From patriarch to peasant: how I ended up as a machinist and not a minister

Last updated on: June 30, 2015 at 10:56 am By Guest Contributor

Here’s another post in an occasional series about blue-collar work and meaning that we’re running here on MISSION:WORK. Read the other posts here: “Does blue-collar work have any meaning?” , “Which is a higher calling: building churches or building fences?”, “The craftsman and her environment,” “The faith and work conversation we’re NOT having,” “Voices from the fields: baking bread” and “Voices from the fields: shoveling hog poop.” By Jordan Dillon When I was a kid I grew up hearing I’d... Read more

Too big to fail? Part 3 of an interview with Gloria Nelund

Last updated on: June 30, 2015 at 10:34 am By Ethix

Read the previous installments of our interview with Gloria Nelund, reprinted from Ethix: Defining financial success Helping the middle class Banks and the Economic Crisis What role did banks play in the recent financial crisis? There were many players that bear responsibility, including consumers, government, and financial institutions. Financial institutions were enablers because they lost sight of their historical role in an economy and focused exclusively on short-term profits. For example, in the subprime crisis financial institutions stopped asking the... Read more

Faith and profit are not mutually exclusive: an interview

Last updated on: June 5, 2015 at 5:41 pm By Center for Faith and Work, LeTourneau University

By Bill Peel Henry Kaestner is Chairman of Sovereign Capital, an investment firm he co-founded in 2011 that focuses on early growth-stage companies with exceptional growth potential in expanding markets, especially Southeast Asia. Previously he served as CEO of Bandwidth.com, a communications technology company he co-founded with David Morken. Under their leadership, Bandwidth’s revenue grew from $0 to $200 million without acquisition or institutional funding and was the fourth fastest growing privately-held company in the U.S. from 2003 through 2007.... Read more

But what about sin? more from #ActonU

Last updated on: August 5, 2015 at 1:35 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

More of our reports from the recent Acton University conference. Read the first six posts here: The refreshing difference We can’t create heaven on earth “Don’t immanentize the eschaton” Is there really enough to go around? Letting our Jesus Freak flag fly Was Jesus a socialist? By Edwin Woodruff Tait First of all, my friend Brandon Harnish has straightened me out about Austrian economics and “methodological individualism.” He says that Austrian economics is about “if-then” scenarios rather than predicting how... Read more

Was Jesus a socialist? More from #ActonU

Last updated on: August 5, 2015 at 1:35 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

More of our reports from the recent Acton University conference. Read the first five posts here: The refreshing difference We can’t create heaven on earth “Don’t immanentize the eschaton” Is there really enough to go around? Letting our Jesus Freak flag fly By Edwin Woodruff Tait Acton University, obviously, has a lot to say about economics. All the sessions deal with economic matters in one way or another. I come to these discussions at a disadvantage, because I don’t know... Read more

10 Steps Toward Becoming a Culturally Engaged Church

Last updated on: June 15, 2015 at 1:17 pm By Jeff Haanen

We’ve made huge strides in the past several years on bringing the topic of work to church. But I’ve noticed an ongoing tension. It’s a tension between what we say about work on Sunday and what we do (or don’t do). On the one hand, talk of “faith & work” and cultural engagement have been popping up across the evangelical landscape. From Lecrae waxing eloquent on the sacred/secular divide at Liberty University to the forthcoming publication of a Faith and Work... Read more

Helping the middle class: part 2 of a interview with Gloria Nelund

Last updated on: June 15, 2015 at 12:48 pm By Ethix

[Read the beginning of our interview, reprinted from Ethix, in yesterday’s post.] Why did you start TriLinc Global? I wanted to be able to use all of my experience, my contacts, and everything that I’ve developed in my 30-year successful career on Wall Street to do good in the world. That’s the simple answer. The bigger story is, I wanted to use the rest of my life to serve God. I used to always think that in order to... Read more

Defining financial success: part 1 of an interview with Gloria Nelund

Last updated on: June 15, 2015 at 4:06 pm By Ethix

With this post we inaugurate a partnership with Ethix, a publication of the Center for Integrity in Business in the School of Business and Economics at Seattle Pacific University. Ethix has conducted many inspiring interviews with business leaders, and we’re excited to start featuring them here from time to time! Gloria Nelund is co-founder, chairman and CEO of TriLinc Global, a social impact investment company that she started in 2008. Prior to this she had a career in the international... Read more

Letting our Jesus Freak flag fly: more reports from #ActonU

Last updated on: August 5, 2015 at 1:35 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

More of our reports from the recent Acton University conference. Read the first four posts here: The refreshing difference We can’t create heaven on earth “Don’t immanentize the eschaton” Is there really enough to go around? By Edwin Woodruff Tait Wednesday night’s plenary was delivered by Gregory Thornbury of The King’s College in New York. Thornbury is 45, if Wikipedia is to be trusted, but (as I did before I grew a beard) he looks about 20 years younger than... Read more

Why we can–and should–grieve at work

Last updated on: June 22, 2015 at 10:26 am By Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics

By Kristin Brown (reprinted from the blog of the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics.) I learned of Vice President Joe Biden’s son’s death in church last Sunday. This was not the first time this family has gone through grief. In 1972, he lost his first wife and daughter in a car accident, the year he was first elected to the Senate. While there is much to remember and appreciate about his son, Beau Biden, I was drawn to read... Read more