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We Don’t Work to Earn God’s Favor: Message from RightNow Media’s Work as Worship Conference

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This goes back a couple years. I just came across online the message I gave at the 2015 Work as Worship Conference.

Here is a summary of the message I gave and, I believe maybe if you log in, the audio.

Here’s the message description:

Business leaders hold a critical place in the world because work serves as one of the chief means God uses to change culture. Because of this, work carries tremendous value in the life of every Christ follower. In this 29-minute session from the 2015 Work as Worship Conference, Matt Perman, author and founder of WhatsBestNext.com, speaks on the significance of accomplishing work in a gospel-centered way.

Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and You [Guest Post]

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This is a guest post by Alex Chediak, author of Thriving at College and now most recently, Beating the College Debt Trap.

Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg did it right. They left college when they got what they came for. They knew what they wanted. They knew who they were. They came, got after it, and got out. They didn’t earn degrees, but they got something better: an education. And the skills to keep learning for a lifetime.

Most of us don’t share their entrepreneurial brilliance. We’ve needed both an education and a degree to get our start. And the same will be true for our kids. The gap in earnings between those with only a high school diploma and those with a college degree—associate’s, bachelor’s, or beyond—continues to rise.

But too many of our kids are going to college not knowing who they are or what they want. As a result, too many leave without a degree or even much of an education. So what should we do about it?

1. Accept that we must change before they can change. We wouldn’t have the highest college dropout rate in the industrial world if we did more to prepare our children. It’s our job to help them develop the character and maturity they’ll need to be successful. Setting priorities, tracking deadlines, delaying gratification, and developing a work ethic are as important as test scores and GPAs.

2. Help them discover the intersection between their interests and their talents. Most students change majors at least once. That’s not always a bad thing, but it usually adds time and expense to their degree. And it’s often avoidable if they had only received more coaching. So be observant, hold brainstorming sessions (with a large college catalog open, if necessary), and encourage early signs of promise.

3. Encourage them to really try things.  Bill Gates said of his teenage computer addiction, “It was hard to tear myself away from a machine at which I could so unambiguously demonstrate success.” Math club and the yearbook committee can be helpful, but professional opportunities are even better. It could be shadowing an engineer at a tech firm, starting a small business, volunteering in a research lab, or filming an amateur movie. Career research is good, but career experience is better. Talents are revealed in the crucible of experience. 

4. Treat teens like young adults, not children. As they’re growing up, give them more freedom but expect more responsibility in return. Shift into more of a coaching than a controlling role. When it comes time to decide upon a college, share ownership of the decision and the expense. Students who have skin in the game tend to appreciate it more, attend class more often, and outperform those who (in theory) have more study time.

If we’re intentional in our parenting years, our kids, like Gates and Zuckerberg, can get a first-rate education. They don’t have to be Ivy League dropouts (or graduates), but they do need to know how they’re wired and how higher education fits with who they are and where they’re going. That will give them the focus to get in, get after it, and get out. 

Alex Chediak (@chediak) is a professor of engineering and physics at California Baptist University and the author of Beating the College Debt Trap, Preparing Your Teens for College, and Thriving at College. Learn more about Alex’s work at his website.

Theodore Roosevelt: In Praise of the Strenuous Life

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In 1899, a few months after becoming governor of New York, Theodore Roosevelt gave the speech “In Praise of the Strenuous Life.” It remained one of his most popular, and has excellent things to say that are affirmed by the biblical doctrine of vocation. Here is how it starts:

In speaking to you, men of the greatest city of the West, men of the state which gave to the country Lincoln and Grant, men who preeminently and distinctly embody all that is most American in the American character, I wish to preach not the doctrine of ignoble ease but the doctrine of the strenuous life; the life of toil and effort; of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes not to the man who desires mere easy peace but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.

A life of ignoble ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual. I ask only that what every self-respecting American demands from himself, and from his sons, shall be demanded of the American nation as a whole.

Read the whole thing (it’s short). And you can find more helpful resources on vocation at MondayChurch.org.

Destroying the Success Ethic

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There is still sometimes in the church today the thinking that success is a sign that a person is following God well, and difficulty and adversity are signs that they are likely doing something wrong.

While following God’s commands often leads to success, sometimes (due to injustice in the world) it leads to hardship and the opposite of earthly success. Hence, we cannot evaluate whether God is blessing someone simply by their outward success and circumstances. We have to look at character and obedience.

