We’re thrilled here at MISSION:WORK and across the Patheos Faith and Work Channel to welcome a new blog, Oikonomia: Resources on Faith, Work, and Economics from the Acton Institute. The title comes from the Greek word for “economy”–which meant so much more than simply budgets and stocks in the ancient world; it was the word for how God ordered the universe, and how humans should order their lives in response. The folks at Oikonomia say: Oikonomia is a project of the... Read more
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.” In this post, we’re excerpting the “gain all you can” advice. For the next few days we’ll sample his wisdom on how to save money and how to give it away. 1. The first of these is (he that... Read more
This story comes to us from Paul Sohn, who let us know via our Twitter account (which you should be following. Do it now!) and is based on the book The Search for God and Guinness by Stephen Mansfield . Did you know that the Guinness family originally were pioneers in treating workers humanely? And that one branch of the family went into the Christian ministry? Let Paul tell it: Arthur Guinness was a man of faith. Born in 1724 in... Read more
Cargo pilot Norm Goodyear, whom we featured a couple of days ago, is back with some reflections on the holiness of ordinary things: 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 videos by The High Calling... Read more
A few weeks ago, we mentioned that we’re going to be in Boston in October and we hope you’ll join us. Why? Three hundred active faith and work leaders and practitioners from business, church, and education will convene for two extraordinary days of reflection, learning, fellowship, brainstorming, networking and prayer at the Faith@Work Summit in Boston on October 24-25. You can read more at www.FWSummit.org and on our event calendar. (There are a whole bunch of other events on the event calendar you might want to... Read more
Professional cargo pilot Norm Goodyear has a few words of wisdom for us today about how to handle mistakes without dwelling on them: “If you dwell on your mistakes, whether it’s as a pilot or child of God or whatever, you’re going to keep looking in the past. In an airplane, as well as life, you’re going at 300 to 500 miles an hour.” This is part of our ongoing feature in this space of clips from a wonderful YouTube... Read more
Today, we’re simply featuring a friendly reminder that a great book about faith, desire, and vocation, Jen Pollock Michel’s Teach Us to Want, is being featured for a few more days at the Patheos Book Club (until August 15.) We featured an interview with Jen by Bethany Jenkins of The Gospel Coalition a couple of weeks ago. Buy the book here, read more about Michel here, and see what Patheos bloggers are saying about the book here. Read more
This is one more excerpt from our friends at Christian History Institute and their great new issue of Christian History about work, calling, and vocation in the history of the church. (The deadline to sign up and get a copy is ⇒TODAY⇐, and you can do that here.) In 1530 Martin Luther wrote a treatise, “On Keeping Children in School”--ironically, arguing that young men should stay in school so that they could become preachers like himself–in which he also commented on the high regard in which... Read more
This is a subject our friends at the Kern Pastors Network blog talk about frequently, and they’ve just put up another good post on the issue. The post, by pastor Blaine Crawford, starts by talking about a great way his church connects work with everyday life and everyday ministry: Every month at Lakeview Community Church, the deacons invite a different organization — one working to improve society — to share its mission, its work, and its volunteer opportunities with the... Read more
Since our last poem in this space turned out to be surprisingly popular, here’s another of my favorites about those times when following one’s calling seems difficult. This poem has been interpreted as Herbert’s wrestling with his own calling of being a priest, and much of the imagery speaks to that. But it has something to say to all of us, I think. The Collar By George Herbert I struck the board, and cried, “No more; I will abroad!... Read more
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