2015 Top 10 Posts To (re)integrate Faith, Life, And Vocations

It’s been a busy year for me writing about how to reintegrate faith, life, and vocations.

God has blessed me to be able to write about the subject in a dissertation for my doctoral program at Covenant Theological Seminary.

It has been a fun and fruitful year writing here at the (re)integrate blog, which was originally a part of re-integrate.org and was migrated over to Patheos.com in September as part of the Patheos Faith and Work Channel.

And for the first half of 2015, I was a writer and editor for TheHighCalling.org, an expereince that I will treasure forever.

Here are the Top 10 blog posts from 2015:

10. Missional Already in Our Work

Believers desperately need to grasp why and how mission is what they, the whole people of God, are engaged in already as they work. A growing number of pastors are instilling into their congregations a robust theology of vocation, equipping and empowering church congregants to live missionally within the contexts that God has placed them.

9. Kingdom of God: Is it Bigger than the Church?

In my series on the Kingdom of God, I asked a very important question for us as we practice our Christian faith. Is the kingdom of God bigger than the church? For many evangelical church leaders, the church is bigger than the kingdom. But recently there has been a movement to see the kingdom as bigger than any one church, and thus more important. Here I explore this debate, including insights from Richard Mouw, James K. A. Smith, Reggie McNeal, and Scot McKnight.

8. In Search of the Purpose-Driven Life

How do we go about Defining Purpose? We want our lives to have significance. We want to leave our mark. How do we find our mission in life? Do we determine it on our own? Wouldn’t it be better to first understand God’s purpose so that we can participate in his mission in the world? I work through these difficult questions in this article I wrote for The High Calling.

7. Vocation is Not Just One Aspect of the Christian Life; It is the Whole of Life

For some, this whole “vocation” focus is seen as another church program, or worse, just a fad. But here I make the case that vocation is not just one aspect of life, it is the whole of life. Christians are called by God to do something, something out of love, for the sake of the world. The doctrine of vocation amounts to a comprehensive doctrine of the Christian life. It transfigures ordinary, everyday life with the presence of God.

6. So What’s Wrong with Neo-Calvinism?

One of the most read posts in 2015 was one I actually posted in 2014. In the ongoing need to differentiate “Neocalvinism” from the “New Calvinism,” I wrote this post as a follow-up to one I wrote way back in 2009 when I was blogging at VanguardChurch, which is still being googled and read. Some are calling the New Calvinists (John Piper, D. A. Carson, Albert Mohler, David Platt) by the misnomer “Neocalvinism.” But Neocalvinism is a term already used by the Dutch Calvinists (Abraham Kuyper in the past and now Tim Keller, Albert Wolters, James K. A. Smith, Anthony Bradley, Cornelius Plantinga, and Richard Mouw). I set out to explain the similarities and differences between these two streams of Calvinism.

5. Six Tips for Deciding to Leave a Church

I’ve experienced on occasion the need to decide to stay of leave a church based on more pressing matters, both as a lay church member and also when I’ve been on pastoral staffs. And over the years, I’ve had quite a few conversations with people who were struggling with issues in their churches and were in the midst of the extremely difficult decision to stay of leave. This is how I counsel people.

4. Will the Earth Dissolve Like Snow?

“Amazing Grace” has been perhaps the one true great hymn that most everybody, Christian and nonChristian alike, know at least the first few lines of. Then Chris Tomlin updated it with a new chorus and a new ending stanza. As I’ve been singing that newly arranged hymn, I liked the new chorus, but that last stanza… Ugh! It rubbed me the wrong way, because I do not believe the earth will dissolve like snow.

3. (re)integrate Summer Reading List

Thanks to my good friend Byron Borger for writing one of our most popular posts of the year! It is not an exaggeration to say that Byron is the most knowledgeable person I know on books. Here he offers an annotated list of books on subjects like Biblical studies, culture shaping, spiritual formation, pop culture, justice, marriage, leadership, prayer, evangelism, church life, (re)integrating faith and work, and much more!

2. Should I Stay or Should I Go?

What do we do when we find ourselves working in an institution where there is an obvious conflict of interest? In this article I wrote for The High Calling, I introduce two specific people at Goldman Sachs during the financial collapse of 2009 as a case study. One left and one stayed.

1. The Four-Chapter Good News Story – Illustrated

I created a four-year curriculum for the students at Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana. The curriculum included Bible studies, worksheets, videos, and reflection papers for each year of college (Freshman through Senior) so that students can discover their callings (vocations) and use their college education for the glory of God, participating with Him in His mission in the world. For sophomores, I introduce the four-chapter gospel in an interactive prezi presentation. I made it available for the public and it has so far been watched by hundreds of people.