Here are some incredible quotes from some of the greatest theologians in church history on this matter, from Leland Ryken’s book Redeeming the Time: A Christian Approach to Work and Leisure:

Puritan Thomas Watson: “True godliness is usually attended with persecution.”

Puritan Richard Baxter: “Take heed that you judge not of God’s love, or of your happiness or misery, by your riches or poverty, prosperity or adversity.”

Luther: It is “utterly nonsensical” the “delusion” that if someone “has good fortune, wealth, and health, …God is dwelling there.”

Samuel Willard: “As riches are not evidences of God’s love, so neither is poverty of his anger or hatred.”

Thomas Hooker: “Afflictions are no argument of God’s displeasure…but the ensign of grace and goodness.”

Paul Helm on the Call to the Ministry

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From my notes on his book The Callings: The Gospel in the World:

The call to the ministry is extraordinary, not in the sense that it is miraculous or accompanied by visions, but because “by it a man is taken out of many of the routine commitments of daily life.” Specifically, “he ought to be freed from the need to earn his daily living in order to give himself exclusively to the word of God (1 Tim 5:17).”

It also is extraordinary in that it arises out of the ordinary. A person generally will carry on a normal calling, and “it is when he is inwardly constrained to preach the gospel, and his gifts — his ability to handle Scripture, to preach, to give leadership — are recognized by the church, that his inward call becomes outwardly ratified. It is as these inward and outward circumstances combined that a man has a warrant for leaving his regular calling and attempting to obtain a position of pastoral oversight.”

MLK on Creative Street Sweepers

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I love this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr.:

If it falls to your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep the streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of Heaven and earth will have to pause and say, “Here lived a great street sweeper, who swept his job well.” (Quoted in Tom Nelson’s Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work.)

Here’s what I love about it: He calls everyone to high expectations and recognizes that creativity and excellence can be exercised in any and every type of (lawful) work.

This stands in contrast to the thinking I encounter sometimes among some Christians of the more cynical variety. Most Christians don’t think so poorly, but sometimes I encounter people that actually have a problem with the call to exercising creativity and finding meaning in our work. They say things like “how can this or that person find meaning in their work — they sweep streets [or whatever]. You have your head in the clouds. They need to focus on just paying the bills, not finding meaning and purpose in what they do.”

This view is then justified on allegedly spiritual grounds as being “liberating” by “freeing” people in difficult jobs from the “obligation” to find meaning and purpose in their work.

But in reality this perspective is fueled by cynicism and low expectations. It is a very un-Christian way to look at work.

The call to find meaning and satisfaction in our work is not a new burdensome law; it is, rather, an invitation. The point is not “you better find meaning in your work.” Rather, it is: “guess what: you  can find satisfaction in your work, whatever it is.” It is pointing to an opportunity, not one more burden a person has to carry.

And MLK here captures it perfectly. We can all find meaning in our work, whatever it is, by doing it for Christ and doing it with creativity and excellence. This is something any person can do in any vocation — even street sweeping or collecting the garbage.

In fact, in my view, a sweet sweeper who does his work with excellence and diligence and creativity is creating just as much a work of art as anything Michelangelo did. Michelangelo’s art was on the canvas; the street sweepers is on the streets and the beneficiaries are everyone who walks by.

Art is more than just paintings and poetry. Anything you do with emotional investment and creativity is a type of art, and all work is to be done in an artful — rather than merely utilitarian — way.

How Can Work in the Church and Marketplace be Equally Important?

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It is an important truth that work in the marketplace is just as important as work in the church.

Nonetheless, sometimes saying this doesn’t necessarily feel right. For example, we can easily think something like this: “But work in the church seems more directly connected with issues of eternal salvation, so how can that not be more important?”

Part of the answer lies in recognizing that the gospel is not just about individual salvation, but also entails the renewal of all creation. So even the work we do in the secular arena is connected to God’s ultimate work of redemption. Further, all work is equally valuable because all work can be done as worship.

But I think another key part of the answer may also be this: when we say that work in the marketplace is of equal importance to work in the church, sometimes we can unconsciously interpret that to mean that work in the marketplace is more important than work in the church. We can almost hear this great truth as a diminishing of church work rather than an elevation of marketplace work.

If the equality of all vocations is taken to subtly mean that church work is less important, that should feel off-kilter. But when we recognize that the equality of all vocations truly means the equality of all vocations, we see that it is an affirmation of the significance of church work just as much as it is an affirmation of the significance of marketplace work.

