Repurposing Business

Over-spiritualization of the good news of Jesus is one of the great failings of the church and religious leaders. The level of abstraction about practical things like business, money, debt, wealth and work are mind-boggling. We can fix that with practical work that is worship. Is my work practically no good, or good?

Some believe consistency is overrated (usually to cover their inconsistencies) but would not like it if their garbage was not collected each week, water did not flow from pipes on demand, or the sun rose randomly at the whim of a chaotic God. God built rhythm into his work and his outputs. Should our work inconsistencies then be excused as creativity, freedom or empowerment? When we work like God...

What drives your work? Is it competition, ambition or the need to put food on the table? The products and services we provide through or work can be someone's best experience of the care of God as we work with Compassion.

Reconciliation can be a messy business yet it is core to the work of God. The whole specter of history reveals the battle between good and evil, and at the core, the disconnect between God and man. Often this gap is most apparent in places of work since work and faith have been artificially separated. Our work is to reconcile. "God was in Christ reconciling the kosmos to himself..." big job, huge...

It is our job as individual and organizations to be involved in work that reforms. Reformed people reform systems that transform nations. Re-forming to God's original intent... this is collaboration with God in his Work.

God's opposition works to "steal, kill and destroy" so when we join God's workforce it stands to reason we are signing up to do the opposite, to do work that is redemptory. This goes beyond doing a job--it is participating in the grand purposes of God through our work.

We often like things brand new, out the box. God, however, has given us the job of being restorers... "restorers of streets with dwellings" it says in Isaiah 58. Sometimes corporate greed breaks down, plunders the environment and uses people. Our work should be different: restoring, rebuilding, even refreshing.

Work is covenantal in nature. Deuteronomy attests that even the blessing of our work by God is evidence of his covenant with us. We too must work as covenant people who work like God whose Yes is Yes and Amen.

Gave made us with a brain. Thinking is good; thinking with the Mind of Christ is even better. Work like God goes beyond information and calculation to Revelation. Faith comes from a spoken work (rhema) of God. We see work with faith's lens then make it happen visibly.

Sometimes workplaces tell people to leave their personal stuff at home. Nowadays enlightened companies are telling people "bring your whole self to work, including your faith" -- which they have to do since many people are working from home! God's design for work is that it is integrated with relationship building. Adam and Eve's first work included procreating... hard to do without relationship.

Faith does not just hope for life after death but breathes life into things that look dead. Since our work is produced by faith it can also be life-breathing, "calling things that are not as though they are." Is my work life-giving or -sucking?

Didn't God have every opportunity to make robots, subservient workers who had no mind or will of their own? Yet he created humankind in his image and immediately respected the choices of Adam. Respecting others is releasing them into their true identity... how can we do it better?

We are designed for interdependence yet many factors pull us towards a workstyle of fierce independence. What are these pullers? How do they impact our work? How can we get beyond the language of teamwork to true collaboration... starting with our co-laboring with God?

There are lots of companies that say fun is a value... "We want to have fun!" Is it not more important that our work be intentional, deliberate, purposeful? Also, there is something demoralizing about busy work. It depletes the human soul. Find out about working intentionally... like God.

Hopelessness is a serious issue. Is it one of the causes for the current work crisis? Are Millennials and NewGeners resigning en masse because they have lost the meaning of work? When work is under attack we must run counter-culture and not only work with hope but instill hope in others through our work.

How do we work by faith which, by definition, involves risk while actively protecting through our work? This paradox is the topic of today's Work like God in 31 Ways episode.

God is your provider... that is true. Since we are made in his image, he designs us to provide for others. Furthermore, he created work as the usual mechanism for provision. There are seasons when we survive on the miraculous but the norm of the Promised Land is work that provides. Is your work providing, adding value, contributing to the wellbeing of humankind?

The "new economy pathology" says you can work 7x24, always be on, enjoy this frenetic busyness, and not get burned out. Wrong! We are designed to work from a place of rest. For the ancient Hebrews the rest day preceded the work days. How can we work from a place of rest? How do we fight sitting down?

Many confuse occupation and vocation, activity and calling. From God's perspective they are synonymous. We are designed as worker-worshippers yet we have come to mistakenly worship work. Perhaps the 2020/2021 pandemic will change this so that we learn to work consistent with our calling.

Empowered people empower others. The opposite of empowerment is insecurity and insecure leaders (workers) are destructive beyond measure. We must therefore learn to work like Adam, Eve... God so that we do not use our work to control and destroy, but give life through empowering others.

Jesus set a new benchmark in being others-oriented, selfless, focussed outward. Conventional wisdom says you should hustle to take care of yourself; kingdom wisdom says lose it and you gain it. Why should our work be outward focused?

The work of God is transformational. A nothing becomes a something, a void becomes a planet, the unformed takes form as he works for good. How can our work transform for good? How can I work to transform?

One of my favorite words in Hebrew is "vav" -- it means AND. In this episode we explore the integration of the material and the mystical in our work.

We assume that God's work is high quality, of course, but why do we so often see a "Junk for Jesus" mentality when it comes to the work of Christians? How can we work with quality?

If we do good work in a bad way is the work still good? God looked at his work and said, "It is good!" When he looks at my work does he say the same? This episode unpacks doing good work and doing it well.