Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Why Grumpiness at Work Lies About God - Desiring God Article
This is a great blog post from DesiringGod.org's AskPastorJohn podcast in which Tony Reinke interviews Timothy Keller about work and vocation.
Why Grumpiness at Work Lies About God
Audio Transcript
Tim Keller is the Founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and the author of many helpful books including one on work and vocation. It’s titled Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work.
I talked with Dr. Keller on the important topics of business, vocation, and calling. Along the way we talked to college graduates entering the work force and to Christians who feel stuck in their jobs.
I began by asking him why it seems that applying a biblical worldview to the workplace seems so slippery and so elusive.
It is probably because of the fact that the church doesn’t have a uniform view. It is not a consensus on how the church is supposed to relate to culture more generally. There is actually another book, this book Center Church, in which I try to tackle that. I don’t tackle it in the Every Good Endeavor book. But basically you have got very different views on how the church should relate to the culture. It is based on very different views about common grace. It is based on somewhat different views about the role of the institutional church.
And because of that, I think that doctrinal vocation, which everyone says, “Oh yeah, that is really important, really important that all work is a calling from God and that work is important and that God has to come to. You need to bring your faith and God to bear on your work,” yes, that is important, but then the problem is that doctrinal vocation gets caught up in this controversy. So people come out confused, really since there is no consensus on how to relate to the culture, there is no consensus on what vocation means.
Interesting entailments. You know, early in the book you write two sentences that I think are really important to getting at sort of what this book is about. You write, “A job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to it and you do it for them rather than for yourself. Thinking of working mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes the person and undermines society itself.” Wow. Talk a little bit more about the corrosive influence of individualism in the workplace.
The basic secular idea is that there is no meaning in life. We are here by accident. There is no overarching moral absolutes. We weren’t put here for a purpose. But then what most of the folks say — I have seen this in many forms — they say, “Of course there is no meaning in life. You have to create your own meaning.” So I have seen a lot of secular people and atheists say, “Yes, of course, there is no meaning to life, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t live a fruitful life and a happy life. You create your own meaning.”
Somebody should actually drill down on that at some point. Maybe I will and say, “It is impossible to create your own meaning. If you create your own meaning, you don’t have it.” But basically what they mean is you decide. You decide what is right or wrong for you. You decide what you think is important, and then you live according to that. But in that case there is no calling. There is no sense that there is something higher than me that is more important than me. So, you see, if you don’t have that, then there is no such thing as sacrifice and servanthood. Everything you do is selfish. Everything you do is selfish. And there is also no real hope. There is no real hope for the future. You just basically are trying to create a little bit of happiness for yourself in this brief span of time that you have. But in the end, there is nothing but darkness.
So when you put those two things together, the idea of vocation and the idea of hope and the idea of servanthood and the idea of sacrifice and unselfishness, it all actually depends on their being something more important than you, something that is already there, like God. So the whole idea of vocation is gone and work is nothing but a way of getting ahead, and it is crushing us, I think.
“The idea of vocation and the idea of hope and the idea of servanthood and the idea of sacrifice and unselfishness, it all actually depends on their being something more important than you, something that is already there, like God.”
Yes. So realities above and outside of us are crucial for love, or everything we do is selfish, like you said, that’s a powerful point. So we do have a God over our work, and that means love for others is really central to the biblical idea of selflessness in our vocation. I mean, this is a really practical question, but if a Christian shows up for work on Monday morning and they’re irritable towards others and they are grumpy, what is wrong?
In the book I talk about the fact that the gospel is brought to bear on our work in a couple of different ways. One of them is the heart. One of them is that the grumpiness and the anger and only doing what I have to do to get by means it is a lack of a gospel character. The gospel is supposed to make you grateful. It is supposed to make you humble. It is supposed to give you inner peace. It is supposed to make you generous in your spirit. And if you just don’t show all those things at work, it means you are not really letting the gospel change the heart the way it ought to.
And by the way, in the long run a gospel-changed heart usually makes you a pretty good worker, makes people want to work with you, makes people want to be on your team, makes employers happy with your work. So in the long run, having a gospel-changed heart actually is pretty practical in the field of work.
I think the first time I heard the phrase “god of options” was from Mark Dever. He was talking about young pastors who take a pastorate in a local church, but are always half in. They are always eyeing a different church, always looking for a new church, a bigger church, a better church, a better position. And so they are not committed to their church. They are half in. Yet the Bible calls us: “Whatever you do, work heartily” (Colossians 3:23). And there seems to be a common thread with Christians in the workplace who are in their position. They are sort of half in. They are sort of drawn to this “god of options” idea that they are never all in in one particular job. Do you see this problem?
Yes.
Actually, I am being a little ironic when I just say yes, but your question was well-stated and I agree with it.
I can just add this: People are looking for the more fulfilling thing. Very often they say, “I like a job that is just a little more exciting to me. This job is a little boring to me and better paying.” The Christian understanding of vocation is, if you produce a product, if you produce something that makes people’s lives better, even if it is a rather boring process to do it, you are doing God’s work. You are caring for God’s creation. You are serving people’s needs. Why does the process have to be incredibly fulfilling when you know that you are doing something that helps people? And I do think that that part of what I mean when I say that we have lost the idea of calling and we are looking now at work as ways of fulfillment and that actually in the end crushes you, so you are always half out.
