We can impact entire families for generations upon generations by delivering the love of Jesus through our everyday work. Isn’t that something?
We can impact entire families for generations upon generations by delivering the love of Jesus through our everyday work. Isn’t that something?
Many followers of Jesus have unintentionally adopted some bad work theology, a set of assumed beliefs that neatly divide our daily lives into sacred and secular partitions. We believe these perspectives were more absorbed than intentionally taught, but they’re...
In this inaugural episode of the Missional Marketplace Podcast, Darren and Erik introduce the premise for Season One of the show. This podcast is for Christians who work in the marketplace, but who carry a deep passion for God’s mission in the world and want their everyday work to connect more deeply with that missional purpose (and who like to laugh a little bit along the way). In episode 1, we set the stage for this season-long conversation about faith, work, and the global mission of God in the world.
Work is powerful. On its own, it’s just work, but with the Lord involved, it becomes a lot more. Workism is also powerful. On its own, it’s just a concept, but when you engage your heart with it, it becomes a lot more. Work is a function of the human creation – we...
Sin separates us from God. Therefore, we as Christians must be diligent to both hate & eradicate sin in our lives because we don’t want to be cut off from the fullness of God in our lives. Workism is one such sin. It is a form of idolatry that promotes self-worship and worship of our work. This is a 21st century reproduction of an ancient sin that has existed since Adam & Eve were in the garden. What can we do today to bring awareness to the influence of workism, eradicate it, and prevent it from coming back in our lives today?
Today I read through Isaiah 44-46 in my devotional study, and the LORD spends a good chunk of those passages explaining why the man-crafted idols are whack, why He Himself is great, and where Israel’s source of identity is found (spoiler alert, it’s found in being...
Hey friends, While the cross and the empty tomb are the foundational imagery of Easter weekend and of Christianity itself, we're all familiar with Easter's other seasonal icons. There's Lillies, and pastels, fancy hats and dresses, bunnies and baskets (and when I was...
Whether or not you're a fan of professional golf, The Masters marks the annual start of spring with its patrons, blossoming pink azaleas, and dulcet piano theme song. This year marked the remarkable return of Tiger Woods following a nearly fatal car accident 18 months...
Best day of the year? What a strange thing to say about Easter. Why is Easter important? What makes it so special? I guess I wanted to find out. These “Best Day of the Year” signs were held by the greeters at my home church on Easter 2019 when I walked in for the...
Let me tell you what the Gospel is not. The Gospel is not, “I am a Sinner; I work hard to improve myself and God approves me because of my effort.” That is not the Gospel. This is the Gospel: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
You know when I was a pastor, my passion was the Gospel; the proclamation of Jesus Christ and the discipleship of people through the local church. That was my job. So, my job was pastor, my passion was the Gospel. But now for the last decade or so, I have been back in the marketplace. And you know what? My passion is still the Gospel. I sit at a different seat now. I’m in a marketplace seat. I’m involved in managing apartments and developing apartments and Realestate but my passion as a believer is still the same. My job is different but my vocation (my vocation or “vocare” from the Latin word “calling”) is still the same; the Gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ. I just do that now from a marketplace seat. So, I want to encourage all of you, whether you work in a church, whether you work in a marketplace, whether you’re on the mission field, the vocation and calling of every believer ultimately is the same. It is to embody the kingdom and to proclaim and glorify the name of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. That’s your job, that’s your vocation.
And at The Stone Table, we define BAM this way: Business as mission is the intentional integration of business and ministry to create a sustainable, missional presence of the kingdom of God in a particular community. Across the globe, all kinds of marketplace work is being embraced as a Great Commission opportunity to take the Gospel to every ethnos. We have missionary entrepreneurs that are starting sustainable farms, tourism companies, CrossFit gyms, and coffee shops in areas devoid of Gospel witness. We have gig economy workers like graphic designers and book editors that are moving their base of operations to strategic missions’ outposts. We have take-a-job missionaries that are partnering with local church planting teams and are embedding in local corporations that are moving them to unreached parts of the world. We have business owners that are franchising their models to missionary teams that could take the Gospel into places that traditional missionaries cannot go. And missionary investors are underwriting the risky startup costs of these strategic BAM projects through grant and investment dollars. And they’re embracing this multiple bottom-line definition of success and Great Commission returns.