Whatever You Do: Six Foundations for an Integrated Life

by Luke Bobo, Amy Sherman, Michael Goheen

We all long for our lives to have meaning and purpose, yet we live in a segmented way — our faith is separate from our work, home is separate from church, and more. As whole persons, this is not the way God designed us to live. Instead, our lives should exhibit coherence in all areas as we seek to flourish in our personal lives, within our communities, and churches.

Whatever You Do explores how we can pursue a more integrated faith and life through six important theological areas that provide a scaffolding to help us live meaningful lives, which is a fundamental human longing. As humans, we long for truth and understanding of the world around us. Scripture provides us with a foundation for how to "live, move, and have our being," as Paul writes in Acts, which leads to our own flourishing, the good of our neighbors, and the glory of God.

While the six theological foundations are not exhaustive, they cover a wide range of biblical themes that are essential for a Christian worldview. These foundations include the Bible's Big Story, God's Mission, Personal Wholeness, The Goodness of Work, Economic Wisdom, and the Local Church. These six authors examine how the themes of Scripture influence and shape every area of our lives, including our work.

Genres: Christian

72 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 26, 2018

Reviews

[S. Runyan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An inspiring work that reminds us that the mission field is right outside the church doors. Bobo says time and again that Sunday is great, but Monday should be the church's focus. Of all his books I have so far read (3, including this one), this has been, in my opinion, the most profound and contains the greatest amount of usable wisdom. This book would be excellent for any Pastor to read as it would help refocus or enhance an already benign focus, serving one's own congregation and ministry well.

