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Workship: How To Use Your Work To Worship God
The Hebrew root word for 'work' is also the root word for 'service', particularly service to God in worship. By combining the two English words, 'work' and 'worship', I hope to challenge people to integrate their faith and work. Work does not just refer to what is done in paid employment. I believe God sees work as any purposeful activity requiring focus and effort. It could be housework, schoolwork, caring for children or parents, study, paid work, voluntary work, etc. - Kara Martin In her book, Kara explores the biblical view of work, provides six spiritual disciplines to integrate faith and work, shares practical wisdom on how to make a difference in the workplace, and offers ideas to help churches better equip their congregations to live out their faith at work.
215 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 24, 2017
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October 8, 2017Recently, I was privileged to be introduced to Australian writer, teacher, and leader Kara Martin and her recently published book, Workship: How to Use Your Work to Worship God.
Martin is Project Leader with Seed, MBA Curriculum Developer with Excelsia College, and former Associate Dean of the Marketplace Institute at Ridley College in Melbourne. She has worked in media and communications, human resources, business analysis and policy development roles, in a variety of organizations, and as a consultant. She was Director of the School of Christian Studies for three years and has lectured with the Brisbane School of Theology, Macquarie Christian Studies Institute and Wesley Institute.
Kara has a particular passion for integrating our Christian faith and work, as well as helping churches connect with the workers in their congregations. She is married to David, and they have two amazing adult children: Jaslyn and Guy. She writes:
The Hebrew root for work (avad) is also the root for service, particularly serving God in worship. I believe the two activities are meant to be integrated. Our work should be done in a way that honours God, which serves God and others, that worships God. By combining the two English words: work and worship, I hope to challenge people to integrate their faith and work.
Workship has three sections: a brief theology of work, spiritual disciplines for working, and practical wisdom for the workplace.
One aspect of the book that especially impacted me were the prayers that concluded each chapter. Here are two examples:
God of power,
Thank you for the gift of your Spirit who enables us to do so much more than we can in our own strength.
Help us to increasingly work in step with the Spirit, aware of promptings to speak or act. Help us to be more aware of how you enable us for the work you have provided.
Let us not be shy in using the gifts you have given by your Spirit, especially for the common good. As we see you powerfully at work; help us remember that it is for your glory and not our own.
AMEN
And
Our Lord,
So often we are distracted by our busyness, concerns or frustrations. So often we are consumed by our own thoughts and actions, rather than being aware of your presence. Rarely do we consider our work in light of your sovereignty and power.
We want to set this right. So we ask that for every moment of our working this day, we might be conscious of your presence with us — of your work around us, in us, and through us.
We ask that we might contemplate and evaluate our work in the light of our worship of you. We ask that we might rededicate ourselves to serving you through our work.
Before we start work, incline us to welcome you into the work through prayer. Regularly as we work, help us to involve and seek you through prayer. As we finish our working, help us to be grateful for the opportunity and privilege of working with you.
AMEN
I was impressed with Martin's experience and excited to learn what wisdom and thoughts she would have on the faith and work integration. I had the opportunity to interview her recently to learn more about her and this book.
Kara Martin
Chris Robertson: First, I'm always curious to know why authors write the books they do? The process of writing is a hard one and there must be a passion for the ideas being shared.
Kara Martin: Writing this book was an accident in some ways. The publisher is the father of one of my students at the seminary where I was teaching. Stephen knew his Dad was interested in the integration of faith and work, but he thought I had already written a book. The publisher contacted me to ask for my chapter outline, then a sample chapter, and then the rest of the book. It was at that point I said I would have to write it. I found the writing really easy. I went to a friend's place in Norway for three weeks. She has an apartment overlooking a fjord. I wrote from sun up to sun down with a five-day break in the middle. I wrote 28,000 words in those three weeks. In some ways, the book is a culmination of a working history devoted to applying my faith to my work in a myriad of contexts, and seeking to teach and enable others.
