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Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy
The modern chasm between "secular" work and "sacred" worship has had a devastating impact on Western Christianity.
Drawing on years of research, ministry, and leadership experience, Kaemingk and Willson explain why Sunday morning worship and Monday morning work desperately need to inform and impact one another. Together they engage in a rich biblical, theological, and historical exploration of the deep and life-giving connections between labor and liturgy. In so doing, Kaemingk and Willson offer new ways in which Christian communities can live seamless lives of work and worship.
Drawing on years of research, ministry, and leadership experience, Kaemingk and Willson explain why Sunday morning worship and Monday morning work desperately need to inform and impact one another. Together they engage in a rich biblical, theological, and historical exploration of the deep and life-giving connections between labor and liturgy. In so doing, Kaemingk and Willson offer new ways in which Christian communities can live seamless lives of work and worship.
304 pages, Paperback
Published November 17, 2020
29 people are currently reading
335 people want to read
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April 25, 2021
Summary: Proposes that a theology of work is not enough. In scripture, people were formed in their work through worship rather than simply an intellectual engagement.
Many of us have believed there is a disconnect between Sunday and Monday through Saturday. Our answer has been to develop a Christian theology of work. A variety of books have been published (I posted such a list recently). The assumption has been that if we can get our thinking about work right, then we will follow Christ as disciples in our work. We organize Bible studies, book studies and adult education courses. We have created marketplace ministries. And this has been helpful.
The authors of this book affirm these efforts but believe there is a missing element. It is the connection between worship and work. They observe that how the people of Israel and how followers of Jesus were formed in the ways they worked was through their worship. And they brought their work into their worship through thanksgiving, through offerings, and through prayers for God’s blessing of the work of their hands. Then they brought their worship into their work. Sadly, worship often fails the workers in the pews. It is institutionalized, spiritualized, individualistic, saccharine, passive, privatized, and mainly designed as a fueling stop. The lack of connection of work and worship leads workers to conclude that work doesn’t matter to the mission of God. This is essentially the first part of the book.
The second part of the book shows the way work and worship were integrated in scripture and the life of the early church. The Pentateuch shows the bringing of work into worship, especially in the form of offerings. The Psalms may be seen then as singing God’s work into ours. The prophets denounce the destruction of the connection of work and worship through idolatry and through injustices toward workers while maintaining the façade of worship. Turning to the early church, they consider the very earthy gatherings of early believers in homes in the context of meals in which people brought various fruits of their work to help fellow believers and then in the Lord’s table were nourished by the work of Christ. Likewise, the street processionals of the early church in the early centuries engaged the market place, the economy of their cities in liturgy.
With this background, the authors then consider practices in which work and worship may be integrated in the contemporary liturgical context. They begin with seven actions of workers in the Eucharist or Lord’s table: examine, approach, thank, receive, share, hold, and consume. They then discuss how people are prepared to approach and how worship space may be configured. They suggest five ways of bringing work tangibly into worship: trumpets of praise, ashes of confession, tears of lament, petition for the workplace, and the fruit of their work. They include examples of a variety of prayers for the workplace. Finally, they consider how workers are scattered to their work.
Throughout the text are a variety of sidebars offering examples from various contexts of the topics under discussion. Sometimes, I find sidebars distracting. Not here. These were both relevant and beautifully illustrated the ideas of the text. Some are prayers or songs or stories or practices. I appreciated the pointer to The Porter’s Gate Worship Project and particularly their collection of work songs.
More than this, I appreciate the focus in this book of not simply developing worship for workers, but worship with workers, and affirming how the workers in our pews are also priests of God bringing their work (and other workers) to God and bringing God into their work places. The book helped open my eyes to how we cannot bridge the disconnect between Sunday and Monday through Saturday only through theologies of work. For many, that theology must first be lived out and given voice in our worship. Ora et Labora (pray and work) is not simply the rule of the monastery. It needs to be the rule for us all. This is a wonderful resource to begin to bring our prayers and our work together.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
Many of us have believed there is a disconnect between Sunday and Monday through Saturday. Our answer has been to develop a Christian theology of work. A variety of books have been published (I posted such a list recently). The assumption has been that if we can get our thinking about work right, then we will follow Christ as disciples in our work. We organize Bible studies, book studies and adult education courses. We have created marketplace ministries. And this has been helpful.
