The proliferation of books on the topic of the integration of faith, work, and economics over the past decade has multiplied available resources to the point of confusion at point. Whereas a decade or so ago, there were a handful of recent, high quality books on the subject that were often targeted to academic audiences, there are now dozens of…
“The Same Fragile Human Family:” A Latino Perspective on Faith and Work, Part 2
Read the first post in this series here. By Eddy Davila The pay at my new job was paltry, so I worked as efficiently and thoroughly as I could. I excelled in my duties but promotions and raises always escaped me. It took a long time for me to realize that I could ask for a raise and that this…
Mobile Jesus: The Ascension and Daily Work
by Fletcher Lowe Ascension, Salvador Dali, 1958 Earlier this week the church marked the Feast of Christ’s Ascension. I’m thinking about Ascension Day, as I hold my mobile phone. The phone is a real gift with all it can do to provide so many services for me. But sometimes it gives me a “no connection” or a “searching” message –…
Vocational Sacraments: Working in Body and Spirit
Part four of a series. On my list of four things we can learn from the sacraments about vocation, the second is: My daily work uses material objects and actions as signs of spiritual realities. We began to look at the significance of this intersection last time, when we saw how the sacraments involve God having entered into time-space history to…
Curricular Integration Workshops at Oikonomia Network Schools
This is the first in a series of articles sharing insights from a joint curricular development initiative of the Oikonomia Network, the Theology of Work Project and three ON schools (Asbury, Assemblies of God and Western). Reprinted from ON. This March, Will Messenger of the Theology of Work Project and I met individually with 15 faculty on the campuses of three Oikonomia…
Economics and Work on the Margins: Remembering the Poor and Powerless: A Video from the 2014 Boston Faith at Work Summit
The purpose of the Faith@Work Summit is to gather active participants and leaders in the faith at work movement from every industry sector to learn from each other and work together to extend Christ’s transforming presence in workplaces around the world. The 2018 Faith at Work Summit, held in Chicago at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare on October 11th-13th, is now open for registration! The early bird pricing for registration is now available at $179 per ticket, so be sure to purchase soon.
The economic machine that is America continues to move forward but too often leaves many behind. While the Dow roars towards unprecedented heights, the poor and powerless reach new lows. But there is a solution that is both obvious and obscure: business. Business has changed lives of the less fortunate in the here and now when leaders and shareholders look beyond their own pocket. The principles and the experiences of the Greyston Bakery social enterprise in Yonkers exemplify this power of business to change the lives of individuals, families and the neighborhood itself. Deuteronomy 10:18 tells us that God “administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.” The people of God are called to do the same.
Julius Walls (BS, Concordia) is the pastor of Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church in Yonkers NY and the President of Greater Centennial Community Development Corp, the non-profit arm of a 5000+ member church. Rev. Walls has worked in business, academia, and the church, serving, in addition to the previously mentioned positions, as Chief of Staff of Greater Centennial Church, CEO of Greyston Bakery, a $7 million social enterprise, as VP for a $23 million chocolate manufacturing company, as an adjunct professor at the business graduate schools at NYU and BGI and serves on several local and national non-profit and government boards. He is the co-author, with Kevin Lynch, of Mission, Inc. The Practitioner’s Guide to Social Enterprise.
Reflect/Respond
Can an unethical for-profit business yield a God-desired result?
Can a “Double Bottom Line” (financial and social) enterprise really work? Is it sustainable?
Resources
William Eggers, The Solution Revolution: How Business, Government, and Social Enterprises Are Teaming Up to Solve Society’s Toughest Problems (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013)
Marc J. Lane, Social Enterprise: Empowering Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs (ABA, 2012)
Social Enterprise Alliance https://socialenterprise.us/
Julius Walls, Jr., and Kevin Lynch, Mission Inc.: A Practitioner’s Guide to Social Enterprise (Berrett-Koehler, 2009)
Thomas K. Ray (1934-2018): Start Being the Church
by Edward L. Lee, reprinted from Living God’s Mission Tom and Brenda Ray Little notice has been made in The Episcopal Church of the death of Tom Ray on February 6, preceded just three days earlier by that of his wife Brenda. Tom was the bishop of the Diocese of Northern Michigan from 1982 to 1999. Both died quickly after…
Seeking the Kingdom of God First – A Review of “Kingdom Collaborators: Eight Signature Practices of Leaders Who Turn the World Upside Down” by Reggie McNeal
Leadership Network’s Reggie McNeal has written another crisp, insightful, and wonderfully practical book for Christians desiring to “seek first the Kingdom of God.” As is his usual pattern, the book is highly accessible and marries principles with real-life application. The book rests on McNeal’s theological conviction that “God is at work in every domain of culture.” He longs for church…
Vocational Sacraments: Called to Christ-Centered Work
Part three of a series. On my list of four things we can learn from the sacraments about vocation, the first is: My daily work is Christocentric, and this fact is ecclesially proclaimed and historically enacted. When I do my daily work, I am to do it with Christ at the center of my cosmology. It is in Christ that all…
I Think He Would Be Better on the Register: A Latino Perspective on Faith and Work, Part 1
A few weeks ago, I wrote about my experience of being a white participant in the faith and work movement. Since then, it struck me that this series should actually be a multi-author endeavor–the whole idea is that our faith and work community ought to learn from people with other racial identities. In that spirit, I’ve invited a few friends of great…
The Green Room 