“…however, we are not allowed to think that one Christian vocation is more spiritual than another. All work, if it is legitimate and offered to God, is sacred. We know no distinction in status between clergy and laity. Too often the choice not to pursue advanced studies in science or philosophy is made on the grounds that such is “dangerous” or “merely academic” and that real Christian work is to be found in “ministry.” (Piety and Philosophy, p. 156)
1 Comment
Comments are closed.
I realize this post is a year and a half old but after reading it I thought you might enjoy this little collection of quotes. My husband is a believer in the workplace. His opportunities there for the Lord have been tremendous.
I hope you enjoy the quotes—
Significance
TGIF Today God Is First, by Os Hillman
May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us- yes, establish the work of our hands. – Psalm 90:17
Many of us begin our careers with the goal of achieving success. If we haven’t entered our work as a result of God’s calling, we will eventually face a chasm of deep frustration and emptiness. Success flatters but does not provide a lasting sense of purpose and fulfillment. So often we enter careers with wrong motives-money, prestige, and even pressure from parents or peers. Failing to match our work with our giftedness and calling is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. If that happens over an extended period, a person crashes.
At this time, many make another mistake. Workplace believers think that beginning a new career in “full-time Christian work” will fill the emptiness they feel. However, this only exacerbates the problem because they are again trying to put another square peg into a round hole. The problem is not whether we should be in “Christian work” or “secular work,” but rather what work is inspired by gifts and calling. If there is one phrase I wish I could remove from the English language
it is “full-time Christian work.” If you are a Christian, you are in full-time Christian work, whether you are driving nails or preaching the gospel. The question must be, are you achieving the God-given calling for your life? God has called people into business to fulfill His purposes just as much as He has called people to be pastors or missionaries.
It is time for workplace believers to stop feeling like second-class citizens for being in business. It is time workplace believers stop working toward financial independence so that they can concentrate on their “true spiritual calling.” This is the great deception for those called to business.
Significance comes from fulfilling the God-given purpose for which you were made. Ask Him to confirm this in your own life.
***********
“In nothing has the church so lost Her hold on reality as in Her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments, and is astonished to find that, as a result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends, and that the greater part of the world’s intelligent workers have become irreligious, or at least, uninterested in religion. But is it astonishing? How can anyone remain interested in a relligion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of life? The church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confiined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes on him is to make good tables.”
Dorothy Sayers
***************************
There is a distinction between church work and the work of the church. Church work is what you do for the organized institution of the church. The work of the church is what is done between Sundays when the church is scattered all over the metropolitan area where it is located – in homes, schools, offices, on construction jobs, in market places.”
Dick Halverson
*****************************
“There is truly is no division between sacred and secular except what we have created. And that is why the division of the legitimate roles and functions of human life into the sacred and secular does incalculable damage to our individual lives and the cause of Christ. Holy people must stop going into “church work” as their natural course of action and take up holy orders in farming, industry, law, education, banking, and journalism with the same zeal previously given to evangelism or to pastoral and missionary work .”
Dallas Willard, The Spirit of Discipline, p. 214