Redeeming Work: A Guide to Discovering God's Calling for Your Career

by Bryan J. Dik

The world of work is changing rapidly. As a Christian trying to discern the right career path, you might perceive the marketplace as a bewildering and anxiety-provoking place. You might even worry you’ll have to sacrifice your values to have a successful career. How can you hope to find work that is informed by faith and that serves God’s will? Redeeming Work was written to answer just this question.   
The author, Bryan Dik, PhD, is one of the leading psychologists in the world who specializes in vocation. A professor, entrepreneur, and follower of Christ, Dik wrote this book as a labor of love after devoting his career to research and development of practical strategies for helping others find purposeful work. His there are abundant opportunities for Christians to forge careers that answer God’s calling for their lives. In Redeeming Work, he shares the tools you need to find these opportunities and pursue them successfully.
Your purchase of Redeeming Work comes with a special free access to an evidence-based online career assessment system called PathwayU. By taking this assessment, you’ll learn about what makes you unique, including what you enjoy (interests), what matters to you (values), your general tendencies (personality), and what you most need from an organization (workplace preferences). Then, you’ll be able to explore career paths (and current job openings) that fit the pattern of gifts God has given you.
 

224 pages, Paperback

Published January 27, 2020

Reviews

[Bill Pence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was introduced to this book in Tom Nelson’s new book Why Your Work Matters. The purpose of the book is to give practical, actionable advice to Christians seeking to discern their callings and live out their faith within their careers. The book draws from wisdom derived from Scripture and vocational psychology. It walks the reader through how you can discern and live God’s calling within your career path, leaning on points of convergence in the foundation of Scripture and the findings of psychological science.
The author tells us that as Christians, we want to glorify God in our work. We want to feel confident that we are following God’s will in our career decisions. But it is not easy.
The author tells us that everything in the book has built on a Four-Act (creation, fall, redemption, and renewal) Story foundation. Readers of the book can utilize PathwayU, an online career assessment system. The book includes a number of helpful stories and covers a variety of subjects including calling, individualized interpretation, feedback, career interventions, gifting, personality traits, informational interviews, job search, career adaptability, planned happenstance, and work in eternity.
An Appendix “The Four-Act Story of Scripture: Our Foundation for Redeeming Work” goes into more detail of a subject the author introduces in chapter one of the book.
This will be a helpful book for Christians who wish to clarify their callings so that they can find a job that aligns with their giftings.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:
• A calling is a pathway through which we can express our gifts for the common good, and for God’s glory.
• Living a calling is an entire lifestyle of serving faithfully while also listening to the Spirit’s promptings, often communicated through new skills and new opportunities for service.
• Discerning God’s will for our work and lives requires wisdom and effort.
• A calling is not a thing to be discovered once and for all. Living a calling is a dynamic, continually unfolding process.
• Gaining a clearer sense of your gifts helps you understand what makes you unique within the world of work and serves as a key prerequisite to evaluating the fit of particular career paths.
• Discerning and living a calling are ongoing processes, a lifestyle of striving to serve faithfully while also looking for new ways to use your gifts within God’s kingdom.
• A key way to discern your calling is to identify your gifts and explore opportunities that fit them.
• Our callings transcend any particular job title; a job is simply a vehicle through which we can express our gifts to glorify God and serve the common good.
• Whatever work we do, if done for Christ, is not in vain; it will last into eternity.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous book for Christians who are looking for practical ways to approach finding their callings. A must-read for lovers of personality tests and self-exploration. The description of the Four-Act Gospel and the Appendix are gems that revolutionize how we approach our work from a Christian worldview.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Dr. Dik's work in "Redeeming Work: A Guide to Discovering God's Calling for Your Career." At the start to the work, I really appreciated his discussion of the fusion of faith and work and how that is often very shallowly thought through for most Christians. I love the inclusion of the Bible's Four-Act Story as a guide for this. I do think that this chapter could have been expanded to what Evangelism and Missiology in the workplace can truly look like, maybe pulling from Ying Kai's "Training 4 Trainers" and the work he has done with work-place missions.

The rest of the text is very practical, guiding readers through the process of discernment, tackling lies that we let ourselves believe, and the practice of living your calling. I also appreciate the appendix that expands on the information previously provided on the Bible's Four-Act Story. I would recommend this book for any Christian that needs assistance in discovering vocation, an first-year experience class, or even as a "new Seminarian" required reading.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, a book about discerning one's calling and making career choices that integrates solid social scientific research with Scripture and the Christian faith! Dr. Bryan Dik, a well-respected, internationally known vocational psychologist, offers readers action-oriented, experienced advice informed by Scripture, sound theology, and cutting-edge psychological research. High school and college students wondering what area of work best matches their unique personality and gifts to enable them to make a difference in God’s world will find this book to be immensely helpful. Those well established in their careers will find guidance and wisdom in discovering how their work can align with God’s invitation to join him in redeeming and renewing life in this world. Immensely practical, this book is written in a down-to-earth, clear and interesting style. The free access to Pathway U, an online career assessment that comes with the book, is a very useful tool. Wish there would have been a book like this years ago!

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the way this book connected work with the greater narrative of Scripture. I love that it was evidence-based and not just a preacher or theologian giving advice on a topic he’s not really qualified to give advice on. I did, however, feel like the ideas in this book were a tiny bit stretched out, and the author really could have said everything he needed to say in 100-or-so pages instead of 177. I found myself skimming over a lot of unhelpful stories and repetition. I like that the book emphasizes getting active, both in the discernment process and the job search process.

[Jon Vos · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot to commend, but it is sometimes unclear whether or not Dik intends for "redeeming" in "redeeming work" to be a verb or an adjective, or both. If the latter, there may be some issues with the fact that Christ has already redeemed this world in an already-not yet paradigm.

[Kyle Haack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent balance of theoretical and practical insights on vocation.