Here is a piece I wrote for The New Zealand Christian Network on the myths of faith and work:
The myths of faith and work...
The truth is...
This article refers to a study funded by Reventure and conducted by the well-respected Barna Group. Being a Christian makes a demonstrable difference in your working. This article captures some of the distinctives.
See the full article here.
Christian Workers Less Stressed & More Satisfied, Study Shows
By Clare Chate
Christians are more likely to enjoy their jobs and have greater work satisfaction than colleagues without faith.
That’s the finding of a new study by Reventure, a Christian-based organisation promoting a healthier work life.
The ‘2016 Snapshot of Australian Workplaces’ study explores workplace issues like job satisfaction, technology, productivity, and health.
Out of the 1000 people interviewed for the study, 300 were Christians, giving researchers the chance to look at how faith affects people in the workplace.
Lead researcher Dr Lindsay McMillan told Hope 103.2 that more than half of the Christians surveyed were satisfied with their jobs—compared to only 44 percent of the overall research group.
And 63 percent of the Christians enjoyed going to work every day, compared to only 53 percent of the general population of workers.
Here is an initiative of Grandview Baptist Church in Canada. Three social enterprises seeking to celebrate the good of work. Their mission and values:
What we aim to be...
We aspire to be a part of a healthy community where people are meaningfully and gainfully employed and where business practices embrace an ethical, social mandate.
What we're up to...
JustWork fosters dignified, gainful work opportunities for people facing multiple barriers to employment.
Here is a great list of ideas churches can do to help their congregations grapple with issues of faith and work. 'Theology of work' is a wonderful website.
Do you ever think that your work is insignificant. Here is the story of a woman who is "just a florist"...
Here is another piece on work/life balance, this time from Relevant Magazine, a great source of Christian thinking for Millennials. "Balance is a myth because work-life balance, and all of it’s assumed benefits, isn’t actually about balance. It’s about rhythm. And the natural rhythm of our life is something we, of the 21st century, traded away a long time ago."
The Myth of the Work/Life Balance - why finding a healthy schedule isn't really about "balance" at all
It was a real privilege to have a coffee with Davyn de Bruyn and hear his plans to change the way we imagine, buy and use fashion.
Really thrilled to have this piece on mentoring published today. How can we be flexible and yet enhance our mentoring relationships, since we all need the wisdom of others, and the opportunity to grow others?
The transformation of mentoring - The Gospel Coalition Australia
I find this image a really useful summary of the core of our vocation. Our sense of vocation is made up of our gifts and skills (good at it), experiences (paid for it), passions (love it) and where we see a need. As I start a Purpose Discovery course tomorrow night I am also convicted that this calling hits its sweet spot when who we are aligns with what God is doing in the world.
A Better Way to Live: 52 Studies in Proverbs and Psalms
I was really privileged to have a small involvement in this book finding its way to print.
This is the endorsement from faith & work legend Mark Greene:
‘Whoosh. Energetic, refreshing, rich in wisdom and compelling in application, Graham Hooper’s book displays a joyous ability to zoom into the heart of a proverb or psalm, zoom out to connect it to the wider witness of the Bible, and then pan across the centuries to our twenty-first century context and explore its implications for discipleship and mission with acuity and compassion, historic and contemporary examples, and his own wide-ranging life experience. Enjoy.’ - Mark Greene, Executive Director, The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity
The Gospel Coalition has a series of interviews with people in different vocations looking at their vocation through faith-filled eyes.
Here is a link to more examples: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/tag/tgcvocations
Being a Nurse in a broken world
Part 2 of my article on the pressures for working women, where I look at how we can balance the enormous stresses faced by working mothers in addressing often competing demands of home, church and work.
I am running this course on Thursday nights in November. Come into the city and join me.
Discover your Purpose with ADM! (Anglican Deaconess Ministries)
Thursdays in November
7:30-9:15pm
ADM is excited to offer Seed's Purpose Discovery Course, which provides a foundation for people learning to live a life aligned with God's purposes, enabling them to become agents for change in the workplaces, communities and cultures where God has placed them.
The course is for anyone who:
- Wants to discover God’s purposes for the world and how their own purpose and calling fit with God’s purposes.
