I love it when an author can take great ideas and communicate them effectively, helping people to process and apply them. Bob Robinson has done this very well with his 7-week bible study, Reintegrate (forthcoming in 2017 from Good Place Publishing.) The overarching aims of the study are to help believers connect shalom to everyday life; see their vocation as…
[This post was originally delivered as a talk at the Faith@Work Summit in Dallas, TX. Read the first post in the series here.] First, all of us, men and women alike, have implicit biases about the performance and roles of men and women. We can see this with a number of studies using a method known as the “Goldberg paradigm.”…
I was recently introduced to an organization called The Fellows Initiative which currently operates programs in 22 cities around the US. A Fellows program is a nine to ten-month spiritual and vocational leadership program that prepares the graduate to live an integrated life of faith. The content presented in the program includes the theology of work, vocation, calling, cultural engagement,…
By Greg Forster; part six of a series. “They told us, ‘this is our culture,’ but we told them, ‘this is God’s word.’” I was hearing a talk from a leader in the fortification-paradigm church I used to attend. As I stressed in my last post, this church did a great job of helping people overcome addictions and enslaving sins.…
In his very accessible and practical book, Fruitfulness on the Frontlines, London’s Mark Greene offers a very helpful framework for Christians trying to live out their faith. The framework is notable for at least three reasons. First, it is broadly applicable. Believers of any age, in any vocation (paid or unpaid), in any sector (public, private, or nonprofit), and…
[This post was originally delivered as a talk at the Faith@Work Summit in Dallas, TX.] I’d like to start with a thought experiment: Imagine that you are about to meet a person for the first time and the only thing you know in advance is that the person is a woman. What words come to mind about that person? In…
My ears perked up one morning recently when I heard a new report that France, the land of much vacation time and the 35-hour work week, passed a new law giving workers the “right to disconnect” outside of work hours. According to Maggie Penman at NPR, “companies with more than 50 employees will be obligated to set up hours when…
America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law! –America the Beautiful (Katharine Lee Bates) It had been a long glorious morning full of adrenaline, symbolism, and splendid pomp and circumstance. Then we sang the second stanza of the hymn “America the Beautiful.” Confirming my soul in self-control and confirming my liberty in…
By Greg Forster; part five of a series. “Three years ago, when I first came to this church, I didn’t have a job. I lived off my girlfriend. I spent all my time sitting on the couch, eating junk food and watching porn – and that was my life. Today I have a job, I’m supporting myself, I don’t do that other…
In a previous post I argued that the most important titles we hold at work are not the ones bestowed on us by the company or organization that employs us, but rather the ones given to us by God. Scripture gives God’s people several names, among them: salt, light, servant, prophet, priest, and king. Living into these identities is what can…
The Green Room 