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The Vision of the Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics

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Yesterday I blogged on the vision of The Gospel Coalition because I had just received a newsletter from them that communicated it so well.

Turns out I also recently received a newsletter from The Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics (IFWE) which similarly lays out their vision extremely well. IFWE is also an excellent organization that is worth knowing about and following.

Here’s how Hugh Whelchel, executive director of IFWE, starts the newsletter:

“What does IFWE do?” is almost always the first question I am asked about our work at the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics.

Whether you read our articles every day or every week, you know that we provide perspective and practical insight on the integration of faith and work through our blog.

But did you know that IFWE also has campus programs, curriculum, and more books coming this year? To highlight some of the other resources we have developed for you, we have put together this Impact Report to share our story and the stories of those men and women who have been changed by our work.

He then links to their Impact Report, which is super helpful and worth taking a look at.

One thing worth highlighting from the report is the way they lay out their aim and distinctives in the early pages. It is very simple, and here it is:

Mission

IFWE’s mission is to inspire and educate Christians to live out a biblical theology that integrates faith, work, and economics.

Vision

IFWE’s vision is a free society characterized by greater creativity and increased human flourishing.

Core Values

  • Freedom inspires creativity and enterprise. Freedom empowers us to thrive in our work and serve others. Freedom affirms our dignity and the dignity of others.
  • Fulfillment comes when we use our God-given talents to pursue excellence in our work. Fulfillment is the mark of a life spent glorifying God, enriching others, and finding satisfaction in using our gifts as God intended.
  • Flourishing is fullness of life, wholeness, and abundance. Flourishing is the natural outflow of freedom and fulfillment. When we flourish, we contribute to the fruitfulness of our communities, the thriving of our cities, and the peace and justice of our nations.

What We Do

IFWE conducts high level theological and economic research and translates it into practical resources to help Christians integrate their faith in the workplace and empower them to become better stewards of all their God-given talents and resources.

IFWE’s message is both theologically profound and extremely practical. A robust biblical view of work and economics is intensely relevant to Christians today.

Specifically, the resources IFWE produces to equip Christians include their blog, research papers on their website, videos, e-books, events, and student programs.

A few words on IFWE’s vision. First, teaching on how to integrate our faith and work as Christians is incredibly needed right now. I am so thankful that they are doing this, and doing it so well. We spend far more time at work than at church and, usually, in any other single activity. So it is crucial that we understand how this huge segment of life relates to our faith.

Second, it is absolutely essential to think of our work in connection to economics as well. This is because our work is always carried out in a larger ecosystem — the economic environment of our nation. Good economic policies contribute to the flourishing of work; bad economic policies hinder work and its ability to improve society. IFWE makes this connection and gets it, recognizing that freedom is at the heart of all good economic policy.

Third, I’m so glad that they are not afraid to use words like “fulfillment” and “flourishing.” Perhaps because of our fear of the prosperity gospel, theologically-minded evangelicals can sometimes shrink from affirming the importance of fulfillment and flourishing. We can almost be hesitant to talk about making things go well.

IFWE is careful to understand “fulfillment” and “flourishing” in holistic terms. Hence, central to their understanding of true fulfillment and flourishing is a relationship with God. True fulfillment, in other words, has God as its center. Further, when God so calls, this can co-exist with suffering and difficulty when that is the path of obedience to him.

Yet, our ultimate aim for others is not to let suffering be, but to enable people to be fulfilled and to flourish in a truly holistic sense — socially and economically as well as spiritually. This comes through a biblical understanding of work and economics, with our aim in all things being the good of others and glory of God.

Fourth, IFWE bases all that it does on sound research and evidence. They aren’t just espousing their own ideas. They are thoroughly grounded in the Scriptures and what the evidence shows to be a proper (and biblical) understanding of economics. This is what gives ideas their power — showing that they arise from sound evidence, rather than wishful thinking.

It is worth checking out their website to learn more about IFWE, and following their blog every day.

The Vision of the Gospel Coalition

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I received the December issue of The Gospel Coalition newsletter in my inbox the other day, and I thought they did such a good job stating their vision for the organization that I wanted to share it here.

Here’s how they (Don Carson and Tim Keller) put it:

We helped to found The Gospel Coalition in 2005 with three goals in mind: first, to articulate the gospel in a theologically rich way to demonstrate its relevance to all biblical revelation and to all peoples; second, to deepen thinking and living to “act in line with the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:14); and third, to spread this vision of ministry to churches around the globe.

Most of you are familiar with TGC and its vision. Yet, in another sense, I think there is a lot here that is always worth a good refresher.

For example, note the first goal. Their point is that the gospel is at the heart of the Bible. In one sense that seems obvious, but that’s only because people like Carson and Keller have been making that point so well!

Many people still think of the Scriptures as a book of moral principles or disconnected stories. While it does teach us moral principles, and does have stories, the heart of everything — the center and that which connects everything together — is Christ himself, who died and rose again for us. All Scripture points to him ultimately, and is to be understood in that way.

