Here at The Green Room we are always looking for resources that communicate the integration of faith and work. It isn’t everyday when I come across such a rich and robust resource as God’s Pleasure at Work: The Difference One Life Can Make – an Introduction to Faith, Work, and Purpose. This eBook curriculum for K-12 was written by Dr.…
By Greg Forster: part two of a series. In a talk on Sending Disciples to a Pluralistic World, Vincent Bacote said: “Many Christians live in an imagination desert, unable to connect faith to vocation.” That’s a deep insight – that it takes imagination to make the connection between faith and work. And Bacote draws the work/imagination connection tighter when he…
One of TGR’s bloggers, Jonathan Malesic, has a provocative essay over at Inside Higher Ed, where he diagnoses the recent well-publicized problems at Duke Divinity School as stemming, in part, from what might be called an over-adequate doctrine of vocation: Judging from his emails, Griffiths seems to think of academic work as an exceptionally high calling, a vocation. He is hardly…
I started reading this recent article from The New Atlantis thinking that it would be mostly about the technology of why we no longer see the stars. It turned out to be as much about the philosophy, even the spirituality, of why: “We used to look up in the sky and wonder at our place in the stars,” Matthew McConaughey’s character says…
These questions and answers have been used in discussing vocation with college students as part of the Opus: The Art of Work program at Wheaton, and are presented here as a resource for others involved in similar work in colleges or churches. Do I Have Just One Vocation – and Is that My Career? The traditional Christian (or at least,…
I have the privilege to read many fascinating books that discuss different facets of faith and work. I am particularly drawn to books that discuss neglected parts of the conversation. Glory In the Ordinary: Why Your Work In the Home Matters to God by Courtney Reissig is one such book. This book responds to the need for content directed toward stay-at-home…
By Greg Forster: part one of a series. Do we really think of God as a worker? We may say he is one, citing John 5:17 or other passages. But does our concept of God match our theology? How we imagine God is one of the most profound formative influences on our faith and life. That’s why scripture gives us…
Rice just announced this grant in late April: The comprehensive study will focus on U.S. workers and will comprise a broad-based national, random-sample survey of approximately 12,000 people from multiple religious traditions and no religious tradition. Research will explore faith at work as well as religious discrimination. It will include focus groups with both professional and working-class participants and as…
By Melissa Lee Emerson When my pastor mentioned that he had just read and endorsed a manuscript about women and work, I naturally had to ask him to tell me more. I almost stopped listening after he told me that the title was A Woman’s Place, but I stomached the visceral reaction, asked for an extra dose of grace, and…
By Kenneth Barnes There are few things more daunting to an academic then returning to one’s alma mater to give a talk. When that talk is part of an interview for a teaching position however, the emotional stakes are even higher. That was my experience when I visited Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary nearly thirty years after graduation to deliver a lecture…
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