The authors of this book affirm these efforts but believe there is a missing element. It is the connection between worship and work. They observe that how the people of Israel and how followers of Jesus were formed in the ways they worked was through their worship. And they brought their work into their worship through thanksgiving, through offerings, and through prayers for God’s blessing of the work of their hands. Then they brought their worship into their work. Sadly, worship often fails the workers in the pews. It is institutionalized, spiritualized, individualistic, saccharine, passive, privatized, and mainly designed as a fueling stop. The lack of connection of work and worship leads workers to conclude that work doesn’t matter to the mission of God. This is essentially the first part of the book.
The second part of the book shows the way work and worship were integrated in scripture and the life of the early church. The Pentateuch shows the bringing of work into worship, especially in the form of offerings. The Psalms may be seen then as singing God’s work into ours. The prophets denounce the destruction of the connection of work and worship through idolatry and through injustices toward workers while maintaining the façade of worship. Turning to the early church, they consider the very earthy gatherings of early believers in homes in the context of meals in which people brought various fruits of their work to help fellow believers and then in the Lord’s table were nourished by the work of Christ. Likewise, the street processionals of the early church in the early centuries engaged the market place, the economy of their cities in liturgy.
With this background, the authors then consider practices in which work and worship may be integrated in the contemporary liturgical context. They begin with seven actions of workers in the Eucharist or Lord’s table: examine, approach, thank, receive, share, hold, and consume. They then discuss how people are prepared to approach and how worship space may be configured. They suggest five ways of bringing work tangibly into worship: trumpets of praise, ashes of confession, tears of lament, petition for the workplace, and the fruit of their work. They include examples of a variety of prayers for the workplace. Finally, they consider how workers are scattered to their work.
Throughout the text are a variety of sidebars offering examples from various contexts of the topics under discussion. Sometimes, I find sidebars distracting. Not here. These were both relevant and beautifully illustrated the ideas of the text. Some are prayers or songs or stories or practices. I appreciated the pointer to The Porter’s Gate Worship Project and particularly their collection of work songs.
More than this, I appreciate the focus in this book of not simply developing worship for workers, but worship with workers, and affirming how the workers in our pews are also priests of God bringing their work (and other workers) to God and bringing God into their work places. The book helped open my eyes to how we cannot bridge the disconnect between Sunday and Monday through Saturday only through theologies of work. For many, that theology must first be lived out and given voice in our worship. Ora et Labora (pray and work) is not simply the rule of the monastery. It needs to be the rule for us all. This is a wonderful resource to begin to bring our prayers and our work together.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
June 29, 2022
0/5 stars would not recommend.
I disagreed with a lot of what was in this book. As a whole, I found it to be shallow, presumptuous, and not incredibly helpful. First, the entire book is based upon the premise of the necessity of work to be intertwined with worship; yet, worship, as a term of art in this text, is quite literally never defined.
Second, I found that the authors participated in a lot of straw-man or posturing arguments wherein they severely oversimplified what they believed to be a specific type of worship style in order to demonstrate it’s inadequacy. This was most clearly seen through the second chapter, as the authors arbitrarily created the categories of: Institutional, Spiritualized, Individualistic, Saccharine, Passive, Fueling, and Privatized Worship. These categories almost seemed as if they had been created as place fillers after the authors had already decided what they wanted to contrast them with (organic, material, covenantal, truth-telling, active, formative, and public).
Third, I struggled with how often the authors proof-texted their points. This is not more clearly seen than through the claim that the story of the Road to Emmaus demonstrated “Jesus wants to hear about our week” (pg. 22). I don’t disagree with this conclusion, but that fact that the authors used this passage – which is clearly a passage about Jesus revealing himself as the Savior of the world and not about these two unnamed friends’ week – is a concerning thing to begin the book with. These bold, unsupported assertions (e.g “it can remind [workers] of their true master—the one who wills their liberation” and “the ancient Israelites did not think their way into the integrated life; they worshiped their way into it”) continued throughout the rest of the book and gave me great pause as to the authority, knowledge, and trustworthiness of the doctrine and teaching of the authors.
Finally, there were a lot of times where either the authors or those who they quoted redefined clearly defined words to mean something else. One example of this is how liturgy is used – “Rodney Clapp notes, ‘Christians do not stop being Christians after they participate in the Sunday liturgy. They depart to live the liturgy” (pg. 24). Overall, I felt like the authors took too much creative liberty in their use of language, which in turn made the book less clear, organized, and authoritative. In an attempt to present their points in a new, abstract, or metaphorical ways, they lose their assertions in a book that feels very much more like stream-of-conscious ramblings than an academic text.
