Resources

Books and Articles

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Faith and Work Resources
Title & Author		Language	Links	Tags
Esto es vida by Paul Veller	Book Description: "Esto as vida: Decisiones que funcionan para gente que trabaja" is the spanish version of "Get a life: Winning Choices for Working People" by Paul Veller. It is published and sold by Andamio for 17,00 € ¿Agotado? ¿Agobiado? ¿Angustiado? ¿Problemas para conjugar tiempo y ocupaciones? Paul Valler sabe bien de qué se trata. Tomando como base su propia experiencia, va a la raíz de los problemas, mostrándonos el modo de recuperar el control perdido gracias a decisiones puntuales que marcan la diferencia. Con capítulos ricos en contenido y muy manejables en su extensión, el autor consigue que hasta la persona más adicta al trabajo se haga eco de sus consejos y pase a darse vida. Vivimos vidas ajetreadas, con múltiples demandas, exigencias y obligaciones. Ante un panorama así, debemos ser reflexivos y estratégicos en el uso de nuestro tiempo para poder asumir todas las responsabilidades profesionales y vitales de una forma sosegada, tranquila y con sentido. ¿Cómo realizarse en un mundo de ritmo vertiginoso, con mayores exigencias laborales y una variedad de opciones de vida en aumento?	Spanish	Click here to learn more and purchase this book
Por fin es lunes by Mark Greene	Book Description: Por fin es lunes. Ministerio en el lugar de trabajo is a Spanish version of "Thank God it's Monday. Ministry in the Workplace" by Mark Greene. This book is published and sold by Andamio for 16,00 € ¿Estamos intentando entablar relaciones con los vecinos desconocidos cuando nuestro prójimo es el que se sienta en la mesa de al lado? Este libro eminentemente práctico nos descubre cómo afrontar nuestro tiempo en el trabajo, ayudándonos a ver nuestra profesión, a nuestros compañeros y a nuestros jefes como Dios lo haría. Además, incluye un capítulo dedicado a integrar vida y trabajo, entendiendo como tanto nuestra vida laboral, como nuestra vida de fin de semana puede ser vivida fructíferamente para Dios. "Si el mensaje del evangelio irrumpe en nuestra semana laboral como Mark Greene propone, que no nos sorprendan las conversaciones ni los cambios que provoque a nuestro alrededor. Una reflexión atrevida y desafiante acerca de la teología del trabajo y la vocación, sembrada de historias reales, que va a cambiar la jornada laboral de muchos lectores". Jorge Saguar, Director General para Iberia Cardinal Health International	Spanish	Click here to learn more and purchase this book

Creation and Redemption Resources
Title & Author		Language	Links	Tags
Luna Juice Bar: Fueling Recovery, Impacting Community by Rodolpho Carrasco	This is an article by Rudy Carrasco in PartnersWorldwide.org's blog "The woman behind Luna Juice Bar embodies her unique name – Summer Shine – but that wasn’t always the case. A few years ago, Shine was homeless in New Orleans with a husband about to leave her, a son who wouldn’t take her calls, and a mother who was planning her funeral..."	English	Read full Article

