{"id":333,"date":"2008-01-24T01:01:20","date_gmt":"2008-01-24T01:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/markdroberts\/2008\/01\/god-at-work-an-appendix-for-the-laity-section-3.html"},"modified":"2008-01-24T01:01:20","modified_gmt":"2008-01-24T01:01:20","slug":"god-at-work-an-appendix-for-the-laity-section-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/01\/god-at-work-an-appendix-for-the-laity-section-3.html","title":{"rendered":"God at Work: An Appendix for the Laity (Section 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the series: God at Work: A Review of the Book by David Miller
\nPermalink for this post<\/a> \/ Permalink for this series<\/a><\/em>
\nYesterday I put up my first suggestion for how lay people might help their churches be more supportive of their efforts to live out their faith in the workplace. That first suggestion was:<\/p>\n

Recommendation #1: Invest in Christian fellowship and help your fellowship to deal with issues of faith at work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Today I’ll add to it.
\nRecommendation #2: Talk it up.<\/strong>
\nIf you’re a lay person in a church and want your church to do more to support you and others in workplace discipleship, then talk about it. Whether in organized classes and small groups, or in informal conversation at a retreat or on the church patio, talk about your vision and challenges. It could be as simple as saying, “Hey, I’m really learning that my work can be a context for ministry. Do you have any ideas about that?” You might be surprised what you hear. But even if the person you’re talking with has never thought about this before, chances are you’ll find yourself in a valuable conversation. God may very well use you to give others a new vision for faith at work discipleship.
\nThe kind of talking it up I referring to here doesn’t take permission or time or money or anything complicated. It’s the sort of thing you could begin to do next Sunday. Now it’s possible, of course, that informal conversation will lead to something more planned and programmatic. Great! But if not, you’ll be helping to raise the consciousness of your fellow saints and, I’d expect, getting some of the support you desire. Remember, the church isn’t the program or the preacher; it’s the people. As much as faith at work should impact both program and preacher, the church can do a lot to support workplace ministry without either.
\nIn my experience, the notion of faith at work can be an exciting and empowering one for lay people. If you start talking about it, chances are others will pick up the conversation. You might be the small stone that leads to waves of renewal throughout your church.
\nRecommendation #3: Gather people with common concerns and vision.<\/strong>
\nThis recommendation is an outworking of the Recommendation #1: Invest in Christian fellowship and help your fellowship to deal with issues of faith at work. One way to do this is to gather together people like yourself, people who seek to live out their faith at work.
\nSuppose, for example, that you implement recommendation #2 and start talking up lay ministry in the world. It wouldn’t surprise me if, before long, you found a number of people who shared your passion. You might propose a regular gathering for study, conversation, and prayer. Or you might get together with a couple other people to sponsor an adult education class at church. One person wrote to me with his experience at his church:
\nThere were many ways [my church] equipped me for ministry at work. One of the most powerful was not directly from [the church itself], but [the church] nevertheless facilitated it. . . . So my specific answer to your question would be “even if your church does not directly offer this kind of training (which [my church] does), there are opportunities through mission partnerships to provide access and support to ministries that specialize in equipping disciples for workplace ministry.”
\nRecommendation #4: Help members of your church become familiar with faith at work resources.<\/strong>
\nIf your church has a bookstore, suggest some faith at work books. Or donate a few to the church library. You might write a short piece for your church newsletter, pointing to resources you’ve found to be helpful. Etc. etc. etc.
\nThere are many, many resources available. One was suggested in a comment on this blog series, by the author, no less. Greg Heylin has written a book called Work and Spirituality: Finding the Balance<\/a><\/em>. I have not read this book, but I have ordered it. You can find a helpful overview with excerpts from this website<\/a>. It looks very solid. And it will be interesting to see things from an Irish Catholic perspective.
\n<\/a>Of books I’ve read, I would heartily recommend The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective <\/a><\/em>by R. Paul Stevens<\/a>. This book is written for a lay audience (thank goodness!) but it has quite a bit of biblical content. Paul Stevens is one of the real leaders in the faith at work movement. For several years he had one of the most interesting chairs at Regent College: the David J. Brown Family Professor of Marketplace Theology and Leadership. If you’re not familiar with Paul Stevens, be sure to check out his excellent website<\/a>.
\nFinally, let me mention once again the website associated with my ministry at Laity Lodge. The High Calling of Our Daily Work.org<\/a><\/em> is filled with practical wisdom, stories, and Bible studies to encourage people to live out their faith in the workplace. My Daily Reflection on this site regularly connects Scripture and work in a prayerful way.
\nAlso, there is a High Calling blog network<\/a> featuring blogs from Christians in various professional categories. Lots of great material here. And, if you’re so inclined, you can start your own “faith at work” blog through the High Calling blog network.