CR: What is one thing that has struck you most as you have heard scores of people share stories about the challenge they have integrating their faith with their work?
KM: It surprises mehow little support there is from church or even marketplace organizations to enable it. I am surprised that liberal arts colleges with an evangelical pedigree do not help. It seems we have a tradition that thinks if you teach people the right doctrine then the right application will automatically happen. However, deep connection of theology and its application in my daily work is a refined activity.
CR: What is one thing leaders in the faith and work movement should do today to help encourage this important integration?
KM: The gap is between theologians with no practical work experience, work practitioners without a deep theological education, and church leaders who are fearful about how they apply the biblical text to daily work when they are not the experts. Conversations that bring each of those groups to the table for combined wisdom is most helpful.
CR: I really like (though am convicted by) the juxtaposition in the introduction between work as worship and worshiping work. I feel like every Christian is in one of these camps, whether they realize it or not.
KM: I agree. You can't serve God and Money! It is a subtle thing, though. God looks at the heart, and we need to wake up each morning with an attitude of "Jesus, I am excited about working with you today!" Not being conscious of serving God through our work means that we are actually not bringing into under God’s dominion, and therefore it has become an idol.
CR: Do you have any book projects in the works that you can tell us about?
KM: I am working on Volume 2 which includes more practical wisdom on issues of bullying, Jesus-shaped leadership, ambition and work-life balance; as well as ideas for how churches can equip the workplace Christians in their congregations through activities within church services, within church communities and beyond church communities.
CR: Lastly, if your reader gets only one thing from Workship, what would you like them to leave with?
KM: One of the messages most people want to hear is simply: "God is interested in your everyday work". A simple affirmation.
#####################
I'm thankful for Kara's work in writing this book and would encourage you to purchase a copy (also available in Kindle) for your reading as well as to share with others in your church and workplace.
Martin is Project Leader with Seed, MBA Curriculum Developer with Excelsia College, and former Associate Dean of the Marketplace Institute at Ridley College in Melbourne. She has worked in media and communications, human resources, business analysis and policy development roles, in a variety of organizations, and as a consultant. She was Director of the School of Christian Studies for three years and has lectured with the Brisbane School of Theology, Macquarie Christian Studies Institute and Wesley Institute.
Kara has a particular passion for integrating our Christian faith and work, as well as helping churches connect with the workers in their congregations. She is married to David, and they have two amazing adult children: Jaslyn and Guy. She writes:
The Hebrew root for work (avad) is also the root for service, particularly serving God in worship. I believe the two activities are meant to be integrated. Our work should be done in a way that honours God, which serves God and others, that worships God. By combining the two English words: work and worship, I hope to challenge people to integrate their faith and work.
Workship has three sections: a brief theology of work, spiritual disciplines for working, and practical wisdom for the workplace.
One aspect of the book that especially impacted me were the prayers that concluded each chapter. Here are two examples:
God of power,
Thank you for the gift of your Spirit who enables us to do so much more than we can in our own strength.
Help us to increasingly work in step with the Spirit, aware of promptings to speak or act. Help us to be more aware of how you enable us for the work you have provided.
Let us not be shy in using the gifts you have given by your Spirit, especially for the common good. As we see you powerfully at work; help us remember that it is for your glory and not our own.
AMEN
And
Our Lord,
So often we are distracted by our busyness, concerns or frustrations. So often we are consumed by our own thoughts and actions, rather than being aware of your presence. Rarely do we consider our work in light of your sovereignty and power.
We want to set this right. So we ask that for every moment of our working this day, we might be conscious of your presence with us — of your work around us, in us, and through us.
We ask that we might contemplate and evaluate our work in the light of our worship of you. We ask that we might rededicate ourselves to serving you through our work.
Before we start work, incline us to welcome you into the work through prayer. Regularly as we work, help us to involve and seek you through prayer. As we finish our working, help us to be grateful for the opportunity and privilege of working with you.
