Religion & Liberty Online Archives

On Call in Culture

April 04, 2013

Finding Blessings in Unwelcome Work

Most of us have spent at least a little time working in jobs we weren’t thrilled about. For me, it peaked with McDonald’s (no offense, Ronald). For Trevin Wax, it was Cracker Barrel: I never wanted to work at Cracker Barrel. Continue Reading...
April 02, 2013

Divine Creativity in Business, Art, and Everything Else

The High Calling recently posted a helpful video about creativity in the workplace, drawing insights from innovation consultant Barry Saunders. Saunders notes that, despite our tendency to think of creativity only in terms of artistic expression, creativity is simply about “building ideas.” Continue Reading...
March 27, 2013

Dallas Willard: Business is a ‘moving force of the love of God’

In a new video from Biola University, Dallas Willard explains how “business is a primary arrangement, on God’s part, for people to love one another and serve one another.” (HT) Willard goes on to explain how God does not wait for Christians to use business as a means for serving the needs of the world: If God wasn’t in business it wouldn’t even be there. Continue Reading...
March 26, 2013

Work Is More Than a Means to Evangelism

As already discussed, Matthew Lee Anderson’s recent Christianity Today cover story on “radical Christianity” has been making waves. This week at The High Calling, Marcus Goodyear offers a healthy critique of one of Anderson’s key subjects, David Platt, aligning quite closely with Anderson’s analysis about the ultimate challenges such movements face when it comes to long-term cultural cultivation. Continue Reading...
March 20, 2013

Before and Beyond Vocation

Discussions about faith-work integration are on the rise, with an ever-increasing number of related books, sermons, and blog posts (ahem) appearing with every passing day. Over at Faith, Work & Culture, Jeff Haanen poses a challenging question to the movement, asking, “Is the faith and work movement just for white guys?” Continue Reading...
March 14, 2013

5 TV Shows That Demonstrate the Importance of Ordinary Work

Television is often lamented for its propensity to exaggerate the mundane and the ordinary. Yet when it comes to something as routinely downplayed and unfairly pooh-poohed as our daily work—the “rat race,” the “grindstone,” yadda-yadda—I wonder if television’s over-the-top tendencies might be just what we need to reorient our thinking about the broader significance of our work. Continue Reading...
March 13, 2013

Charlie Self on Spiritual Empowerment in Work and Economics

AEI’s Values & Capitalism recently posted an interview with Dr. Charlie Self, professor at Assemblies of God Theological Seminary and senior advisor for the Acton Institute. In the last few weeks, I’ve posted several excerpts from Self’s new book, Flourishing Churches and Communities: A Pentecostal Primer on Faith, Work, and Economics for Spirit-Empowered Discipleship, which he discusses at length in the interview. Continue Reading...