I disagreed with a lot of what was in this book. As a whole, I found it to be shallow, presumptuous, and not incredibly helpful. First, the entire book is based upon the premise of the necessity of work to be intertwined with worship; yet, worship, as a term of art in this text, is quite literally never defined.
Second, I found that the authors participated in a lot of straw-man or posturing arguments wherein they severely oversimplified what they believed to be a specific type of worship style in order to demonstrate it’s inadequacy. This was most clearly seen through the second chapter, as the authors arbitrarily created the categories of: Institutional, Spiritualized, Individualistic, Saccharine, Passive, Fueling, and Privatized Worship. These categories almost seemed as if they had been created as place fillers after the authors had already decided what they wanted to contrast them with (organic, material, covenantal, truth-telling, active, formative, and public).
Third, I struggled with how often the authors proof-texted their points. This is not more clearly seen than through the claim that the story of the Road to Emmaus demonstrated “Jesus wants to hear about our week” (pg. 22). I don’t disagree with this conclusion, but that fact that the authors used this passage – which is clearly a passage about Jesus revealing himself as the Savior of the world and not about these two unnamed friends’ week – is a concerning thing to begin the book with. These bold, unsupported assertions (e.g “it can remind [workers] of their true master—the one who wills their liberation” and “the ancient Israelites did not think their way into the integrated life; they worshiped their way into it”) continued throughout the rest of the book and gave me great pause as to the authority, knowledge, and trustworthiness of the doctrine and teaching of the authors.
Finally, there were a lot of times where either the authors or those who they quoted redefined clearly defined words to mean something else. One example of this is how liturgy is used – “Rodney Clapp notes, ‘Christians do not stop being Christians after they participate in the Sunday liturgy. They depart to live the liturgy” (pg. 24). Overall, I felt like the authors took too much creative liberty in their use of language, which in turn made the book less clear, organized, and authoritative. In an attempt to present their points in a new, abstract, or metaphorical ways, they lose their assertions in a book that feels very much more like stream-of-conscious ramblings than an academic text.
July 3, 2024
A fascinating proposal on how to integrate work into the gathered liturgy of the church.
August 31, 2021
I'm not 100% the audience of this book. I'm more a labor nerd and self-described lay theology geek. This book has an explicitly pragmatic focus: connecting the work of the Christian community to the service and liturgy of the church. In that sense, I gained a lot less from the chapters on how to practically carry out the central idea of shaping Sunday service to support and equip workers.
On the other hand, I really loved and benefited from the meat of the book, in which it discussed the work-worship connections in the scriptures. I love the idea that all work derives its meaning from God's work. In that sense, human work is secondary, a response to what God has already done (Eucharist! Grace!). And that response, when given back to God, is itself worship of God. Also amazing to meditate on the idea that in the liturgy itself, the church is an offering of Christ to the Father, redeemed by his blood. So any offerings we bring from our work and labors are also secondary.
This book has expansive view of humanity's priesthood.
On the other hand, I really loved and benefited from the meat of the book, in which it discussed the work-worship connections in the scriptures. I love the idea that all work derives its meaning from God's work. In that sense, human work is secondary, a response to what God has already done (Eucharist! Grace!). And that response, when given back to God, is itself worship of God. Also amazing to meditate on the idea that in the liturgy itself, the church is an offering of Christ to the Father, redeemed by his blood. So any offerings we bring from our work and labors are also secondary.
This book has expansive view of humanity's priesthood.
November 28, 2020
Academic theology at its finest because it is eminently practical, anchoring robust critique of contemporary worship practices in thorough exegesis and historical analysis and turning to joyful commendation of new ways of integrating the embodied, working lives of worshippers into the sanctuary...all in less than 300 pages.
November 16, 2022
This book was thought-provoking, inspiring, practical, and challenging to the status quo of what worship really means. Well Done, Matthew and Cory. Well Done.
January 3, 2025
3.5 Helpful ideas. Easy to read. I didn’t love all of their perspectives on some issues but appreciated much of what was offered here.
May 16, 2025
4.5. Thoughtful and challenging book on the apparent modern divide between work and worship and how it was never meant to be. A few useful ideas about retraining worshipers on Sunday mornings to bring their work to God and remind them God is at work with them during the week. Focuses on workers but principles could easily be extended to retirees, stay at home parents, students, etc.