If Christ and the gospel are at the heart of the Scriptures, then that means that mercy is at the heart of the Scriptures. For the gospel is at root a revelation of God’s mercy. And this leads to the second point: the gospel is to affect how we live every area of our lives.

It is, first of all, significant to realize that, just as the gospel is relevant to every facet of biblical revelation, so also the gospel is relevant to every area of our life. We are to think of every area of life in relation to the gospel. But what does this mean? Since the gospel is about God’s mercy, it means that we are to have a merciful angle in how we do and think about everything.

For example, with your business practices letting the gospel be the center doesn’t mean you don’t care about profit. But it does mean that you pursue profit in a people-affirming way — in a way that doesn’t use your employees or treat customers simply as a means to making money. Instead, you see your customers (and employees) as people who are valuable in themselves and whom you exist to bring real benefit to.

It also means that you don’t justify being inhuman or overly strict to people in the name of saying “this is just business.” Letting mercy govern how you do things means you act like a real human being, with emotion and compassion, in every area of life, including business.

Business is just a small example here. To act in line with the truth of the gospel in every area of life means to see yourself as a servant of others in every area, seeking to do what is right for them rather than first seeking to do what is right for yourself.

Third, this vision of the primacy of the gospel is so significant and crucial that it is not enough simply to live it; we must also spread it. And, of course, this is God’s call to his people. We are to believe the gospel, live in accord with the truth of the gospel, and spread the gospel and the vision for life that is in line with it to the world. The chief way that TGC does this is by spreading a gospel-centered vision to churches and ministries globally.

These three principles are incredibly profound, exciting, and life transforming. They are solid principles not just for a Christian ministry, but for a Christian life.

You can learn more about TGC’s vision in their vision for ministry document, and learn more about the ministry they are doing right now by checking out the full newsletter at their website.

Do Hard Things

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I enjoyed this post on Alex and Brett Harris at the Gospel Coalition. It starts:

“Do hard things,” Alex and Brett Harris told their fellow teenagers six years ago. Get up early. Step out of your comfort zone. Do more than what’s required. Find a cause. Be faithful. Go against the crowd.

Be better than your culture expects….

“We do hard things, not in order to be saved, but because we are saved,” Brett told me. “Our willingness to obey God even when it’s hard magnifies the worth of Christ, because in our hard obedience we’re communicating to the world that Jesus is more valuable than comfort, than ease, than staying safe.”

Indeed, we are saved by grace and created for good works (Eph. 2:8-10).

In the Harris family, “do hard things” is just a fresh way to say “do good works,” Brett said. “We’ve found it a helpful way to say ‘do good works’ because we often need to be reminded that doing good works is hard, is supposed to be hard, and puts the spotlight on God—where it belongs—because it is hard.”

I love the way they put that. “Do hard things” is another way of saying “do good works.” The rest of the article then looks at the hard things they are each doing right now, and it’s worth reading.

Global Study Bibles for Leaders in Africa and Asia

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Crossway has just launched an effort to distribute 250,000 Global Study Bibles to leaders in Africa, India, and other parts of Asia that are under-resourced.

This is an excellent initiative for meeting a massively important need.

You can learn more at their blog post and in the video below.

An Urgent Ministry Opportunity––Global Study Bibles for Leaders in Africa and Asia from Crossway on Vimeo.

Food for the Hungry's Gift Catalog

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So today is Giving Tuesday, a much more important day than Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

One of the most fun and innovative ways to give is through a gift catalog.

This is what Food for the Hungry has been doing for a few years now, and it’s pretty cool. They have a catalog of items, except the items are not consumer goods that you buy for yourself or those on your Christmas lists. Rather, the catalog consists of items that you buy for the poor and which they can use to meet their needs and sustain themselves.

You can buy seed, cows, goats, wells, water purification facilities, and much more — all for the poor. This is pretty cool. It’s a whole other dimension than simply giving a gift of money, because you are able to purchase specific things that are needed.

Food for the Hungry’s efforts here represent a great way to bring innovation and creativity to the fight against global poverty. Their efforts show that innovation and creativity shouldn’t just apply to the for-profit sector — they are just as important in the cause of social good as well.

Their gift catalog is online and is well worth looking through. Plus, as I mentioned above, it’s a lot of fun!

Come to Technology and the Glory of God This Saturday in Ames

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If you are in or around central Iowa, it would be great to see you at the Technology and the Glory of God conference this Saturday, hosted by Stonebrook church in Ames.

Tim Challies and I will be speaking on, you guessed it, technology and the glory of God.

One of my sessions will be a Q&A, and I especially love hard questions. So feel free bring your most difficult and challenging questions. (Or just ordinary ones are fine too, of course!)

Doors open at 12:30 and the conference goes from 1:00 to 7:00.

You can register and see more details at the Eventbrite page.