Workplace Spirituality: Resolving the Faith Work Tension in Christian Professional Practice by Mike McLoughlin
Christian Professionals have real problems resolving the faith work tension in their professional practice. They ask, Is faith welcome at work? Is work valuable to God? What do I do when faith conflicts with work? Where is the balance between faith and work? Can faith make a difference at work? How?
Answers to these questions were considered at The Christian Medical and Dental Society (CMDS) of Canada conference in Kelowna, BCCanada this past April.
The keynote speaker was R. Paul Stevens. Paul is a Marketplace Ministry Mentor and former Dean of Marketplace Theology at Regent College. In his opening message, Taking your Soul to Work: Honoring God in Professional Practice, he taught Christian professionals how to live the faith work tension well. Here are some excerpts from his talk.
To manage the faith work tension well in professional practice, we need to be
- Seeing people the way Jesus does as image bearers of God,
- Allowing Jesus to motivate us to love and serve,
- Viewing daily work as “Full Time” ministry doing the “Lord’s” work,
- Preparing FOR work through spiritual disciplines or Spirituality FOR work;
- Undertaking spiritual practices that enhance work or Spirituality IN work; and
- Allowing our spirituality to be formed THROUGH work.
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According to Paul Stevens, Jesus did not live a balanced life, he lived a disciplined life. “For Christians the need of the world is not the call of God. The call comes from God and we will need to withdraw frequently and regularly from compulsive need-meeting in order to hear the voice of God.”
The mixed life for Christians at work begins by preparing FOR work through spiritual disciplines such as
- Lectio Divina , slowly reading and praying through scripture out loud.
- Lectio Continua, reading through the entire Bible continuously,
- Fasting, Repentance, Journal Keeping, Waiting Prayer ,
- Sabbath. “We do not “keep” Sabbath; Sabbath keeps us – keeps us focused on God as the ultimate reality, keeps us rightly ordered in terms of priorities, and keeps us mindful that we are not accepted by the most important person in the universe because of our performance.”
R. Paul Stevens' book The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective is one the most important books I have read in getting a handle on my faith, witness, and call.
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