Review: Winter Stars

By Marda Quon Stothers, reprinted from The 313. Dave Iverson is a writer, documentary film producer/director, and PBS broadcast journalist. Despite his own diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease, he decided at the age of 59 that, of three siblings, he had the most flexibility and could move into his childhood home in Menlo Park to take care of his 95-year-old mother,…

Let’s Talk about Tentmaking

By David Williamson. Summertime reminds me of occasional trips in my younger days to the famous Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) of Northern Minnesota and Southern Ontario. I have great memories of leading groups of high-school kids into this rugged and beautiful country. This reminds me of the importance of tents – what they’re made of, how they’re made and…

AI: Neither a Creature Nor a Tool, But a New Reality

By Ben Chang, reprinted from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. “I think it’s important to think about GPT-4 as a tool, not a creature.” These were the words of Sam Altman, owner of ChatGPT, who recently announced the opening of his company’s first international offices in London. But is it adequate to view “artificial intelligence” as a mere “tool”? I’m not so…

EWP Talks on Spiritual Formation: A Vast Vision

Reprinted from the Oikonomia Network. Our collection of EWP Talks on Spiritual Formation will give your students a bigger vision of what it means to be formed in Christlikeness. Against the spiritual bankruptcy of rote “box checking,” haranguing people to go through the motions of religious works and devotional exercises, these videos offer a vast new way to think about how we…

Becoming Whole through Formative Practices

Reprinted from the Chalmers Center. Building God’s kingdom community means working to replace destructive formative practices with those that lead to true flourishing. The Ministry Design Principles we’re highlighting this week focus heavily on the relational aspect of poverty alleviation. After all, we are each innately relational beings with minds, affections, wills, and bodies, and we need to remember this…

Tell the Truth

Image: Witnesses to Truth, Abbot Lynn Bauman, 2023 By Brandon Beck, reprinted from Living God’s Mission. Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness,and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the…

The Woman Who Became a “Steel Queen”

Reprinted from Eternity. A couple of years ago, I started researching and telling stories of some of the men and women in Australia’s past who demonstrated faith–work integration, that is, the ability to seamlessly move from Sunday to Monday. Nellie Martyn was one of my favorites. Nellie Constance Martyn (1887–1926) is one of those women whose story makes you wonder…

Review: Our Secular Vocation

By David Gill, reprinted from Workplace 313. J. Daryl Charles is an affiliate sholar of the John Jay Institute and the author of twenty books, including the superb Wisdom and Work: Theological Reflections on Human Labor from Ecclesiastes (2021). In Our Secular Vocation, Charles draws again on Ecclesiastes but ranges far wider in scripture and history to provide one of the best and deepest…

Faith, Tech and Workplace Groups

Reprinted from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Recently, LICC’s Josh Hinton caught up with Stephen Doel, who’s worked in the tech industry for the past 25 years. Stephen believes our Christian faith has real value in our workplaces – for us, our colleagues, and our customers. He’s also benefited hugely from being part of a Christian group at work.…

Teaching: One of the Largest and Most Important Callings

By David Williamson. In spring, students are looking forward to graduation and/or summer vacation, or perhaps to fall and what might be possible socially as well as academically. I think of the teachers who have made this school year effective and point to the future with hopefulness. Teaching is of the largest and most important fields of modern work. It…