This is a very liberating reality. If you work in ministry, what you are doing is incredibly important. And if you are working in the marketplace, what you are doing is also incredibly important. The equality of all vocations means that both marketplace work and ministry work matter immensely.

The equality of all vocations is a radical affirmation of the significance of work in the marketplace as well as work in the church. 

So no matter where you work, be encouraged and know that your work has immense value.

 

How Can I Help? A Children's Book on Vocation

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Gene Veith’s daughter, Mary Moerbe, has published what looks like an excellent book on vocation for kids called How Can I Help? God’s Calling for Kids.

As you know, Gene Veith is the author of the excellent, defining book on vocation in our day, God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life. His daughter’s book takes these concepts and applies them to kids.

Here’s the Amazon summary:

God sends people to help in little ways and big ways. He calls all of us to love and to serve others, to help however we can no matter how old or young we are. Christians have multiple vocations: at work, in church, as citizens in society, or as family members.

A child’s call to love and serve is the same as an adult’s.

Work = developing their talents
Church = going to Sunday School and learning about God
Citizens = learning how to act and behave in public
Family = learning to honor their parents

How Can I Help? teaches children that God
1. provides for their needs, sometimes through others he places in their life
2. works through them to help others
3. has a plan for their life no matter what vocation they choose
4. sent Jesus who was not just a helper, but their Savior

That description captures the doctrine of vocation so well that even adults can learn from it. Notice four crucial things.

First, vocation is about serving others! Jesus placed a high priority on service. What we often fail to realize is that the Scriptures actually bring these teachings together into an actual doctrine — namely, the doctrine of vocation. The heart of the doctrine of vocation is that we are all here to serve, and we serve others through our daily work and roles.

Second, right along with this, we are also served through others’ vocations and, more than that, it is ultimately God himself who is working in all of this. When we are serving others, it is God working through us to meet their needs. Likewise, when others serve us, it is ultimately God working through them to meet our needs. Hence, the doctrine of vocation points us to an understanding of life that is infused with the presence of God, and glorifies him as the ultimate servant (which is the ultimate mark of greatness — Matthew 20:25-28; Acts 20:35).

Third, notice how the summary captures the essence of work as “developing [your] talents.” Though the book may not go into this in detail, I think that captures something very important. We often think of work as something ultimately done to earn money and make a living. But that is a very reductionistic view of work. It treats people merely as economic beings, rather than people who are in the image of God and full of incredible potential that is worth developing. So developing our talents and using them for the good of others (in a way that is profitable and meets our needs) is actually a fundamental, essential aspect of our work.

Some people have gone so far as to say it is selfish to seek to develop your talents in your work. I think that is ridiculous. In fact, I think that work is thankfully a zone where God protects us from the bad theology of these zealous over-spiritualizers by actually mandating that we care very much about the exercise of our gifts in our work — not just making money.

Fourth, vocation applies to everyone, even children. It is an amazing thing that, as Gene Veith says, even “being a child is a vocation.”

This looks like a helpful book for helping anchor young children in this very important doctrine, right from the beginning of their lives.

Come to the Gospel at Work Conference in Atlanta, January 23 – 24

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I’ll be speaking at the Gospel at Work conference in Atlanta, January 23 – 24.

The conference starts that Friday night at 7:30 and goes to Saturday at 12:30. Other speakers include Greg Gilbert, Sebastian Traeger (both co-authors of the excellent book The Gospel at Work), Bob Doll, and many more.

I love the vision of this conference and am really looking forward to it. There is a growing movement of Christians who are eager to understand how their faith relates to their work. This conference is one of the best places to go to be inspired and equipped with the amazing biblical teaching on faith and work.

Here’s a brief description of the conference:

Most people spend at least 80,000 hours of their lives working. Wouldn’t you like to know how to worship God with that time?

The Gospel at Work conference will help you think biblically about your work. Speakers will provide practical wisdom on how to approach the challenges you face in the workplace and offer insight into God’s concern for your work.

You’ll also meet godly men and women from a variety of industries for a series of very practical discussions on topics like career planning as Christians, leading in the workplace and business as a mission field.

If you wrestle with questions about your work, or if you care about someone who does, this conference is for you.

You can learn more about it, and register, at the website.

(And if you aren’t able to make it to Atlanta, they are doing another Gospel at Work conference in Washington, DC, the following weekend.)

It would be great to see you there!