Reprinted from the Salt & Light Australia Daily Devotional. A few years ago, I was asked by the Gospel Coalition Australia to contribute a reflection on work to their website, and I decided to include a “Letter to Myself as a Young Worker”. To my surprise it was very popular, it seemed to hit a nerve. It occurred to me that…
Reprinted from the Salt & Light Australia Daily Devotional. It was wonderful to be invited into the Reserve Bank of Australia, an august institution which helps to regulate our economy. Its values are integrity, respect, excellence, intelligent inquiry and promoting the public interest.I had just finished talking about how we should remove the sacred-secular divide, live out our faith at…
Reprinted from Workship. There have been a lot of terrible things that have happened in the area that takes up most of our lives, that is work, during this time of coronavirus: Many people have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic; and hardest hit are people with precarious work in hospitality, the arts and tourism Some people…
Part two of two; reprinted from Workship. Here are some of my suggestions for what a post-pandemic world could look like, with Christian input. 1. A renewed appreciation of physical connections While the church has responded heroically in obeying bans on mass gatherings by moving services online, this should not become the new norm. I support Brian Zhand, who warns, “Don’t…
Part one of two; reprinted from Workship. As I visited Laurel the other day to drop off a pre-recording of our weekly church service, Handel’s Messiah was pumping from her house. Laurel is over 80 and needs voices and music to be a little louder for her to appreciate them fully. I gave her the DVD and asked how she…
Reprinted from Workship. Coronavirus (COVID-19) is having unprecedented impacts on our lives, with apparently worse to come. Setting aside the health effects, our working is being impacted in many ways: the context (working from home where possible), the amount of work (casuals losing shifts, work suspended for months, being made redundant) and the culture of work (from positive to crisis)…
Reprinted from Workship. Photo by Kara Martin. A couple of weeks ago on Facebook, Nathan Campbell from Living Church in Brisbane explained that he was going to be preaching on the topic of work the coming Sunday. He posed the following question: “This week I’m preaching on work, like the stuff we do to bring order and beauty to the…
Reprinted from the Salt & Light Australia Daily Devotional. I recently received an email from a young woman who said the following: “Your work was instrumental in helping me break through the barrier between my faith and work. I realized I was blocking God for fear he’d destroy my career goals, because I thought they were pride based. Now I…
Reprinted from the Salt & Light Australia Daily Devotional. I was doing research for an organisation I was part of, supporting Christians working in the mining industry. We had received a grant to examine the need for chaplains in the industry. I called Wayne, who was mine manager at a large coalmine in Australia’s Hunter Valley. He was a bit…
Part three of a series. Reprinted from Ethos. In this series we are looking at six categories of spiritual formation while working. This concluding post looks at the final three categories in detail: Incarnational Working, Spirit-Empowered Working and Social Justice Working. Incarnational Working Just as Jesus, who is God, humbled himself to be born and live as a human to enable us…
