One of the greatest failures of the church is to create a divide between the sacred and secular; that is to mark off church activities as sacred (prayer, bible-reading, church attendance etc) and certain activities as secular (work, sport, music, sex, money etc).
This then creates a second and equally devastating failure that also plagues the church, which is that those who lead the sacred activities (priests, pastors, bishops and popes) are more spiritual and noble than those who lead the secular activities (bankers, politicians, CEOs and entertainers). The biblical view stands in utter contrast to these two failures. On the one hand the biblical writers saw all of life as lived in relationship with God and that all of life is part of our worship and offering to God. Everything is spiritual (Colossians 1:24). Everything is an act of worship (Romans 12:1). On the other hand therefore there is no hierarchy within the church in terms of who are doing ‘the important jobs’ – we’re all priests serving God (1 Peter 2:9).
One of the areas where the church has not been particularly good equipping Christians is in the area of living out their faith in the workplace so we are putting on a seminar to think this through in more detail. In the seminar we’ll look over the four principles from Tim Keller’s book ‘Every Good Endeavour’ with regards to how to integrate faith and work
- Christian Faith gives you an identity without which work will sink you
- Christian Faith gives you a new concept of the dignity of all work, without which work will bore you
- Christian Faith gives you a moral compass without which work could corrupt you
- Christian Faith gives you a new worldview without which work will be your master not your servant
Seminar Details
- Sunday 28th April
- 6:15-7:45pm (after the Sunday Gathering)
- The Oratory, Synge Street Secondary School
It is open to anyone but it is particularly focused on those in the workplace or currently/soon-to-be looking for work (e.g students). An interactive seminar, with a mix of teaching, discussion and (maybe) video. To equip those in the workplace to live out their faith.
Extra Resources
- Thank God it’s Monday (Mark Green)
- Every good Endeavour (Tim Keller)
- Keller’s summary of his book
- Keller talk on his book
- https://workmatters.org/