By Gary Johnson
What have I learned from other Christians about integrating my faith and work? God created me to work (and rest) and to help in cultivating God’s creation. All work can be sacred; a plumber or carpenter serves God by meeting his neighbor’s needs and by loving his neighbors with quality work at a reasonable price. Vocation involves a calling to serve our coworkers and customers through our work; work not just for personal self-fulfillment and advancement. God said we can expect work at times to be toilsome. I see God in the bible interested not only in spiritual flourishing but material and cultural flourishing. God rejoices to see the God-given gifts of creativity, ingenuity, perseverance and skills of scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, factory workers, technology workers, construction workers, banking, financial and legal workers, artists and actors being used for cultural flourishing. The late Dr. Rev. Timothy Keller, who was invited to the Google headquarters to speak with employees about the Reason for God, has an excellent sermon I highly commend: Faith & Work Sermon by Timothy Keller (32 minutes).
Katherine Leary Alsdorf, who led a Silicon Valley tech start-up, found very little mention of work in church prayers or sermons and no intentional church ministry to those working in the marketplace with any “depth, theological grounding, and spiritual formation“. This has been my personal experience in the Episcopal church. Alsdorf helped start in New York City a “marketplace ministry“. In all her years in business, she “never had a product or service with as much pent-up demand” as the programs she helped developed at the Center for Faith & Work.
We spend the majority of our waking hours in our workplace. Might we be interested in seeking a deeper understanding how Christians love their neighbors through the industries in which we work and through the services and goods we provide to our neighbors? God also tells us to expect that every collection of humans engaged in a joint enterprise has brokenness. What is the brokenness in the industry your serve? How might God be asking us to seek changes and renewal?
Thank you for listening this past few weeks. I end with two quotes and a prayer.
The late Anglican priest John Stott: “Some are indeed called to be missionaries, evangelists or pastors, and others to the great professions of law, education, medicine and the social sciences. But others are called to commerce, to industry and farming, to accountancy and banking… In all these spheres, and many others besides, it is possible for Christians to interpret their life work Christianly, and to see it neither as a necessary evil (necessary, that is, for survival), nor even as a useful place in which to evangelize… but as their Christian vocation, as the way Christ has called them to spend their lives in his service.”
Work and Worship by Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Wilson: “The city will be renewed not by five church planters and five nonprofit leaders; it will be renewed by the complex callings and careers of the five hundred other people sitting in the pews.… The mission of the local church is not limited to a single outreach program. It is not limited to a single missionary. It is pluriform, complex, and all-inclusive. The church’s mission is embodied in the diverse work of all the people all over the city.”
A Prayer for Technology Workers
Lord, we recognize you as a Creator of all things.
We thank you for the ways technology, software, and the Internet have brought new opportunities and resources to many. We thank you for those who work in this field and asked that they should use their gifts and successes for the greater flourishing of society.
We pray those in technology would act with humility, compassion, and servanthood. We pray that technology would be used to enhance our humanity in accordance with your design and image, not detract from it. We pray that, more and more, holistic technology solutions would be developed, improving economic opportunity, resources, support, and hope for all people. We pray that these technologies would be used to build communities, societies, and the world.
God, we pray that those in this industry would be good stewards of your gifts, knowing how and when to use them. Grant them the wisdom to see the opportunities to advance the greater good, the restoration of creation, and the furthering of your kingdom.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
© 2021 Global Faith & Work Initiative