April 20, 2023
This book is a needed push to build worship around the people and their vocations as they relate to their worship of God. It is of the more reformed and liturgical traditions, but is worth considering by all.
December 6, 2021
Overview
In Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy, authors Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Willson set out to reform the Christian view of our daily labor and Sunday morning worship. Their book is primarily aimed at church officers, and particularly pastors. The problem presented is in the view of the average Christian today. By and large, Christians don’t understand how the activity of Sunday worship relates to the daily hustle and grind of their work. There is a distinct separation of church from business. Kaemingk and Willson argue that “gathered worship can be a (trans)formational space for workers and their work,” and that pastors are positioned by their ordination, to facilitate our understanding of the relationship between our worship of God and service to others.
The book is laid out in three parts: Foundations, Resources, and Practices. In part 1, Foundations, the authors ask if Sunday worship is more than mere religious ritual – a rote performance of “going through the motions?” Or, is our worship a real, life-giving, soul-renewing, rest-receiving gathering between God, the Divine Creator and life-sustainer of the entire cosmos, and us, his image bearers who mimic this creativity in our everyday lives? In Part 2, Resources, they present the historical and biblical-theological foundation connecting our work (vocation-calling) to worship. Finally, in part 3, Practices, the authors provide practical ideas and suggestions for incorporating and/or adapting the liturgy of worship to concretize the value of vocation in the life of workers.
Doug Stuart and Kerry Baldwin interviewed Matthew Kaemingk on the LCI Podcast for this book.
Analysis
The authors write from a Dutch Reformed perspective. The Dutch Reformed tradition is branched into more or less historically orthodox subcategories. However, Kaemingk and Willson attempt to address a broad audience regardless of tradition. Ecumenical works are often very difficult to get right. There is so much that could be misinterpreted or dismissed. As a contributor at LCI, I can relate to the difficulty in trying to advocate for doctrinal distinctives on a platform that is wide-reaching and ecumenical. This is no easy task and it’s the task Kaemingk and Wilson set out for themselves.
Part 1: Foundations
Kaemingk and Wilson make a persuasive case that churches have (over time) lost sight of the importance of vocation. Christians are often told on Sundays to leave the stress of life “at the door” of the church. We put on our “Sunday best” including our rehearsed smiles and artificial niceties. “This is our day of rest, so don’t stress us out with your troubles at work. No one wants to hear that. We’re here to worship God!”
Some readers may find this section more or less palatable depending on how you view vocation in the life of the Christian. Some denominations are better at this than others. Lutherans, for example, have a high view of vocation as does the Dutch Reformed. Others, perhaps, not so much. “Vocation” is reduced to societal “roles.” Perhaps unwittingly, this small view of vocation in Christian life contributes to damage brought by individual stress. That stress, in turn, affects the body of believers. But pretending the effects of work doesn’t bother us is not a solution.
The authors even make an effort to incorporate a trauma-informed perspective, something that is greatly lacking in our congregations:
“… church leaders need to reckon with the glaring fact that these people are not just worshippers; they’re also workers. As such, their work experiences, their vocational joys, sorrows, stresses, and successes are carried in their bodies every time they enter the sanctuary, sometimes consciously and sometimes totally unawares. Footnote: ‘…stressful experiences (trauma) leave imprints on the human mind, emotions, and body. Such stressors are inscribed in workers and cannot be simply reasoned away through disciplined thinking, or talk therapy. Some form of embodied activity or ritual is needed in the healing process’. (Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score.)”
This section isn’t meant to condemn those churches that have lost sight of vocation. Instead, this book is intended to build them up and not merely from an emotional perspective. In our interview, Kaemingk emphasized this book is not ultimately about making people “feel good” about their work. Instead, its meant to connect the meaning of our creative work to our worship of God, our divine Creator.
Part 2: Resources
This book is a theological, philosophical, and practical work. The message for pastors is to not feel condemned if you haven’t understood the connection between vocation and worship. Instead, pastors may be inspired to change to fulfill their calling as undershepherds called to feed Christ’s sheep.
Part two encompasses a great deal of theological arguments (from Scripture) and philosophical arguments (from early Christian texts). Though the ancient Israelites and early church had no theology of work (vocation) per se, work (vocation) was so integral to the believer’s life that it always showed up in worship.