AMEN
I was impressed with Martin's experience and excited to learn what wisdom and thoughts she would have on the faith and work integration. I had the opportunity to interview her recently to learn more about her and this book.
Kara Martin
Chris Robertson: First, I'm always curious to know why authors write the books they do? The process of writing is a hard one and there must be a passion for the ideas being shared.
Kara Martin: Writing this book was an accident in some ways. The publisher is the father of one of my students at the seminary where I was teaching. Stephen knew his Dad was interested in the integration of faith and work, but he thought I had already written a book. The publisher contacted me to ask for my chapter outline, then a sample chapter, and then the rest of the book. It was at that point I said I would have to write it. I found the writing really easy. I went to a friend's place in Norway for three weeks. She has an apartment overlooking a fjord. I wrote from sun up to sun down with a five-day break in the middle. I wrote 28,000 words in those three weeks. In some ways, the book is a culmination of a working history devoted to applying my faith to my work in a myriad of contexts, and seeking to teach and enable others.
CR: What is one thing that has struck you most as you have heard scores of people share stories about the challenge they have integrating their faith with their work?
KM: It surprises mehow little support there is from church or even marketplace organizations to enable it. I am surprised that liberal arts colleges with an evangelical pedigree do not help. It seems we have a tradition that thinks if you teach people the right doctrine then the right application will automatically happen. However, deep connection of theology and its application in my daily work is a refined activity.
CR: What is one thing leaders in the faith and work movement should do today to help encourage this important integration?
KM: The gap is between theologians with no practical work experience, work practitioners without a deep theological education, and church leaders who are fearful about how they apply the biblical text to daily work when they are not the experts. Conversations that bring each of those groups to the table for combined wisdom is most helpful.
CR: I really like (though am convicted by) the juxtaposition in the introduction between work as worship and worshiping work. I feel like every Christian is in one of these camps, whether they realize it or not.
KM: I agree. You can't serve God and Money! It is a subtle thing, though. God looks at the heart, and we need to wake up each morning with an attitude of "Jesus, I am excited about working with you today!" Not being conscious of serving God through our work means that we are actually not bringing into under God’s dominion, and therefore it has become an idol.
CR: Do you have any book projects in the works that you can tell us about?
KM: I am working on Volume 2 which includes more practical wisdom on issues of bullying, Jesus-shaped leadership, ambition and work-life balance; as well as ideas for how churches can equip the workplace Christians in their congregations through activities within church services, within church communities and beyond church communities.
CR: Lastly, if your reader gets only one thing from Workship, what would you like them to leave with?
KM: One of the messages most people want to hear is simply: "God is interested in your everyday work". A simple affirmation.
#####################
I'm thankful for Kara's work in writing this book and would encourage you to purchase a copy (also available in Kindle) for your reading as well as to share with others in your church and workplace.
July 15, 2023
The author writes of an institute she helped form within a theological college that aimed to bridge the Sunday–Monday divide within the college, church, and the marketplace. That experience has formed the basis of the material for this book.
In this book (volume one of two), the author looks at these areas:
• A Biblical View of Work
• Spiritual Disciplines for Work
• Practical Wisdom for Working
In defining work, the author writes that she believes God sees work as any purposeful activity requiring focus and effort. That means it could be housework, schoolwork, caring for children or parents, study, paid work, voluntary work, etc. She tells us that our work should be done in a way that honors and worships God and that serves God and others.
A danger is if we think that our work doesn’t matter to God. Some think that God is only concerned with spiritual things like Bible reading, church services, mission activity, prayer, and evangelism. But the Bible teaches that work was created as a good thing. It is part of the way human beings were made in the image of a creative and working God. It is God that we truly work for.
Each chapter includes a prayer and a “Taking It Further” section with helpful questions to go deeper with the material in that chapter.
The book includes helpful stories to illustrate the content of the book. It covers a number of topics such as redeeming your workplace, working righteously, an eschatological dimension of work, vocation, calling, identity, and kingdom business.
