Workism in Association Any good movie or book that we invest in typically gives us the opportunity to associate with the main character. We see ourselves in their story, their actions, or even their mannerisms. We associate ourselves with their role – the one that the...
A Different Kind of Hope For those who can’t hear me screaming on autumn Sunday afternoons (which, from what I understand, is very few of you), I am a huge Indianapolis Colts fan. Irrational might be a better word. For roughly three hours each week in the fall, my...
Merry Christmas friends. I absolutely love this time of year. I’ve always loved this time of year, but I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten a little bit sappier and even a little more weepy this time of year because ‘ve grown to feel the weight of what the Christmas season really means, and I think all of us understand there’s something that’s just not right with the world that that even when good things happen, they’re not ultimately fulfilling.
Work, Money, and Workism A Christian’s relationship to work and money can often be a tense one. Some teachers attempt to look at money as evil in & of itself, while others tell you that it is the absolute crux of the Gospel. Work is inherently connected to...
For those of you who may not know, I’m a huge Indianapolis Colts football fan. In fact, my family gets a little concerned about me during the games, during the autumn football season, because I can get pretty intense. Weather I’m physically at Lucas Oil Stadium, you know yelling and screaming, or if I’m in my own living room screaming, the dogs underneath the table in fear or making my neighbors wonder if they should call the police for a domestic disturbance.
Workism and Redemption Workism can be briefly defined as “yielding your source & sense of identity to your work”. It is a practice, almost a religion even in the Western world, that is defined by a constant need or desire to work, a collapse of self without...
Workism in Ecclesiastes In reading the book of Ecclesiastes these past few days, one of my favorite books in Scripture, I discovered some new insights from the Preacher, King Solomon, on work and the labor of man. While these insights may come across pessimistic in...
Workism and the Righteous Paul was described as a tentmaker in Acts 18:3; someone who labored hard with his hands and worked leather into creating tents. Realistically, he could have made a heck of a living off that. Not that I know the state of the economy then but...
You know every Monday morning at our housing company, CRF Affordable Housing, we have a conference call where all of our staff across the state of Indiana can call in and kind of give updates on things that are happening at each of the properties, share stories, and we’re able to share things with them as well. But, the way we have committed to start this call every Monday morning is that everyone shares a win; everyone shares something good that’s happened. Maybe at their property, within the context of their work, or even within their own family or something personal that’s happened.
Recently, I bought a decorative small canvas that artistically displays, "Embrace the imperfections, the chaos, the holy mess of your beautiful life.” I was drawn to it because of the adjectival phrase “holy mess.” Having gone through several months of what could...
I just wanted to take a second and talk to all of my pastor friends out there today. You know, I spent 12 years in full time ministry and really, I think over this this last year and a half, have felt such a pull and a longing to encourage my pastor friends because I think this season of COVID and 2020, and now into 2021, has been one of the most difficult seasons to be a leader of any kind but especially a spiritual leader in our polarized world where everything seems to create conflict even within the context of our local churches.
We were so excited here recently to launch this brand-new book, this resource, from The Stone Table called Missional Marketplace: Finding Your Everyday Work in God’s Eternal Plan and want to let you know that the paperback has been available for a little while now, but now the kindle book, and also the audiobook, of this is available now at Amazon and at other retail distributors. So, if you’re into audiobooks, I can actually read this book to you as you kind of go about your business. So, if you’d like to hear me read this book to you, you can download the audiobook right now as well. So, Missional Marketplace: Finding Your Everyday Work in God’s Eternal Plan, go pick it up right now and we pray it’s an encouragement to you.
Let’s talk a little bit about humility in leadership. You know leaders are leaders oftentimes because they are very skilled. They’re very talented, they are charismatic, they can draw attention, they have good ideas, they can cast vision, and sometimes that can cause leaders, including me, to begin to think they are the driving force. And so, as Christians, we know that we are called to humility; that arrogance doesn’t really partner itself well with the gospel and the gospel redeemed life.