Kaemingk and Willson provide surveys of the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Prophets, and the Early Church to demonstrate both the theological and philosophical points. Not only do we give thanks and praise to God for his various provisions, but we are also taught by Scripture how to incorporate lamentations of struggles, hardships, pain, and anguish. The practice of Biblical lament has been mostly lost in broader evangelicalism today where nearly any lament is seen as complaint, discontent, and even arrogance or pride. As a result, many Christians have suppressed their expressions of negative emotions before God which contributes a great deal to the traumatic imprints mentioned earlier.
Kaemingk and Wilson want a reformation that more fully realizes the range of vocational callings and all that goes with that in order that we might better receive the gifts God bestows to us both in public (corporate) worship, and in our private worship.
Part 3: Practices
This section might be seen as the most controversial for potentially two reasons. First, the authors propose modernized prayers, blessings, ritual practices, and benedictions into the liturgy of public worship. Second, some of the proposed wording of these things might give the reader the impression the authors have a particular political-economic bent.
During our interview, Kaemingk, emphasized these were merely suggestions for those pastors and church leaders who have gone without a more robust doctrine of worship. It is not intended to re-imagine or re-invent liturgies that draw from Scripture and ancient practice. If anything, Kaemingk and Willson are themselves drawing from ancient practice and liturgies. They don’t wish to be luddites against modernization per se. However, much of the worship seen in churches today have neglected the ancient practices in their attempts to be relevant to modern culture.
The main thrust of this section is that we gather then scatter. We Christians (as image bearers with a vocational-calling) gather for worship to bring both the fruits of our labor and our laments of our struggles before the Lord. In doing so, the soul-rejuvenating and life-giving gifts of Word and Sacrament give workers a deeper meaningfulness to our temporal lives as we await the coming Kingdom. We are then equipped to go back out into the world (scatter) to share with others our witness of the Gospel and God’s redeeming work in our own lives.
This book is not a statement or argument on proper economic theory. Libertarians reading this book might get that impression from time to time. Kaemingk’s interview is helpful in understanding what this book is not about – economic theory. Instead it’s an effort to equip pastors to convey to their congregations the connection between the daily grind of our vocation-callings, and how that cultivates the coming Kingdom of God. In this case, Christian libertarians can find common ground in our own laments about what distorts, corrupts, and interferes with the spontaneous order of the market.
Final Thoughts
There is something to be said about Evangelicalism’s disconnect between vocation and worship. If becoming Christian changes you, and you interact in the world, then doesn’t our regeneration impact the world? And if we can impact the world, can we not influence and even change the world? Some Christians are uneasy with these questions. Kaemingk and Willson want to persuade you that not only does our work matter, but it matters as regenerate believers awaiting Christ’s return and the coming Kingdom of God.
If you haven’t seen the connection between work and worship, Kaemingk and Willson aren’t here to beat you over the head and make you feel bad about that. They are inviting you into a facet of the Christian life that is both exciting and a relief for the weary. They show you that Matthew 11:28-30 is not just for the spiritually weary, but the physically, emotionally, and vocationally weary as well. God is our rest and rejuvenation as we sojourn this temporary existence.
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
In Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy, authors Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Willson set out to reform the Christian view of our daily labor and Sunday morning worship. Their book is primarily aimed at church officers, and particularly pastors. The problem presented is in the view of the average Christian today. By and large, Christians don’t understand how the activity of Sunday worship relates to the daily hustle and grind of their work. There is a distinct separation of church from business. Kaemingk and Willson argue that “gathered worship can be a (trans)formational space for workers and their work,” and that pastors are positioned by their ordination, to facilitate our understanding of the relationship between our worship of God and service to others.
The book is laid out in three parts: Foundations, Resources, and Practices. In part 1, Foundations, the authors ask if Sunday worship is more than mere religious ritual – a rote performance of “going through the motions?” Or, is our worship a real, life-giving, soul-renewing, rest-receiving gathering between God, the Divine Creator and life-sustainer of the entire cosmos, and us, his image bearers who mimic this creativity in our everyday lives? In Part 2, Resources, they present the historical and biblical-theological foundation connecting our work (vocation-calling) to worship. Finally, in part 3, Practices, the authors provide practical ideas and suggestions for incorporating and/or adapting the liturgy of worship to concretize the value of vocation in the life of workers.
Doug Stuart and Kerry Baldwin interviewed Matthew Kaemingk on the LCI Podcast for this book.