Spirituality and Work Resources
Title & Author		Language	Links	Tags
Wealth in the Old Testament by V. Philips Long	Sample GOOD, BAD, OR INDIFFERENT? WEALTH ACCORDING TO THE OLD TESTAMENT by V. Philips Long I. Introduction Years ago I heard it said that wealth is a blessing according to the Old Testament but a curse according to the New. This idea has struck me as insufficiently attentive to the continuity between the testaments. In what follows I shall explore briefly the subject of wealth according to the OT, in the hope of suggesting a more balanced view of the biblical testimony. In this effort, I would like to adopt a two-pronged approach analogous to the procedures of modern archaeologists. One prong is the surface survey; the other is the in-depth excavation of a limited area. In the former, the archaeologist travels quickly over the terrain simply collecting what can be found on the surface. In the latter, s/he sinks a trench into a particular piece of ground with the hope of extrapolating from that one sample some general features of the larger site. We begin with a surface survey of the biblical landscape, noting four prominent features (from among others, of course). We then shall sink a trench in the area of the OT that offers the most practical personal instruction[1] on our topic—namely, the wisdom book of Proverbs. [1] Issues of corporate social justice are addressed more directly in other places of the OT (e.g., the legal and prophetical materials), although the more individualistic instruction of the wisdom books also carries implications in these spheres.	English	Download full article (.doc)
Day at Work: Faith-Discovering the Soul of Work by R. Paul Stevens	Sample "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13 "We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thessalonians 1:3 *FAITH: DISCOVERING THE SOUL OF WORK* *LOVE: RECOVERING THE AMATEUR STATUS OF THE CHRISTIAN* *HOPE: MAKING OUR MARK ON HEAVEN* *FAITH:* *DISCOVERING THE SOUL OF WORK* "There is no work better than another to please God; to pour water, to wash dishes, to be a souter (cobbler), or an apostle, all are one, as touching the deed, to please God." William Tyndale[i] "Do you like your new job?" It was a foolish question, a very Western question to ask a Kenyan. But Esther had been my student in a rural theological college in East Africa for three years. She had hoped, like the others, upon graduation to be placed as a pastor of a church. Instead she was given the enormously demanding task of being matron for three hundred girls in a boarding school. It was a twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week job with little recognition and limited remuneration. So I had reason to ask. But her answer revealed a deep spirituality, one which I covet for Christians in my home country and myself. She said, "I like it in Jesus." [i]. William Tyndale, "A Parable of the Wicked Mammon," (l527) in Treatises and Portions of Holy Scripture (Cambridge: Parker Society, l848), 98, 104.	English	Download full article (.doc)
Vocational Conversion by R. Paul Stevens	Sample *Vocational Conversion* An Imaginary Puritan – Baby Boomer Dialog Copyright - R. Paul Stevens 2000. It has been said that the sixteenth century Puritans[i] were people who had swallowed gyroscopes.[ii] They were inwardly directed to the Lord's Kingdom and were not easily swayed by the attractions of the world. Crucial to this orientation was their understanding of the biblical doctrine of calling or vocation,[iii] the idea that the whole of our life is a response to the summons of God and not merely a matter of self-directed development. William Perkins (1558-1602), while little known, deserves a modern hearing because he is the only Puritan[iv] author to describe calling in a systematic way.[v] Thus sections of his Treatise of the Vocations [vi] written around the turn of the seventeenth century,[vii] are paraphrased in an imaginary conversation between Perkins[viii] and a twentieth-century Baby-Boomer (that demographic population bulge of people born between l946 and l964)[ix] in order to contrast one modern view of vocation with a Biblical view. The endnotes offer a few clarifying comments and corrections of the imbalance of the Puritan view of calling. [i]. In his masterful treatment of work and calling, Paul Marshall follows Basil Hill's definition of Puritan as "restlessly critical and occasionally rebellious members of the Church of England who desired some modifications in church government and worship, but not those who removed themselves from the church. in "Work and Calling: Puritan and Dissenters", Chapter 4 in Callings: Spirituality, Work and Duty in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England (unpublished manuscript, Toronto, l991),p.1. [ii]. Os Guiness, "Vocation and Calling", an audiotape produced by The London Institute of Contemporary Christianity, London, U.K., June 5-9, l989. [iii]. These two words mean substantially the same thing, though in modern usage "vocation" has been identified with career, and "calling" with religious service or the work of a professional minister. [iv].Ian Breward notes that "Perkins himself showed little sign that he thought of himself as anything other than a normal and