\nTomorrow I’ll put up a couple more recommendations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the series: God at Work: A Review of the Book by David Miller Permalink for this post \/ Permalink for this series Yesterday I put up my first suggestion for how lay people might help their churches be more supportive of their efforts to live out their faith in the workplace. That first suggestion…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god-at-work"],"yoast_head":"\nGod at Work: An Appendix for the Laity (Section 3) - Mark D. Roberts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/01\/god-at-work-an-appendix-for-the-laity-section-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God at Work: An Appendix for the Laity (Section 3) - Mark D. Roberts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the series: God at Work: A Review of the Book by David Miller Permalink for this post \/ Permalink for this series Yesterday I put up my first suggestion for how lay people might help their churches be more supportive of their efforts to live out their faith in the workplace. That first suggestion…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/01\/god-at-work-an-appendix-for-the-laity-section-3.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mark D. Roberts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-01-24T01:01:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark D. Roberts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"God at Work: An Appendix for the Laity (Section 3) - Mark D. Roberts","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/01\/god-at-work-an-appendix-for-the-laity-section-3.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"God at Work: An Appendix for the Laity (Section 3) - Mark D. Roberts","og_description":"In the series: God at Work: A Review of the Book by David Miller Permalink for this post \/ Permalink for this series Yesterday I put up my first suggestion for how lay people might help their churches be more supportive of their efforts to live out their faith in the workplace. That first suggestion…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/01\/god-at-work-an-appendix-for-the-laity-section-3.html","og_site_name":"Mark D. Roberts","article_published_time":"2008-01-24T01:01:20+00:00","author":"Mark D. Roberts","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/01\/god-at-work-an-appendix-for-the-laity-section-3.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/01\/god-at-work-an-appendix-for-the-laity-section-3.html","name":"God at Work: An Appendix for the Laity (Section 3) - Mark D. Roberts","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-01-24T01:01:20+00:00","dateModified":"2008-01-24T01:01:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/#\/schema\/person\/1ff094a57b7e41f534434b1723df3d73"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/01\/god-at-work-an-appendix-for-the-laity-section-3.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/01\/god-at-work-an-appendix-for-the-laity-section-3.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/01\/god-at-work-an-appendix-for-the-laity-section-3.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"God at Work: An Appendix for the Laity (Section 3)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/","name":"Mark D. Roberts","description":"Mark D. Roberts: Thoughtfully Christian Reflections on Jesus, the Church, and the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/#\/schema\/person\/1ff094a57b7e41f534434b1723df3d73","name":"Mark D. Roberts","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/f2d\/f2ddf5f080861f66ea230384f9d1bab2x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/f2d\/f2ddf5f080861f66ea230384f9d1bab2x96.jpg","caption":"Mark D. Roberts"},"description":"The Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts is a pastor, author, retreat leader, speaker, and blogger. Since October 2007 he has been the Senior Director and Scholar-in-Residence for Laity Lodge, a multifaceted ministry in the Hill Country of Texas. Before coming to Laity Lodge, he was for sixteen years the Senior Pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church in Irvine, California (a city in Orange County about forty miles south of Los Angeles). Before his time at Irvine Pres, Mark served on the staff of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood as Associate Pastor of Education. (Thanks to Janel Pahl for taking the photo to the right.) Mark studied at Harvard University, receiving a B.A. in Philosophy, an M.A. in the Study of Religion, and a Ph.D. in New Testament and Christian Origins. He has taught classes in New Testament for Fuller Theological Seminary and San Francisco Theological Seminary. Mark has written several books, including No Holds Barred: Wrestling with God in Prayer (WaterBrook, 2005), Dare to Be True (WaterBrook, 2003), Jesus Revealed (WaterBrook, 2002), After \"I Believe\" (Baker, 2002), and Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (Word, 1993). His most recent book is Can We Trust the Gospels? Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (Crossway, 2007). He is currently working on a commentary on Ephesians that will be published by Zondervan in 2014. Mark writes a devotional for The High Calling of Our Daily Work, a website associated with Laity Lodge. His \"Daily Reflections\" can be viewed online or sent as a daily email. If you wish to receive this email, just visit TheHighCalling.org and sign up. Mark serves on the editorial board of Worship Leader magazine, where he publishes articles and reviews, including his regular column \"Lyrical Poetry.\" Additionally, he has published dozens of articles in leading magazines and journals. He often speaks for churches and other Christian groups, and has been interviewed on over seventy-five radio programs nationwide. Mark is married to Linda, who is a Marriage and Family Therapist, a Spiritual Director, and a retreat speaker. They have two children, Nathan and Kara.For Publicity Photos and Bio Statements for Mark, please check here. Mark's Dossier Professional History: Senior Director and Scholar-in Residence, Laity Lodge, October 2007 to present. Senior Pastor Irvine Presbyterian Church, June 1991 to September 2007 Adjunct Assistant Professor Fuller Theological Seminary, 1994 to 2007. Courses: New Testament Theology and Exegesis. Adjunct Instructor San Francisco Theological Seminary, 1995 to 2001. Courses: New Testament Greek and Exegesis Associate Pastor of Education First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, 1987-1991 Teaching Fellow Harvard University, 1980-1983 Education: Ph.D. in the Study of Religion. Harvard University, 1992. Area: New Testament and Christian Origins M.A. in the Study of Religion Harvard University, 1984. A.B. magna cum laude in Philosophy Harvard University, 1979. Phi Beta Kappa; Danforth Fellowship Books: Can We Trust the Gospels? Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Crossway, 2007 No Holds Barred: Wrestling with God in Prayer. WaterBrook, 2005 Dare to Be True: Living in the Freedom of Complete Honesty. WaterBrook, 2003. Jesus Revealed: Know Him Better to Love Him Better. WaterBrook, 2002. After \"I Believe\": Experiencing Authentic Christian Living. Baker, 2002. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther in the Communicator's Commentary Series. Word, 1993. Contacting Mark: You can reach Mark at: E-mail: mark@markdroberts.com mroberts@laitylodge.org Phone: Laity Lodge: (830) 792-1216 Address: Laity Lodge 719 Earl Garrett Kerrville, TX 78028","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/author\/mroberts"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}