By J. B. Wood, reprinted from our sister blog Shrinking the Camel. I just finished reading “The Gift of Work – Spiritual Disciplines for the Workplace” by Bill Heatley. Bill had visited my Blog a couple weeks ago, and was nice enough to direct me to his book. What’s interesting about Bill is that he is much more than just an author — he is a full-time manager of an IT department for Kaiser Permamente. So he’s really a working stiff... Read more
By Christine A. Scheller; part of a series at TheHighCalling.org called “Best Books for Business.” Stay tuned for more! Many years ago, I heard the theory of entropy applied to relationships. Their quality has a tendency to decline over time, this person said. Without effort, couples (and coworkers) may find themselves wondering how they ever got along. The idea stuck and inspired me to tend my marriage well, because I wanted it to not only last, but to always be... Read more
A few weeks ago we had a schedule conflict and couldn’t make a trek to Grand Rapids, Michigan to the bi-annual CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts) conference. Although we truly enjoyed being with local friends, pastors and lay delegates of a Central PA denominational gathering, we missed being at the remarkable national meeting of CIVA. We need to publicly thank the leadership of CIVA and our stalwart supporter from Lancaster, PA, Ned Bustard, for helping us get a display... Read more
Imagine a company where people love coming to work and are highly productive on a daily basis. Dennis Bakke is co-founder and CEO of AES, an energy company with 40,000 employees in 31 countries and revenues of $8.6 billion. Bakke led a quest at AES to “create the most ‘fun’ workplace ever, obliterate labor-management divisions, and push decision-making responsibility down to the plant floor.” Shaped by his religious faith, his years at Harvard Business School, and his experience working for the Federal... Read more
By Jim Schmotzer; part of a series at TheHighCalling.org called “Best Books for Business.” Stay tuned for more! In 1996 my family faced multiple—nearly overwhelming—crises that included me leaving a long-term stable job in a ministry setting. No big deal, just the loss of job, church, friends, and a deep-rooted support system. One challenge involved helping family members make it through each new day. Another was the added pressure of an employment search. Oh, and because of the depth of... Read more
From our friends at the Center for Faith and Work, LeTourneau University. The past few decades, numerous books have been written on integrating faith and work. We’ve created an annotated list of the best books on theology of work, calling and vocation, business and ethics, practical application, prayer, leadership and engaging culture. For a downloadable PDF click here. The Accidental Executive, Albert M. Erisman Business for the Glory of God, Wayne Grudem Business with Soul, Michael Cardone The Call, Os Guinness Every Good Endeavor, Tim Keller and Katherine Leary Alsdorf... Read more
I know you know what re-runs are. Or “encore performances” as they are sometimes called. Sometimes, we are really glad to see one — the first showing was so good that you want to see it again; or, maybe, the “encore” allows folks to see something they missed previously. With my celebration of my new book designed for those young adults who are transitioning out of college or trade school, or finishing up graduate work, and taking up vocations in the... Read more
Thanks to those who sent emails or made comments on facebook about my BookNotes review of Reading the Spiritual Classics: A Guide for Evangelicals, a splendid and mature new book published by IVP Academic. The two editors, Jamin Goggin and his colleague Kyle Strobel (www.metamorpha.com) curated and compiled a wise and theologically sane guide to how to best approach the depths, benefits, and foibles of various sorts of devotional and spiritual classics. It is a book about reading well, and it... Read more
In the foreword to Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work, Katherine Leary Alsdorf shares the story of how she became acquainted with Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, through an invitation to attend from a colleague. When she found herself committing to a life of faith, Alsdorf—a business leader—worried about what such a decision might mean to her future. …If I was going to really put God first I had to be open to him calling me to serve him anywhere. And... Read more
“Summer’s here, I’m for that, got my cold beer, got my straw hat,” James Taylor once sang. Or, more sardonically, Arcade Fire sings: Children, wake up. Hold your mistake up before they turn the summer into dust. It seems this summer business — optimistic with leisurely cold beer or with prophetic foreboding (we are “turning every good thing to rust” the Arcade song “Wake Up” continues) — is serious business. There is something about this recent holiday weekend’s shift to... Read more
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