Analysis
The authors write from a Dutch Reformed perspective. The Dutch Reformed tradition is branched into more or less historically orthodox subcategories. However, Kaemingk and Willson attempt to address a broad audience regardless of tradition. Ecumenical works are often very difficult to get right. There is so much that could be misinterpreted or dismissed. As a contributor at LCI, I can relate to the difficulty in trying to advocate for doctrinal distinctives on a platform that is wide-reaching and ecumenical. This is no easy task and it’s the task Kaemingk and Wilson set out for themselves.
Part 1: Foundations
Kaemingk and Wilson make a persuasive case that churches have (over time) lost sight of the importance of vocation. Christians are often told on Sundays to leave the stress of life “at the door” of the church. We put on our “Sunday best” including our rehearsed smiles and artificial niceties. “This is our day of rest, so don’t stress us out with your troubles at work. No one wants to hear that. We’re here to worship God!”
Some readers may find this section more or less palatable depending on how you view vocation in the life of the Christian. Some denominations are better at this than others. Lutherans, for example, have a high view of vocation as does the Dutch Reformed. Others, perhaps, not so much. “Vocation” is reduced to societal “roles.” Perhaps unwittingly, this small view of vocation in Christian life contributes to damage brought by individual stress. That stress, in turn, affects the body of believers. But pretending the effects of work doesn’t bother us is not a solution.
The authors even make an effort to incorporate a trauma-informed perspective, something that is greatly lacking in our congregations:
“… church leaders need to reckon with the glaring fact that these people are not just worshippers; they’re also workers. As such, their work experiences, their vocational joys, sorrows, stresses, and successes are carried in their bodies every time they enter the sanctuary, sometimes consciously and sometimes totally unawares. Footnote: ‘…stressful experiences (trauma) leave imprints on the human mind, emotions, and body. Such stressors are inscribed in workers and cannot be simply reasoned away through disciplined thinking, or talk therapy. Some form of embodied activity or ritual is needed in the healing process’. (Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score.)”
This section isn’t meant to condemn those churches that have lost sight of vocation. Instead, this book is intended to build them up and not merely from an emotional perspective. In our interview, Kaemingk emphasized this book is not ultimately about making people “feel good” about their work. Instead, its meant to connect the meaning of our creative work to our worship of God, our divine Creator.
Part 2: Resources
This book is a theological, philosophical, and practical work. The message for pastors is to not feel condemned if you haven’t understood the connection between vocation and worship. Instead, pastors may be inspired to change to fulfill their calling as undershepherds called to feed Christ’s sheep.
Part two encompasses a great deal of theological arguments (from Scripture) and philosophical arguments (from early Christian texts). Though the ancient Israelites and early church had no theology of work (vocation) per se, work (vocation) was so integral to the believer’s life that it always showed up in worship.
Kaemingk and Willson provide surveys of the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Prophets, and the Early Church to demonstrate both the theological and philosophical points. Not only do we give thanks and praise to God for his various provisions, but we are also taught by Scripture how to incorporate lamentations of struggles, hardships, pain, and anguish. The practice of Biblical lament has been mostly lost in broader evangelicalism today where nearly any lament is seen as complaint, discontent, and even arrogance or pride. As a result, many Christians have suppressed their expressions of negative emotions before God which contributes a great deal to the traumatic imprints mentioned earlier.
Kaemingk and Wilson want a reformation that more fully realizes the range of vocational callings and all that goes with that in order that we might better receive the gifts God bestows to us both in public (corporate) worship, and in our private worship.
Part 3: Practices
This section might be seen as the most controversial for potentially two reasons. First, the authors propose modernized prayers, blessings, ritual practices, and benedictions into the liturgy of public worship. Second, some of the proposed wording of these things might give the reader the impression the authors have a particular political-economic bent.
During our interview, Kaemingk, emphasized these were merely suggestions for those pastors and church leaders who have gone without a more robust doctrine of worship. It is not intended to re-imagine or re-invent liturgies that draw from Scripture and ancient practice. If anything, Kaemingk and Willson are themselves drawing from ancient practice and liturgies. They don’t wish to be luddites against modernization per se. However, much of the worship seen in churches today have neglected the ancient practices in their attempts to be relevant to modern culture.
The main thrust of this section is that we gather then scatter. We Christians (as image bearers with a vocational-calling) gather for worship to bring both the fruits of our labor and our laments of our struggles before the Lord. In doing so, the soul-rejuvenating and life-giving gifts of Word and Sacrament give workers a deeper meaningfulness to our temporal lives as we await the coming Kingdom. We are then equipped to go back out into the world (scatter) to share with others our witness of the Gospel and God’s redeeming work in our own lives.