loyal member of the Church of England. He repudiated the label of 'puritan' except for those who believed that it was possible to live without sin in this life, and felt that it was possible to live without sin in this life." Ian Breward, ed. The Work of William Perkins (Appleford, England: The Sutton Courtenay Press, l969), p. 15. [v]. Marshall, op. cit., p. 8. Earlier Protestant writers had used the concept of vocation to reflect critically on the medieval idea that vocation had little to do with ordinary life in this world. Perkins used the doctrine of vocation to expound the Calvinist distinction between general and particular calling and to provide a firm link between justification and sanctification. He had the further interest of providing in the Gospel a firm foundation for social stability and societal responsibility. Breward, op. cit., p.443. [vi]. William Perkins, "A treatise of the Vocations, or Callings of Men, with the sorts and kinds of them and the right use thereof," in The Workes of that Famous and Worthy Minister of Christ in the University of Cambridge, Mr. William Perkins. London: John Legatt, 1626. This has been reprinted, with some portions deleted, in modern English in Ian Breward, op. cit. [vii]. No precise date can be assigned to the Treatise. [viii]. I have five reasons for making Perkins' thoughts available: First, Perkins is thoroughly biblical as he defends his views by biblical principle and text. Second, Perkins provides vocational counselling as he is concerned with how vocational decisions are made. Third, his Treatise is practical, concerned with real issues of living in the world. Fourth, Perkins is lay-oriented as he makes no distinction in dignity in the calling of the non-clergy laity and the clergy. Finally, Perkins is oriented to the heart and is concerned to evoke a deep personal spirituality that will result in the transformation of character. [ix].Paul C. Light, Baby Boomers. New York: W.W. Norton Company, l988.	English	Download full article (.doc)
Consumerism by Craig M. Gay	Sample The word consumerism is occasionally used to denote the consumer movement and advocacy on behalf of consumers vis-à-vis the producers of consumer products. The term is also infrequently used to refer to the economic theory that maintains the growth of consumption is always good for an economy. Normally, however, consumerism is lamented as a significant behavioral blemish in modern industrial society...	English	Download full article (.doc)
Virtues by Iain Benson	Sample Virtue is a term that is being recovered from Greek philosophy to become part of contemporary discussions on ethics. There is good reason for this: both in ancient literature and in the Bible, virtue is a fundamental dimension of ethical living and moral character development. While the concept of virtue predates Christianity, it has been greatly influenced and deepened by the Christian faith. It is also true to say that the thinking of Christians, especially in the Western church, has been influenced by these Greek sources. Few would deny that moral education is a pressing need today. Unfortunately the concept of virtue has, over the years, deteriorated and, like a host of other terms (tradition, heritage or even right and wrong) has lost its vibrancy. More commonly we now tend to speak of personal “values” rather than virtues. And we create our own “values” rather than conforming ourselves to “virtues” as the categorical “given” aspects of an overall (therefore shared) goodness. So the questions of what virtue is and how we can and why we should become virtuous are crucial considerations for everyday life.	English	Download full article (.doc)
Calling and Social Transformation by Jon Escoto	Sample These are my “bridge thoughts” on these two important topics. I have two reflections. Part I and Part II. They are not totally related to each other. *Part I (On Machiavelli and Teresa of Avila)* Social Transformation, or simply put, “change”, is largely dependent on two very vital assumptions of the change agents, or on a larger scale, the “society changers”. They are their accurate: (1) diagnosis of the problem, and, (2) vision of what and where society should be.	English	Download full article (.doc)
Treatise on Callings by William Perkins	Summary *William Perkins – Treatise on Callings: A Puritan Approach to the Doctrine of Vocation* Its value: It is Biblical. It is vocational counseling - concerned with how people are to live and make choices concerning their vocation. It is practical – concerned with the realities of life in this world as Christians – it is the context of everyday life and work that our true spirituality is expressed. It is lay-oriented – he makes no distinction between the experience of the ordinary Christian of the “call of God” and the person who serves as a minister of the Gospel. It is heart-directed – concerned to evoke a deep personal spirituality that results in Christian character (so he deals with such things as covetousness, envy and impatience). (All references to pages in The Works of That Famous Minister of Christ in the University of Cambridge by William Perkins (London: John Legatt, 1626).	English	Download full article (.doc)

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