Faithful Work: In the Daily Grind with God and for Others
Ebook
One-third of our waking lives is spent at work. Work is where we make culture and come into contact with our world. Work is central to God's mission to redeem souls, systems, and structures. And God works through our work to bring hope to the brokenness and fallenness of our surrounding culture.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for the world, and that includes the transformation of our ordinary work into a sacred calling. Ross Chapman and Ryan Tafilowski show how work is a way to love God, serve our neighbors, and demonstrate the gospel. With a broader understanding of God's work in the world, we are able to engage our daily work as part of how God makes all things new.
This guide invites you to reflect on the meaning and purpose of your life's work and to transform your work into service to those around you.
Introduction: Our Greatest Opportunity Is Daily Work
1. The Importance of Work
2. The Real Story of Work, in Short
3. Created and Placed by God for Good Work
4. The Reality of Work and Calling
5. Work in a Politicized and Polarized Society
6. Monday Through Saturday Missionaries
7. Rest for and in the Working
Epilogue: A Framework for Change
Acknowledgments
Notes
Further Reading
"Your work needs a new story. This is the heart-arresting challenge Faithful Work compels us to consider. Drawing from the ancient wisdom of the biblical story, common cultural distortions and soul-suffocating clutter are carefully and gracefully swept away. A clarifying vision emerges, guiding us to embrace the life-giving rhythms of a seamless way of living into our daily work. Whether you enjoy your work or are struggling with it, this well-crafted and practical book will help you discover how faith shapes and brings meaning to your Monday world. I recommend it."
"In this short but essential primer, Ross Chapman and Ryan Tafilowski have created a down-to-earth guide to understanding God's view of work, which is meant to play a redemptive role in a broken world and in our individual lives. This book has helped me look at my own work—both the paid and unpaid varieties—in a new and hopeful light."
"Grounding their argument in the mission of God, vocation and calling, and even political theology, Ross Chapman and Ryan Tafilowski speak to our deepest longings to participate in God's holistic, redemptive activity and to love our neighbor. They inspire our imaginations with a call to see daily work as intrinsically valuable, missionally focused, life giving, and transformational. Embracing the theology of work the authors carefully unpack in this book will lead to new joy in our daily work, new vision for its purpose in the world, and new hope in its capacity to contribute to the flourishing of all. This is a must-read."
"Faithful Work is succinct and well written and deeply grounded in theology. The authors account for the realistic tensions of living in an increasingly pluralistic and polarized culture yet offer a hopeful account of how our work can participate in the redemption of all things. It is an extremely helpful guide for those looking to connect their faith with their work."
"Faithful Work is a helpful primer for those seeking to lay the foundation of their work on the right Cornerstone. This succinct, accessible manual replaces common, erroneous thinking, such as the sacred/secular divide, with a perspective of God's seamlessness. It calls us to perform good work in the places where God has called us and inspires us for our work made intrinsically good because God works. Faithful Work maintains a foot in the reality of working in the world as it is, not as we wish it were, and leaves us with an important question: What if our daily work is the central place where the church embodies the gospel in daily living?"
"Faithful Work encourages us to make our prayer for the manifestation of God's kingdom consistent with the practice of doing redemptive work. The book is full of pertinent and practical insights that can be applied by workers in any occupation and will help readers make their work more meaningful."
"Ross Chapman and Ryan Tafilowski offer a theologically sound and biblically rich guide for our work, something we all need. I highly recommend Faithful Work to anyone who is looking for a compelling vision for their work."
"With refreshing brevity, biblical wisdom, and consistent attention to the daily grind of work, Faithful Work invites Christians to see their work as an essential element of God's redemptive activity. This book is perfect for all workers who are eager to find deeper meaning and purpose in their daily work. It would also be an effective discussion starter for small groups, adult classes, and faith-based employee resource groups. Faithful Work inspires us with the bold claim that 'our greatest opportunity is daily work.'"
"Readers will welcome the staunch assertion that faith is just as alive in the daily grind as it is in ministry work, because 'our work . . . represents God in the world.' This serviceable guide . . . succeeds in bridging the gap between the workplace and the alter."
- Title: Faithful Work: In the Daily Grind with God and for Others
- Authors: Ross Chapman, Ryan Tafilowski
- Publisher: IVP
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781514007921, 9781514007914, 1514007916, 1514007924
- Resource ID: LLS:9781514007921
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-05-03T01:15:20Z
Ross Chapman is the CEO of Denver Institute for Faith and Work. He previously founded and served as president and executive director of For Evansville in Evansville, Indiana. He holds a doctorate of ministry in faith, work, economics, and vocation from Fuller Theological Seminary. He lives in the Denver area with his wife, Candace, and their three sons.
Ryan Tafilowski is assistant professor of theology at Denver Seminary and lead pastor of Foothills Fellowship Church in Denver. He holds a PhD in systematic theology from the University of Edinburgh and has served as theologian-in-residence for Denver Institute for Faith and Work. He is the author of Virtue and Vice at Work.