This book is not a statement or argument on proper economic theory. Libertarians reading this book might get that impression from time to time. Kaemingk’s interview is helpful in understanding what this book is not about – economic theory. Instead it’s an effort to equip pastors to convey to their congregations the connection between the daily grind of our vocation-callings, and how that cultivates the coming Kingdom of God. In this case, Christian libertarians can find common ground in our own laments about what distorts, corrupts, and interferes with the spontaneous order of the market.
Final Thoughts
There is something to be said about Evangelicalism’s disconnect between vocation and worship. If becoming Christian changes you, and you interact in the world, then doesn’t our regeneration impact the world? And if we can impact the world, can we not influence and even change the world? Some Christians are uneasy with these questions. Kaemingk and Willson want to persuade you that not only does our work matter, but it matters as regenerate believers awaiting Christ’s return and the coming Kingdom of God.
If you haven’t seen the connection between work and worship, Kaemingk and Willson aren’t here to beat you over the head and make you feel bad about that. They are inviting you into a facet of the Christian life that is both exciting and a relief for the weary. They show you that Matthew 11:28-30 is not just for the spiritually weary, but the physically, emotionally, and vocationally weary as well. God is our rest and rejuvenation as we sojourn this temporary existence.
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
May 20, 2021
Matthew Kaemingk is an assistant professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary and holds two Ph.D.s, one from Vrije Universiteit and one from Fuller Theological Seminary. Some of his works include Biblical Natural Law, Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear, and Reformed Public Theology. Cory Willson is currently an associate professor of Missiology and Missional Ministry at Calvin Theological Seminary and the director of the Institute for Global Church Planting and Renewal. As stated in the introduction, “The purpose of this book is… is to explore how these separated worlds of labor and liturgy might actually come to be reconciled.” Work and Worship is divided into the following three sections: foundations, resources, and practices. Foundations emphasize the different types of worship which can both form and fail workers. This chapter then goes on to describe how a person and works within worship. Resources outline both work and worship themes within Scripture, such as Psalm work, prophecy work, and work within the early church. The final section, practices, draw connections between work and worship so that the church is not torn between duty and purpose. Kaemingk and Willson outline three different target audiences for this book: workers in the marketplace, worship leaders in the sanctuary, and scholars and students in the academy.
August 4, 2021
As a Christian and a business owner, I feel like this was an important book for me. While much of the perspective was around helping church leaders understand how to help workers build and maintain a strong connection between their work and worship, there was a great deal to help me as a worker too.
The author builds on historical Christian worship to show how early Christian brought their work into the sanctuary (and the sanctuary into their work). And while work has changed significantly and some of the practices are difficult to replicate in a modern context, the author presented ideas and ways to make it work and continue the heart of ancient practices today.
Ultimately, this book has shifted how I work and how I worship, and built a stronger understanding of how the two things are intertwined. Great read!
The author builds on historical Christian worship to show how early Christian brought their work into the sanctuary (and the sanctuary into their work). And while work has changed significantly and some of the practices are difficult to replicate in a modern context, the author presented ideas and ways to make it work and continue the heart of ancient practices today.
Ultimately, this book has shifted how I work and how I worship, and built a stronger understanding of how the two things are intertwined. Great read!
April 3, 2021
This book is a gem. What was once an idea kept in the esoteric field of systematic and philosophical theology, is now practically grounded in Biblical and liturgical theology. The authors help church leaders understand biblically and liturgically the importance of forming worship for the average Christian who spends over 40 hours a week at their work. Kaemingk and Wilson explain the importance of shaping worship for works, and give practical advice an ideas for churches to use.
This book is a must read for all church leaders. Internalizing the ideas of the book and adopting the practices are vital for the long term health of the church in the west.
This book is a must read for all church leaders. Internalizing the ideas of the book and adopting the practices are vital for the long term health of the church in the west.
June 9, 2021
An overdue contribution to the faith and work conversation. Practical without being full of “how to” lists, but does get a bit repetitive at points. Still very helpful for those who plan worship services.