A particularly helpful part of the book was the discussion of the following six spiritual disciplines:
• Holy Working
• Gospel Working
• Prayerful Working
• Incarnational Working
• Spirit-Empowered Working
• Social Justice Working
For each of these disciplines the author includes a biblical basis for the discipline, the behaviors that demonstrate the discipline, and examples of the discipline, as well as a prayer and the “Taking It Further” section.
The book includes two appendices:
In Appendix 1 is a questionnaire to help you work out your spiritual discipline preference.
In Appendix 2, you will see how the six spiritual disciplines intersect with Mark Greene’s 6Ms in his book Fruitfulness on the Frontline.
I appreciated this book as it looked at dimensions of integrating our faith and work that other books haven’t touched on. I look forward to reading the second volume.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:
• Work is a gift because we have an opportunity to be stewards over whatever responsibility God has given us: to love that work, do the best we can with it, and offer it back to God as a form of worship.
• It is God we work for. It is he who gave us work as a gift and prepared us for the work given.
• Work is not simply a means to an income. It is about stewardship, productivity, fruitfulness, relationships, for the good of the world, and for the glory of God.
• Vocation is not so much what you ‘do’, it is about responding to the one who calls you.
• Our call is responding to the one who calls us. It is about being Christlike in the place where we find ourselves, seeking to serve God and others.
• Work will never satisfy us when we expect it to deliver something different than what it was designed for, that is, as a means of working with and worshipping God.
• If work is the source of your identity, self-esteem, and/or your security, then it has become an idol. It means that you are too attached to your job
In this book (volume one of two), the author looks at these areas:
• A Biblical View of Work
• Spiritual Disciplines for Work
• Practical Wisdom for Working
In defining work, the author writes that she believes God sees work as any purposeful activity requiring focus and effort. That means it could be housework, schoolwork, caring for children or parents, study, paid work, voluntary work, etc. She tells us that our work should be done in a way that honors and worships God and that serves God and others.
A danger is if we think that our work doesn’t matter to God. Some think that God is only concerned with spiritual things like Bible reading, church services, mission activity, prayer, and evangelism. But the Bible teaches that work was created as a good thing. It is part of the way human beings were made in the image of a creative and working God. It is God that we truly work for.
Each chapter includes a prayer and a “Taking It Further” section with helpful questions to go deeper with the material in that chapter.
The book includes helpful stories to illustrate the content of the book. It covers a number of topics such as redeeming your workplace, working righteously, an eschatological dimension of work, vocation, calling, identity, and kingdom business.
A particularly helpful part of the book was the discussion of the following six spiritual disciplines:
• Holy Working
• Gospel Working
• Prayerful Working
• Incarnational Working
• Spirit-Empowered Working
• Social Justice Working
For each of these disciplines the author includes a biblical basis for the discipline, the behaviors that demonstrate the discipline, and examples of the discipline, as well as a prayer and the “Taking It Further” section.
The book includes two appendices:
In Appendix 1 is a questionnaire to help you work out your spiritual discipline preference.
In Appendix 2, you will see how the six spiritual disciplines intersect with Mark Greene’s 6Ms in his book Fruitfulness on the Frontline.
I appreciated this book as it looked at dimensions of integrating our faith and work that other books haven’t touched on. I look forward to reading the second volume.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:
• Work is a gift because we have an opportunity to be stewards over whatever responsibility God has given us: to love that work, do the best we can with it, and offer it back to God as a form of worship.
• It is God we work for. It is he who gave us work as a gift and prepared us for the work given.
• Work is not simply a means to an income. It is about stewardship, productivity, fruitfulness, relationships, for the good of the world, and for the glory of God.
• Vocation is not so much what you ‘do’, it is about responding to the one who calls you.
• Our call is responding to the one who calls us. It is about being Christlike in the place where we find ourselves, seeking to serve God and others.
