We ran into this on the Purpose in Leadership blog of Justin Irving, director of the Work with Purpose Initiative at Bethel Seminary. Justin says, Sometimes we add value to the lives of others on the job when we are compensated in one form or another for our work. Other times, we add value to the lives of others through volunteer service or through the work we do for our family and friends. As I was engaged in this last type... Read more
Just ran into this neat post by Gene Veith over at his blog, Cranach, on why we celebrate Labor Day. (Hey, this is a blog about faith and work, so you expected a lot of posts on Labor Day, right?) Most people probably don’t know what they are celebrating on Labor Day–”something about Unions”–but we here at the Cranach blog have long sought to fill this holiday with meaning by turning it into a Christian feast commemorating the doctrine of... Read more
The early roots and rationale of Labor Day seem somehow removed from the modern American work experience. Sure, many still labor at menial jobs with minimal pay, but many of those same people would leap at the chance to work on Labor Day and earn overtime. Read more
Today we have more words of wisdom from cargo pilot Norm Goodyear, who previously appeared here talking about how to handle mistakes and the holiness of everyday work. This is part of our ongoing feature in this space of clips from a wonderful YouTube channel run by The High Calling called “60 Seconds to Significance“. It features approximately one-minute talks about work and calling, including practical tips on faith in the workplace and advice on dealing with tough questions. (Even more helpful... Read more
This week in the Patheos Public Square, Patheos has selected a few “resident experts” from across Patheos channels to contribute a short opinion piece about a significant trend or event in religion in America and reflect on its broader impact on society and culture. This post is part of the Faith and Work Channel’s contribution to that discussion. Daily, human work in the marketplace is the primary way we make culture. In order to make culture Christianly, we need to do our work... Read more
This week in the Patheos Public Square, Patheos has selected a few “resident experts” from across Patheos channels to contribute a short opinion piece about a significant trend or event in religion in America and reflect on its broader impact on society and culture. This post is part of the Faith and Work Channel’s contribution to that discussion. America and American Christianity badly need a new approach to helping the poor. This issue is only going to grow more urgent in the coming... Read more
Your “resource of the day” comes courtesy of our friends at the Acton Institute, who have recently released a seven-part film series called For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles: Ever wondered what it means to be “in the world but not of it?” For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles is a seven-part film series that explores big picture questions, like, “What is our salvation actually FOR?” Join Evan and his friends on a creative... Read more
This is a subject our friends at the Kern Pastors Network blog talk about frequently, and they’ve just put up the final blog in their thought-provoking series on generational poverty (previous posts are at Generational Poverty, Engaging the Culture, Relationships, and Bankrolling Social Capital.) In this post, pastor Kyle Bushre argues that the ultimate cure for poverty comes only from the grace of God: The socialism popularized by the French Revolution argued that the evil of poverty stemmed from the unequal distribution of wealth and... Read more
Over the last few days we’ve been sharing in this space some reflections from John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, who was famous for telling his followers to gain, save, and give all they could. Allowing for his eighteenth-century language, he has some good advice about all three in this sermon, “The Use of Money.” First, we looked at his advice on how to earn all you can (ethically!). Then, we considered how to save all you can. Today, we’ll see... Read more
As we said a few days ago, John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, was famous for telling his followers to gain, save, and give all they could. Allowing for his eighteenth-century language, he has some good advice about all three in this sermon, “The Use of Money.” We’ve talked about how to gain all you can–ethically; in this post, we’re excerpting the “save all you can” advice (which may sound harsh to modern ears, but is worth pondering!) Later we’ll sample... Read more
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