Read part I of this interview here. David Gill: Let me come back to the challenge of being a woman in executive leadership. It seems that many of our faith at work organizations and ministries define themselves as “for men only” even in our time when women are massively present in business schools and the marketplace. Katherine Leary Alsdorf: Prior…
We recently ran into this article from the Catholic Herald in Britain, interviewing Martin Scorsese, director of the new film Silence. In it Scorsese talks about how getting ejected from seminary led him to realize that clergy are not the only ones with vocations. It raises some interesting thoughts about the Catholic theology of vocation and how Scorsese has exercised his vocation…
“In corporate industries, we’re all mercenaries,” laughed Ashwin Mathews. “We work for the money. Honest—honest truth! I don’t work for loyalty, right? I’m not loyal to the company. I work for the cash!” I interviewed Ashwin (not his real name) in India in 2012 when I was conducting research for my PhD dissertation in sociology. By that point, I had already…
“You don’t just have a job, you have a vocation!” Really? It feels more like I need a vacation. “Come to the Discover Your Calling class at church!” they told me. I was hoping to get career advice. Instead, I guess my calling was to be a greeter on Sunday morning. “Some people have a calling,” my father said to…
Eleven years ago Jena Lee Nardella was a graduate from Whitworth College with the dream of eradicating HIV/AIDS and delivering clean water throughout Africa to those who desperately needed it and were dying without it. These dreams, along with the passion and support from Jars of Clay, led to the formation of Blood:Water Mission. I have been familiar with Blood:Water…
The most important title you hold in your workplace is not the one given to you by the company or organization for which you work. The most important title—actually, titles—are those bestowed on you by God’s Word. God has given His people some special names. In the scriptures we are called: Salt Light Servants Prophets Priests Kings Living into these…
Katherine Leary Alsdorf is co-author with Timothy Keller of Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work (Dutton, 2012). She came to Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City in 2002 to establish the Center for Faith and Work to help people nurture a meaningful integration between their faith and their professional work. Prior to this ministry role at…
Following up on a recent post about the 2016 election as a faith and work crisis, our friends David Gill and Al Erisman passed on this video from CBS News interviewing Mike Rowe about the value of blue-collar work. Food for thought!
By Greg Forster: part four of a series. In my last post I talked about how the underlying theology of dominance paradigm churches leads to practical deism. Here are three specific ways dominance paradigm churches can overcome this: The Past: Dominance paradigm churches overestimate both the moral and religious integrity of the American past. There is, to be sure, much that…
The Green Room welcomes Joseph Sunde with his review of the NIV Faith and Work Bible, reprinted from the Acton PowerBlog. Joseph Sunde is a writer and project coordinator for the Acton Institute, editor of the For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles blog and content manager of the blog Oikonomia at Patheos.com. He resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota with his wife and…
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