Faith at work - Labour Law Academy

Faith at Work

Living out the gospel at work

To my fellow Christ followers!

A million or more South Africans attend a prayer meeting called on short notice. Amazing! Most of those are involved in a range of workplaces, from farms to factories, open plan offices to private cubicles in climate controlled environments.

Yet many Christians are not able to link their work to their faith; there is a disconnect between the two, it is as if we live in two parallel universes. For too long have we set our beliefs at the workplace door when we arrive at work on a Monday, only to pick up our mantel of religion on a Sunday. We have allowed others to determine the agenda and set the rules. We pay our employees low rates of pay and justify this by pointing to the economy as if this is out of our control. We have turned the Gospel of our loving Father into religious dogma used to beat down and enslave others.

It is a central aim of the Labour Law Academy to help Christians to see the relevance of their work to their faith, and their faith to their work. For that reason, and in furtherance of the gospel, there is a section dealing with this. It is intended as a provocation to fellow Christ followers and as a means of revealing the gospel to those who seek the truth.

We argue in these pages that all work -including so called secular work- is as much a calling from God as the ministry of the priest. When we work, we are the ‘fingers of God’, the agents of his providential love for others. If we see work like this the purpose of work becomes elevated from making a living to loving our neighbour and releases us from the crushing burden of working primarily to prove ourselves. By becoming God-centred in all aspects of our lives we learn to treat all others with respect and build a society which thrives.

There are two resources which I highly recommend: the God at Work site, which is linked to Alpha and the work of Nicky Gumble. The second is the Faith and Work Alliance, a South African based work linked to Gospel in Life and Tim Keller. I have place links to both below.

Yours in Christ

Sean

To my skeptical friends!

If you read this and are skeptical of the claims of Christ, then we challenge you to find out more about the Gospel, the good news which motivates and builds our love of our God and of our neighbour. Your life will never be the same!

Thoughts about faith at work

“How we work—in the context of our particular culture, time in history, vocation, and organization—is something we all need to be thinking through in our own communities. But the answers will all hang on this essential theology: the knowledge of who God is, his relation to man, his plan for the world, and how the good news (or gospel) of Christ turns our lives and the way we work upside down.” Katherine Leary Asldorf in “Every Good Endeavour: connecting your work to God’s plan for the world”, Timothy Keller, Hodder& Stroughton 2012.

To my fellow Christ followers:-

The gospel changes us, right? We are ‘used by God’ in our relationships with others, right? So how do you show/tell/ make it known that you are a Christian at your place of work?

Do you

Keep a Bible on your desk, hoping that someone in the office would ask about it?
Pray for your company, especially before pay day?
Pray aloud at every meal in the company canteen to show that you are a Christian?
Think your job is a means to make money so that you can give some of it away to charities and NGO’s that do “good work”?READ MORE

Why work? the motivations of the heart

Galatians 1:10

What motivates our work?

I would suggest we work for one of two reasons: either we work for ourselves, or we work for God. This is the Gospel: either we worship ourselves or we worship God. Our hearts are geared to worship: the question is what do we worship?

Furthermore, if we work for ourselves, part of that motivation is to win the approval of others. In this sense we are looking over our shoulders to see the reaction of our work colleagues, and the circle we associate with outside of work. We need approval- we crave approval of people.

If we work for God, the Gospel produces confident and fearless followers of Jesus, doing what is right without concern for the approval and good opinion of others#. We do not change our heart motivation by manufacturing a rule: ‘Thou shall not work to win the approval of others’. Too often this is how the gospel is taught: we want rulesso that we can look down on others and measure them against ourselves, and we always come out on top!

What does it mean “to work for God”?

READ MORE….

Does your work reflect your faith?

How does the work you do reflect your faith? How can we integrate our work and faith?

There are a number of possible answers to this question.

Work and belief are separate…..?

The first is that the two- work and your belief in Christ as your Lord and Saviour – are completely separate. In fact, you would argue they should be separate. Work is something you have to do to pay the bills. It’s not as if your work is immoral or unlawful and that you are sinning because of your work. Religion is, after all, a private matter between you and God.

Social justice and work ….

READ MORE…..

More thoughts for Christ Followers about applying our faith to our work CLICK HERE

Want to know more?

If you want to know more, contact me. I can assist with workshops or small groups in which we discuss the application of the Gospel to our work, and support each other in this.

Yours in Christ

Sean