[Bill Pence · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, the first in the new FWE Foundational Series, is edited by Luke Bobo, who serves as director of curriculum and resources for Made to Flourish, “a network of pastors who seek to encourage and resource each other to integrate faith, work, and economic wisdom for the flourishing of our communities”. In the “Introduction”, Matt Rusten, Executive Director for Made to Flourish sites Barna research which reflects that only 28% of Christian workers are seeking to actively integrate their faith with their work. He indicates that this book, written for pastors, church leaders and their churches, explores how we can pursue a more coherent life and faith in six important areas. Here’s an overview of the book:
• Chapter 1 explores the unified story of the Bible.
• Chapter 2 traces God’s mission through the entire Bible.
• Chapter 3 explores how formation in Christ impacts the whole person.
• Chapter 4 explores a coherent view of work.
• Chapter 5 moves from the “me” of faith and work to the “we” of our participation in the broader economy.
• Chapter 6 explores the role of the local church in the world.
Rusten writes that the chapters have an internal coherence. Taken together, they form the theological scaffolding to make meaning of all of life and form a philosophy of ministry that values whole life discipleship.
Below are a few quotes I highlighted from each chapter as I read the book:
The Bible’s Big Story: How the Grand Narrative Informs Our Lives and Directs Our Mission - Amy L. Sherman
• The Bible’s big story starts with creation in Genesis 1 and ends with the consummation of Christ’s kingdom in Revelation 22. Without the bookends in their proper place, we will not give God all the honor he deserves. We will not fully grasp our calling to live out our discipleship in every arena of life. We will not fully understand what obedience to the great requirement (Mic 6:8), the great commandment (Mark 12:29-31), or the great commission (Matt 28:19-20) looks like.
• When our functional theology is truncated to only two installments of the Bible’s four-chapter story, we risk thinking that “saving souls” is the believer’s only vocation, our only calling. But when the bookends are in their proper position, we see our vocations expand beyond the work of evangelism, yet still including it. When we understand the big story, we gain clarity on living an integrated, missional life.
• We’re here for work that honors God and serves others.
• Work is both good and normative. It’s not a result of the fall. It’s part of God’s design.
• Jesus is redeeming all things and accepts no sacred/secular divide.
God’s Mission: An Invitation to Participate in the Redemption of Individuals and Renewal of All Things - Michael W. Goheen
• The goal of God’s mission is a comprehensive restoration of the world.
• This creation belongs to God and we will one day give account for how we exercised our gifts and used God’s resources.
• God’s mission is to restore his whole creation (Acts 3:21), to reconcile all things back to its original shalom and harmony (Col 1:20) and renew the world to what it was supposed to be (Matt 19:28).
Personal Wholeness: Vital for Effective Leadership - Gary Black, Jr.
• A Christian disciple is expected to steward themselves and their work for the glory of God, God’s kingdom objectives, for the benefit of everyone involved.
• I suggest that leaders do have a moral responsibility to themselves, to God, and to those they serve through their leadership capacity, to steward their private and public lives in a godly way.
• I also propose that until our Christian leaders, both laity and clergy, advocate for, and personally engage in, a transparent and holistic process of moral character formation, our churches will not follow suit.
• Biblical leadership involves accepting a higher responsibility to set an example of the means necessary for experiencing life to the full as a disciple of Jesus inside the kingdom of God.
• Few of our leaders take the time or realize the importance of engaging in an ongoing moral inventory of their actions, attitudes, motives, goals, intentions, relationships, and the means they are employing to achieve their objectives.
• The lack of development and commitment to faithful friendships is also where most efforts for moral transformation tend to flail and therefore fail.
The Goodness of Work: Work That Leads to Flourishing - Vincent Bacote
• Work is indeed good; the task of spiritual formation is incomplete without this important emphasis.
• The truth about God as the ultimate worker is one of the most vital foundations for the goodness of work.
• Work that contributes to the good of God’s world is one of the most primary expressions of being a divine image bearer.
• Christ’s incarnation provides an affirmation of the goodness of work.
• Redemption also helps us see that all of our work, even without compensation, is for the good of our neighbor.
• Work is a worshipful response to God that is for the good of our neighbors, whether the “neighbor” is as close as a spouse or as distant as customer on the other side of the globe.
Economic Wisdom: Essential for Glorifying God and Loving Our Neighbor - Greg Forster
• Growing in economic wisdom is essential for glorifying God and loving our neighbor.
• To meet the challenge of our times, we must find some way to talk about justice without becoming captive to partisan or ideological agendas.
• Our daily lives must be reinterpreted in light of God’s action in creating us to be good stewards of his world, working together with one another in holy love.
• All Christians should become aware of which kinds of economic idolatry they personally tend toward and adopt practices to help them continue discovering blind spots and learning from those with different perspectives.
• The spiritual formation of the faithful takes place mostly through their daily work in the economy, and the outside world is watching to see if the church has anything to say about these vital matters of life-and-death importance to the common good.
The Local Church: Uniquely Designed and Empowered to Promote Human Flourishing - Tom Nelson
• Christian spirituality devoid of local church community is a homeless faith. A homeless faith is an impoverished faith, for we were created and redeemed with community in mind.
• A church for Monday embraces a robust work and vocational theology recognizing that a primary work of the church is the church at work.
• Our greatest problem with the local church may not be a head problem, but a heart problem.
Conclusion: Now What? - Luke Bobo
• The church has perpetuated a dwarf-size version of the Big Story that has traditionally only included the fall and redemption.
• Such a version of the Big Story is primarily focused on personal evangelism and securing a ticket to heaven. Such a version of the Big Story can stunt the growth of believers and skew how we see.
• The grand narrative teaches us that all work, except sinful work, is good, contributive, and noble.
• There is no pecking order of occupations or vocations in God’s workview.
• The Big Story of Scripture, of which we find ourselves, means embracing, perhaps anew, the unique and divine role of the local church.

[Mitchell Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pastor must read

This book does an amazing job at showing what the purpose of humanity, our personal lives, and the church or all for. It would serve as a great basis to convict people to begin to lead holistic lifestyles that model Christ. It gives great tools and resources from the six different authors as to how we take the Bibles big story and make it a part of our life.

[Clay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does not engage with work that is not good, or the problem of the billionaire, nor the oppression of the worker today. I was hoping for a more prophetic voice for where the church needs to be at in relation to FWE

[Christian Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a very helpful little book on work and life and a working theology of it. For whatever reason, it was hard for me to become super engaged in it but I gleaned some good stuff out of it and would recommend to anyone interested in the theology of work space.

[Joe McDowell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book discusses six foundations needed to live an integrated live...A life where your faith in Christ meets your world -- everyday.

[Shannon Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and efficient primer. Nothing particularly new, but like the concept of integrating the 6 perspectives.

[Brent Shepherd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would’ve given it 4 stars, but minus 1 star for endnotes.