• Work will never satisfy us when we expect it to deliver something different than what it was designed for, that is, as a means of working with and worshipping God.
• If work is the source of your identity, self-esteem, and/or your security, then it has become an idol. It means that you are too attached to your job
February 6, 2019
This was a highly practical book, rooted in good theology.
Kara Martin sets out the volume in three parts. The first outlines a biblical perspective of work, starting with the creation of work as a gift and a good thing, then discussing work as cursed, then as redeemed by Christ, then as a reflection of our relationship with God, and finally as something with eternal significance. The second part discusses spiritual disciplines for work, including prayerfulness, holiness and evangelism. The third part, finally, provides some practical wisdom for work, addressing some issues such as ‘calling’, work and identity, and approaching relationships in the workplace.
Evidently, despite being a slender volume, Workship covers a good deal of ground. The downside of this is was that Workship did not cover anything in great depth. Moreover, at times Martin would bring up an example without explaining it very well, or make an assertion without properly backing it up with argument. These weaknesses, however, were more than made up for by the strengths, which were the practical and personal nature of the volume. The book was full of real life anecdotes and examples, showcasing real people worshipping God through their work in complex and often difficult situations. Moreover, at the end of each chapter, there was a set of questions for reflection, as well as a prayer of response.
All in all, I think Workship will have a significant positive impact. It’s short and accessibly written, meaning that people will actually read it. It’s grounded in good theology, even if its not a dense theological work. Finally, Workship is highly practical, encouraging personal reflection and application. I highly recommend it.
Kara Martin sets out the volume in three parts. The first outlines a biblical perspective of work, starting with the creation of work as a gift and a good thing, then discussing work as cursed, then as redeemed by Christ, then as a reflection of our relationship with God, and finally as something with eternal significance. The second part discusses spiritual disciplines for work, including prayerfulness, holiness and evangelism. The third part, finally, provides some practical wisdom for work, addressing some issues such as ‘calling’, work and identity, and approaching relationships in the workplace.
Evidently, despite being a slender volume, Workship covers a good deal of ground. The downside of this is was that Workship did not cover anything in great depth. Moreover, at times Martin would bring up an example without explaining it very well, or make an assertion without properly backing it up with argument. These weaknesses, however, were more than made up for by the strengths, which were the practical and personal nature of the volume. The book was full of real life anecdotes and examples, showcasing real people worshipping God through their work in complex and often difficult situations. Moreover, at the end of each chapter, there was a set of questions for reflection, as well as a prayer of response.
All in all, I think Workship will have a significant positive impact. It’s short and accessibly written, meaning that people will actually read it. It’s grounded in good theology, even if its not a dense theological work. Finally, Workship is highly practical, encouraging personal reflection and application. I highly recommend it.
August 9, 2019
A book that Actually addresses the nature and environment of work, how to think about it as a Christian, how to live and work as a Christian, and helps see not just ONE approach to ‘Christian working’ but the multifaceted goodness and hardness of work. If you want to know how to make a difference at, through and in spite of your work(place), this is part 1 of a good place to start.
Kara’s experience in the workplace AND careful listening and sharing of others’ experience fills out this book. Highly readable and actually prompts you to respond by growing in godliness and prayerfulness.
Kara’s experience in the workplace AND careful listening and sharing of others’ experience fills out this book. Highly readable and actually prompts you to respond by growing in godliness and prayerfulness.
October 17, 2018
Honest. Well written. And Australian - which is unusual, but greatly appreciated. Not much that I've not read before, but a really worthwhile read.
May 10, 2020
Good, clear and readable book about work from a Christian perspective. Helpful theology to actually frame your Monday-Friday, and some helpful practical bits in there too.
June 17, 2023
A very encouraging and practical read. Really liked the prompting questions and prayer at the end of each chapter.
May 3, 2018
This a great collection of highly accessible, bite size chapters with practical reflection questions, activities, tools & prayers. Theologically solid but super easy read
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews