Make Faith And Work Part Of Your Church’s Ministry

Discussions about faith and work are part of the Protestant Christian tradition. One key misconception the Reformation had to address was the elevation of churchly vocations—like priest, nun, and monk—to a higher, holier status than ordinary jobs like milkmaid, shoemaker, or lawyer.

Protestant Christians have consistently affirmed the goodness of ordinary work. However, as new technologies have developed, the way we work has changed. Christians have to continually ask, “Why does my work matter?”

This isn’t just a question that Christians ask. In the 1970s, journalist Studs Terkel interviewed dozens of workers in various industries to get their perspectives on work. More recently, Carolyn Chen explored the way work offers a source of identity to many in Silicon Valley. The accounts these books offer are often bleak.

Christianity tells a much better story about work. God created humanity to work (Gen. 2:15). The ground was cursed because of human sin, which makes work difficult (3:17–19). Yet we’re still called to enjoy our labor (Eccl. 2:24–25). We glorify God and serve our neighbors through ordinary work.

Tom Nelson, longtime pastor and president of Made to Flourish, has been wrestling with the question of work for decades. He’s just updated his 2011 book, Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work, with some new content and a new title, Why Your Work Matters: How God Uses Our Everyday Vocations to Transform Us, Our Neighbors, and the World.

I had an opportunity to interview Nelson about his book and about how the faith-and-work movement has changed over the years.

Where does the integration of faith and work fit in the ministry of a local church? In other words, how should a pastor address the issue in his congregation?

Faith and work should be part of the ministry of every gospel-centered pastor. The value of human work is a main thread in a robust biblical theology from original creation to the future consummation in the new heavens and new earth. Therefore, an expository preacher will cover the importance of paid and unpaid work as he teaches through Scripture.

Faith and work should be part of the ministry of every gospel-centered pastor.

But an emphasis on faith and work needs to go beyond pulpit ministry into other parts of the Sunday liturgy. Pastoral prayers should include intercession for the challenges and missional opportunities people face in the workplace. Church members can give testimonies about the ways God is working through their vocations as they embody the scattered church on mission.

We also shouldn’t forget to include an emphasis on vocation in our discipleship ministries. We want to help congregants flourish in their specific callings. The primary work of the church is often done by the church at work in the world.

In the introduction, you write, ‘I now understand work as not only what we do in our individual callings but also what we do together in bringing goodness and beauty to the world and adding value to others’ (5). What caused that change in your perspective? How does that change your prescriptions for the believer working in the marketplace?

When I first began to write in the area of faith and work, my focus was primarily on narrowing the Sunday-to-Monday gap of worship and work for individual followers of Jesus. I encouraged followers of Jesus to joyfully embrace their paid and unpaid work as a primary place of God-honoring worship, spiritual formation, and gospel witness.

I didn’t sufficiently emphasize the ways that our work is also a primary way we fulfill the Great Commandment. It’s how we love our neighbors both near and far.

The Economics of Neighborly Love was the result of exploring a more robust biblical theology that embraces both the compassion and capacity of neighborly love. My new book, Why Your Work Matters, combines both of these ideas to help Christians understand that the best workers truly make the best neighbors.

Sometimes the faith-and-work movement has lost sight of the importance of rest. How do we balance Paul’s instruction to ‘work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men’ (Col. 3:23) with the ever-increasing demands of an ‘always on’ workplace?

I’ve been a leading voice in the faith-and-work movement for almost two decades. I don’t think we’ve given adequate attention to God’s design for Sabbath rest.

We obviously want to avoid legalism about the Sabbath, which has been common in my own faith tradition, but we seem to have overcorrected. That’s why I’ve included a section on God’s design and desire for Sabbath rest in the new version of the book.

I advocate for weaving a weekly Sabbath day into our lives because regular Sabbath rest is a grace gift from God. He designed it for our delight and for nurturing our relationships with others and with himself. I believe one of the most important spiritual disciplines pastors can personally model as well as equip congregants for is the carving out of a weekly Sabbath day.

You’ve added some content on AI to this edition. What’s your biggest concern about AI? What’s your greatest hope for it? How do those intersect with our biblical anthropology?

Throughout history, the nature of human work has changed dramatically, often driven by technology. There may have never been a more transformative technology than AI.

I’m not an expert on AI, though I’ve done a fair amount of reading about it. However, I see the goodness of AI as a research tool for scientists, a way to improve medical diagnoses, and even as a means to suggest policies and structures for organizations.

I advocate for weaving a weekly Sabbath day into our lives because regular Sabbath rest is a grace gift from God.

On the other hand, AI is a direct threat to intellectual property rights and artistic authenticity. The energy demands for AI are enormous. And AI is replacing the humanizing process of person to person knowledge transfer. These are just a few of the challenges.

At the heart of the AI debate is the question of what it means to be human. As Christians, we need to continue to work for an embodied community that celebrates personal knowledge, not just propositional knowledge. The church must choose to focus on in-person discipleship, even though it sometimes doesn’t feel as “efficient” as online discipleship.