The Gospel Works Podcast

We have talked a lot about work on this podcast, but we want to end season 1 by reminding ourselves that work is not an absolute good. Rest and peace are also a biblically mandated and good part of God's creation. Much of the theology of rest comes from people without many constraints on their professional time or energy: monks, pastors, and professors. In this episode, we try to discuss rest in a...

In the episode, we talk about one of the most maligned jobs in our society: the lawyer. Boo! HISS! We are joined by Michael Carrico, who is not only a great guy, nature lover, and cyclist, but also a long-time lawyer specializing in special education and employment law in New Mexico. We talk about the journey from electrical engineering to law school, and how it has impacted Mike's life and client...

In this episode, we explore fascinating questions raised by the late Timothy Keller, former pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC in his 2016 book Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work. This book has been foundational to our understanding of work in the kingdom, and we explore topics such as the idolatry of work, confronting corruption, and the necessity of living the fai...

Experts may be much better in their area of expertise than non-experts, but they still fail consistently under certain conditions: time pressure, stress, tiredness, and distraction. Expertise, no matter how deep, is not enough. In this episode, we talk about how expertise intersects with the limitations of the human mind, and how the wise person manages those limitations. On the way, we talk about...

Experts have been shown to perform significantly better at tasks in their area of expertise than non-experts. Not exactly a shocking finding. It is surprising to learn that they don't perform much better at all on the same tasks when the tests are non representative of real life situations, i.e., when they are randomized. In this episode, we talk about the chunking theory of expertise, the world o...

We are back with another episode of Working  on Wisdom (WoW), our attempt at a shorter-form series within The Gospel Works podcast. We are going to examine how the book of Proverbs speaks to ordinary work and ordinary workers. In this episode, we will look at a proverbial section, Proverbs 20:5-9, and discuss Solomon's perspective on managing people. TLDR It's kind of hard, for some very specific...

In the episode, we talk about one of the more under-appreciated and counter-cultural roles in our society: the stay-at-home mother. We are joined by Tabitha Roybal, an R&D chemist for Sara Lee, who has chosen to leave the lab to focus on her family, and the impact that has had on her life and faith. We talk about the journey from the lab to the home, the adventure (and monotony) of raising 6 kids,...

For thousands of years, humans have striven for the knowledge and the power necessary to shape their world to their desires, while trying to protect their privacy and autonomy from others. Big Data and the AI revolution are combining to change the world. It is possible to know more and do more in the world, and for the world to know you, and influence you, more than ever before. In episode 17, whi...

Join us as we talk with Lance Blount about the world of auto repair, how God prepared him for that work through Campus Crusade and 20 years in the military. Lance adds a new dimension to being a follower of Jesus as a business owner as he talks about trust, honesty, grace, and having a high view of every person that you interact with. 

Working on Wisdom (WoW) is an attempt at a shorter-form series within The Gospel Works podcast, where we examine how the book of Proverbs speaks to ordinary work and ordinary workers. In this episode, we will look at 3 proverbs that talk about when work becomes worthless. And that's something worth thinking about. 

Join us for a great interview with Ryan Doyle of Intrepid Wholesale. He's got a great story about starting a regional grocery wholesale business, and there's a lot to learn about what it's like to start your own business and what God can do through it. 

We've talked about uncertainty, risk, and work. In episode 13, we make dealing with uncertainty practical as we discuss how AI and robots might affect the future of work, and what to do now given that nobody knows how it is all going to work out.

Last episode, we discussed the necessity of uncertainty (and therefore risk) in God's divine order, and how that makes faith a necessity for living in God's universe. In this episode, we discuss how wisdom is God's complement to faith, and how our view of risk has changed across the ages. We also dive in to cognitive biases, and how wisdom and faith in Jesus should reorder believer's view of risk...

We have spent a lot of time talking about making decisions, but decisions are not made in an emotional vacuum, and they are definitely not made with complete or perfect information. In episode 11, we discuss the necessity of uncertainty (and therefore risk) in God's divine order. We do not know everything, and what we do know is often wrong. Then we'll talk about how faith is a necessity for livin...

Last episode, we discussed the necessity of judgment at work, and promised to give you some tools for exercising judgment. In episode 10, we will discuss two different perspectives to use when making judgments, and how they impact the way that we work and the way that we share our faith. Trigger warning: we do discuss math in this episode, but if you can make it through that, the payoff is worth i...

Knowing may be half the battle, but making the right decision based on that knowledge is at least as important. In today's episode, we investigate the necessity of judgment at work. It is a risky, but unavoidable consequence of our God-given gift to pursue wisdom and make meaningful decisions.

We've talked about making wise decisions in faith, but how are we supposed to learn how to be wise and follow Jesus at work? Should we choose our default: online lectures, books, sermons, or whatever? Or is there another way? In this episode, we will discuss some of the different kinds of knowing, and how knowledge has changed over the centuries. We'll also look at Jesus's "minimum requirements" f...

Finally, after all the prologue, we get to have a real life conversation with a real life believer who works.  We have Keith Philippi, retired founder of a precious metals company. We have a great conversation about what it was like working in the 1970s, how coming to faith as an adult changed his business, and what he is doing now working 40 hours a week for the Boys Ranch of New Mexico in retire...

We've travelled a long way together in our discussion of work and theology and wisdom. But some of the material may have been novel or controversial. Is it true? In this episode, we are going to talk some about a field of special interest for me, the history of biblical translation. We are going to take a hard look at some common objections to the wisdom view held by faithful people who are readin...

We've talked about making wise decisions in faith, and we've debunked the sacred secular divide. But how are we really supposed to figure out what to do with our lives? Isn't full-time ministry really where God wants us, and isn't regular work or homemaking or whatever God's second best for my life? In this episode, we will go through these kinds of normal questions. We will discuss calling in the...

You may be a theologian, but that knowledge does not translate into making wise decisions. What are you supposed to do now?  In this episode, we show how theology (or "the fear of God") is the beginning of wisdom, but it is not the end. If you think that biblical wisdom mostly involves on waiting for further instructions from the Lord, this is the episode for you. We demonstrate that this view und...

Work is not a curse or a cross that we must bear. It is God's good gift, even when it feels disconnected from our faith. Are you just getting by at work? Are you trying to follow Jesus but don't know how? Have you searched your Bible in vain for references to "meetings", "salary scale", "evaluation", or "hostile environment"? Is work only spoken about in vague generalities at your church, and is m...

We have seen that work is God's gift to humans, but it is influenced by the curse, and by the redeeming work of God. So what are we supposed to do about it?  In this episode, we are going to discuss our secret identity as ... theologians. You may not know this yet, but you are a theologian, just like every other human being you will ever meet. To live, you have to think about where we come from, a...

In Episode 1, we saw that work was part of God's good design in Creation and in the eternal kingdom. But it sure does not feel that way right now!   In this episode, we turn to Genesis 3 and the entrance of sin into the world. Work comes under the curse, but it remains a good gift. We explore how frustration, futility, injustice, and exhaustion shape our experience of work, and why both over-ident...

In episode 1, we begin by asking "What is God's perfect design for work?" Everything in our experience tells us that work is a mixed bag at best. Are we just trying to make the best of an unavoidably bad situation ? Or is work more like marriage - a God-given gift that is unavoidably influenced by sin? That decision makes a big difference in the way that we approach work theologically!   We start...