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Spirituality and Work Resources
Title & Author		Language	Links	Tags
Is Business A Calling by R. Paul Stevens	Sample *IS BUSINESS A CALLING?* *DOES SCRIPTURE WARRANT REGARDING ENGAGEMENT IN COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY AS A PARTICULAR CALLING OF GOD?* R. Paul Stevens “The Christian Church has never found it easy to come to terms with the marketplace.” Brian Griffiths[i] *INTRODUCTION* This subject is of great interest to me because I grew up in a business home where my father conducted himself in business as a company president as though this was a calling of God. But he never spoke of it that way. In fact he always verbalized that it would have been a better thing for him to have gone into pastoral ministry. The subject is of some importance to Regent since a significant number of people come to Regent from business life but leave it and find their way into pastoral or parachurch ministry. They do this, often, on the basis of what Calvin called “a secret call,” a call within the general call that all Christians have received. A few go the other way. But behind some of this occupational transition is not only the question, Is business my calling? But is business anyone’s calling? This question is certainly important for the church. By and large the church honours the call of the pastor and missionary but does not speak of, or commission to, serve roles which people undertake in civic life or commercial enterprise. My friend William Diehl puts it this way in his earlier book, Christianity and Real Life when he was sales manager for Bethlehem Steel: ... *NOTES* [i] Brian Griffiths, The Creation of Wealth (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1984), 9.	English	Download full article (.doc)
Envy and Leadership Insecurity by Jon Escoto	Sample *Envy and Leadership Insecurity* *Jon Escoto* Leadership + Insecurity = Corporate Suicide I haven’t had so much Math since I graduated from my Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering. I’ve always consigned the work of deriving mathematical formulas to the Galileo’s and Pythagoras’s of this world. Not until today. I just wrote one above as I reflected on the following drawing...	English	Download full article (.doc)
Drivenness by R. Paul Stevens	Sample Drivenness is behind one of the most respectable of all addictions—workaholism. But it is also expressed in a wide variety of addictive behaviors not covered in this article: chemical abuse, religious zeal, sexual addiction, perfectionism and fitness, which are all subject to the law of diminishing returns as people try to meet their deepest needs in these ways. The condition of drivenness usually arises from sources deep within the human personality, as well as systemic problems in our society. Drivenness reveals a spiritual dysfunctionality usually associated with a failure to accept the unconditional love of God. Driven people tend to focus all their energies on an activity that feeds their inner dysfunction, and this activity becomes an addiction.	English	Download full article (.doc)
Day at Work: Love-Recovering the Christian Amateur by R. Paul Stevens	Sample *LOVE:* *RECOVERING THE AMATEUR STATUS OF THE CHRISTIAN* "To discover God in the smallest and most ordinary things, as well as in the greatest, is to possess a rare and sublime faith. To find contentment in the present moment is to relish and adore the divine will in the succession of all the things to be done and suffered which make up the duty to the present moment." Jean-Pierre De Caussaude[i] "What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God." Luther[ii] "Does God work?" Willie MacMichael asks his father in George Macdonald's book for children. His father answered biblically: "Yes, Willie, it seems to me that God works more than anybody - for He works all night and all day and, if I remember rightly, Jesus tells us somewhere that He works all Sunday too. If He were to stop working, everything would stop being. The sun would stop shining, and the moon and stars; the corn would stop growing; there would be no apples and gooseberries; your eyes would stop seeing; your ears would stop hearing; your fingers couldn't move an inch; and, worst of all your little heart would stop loving." [i]. Jean-Pierre De Caussaude, The Sacrament of the Present Moment Kitty Muggeridge, trans.(Glasgow: Collins, l981), 84. [ii]. Martin Luther, quoted in Roland Bainton, Here I Stand......	English	Download full article (.doc)
Work by Gordon Preece	Sample Work, whether in its presence or absence, is a pervasive part of everyday life. One of the first things we want to know about people is what they do. The waking time of most adults is taken up with work, and a person’s passing is often noted in terms of their workplace achievements. Work and worth, industry and identity, are very closely related in contemporary culture. This article deals with work in this modern context. It will examine (1) a wider definition of work, (2) a biblically integrated view of work, (3) the disintegration of work and faith, (4) reintegrating spirituality and work and (5) redirecting Sunday towards Monday. A Wider Definition of Work Over the last two centuries work has become equated with a job. This is a seismic shift in our understanding of ourselves, our world and even our God. It has had earthquake like effects on people’s emotional, family, social and spiritual life. The tremors have been felt hardest by the overworked, the unemployed, housewives, the forcibly retired and the attention-deprived children.	English	Download full article (.doc)
Day at Work: Hope-Making Our Mark in Heaven by R. Paul Stevens	Sample *HOPE:* *MAKING OUR MARK ON HEAVEN* "How can Christianity call itself catholic if the universe itself is left out?" Simone Weil[i] "I cannot think of a greater tragedy than to think that I am at home on earth...." Malcolm Muggeridge[ii] "Only the heavenly-minded are of any earthly use." C.S. Lewis[iii] Years ago Leslie Newbigin said that "mankind is without any worthwhile end to which the travail of history might lead."[iv] A few believe we are heading into a new world order and paradise on earth but most people nurse a deep foreboding about the future, or refuse to think about it more than they must. The seeming resultlessness of history erodes the nerve of modern persons including, I must add, Christians who have more reason to embrace the future wholeheartedly than anyone. Whether world-weariness and future fright comes from the terrifying prospect of ecological doomsday, or, as is often the case with Christians like the Thessalonians, from the conviction that Jesus will probably come tomorrow, the result is the same for Christians: all work in this world except the so-called "ministry" is viewed as not very significant or enduring. [i]. Quoted in Matthew Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion and the Healing of the Global Village, Humpty Dumpty and Us (Minneapolis, Mn.: Winston Press, l979), iv. Check for original reference - footnote 3 in Fox preface. [ii]. Malcolm Muggeridge, Jesus Rediscovered....p. [iii]. C.S. Lewis, .....p. [iv]. Leslie Newbigin, Honest Religion for Secular Man...p.	English	Download full article (.doc)
Wealth – Blessing, Temptation or a Sacrament? by R. Paul Stevens	Sample *Wealth: A Blessing, Temptation, or a Sacrament?* R. Paul Stevens Hardly anyone wants to be poor; most would like to be rich. Wealth brings power, standing in the community, increased leisure, and freedom from worry--so it is thought. Not surprisingly in the richest part of the world many Christians are preaching a "prosperity gospel"--that faithfulness to Jesus will lead to personal wealth. Tragically, this distorted message is now taking root in some of the poorest countries of the world. Is wealth a sign of God's blessing? Is money the main measure of wealth? Does the Bible endorse wealth, promote it or exclude it? How are we to respond in spirit and action? Our souls hang on our answers to these questions.	English	Download full article (.doc)
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)

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