Yep. I love what you wrote in your book on page 36. It is one of my favorite lines: “Work did not come into creation after a golden age of leisure.” Work is deeply embedded in creation — I mean this is pre-fall. It is glorious. It is according to God’s design. So this is a parenting question for you. But I think it is one that is relevant to all of us. How do I as a dad teach and train my young boys — 11 and 7 — that they were created to work, that it is part of their very humanness, that it is deeply embedded into them by the Creator?
You have to get the basic doctrines of creation and fall and redemption. And you have to give it to children at every age, but you have to give it in a form that they can handle at that age. But I think you have to say that work was put into the garden of Eden. When God had everything absolutely perfect, there was work. And that must mean that even in this life work is often difficult. Our bodies break down, so work can actually wear us down. Our minds and our hearts aren’t what they should be because of sin. And very often we have trouble paying attention to things.
But basically in the end we are made to work and we are only happy if we do work. And you can even say people who don’t have work or don’t do work in the long run get depressed. And the reason why they do that is because we were made for it. We were made to find fulfillment in working and being useful to others in that work. And I think there is a way of getting that across to 11-year-olds and 7-year-olds. You say things — this is the way I raise children too — you say things and you are not sure they get it. You find out in question and answer to what degree they understood and to what degree they don’t, and then you try to make it simpler until you feel like you have hit home.
Find other recent and popular Ask Pastor John episodes.
Friday, May 27, 2016
Citizens "Hail The King" Live
We have been justified
By faith through Jesus Christ
It's only by his grace we stand
Once bound by sin and shameOur faith perfected by his love
Now slave to righteousnessOur sin defeated, through his blood
Praise the Savior, he has wonNow exalted, Jesus reigns
While we were weak he died
Hail the King, praise his name!Making us reconciled (right with God)
Is found in faith that Jesus saves
To God for all eternal daysAnd even in this fading flesh
Our only hope and rest
Great joy to sing about
We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God!Our hope of glory is
Found in the one who gives
The love that he poured out
The gift of God given in love
Forever lifted highIs our Savior Jesus Christ
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Guest Preaching at Pastor Kevin Bowen's Quilcene Bible Church
It was a great blessing to preach at my friend and mentor, Kevin Bowen's Quilcene Bible Church last weekend up in the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.
Quilcene Bible Church is 25 minutes south of Port Townsend up in the beautiful Olympic Peninsula. It was an honor to get to preach in Kevin's pulpit and publicly honor him for the investment of pastoral wisdom, wise guidance and experienced insight he has imparted to me over the last four years since I become a pastor at Summit View Church in Vancouver, Washington.
I was asked to preach a message entitled "JESUS SAVES" from Ephesians 2:1-10. We looked at the nature of salvation by examining what Jesus saves us FROM and what he saves us FOR.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Monday, May 23, 2016
Thoughts on Christianity Today discussing the removal of Pastor Darrin Patrick from The Journey Church in St. Louis.
"Last week, Darrin Patrick, vice president of the Acts 29 church planting network and founding pastor of The Journey megachurch in St. Louis, was fired. (Read CT’s story.) Among the Reformed pastor’s offenses: “domineering over those in his charge,” “misuse of power/authority,” and “history of building his identity through ministry and media platforms.” TL;DR: pride."
I was first introduced to Pastor Darrin Patrick over 8 years ago at the 2008 Resurgence Conference "Text & Context" in Seattle, Washington. I was riveted by his honesty, passion and biblical insight. I have sat under the ministry of Darrin Patrick for several years now and have listened and read almost everything he has preached or written. One of my all-time favorite books was Pastor Darrin's "Church Planter" and the "Dude's Guide to Manhood." I've been buried in ministry over the past few weeks and just heard this tragic news today. I'm deeply saddened for all involved and impacted.
I'm praying that God would give the elders, deacons and volunteer leaders at the various multi-site campuses of the Journey Church great wisdom, guidance and strength. I'm thankful that Darrin Patrick will be entering into a process of healing and restoration with the elders. My hope and prayer is that God might use the Journey Church as an example of biblical correction, healing and restoration.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Sunday, May 8, 2016
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Review of the Saturate Field Guide by Jeff Vanderstelt & Ben Connelly of Doxa Church in Bellevue, WA
The Saturate Field Guide is a helpful tool in apply the principals outlined in Saturate into the real life context of a missional community. This is an intensely practical resource guide that I would highly recommend for missional community leaders. If you're unfamiliar with what missional communities are or how they function, please read Saturate instead to understand the philosophy behind the missional shift in small groups. It's important to emphasize that the Saturate Field Guide is a practical manual for practitioners leading a missional community. If your church is moving towards adopting the missional community model, this is the practical resource for your leaders to shape and grow their groups. The Field Guide follows the structure of Saturate with weekly sections devoted to each of the chapters. The guide functions as a very practical tool for your groups to begin to unpack what it means to live like a spiritual family of Jesus-like servants on God's mission of redemption.
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