- Is at a transition point in life and is looking for guidance about what to do in the next phase of life
- Wants to develop greater meaning in what they do
- Wants to learn to connect what they do with their faith
Participants will:
- Develop a clearer understanding of their God-given purpose and meaning
- Identify parts of their lives that are aligned or not aligned with their purpose
- Begin to see how they can be effective instruments for change where God has placed them
- Develop an action plan to help them better align their various roles and tasks with their purpose
Each course uses Seed's specially developed Purpose Storyboard which helps you reflect on the things that have shaped you in the past, your desires for the future, your particular gifts, skills and passions and the communities/cultures that you serve.
When:
Thursday evenings in November (3, 10, 17, 24) from 7.30–9.15pm
Where:
ADM offices, Level 1, St Andrew's House, Town Hall
Cost:
$65 for students, $95 for workers (with subsidy from ADM)
RSVP:
Monday, 31st October to: info@deaconessministries.org.au
A different way of looking at what it means to be a light in the workplace.
Seed's Coaching Night was inspiring last week.
If you have an idea, business or art project then collaborate and learn.
The next one is 17th November. Details to follow.
Snippet of yesterday's coaching night.
Make sure you register for our future coaching events - you won't want to miss out on this great input, you never know what you might learn. #seedcoaching #seed #discover#purpose #create #change
Some people might have missed this article by John Piper. Thanks Charmain for sending it in .
Something I wrote for the great website/movement "Fixing her eyes".
Here is another excerpt from my book: "Workship", which will be launch in March.
One of the saddest stories I have heard about faith and work was from a businessman who was a fund manager running his own company. He was a Christian who had achieved a great success in a difficult industry, running a company that was mostly made up of non-Christians. He told me that his faith was an integral part of his success at work: he prayed regularly about major decisions, he saw his success as a sign of God’s blessing, and he used his wealth to bless much individual ministry as well as Christian organisations.
I asked him about how he managed to sustain his faith in some of the tough ethical dilemmas he must face in his business, and particularly when many work colleagues weren’t Christian. With pride he said the following: “My colleagues will tell you that I am no Christian pushover. I have a saying that when I walk into the boardroom I check my faith at the door.”
To “check your faith at the door” means that you walk into that room where the biggest decisions are made as less of the person you could be or should be; it means that you have left behind the most important thing you possess: your connection to the Sovereign God of the universe and the empowering of His Spirit. It means that you still think it is possible to live dualistically: separating your faith from your everyday life. It means that your whole company is missing out on the wisdom that faith brings. It means that your work colleagues are missing out on a critical witness of the power of faith to transform every part of our lives, including how we make work decisions.
So we have a choice.
Do we pretend that our work doesn’t matter to God? Do we check our faith at the door? Do we feel guilty working in our secular jobs rather than going to Bible college and doing ‘Gospel work’?
Or, do we seek to worship God through our work? Do we seek to serve God and others in the way we work, the choices we make, what we say and do at work, how we treat other people?
In effect, the choice is actually between worshipping work or worshipping God through our work. Ironically, when we cut God off from our work, or eating, or relationships… we end up not making those things subject to his control, and we allow those things to replace God at the centre of our decision-making, as the source of our identity and pride and sense of security. We worship the created thing rather than the creator.
Paul Williams (Bible Society UK, and previously head of the Marketplace Institute, Regent College) speaking at last year's City to City Australia's "Renewing my Workplace" conference. Skip about 10 minutes in for the gold where he outlines why our work matters to God using the grand narrative of the Bible. (50mins total)
Just received NT Wright's: "God in Public" and found this equally affirming and challenging...
"This is the strange public truth of the Christian gospel. God is in the business of remaking the whole world, turning it the right way up at last. The call of the Christian gospel makes the sense it's supposed to make, not when it is heard as a call to ignore the world and pursue a private salvation, but when it is heard as a call to follow Jesus and become a part of his plan to sort the world out now, as much as we can, in advance of the final day.
Being a Christian means that your own life becomes part of that anticipation, allowing God to do in your heart and mind, your imagination and energy, what he's going to do one day for the whole world — that is, remake it from top to bottom and flood it with his glory."
