What is the pastor’s role in affirming the various callings within his congregation? How might churches empower the people of God in pursuing vocational clarity and economic transformation? How can we better encourage, equip, and empower others in engaging their cultures and communities?
In a talk for the Oikonomia Network, theologian and author Charlie Self explores these questions and more, relaying many of the themes of Flourishing Churches and Communities, his Pentecostal primer on faith, work, and economics.
“Faithful churches create flourishing communities,” says Self, “bringing the joy, peace, and justice of Jesus Christ in everyday life.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugpjPHGADfs
Pastors have a great role to play in commissioning their people to create value through all of their work, and commissioning entrepreneurship and creativity. And they have great value also in letting us know that we’re more than our job…And yet waking up on Monday with purpose is so important for discipleship, for personal thriving, and for community flourishing. Are you commissioning people to do God’s work in the world through their work? …
…The pastor has the job not to be a specialist in every field, but to give the gospel-centric and ethical boundaries and blessings by which they can go and flourish in each of their vocations. …Pastors can help people see that vocation is larger than just the job, that one’s calling to Christ in general, and specific gifts and mission, include their daily work and transcend it, and that daily work…is part of obedience in this age while we wait for the coming Lord.
For more, see Flourishing Churches and Communities.
