Author: The Green Room

Ever heard of a “green room”? It’s the room in a theater where actors and speakers can relax when they’re not on stage….talk to each other about what they really think, fix their makeup, get some coffee, and otherwise prepare for their next moment “on.” Well, this blog is the green room for the faith and work movement, where its leaders can kick off their shoes, grab a cup of coffee or a mug of tea, and talk heart-to-heart about where the movement’s come from, where it’s going, what’s working, and what’s not working. We hope you’ll join the conversation.

No, Parenting is Not a Job

by  in Unsolved Problems, Vulnerability

Green Room blogger Jon Malesic has a provocative post at The New Republic where he argues that we use the metaphor of job or work for anything that requires effort, including school and the human relationships of marriage and parenting: Americans struggle to describe worthwhile, long-term activities without turning them into jobs. We can’t imagine a good life that’s free…

An Update on The Call to Work

by  in Faith and Work Leader Profiles, Integration with the Church, Theological Resources

We recently received an email from The Call to Work (TC2W), a combination of a course and leadership training focusing on applying faith to everyday work. (We profiled Tracy Mathews, the person behind the course, in February.) Tracy reports: We’ve started road testing the course content and the initial feedback has been encouraging. One of the main goals for the…

Fat people earn less and have a harder time finding work. What does the faith at work movement have to say to them?

by  in Future of the Movement, Unsolved Problems, Vulnerability

We ran into this somewhat disturbing story at the website of the BBC recently: Even when they’re able to do the job competently, obese people routinely face discrimination in the workplace. While discrimination against employees because of their sex, age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion or disabilities is illegal in a growing number of countries, including the UK, many businesses…

Why Are You Asking a Theologian What Lawyers Should Do? An Interview With Alistair Mackenzie

by  in Diversity, Faith and Work Leader Profiles, Future of the Movement, Integration with the Church, Vocation-Specific Resources

Alistair Mackenzie is a Teaching Fellow at Laidlaw College – Christchurch, New Zealand and has also worked part-time with the Theology of Work Project.  He is the author of Where’s God on Monday?, SoulPurpose: Making a Difference in Life and Work and Just Decisions: Christians Ethics Go to Work, and the founding director of Faith at Work (NZ). As part…

Impacting the City: 5280 Fellows’ Professional Projects

by  in Faith and Work Leader Profiles, Integration with the Church

We received an email about the 5280 Fellowship recently from Jeff Haanen, a blogger here and the director of the Denver Institute for Faith and Work. The Fellowship is a leadership program in Denver and Boulder for full-time professionals who are committed to applying the gospel to their work. Here’s an excerpt from what he had to say about this exciting…

What Henry David Thoreau Can Contribute to a Theology of Work

by  in Sociological Resources, Theological Resources, Unsolved Problems

Jonathan Malesic, one of our bloggers, recently sent out a note alerting his mailing list to a paper he’s written for the Journal of Religious Ethics on resources from Thoreau for dealing with the “suckiness” of work (TGR’s term, not Malesic’s). The paper is behind a paywall, but if you belong to an academic institution you may have access to the…