Resources

The books listed here are either free to download or can be purchase by going to the link provided. All documents are free to download.
Click on the + sign next to the title to find the links to download or purchase.

Marketplace Ministry Resources
Title & Author Language Links Tags
Why Living Sent Matters by Jerry Moll
Document Description: 

"Why Living Sent Matters" is Rev. Jerry Moll's paper for Overture I: Fresno course (BGU course). This article will help us understand how studying the city of Fresno California helped Living Sent Ministries sees city transformation as an achievable outcome of their marketplace ministry.

English
Bono on Capitalism with a Conscience by Rodolpho Carrasco
This article was published in Prism Magazine, August 12, 2013

'In June, U2 frontman Bono made ripples across evangelical America with aninterview with Focus on the Family’s Jim Daly. In the interview Bono affirmed his Christian faith, reciting a stream of biblical quotes along with his own commentary and applications to daily life. At one point he clearly stated, “I believe that Jesus was the Son of God.”'...

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Christian Investors Get Patient With Their Capital by Rodolpho Carrasco

and Rob Moll

This is an article published in Forbes, Nov. 2012.
"Christian investment vehicles have always struggled. When the FaithShares ETF launched in December 2009, it was to significant press. The founders rang the opening bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and the Christian and secular press covered their launch. The funds allowed retail investors to put money into stocks based on the recommendations of their denominations. Baptists could avoid liquor while Methodists could avoid gambling profits. However, 18 months after the high-profile launch, FaithShares went defunct..."
English
God and Work - Theology of work - Marketplace Ministry 101 by John Fryters
Book Description: 
This is a curriculum of Theology of Work and Marketplace Ministry developed by Dr. John Fryters for the Indigenous People.
ISBN # 9781626970267

This book is free to download.  Comments from those who download would be appreciated.  Pastor John Fryters can be reached at campus@inet2000.com

English
Theology of Work Resources
Title & Author Language Links Tags
God Loves Your Work by Larry Peabody
Book Description: 

"Why did I write the book and create the website? Perhaps Chris Armstrong, Professor of Church History at Wheaton College, best sums up my reason: “After a lot of searching, I have reluctantly concluded that American Christians of my generation have largely given up on finding any spiritual meaning in our work.” (from Chapter 12, Work: Theological Foundations and Practical Implications, edited by R. Keith Loftin & Trey Dimsdale).

My book, God Loves Your Work, helps believers find that meaning. It lays a biblical foundation of truth about our daily work without using theological jargon. And—in this era when many are rethinking the whole idea of working—the book offers at least seven Kingdom-of-God-related reasons for getting up and going to work.

While writing the book, I kept four groups in view: students about to enter the work world, newcomers to that world, seasoned employees, and those not paid for their work."

Visit also his website at larrypeabody.com to learn more about this book, read his blog and find other Theology of Work resources.

This book is available in Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback, and Audiobook versions through Amazon.com.

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The Promise of Technology versus God`s Promise in Job by David Strong
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The Promise of Technology versus God's Promise in Job

David Strong

“In our age, nearly everything we confront on a daily basis is either already under control or it is viewed as something to bring under control and to be made use of. In direct opposition to this way of seeing, interpreting, and taking up with things are the creation stories of the Bible and the vision of wild creation in Job. Wild things in these passages do not need to be rearranged, 'developed,' or made use of before they reach the fullness of their being. Wild things in these passages are already as good as they can be, on their own. Recognizing them in their own right, pausing and lingering unselfconsciously before them, makes one receptive to afresh and refreshing vision of our existence. “

It is easy to blame the way we dominate nature in our age on our Greek and Judaeo-Christian roots. Yet no one in these earlier traditions would have predicted that we would interpret the texts of these traditions the way we do, since there are so many other possible interpretations of them. For instance, none of the Hebrews would have guessed that the “message” of the creation story in Genesis 1 would have been heard by the movers and stompers of our age as: “In the beginning God formed a big ball of raw material. On the sixth day He put humans on the Earth and said, 'I didn't quite finish the job. Have at it! I hate to see it go to waste. Build! Reshape it. Develop it into something.' “ Why, then, do we read this kind of interpretation back into the tradition? ...

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Providential Work: Esther by R. Paul Stevens

[Provided by]

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Providential Work: Esther
“I have had five jobs already and am still searching for satisfying work.”
A North American Business Person

At some time or other every one of us feels that we are in the wrong place, at the wrong time doing the wrong thing. Maybe even married to the wrong person! If, we think, we were somewhere else, doing something else we could be useful and deeply satisfied. But the reality is that God has a providential purpose in our lives right where we are. And the Creator has been involved, secretly it often seems, in all the details of our everyday experiences as well as our life-long work trajectory. The early desert fathers and mothers, those spiritual athletes who took to the desert to find God, often told one another, “Stay in your cell. It will teach you everything.” Translated into contemporary English this means:”Don’t go promiscuously from job to job looking for the perfect fit. There is a life-giving divine purpose in your life right where you are.

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Hope: Making Our Mark on Heaven by R. Paul Stevens

[Provided by]

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HOPE: MAKING OUR MARK ON HEAVEN

 

"How can Christianity call itself catholic if the universe itself is left out?"
Simone Weilxxiii
 
"I cannot think of a greater tragedy than to think that I am at home on earth...."
Malcolm Muggeridgexxiv
 
"Only the heavenly-minded are of any earthly use."
C.S. Lewisxxv

Years ago Leslie Newbigin said that "mankind is without any worthwhile end to which the travail of history might lead."xxvi 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.

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Love: Recovering the Amateur Status of the Christian by R. Paul Stevens

[Provided by] From Chapter two, Disciplines of the Hungry Heart (Harold Shaw, 1993)

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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

"What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God."

Martin Luther

"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."

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On Being Kingdom People: Regents of Our God and King by R. Paul Stevens

[provided by]

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REGENTS OF OUR GOD AND KING
"Today we cannot claim to know the end and goal of history. Therefore the question of meaning in history has become meaningless."
Rudolf Bultmanni
 
"Now the situation of the Christian in the world is a revolutionary situation. His share in the preservation of the world is to be an inexhaustible revolutionary force in the midst of the world."
Jacques Ellulii

Now we must turn to the intriguing and usually neglected first-half of the phrase "royal priesthood." The kingdom of God is the master thought of Jesus (used over one hundred times in the Gospels in comparison with only three references to the church). The kingdom ministry of all believers expresses the exteriority of every member ministry--how the people of God express the redeeming and life-giving will and influence of God not just in the church but in the whole of creation.

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