator (Eerdmans, 1980)

Stephen Monsma (Editor) Responsible Technology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986)

D. Winton Thomas (ed.) Documents from Old Testament Times (London: Nelson, 1958)

Edward Vanderkloet "Why work anyway?" in Labour of Love: Essays on Work (Wedge, 1980)

Brian J. Walsh Subversive Christianity: Imaging God in a Dangerous Time (Regius, 1992)

John H Walton Ancient Israelite Literature in its Cultural Context (Regency/ Zondervan, 1989)

Gordon J. Wenham Genesis 1-15 (WBC) (Word, 1987)

Christian work

Dorothy L. Sayers from 'Why work?' in Creed or Chaos:

The only Christian work is good work done well. Let the Church see to it that the workers are Christian people and do their work well, as to God: then all the work will be Christian work, whether it is Church embroidery, or sewage-farming. As Jacques Maritain says: 'If you want to produce Christian work, be a Christian, and try to make a work of beauty into which you have put your heart; do not adopt a Christian pose.' He is right. And let the Chruch remember that the beauty of the work will be judged by its own, and not by ecclesiastical standards. Let me give you an illustration of what I mean. When my play The Zeal of Thy House was produced in London, a dear old pious lady was much struck by the beauty of the four great archangels who stood throughout the play in their heavy, gold robes, eleven feet high from wing-tip to sandal-tip. She asked with great innocence 'whether I selected the actors who played the angels for the excellence of their moral character?' I replied that the angels were selected, to begin with, not by me but by the producer, who had the technical qualifications for selecting suitable actors - for that was part of his vocation. And that he selected, in the first place, young men who were six feet tall, so that they would match properly together. Secondly, angels had to be of good physique, so as to be able to stand stiff on the stage for two and a half hours, carrying the weight of their wings and costumes, without wobbling, or fidgeting, or fainting. Thirdly, they must be able speak verse well, in an agreeable voice and audibly. Fourthly, they must be reasonably good actors. When all these technical conditions were fulfilled, we might come to the moral qualities, of which the first would be the ability to arrive on the stage punctually and in a sober condition, since the curtain must go up on time, and a drunken angel would indecorous. After that, and only after that, one might take character into consideration, but that - provided his behaviour was not so scandalous as to cause dissension among the company - the right kind of actor with no morals would give a far more reverent and seemly performance than a saintly actor with the wrong technical qualifications. The worst religious films I ever saw were produced by a company which chose its staff exclusively for their piety. Bad photography, bad acting, and bad dialogue produced a result so grotesquely irreverent that the pictures could not have been shown in churches without bringing Christianity into contempt. God is not served by technical incompetence; and incompetence and untruth always result when the secular vocation is treated as a thing alien to religion.