October 17, 2021
This well researched volume is unlike any book I’ve read previously. I’ve read dozens of books about integrating our faith and our work. This is the first book I’ve read about integrating our work with our worship, and the authors tell us that there exists a profound separation between work and worship in the lives of many Christians today. Their goal is to explore how these separated worlds of labor and liturgy might actually come to be reconciled. They write that theologies of work matter, but they need to be sung and prayed.
The authors state that in light of the modern West’s struggles with worship and work, their research intentionally looked to other times and other cultures for wisdom. To this end, they primarily draw insight from premodern, non-Western, and nonurban contexts to learn from their collective wisdom. Ancient Israel, early Christianity, and the global and rural church serve as the primary guides throughout the book.
As Reformed scholars, the authors worked hard to highlight important insights from Catholics, Pentecostals, Anglicans, Baptists, and Eastern Orthodox. They also sought to learn from racially and culturally diverse worshiping communities across the United States and around the world. The purpose of the book is to explore how faith and work can be reconciled through gathered worship. The book aims to articulate a vision for worship that is “vocationally conversant.” By “vocationally conversant” the authors mean forms of worship that engage work and workers in a divine dialogue. Worship that is vocationally conversant facilitates an honest exchange between workers and their God. This book is focused on paid work, and is primarily focused on reexamining Sunday worship in the sanctuary. The author’s primary goal is to explore how gathered worship on Sunday can help reconcile the modern divorce between faith and work.
While rethinking Sunday in the light of Monday is the focus of the book, the authors also included a short, but helpful Epilogue “Rethinking Monday”. I also enjoyed the helpful side bar articles and examples included throughout the book.
This book will be most helpful for pastors, church leaders (elders, etc.) and worship leaders. The book is not a quick read. It covers much ground. Take your time with it. Read and discuss it with others. You will find that to be time well spent.
Below are 30 of my favorite quotes from the book:
• Worship gathers workers so that they might offer their working lives to God and so that God might offer his work to them. Worship scatters workers, transformed by the work and Word of the Lord, throughout the city to be salt and light wherever they have been called.
• Worship scatters workers so that they can extend Sunday worship into Monday work.
• Worship does not cease come Monday. Disciples continue to worship God in a new way through their daily work.
• A worker who does not practice being an active and responsible priest in the sanctuary will find it difficult to actively assume this role in the workplace.
• Pastors and worship leaders need to cultivate a hungry curiosity about their people’s work. Learning about their careers and callings will improve the sermons they write, the prayers they pray, the benedictions they offer, and the songs they select.
• It is important for pastors and worship leaders to regularly investigate the joyful and heartbreaking vocations that workers carry into worship.
• The more that pastors and worship leaders immerse themselves in the working lives of their people, the more responsive and conversant worship can become.
• Many workers sitting in the pews honestly believe that the cares and concerns of their working lives are not welcome in the sanctuary. They do their level best to suppress thoughts of work while they sit there.
• Intimacy with God at work can begin when a worker learns to bring their work to God in worship.
• The manner in which workers connect with God on Sunday is going to impact their connection with God on Monday.
• All Christian workers, in all industries, are invited to participate in the multifaceted mission of God.
• The workplace is a critical (if not the critical) space in which workers will either learn to follow Christ faithfully or walk away from him.
• The church’s mission is embodied in the diverse work of the people all over the city—and the church’s worship should name and reflect this.
• All work, when done in faithful service to both God and neighbor, is a priestly act of worship.
• God does not simply mandate human work; God delights in human work. God accepts it with joy, not as mere obedience but as worship.
• Human work must be responsive to God’s work, and that is why worshipers must continually rehearse God’s works in song.
• Within today’s faith and work movement much is made of carrying the biblical lessons of Sunday into Monday. The psalms enable the opposite. They give the worker an opportunity to carry their raw emotions of Monday into Sunday.
• Contemporary forms of worship can sometimes feel like a one-way conversation. Workers sit in the pews and are the passive recipients of sermonic monologues directed at them. The psalms, however, initiate a dynamic conversation, a vocational dialogue between the sanctuary and the streets.
• Work without integrity leads to worship without integrity.
• Work cannot be an afterthought in worship, an ancillary issue, a necessary evil. Work and how workers worship matter deeply to God.
• What would it look like for contemporary pastors, elders, and small-group leaders to actually know the workers they disciple and the industries they engage?
• Workers must carefully examine their work and their week before they approach the table.
• Corporate worship, therefore, must be intentionally designed to encourage workers to humbly offer their work and their whole lives as sacrifices—holy and pleasing—to God.
• Corporate worship can and should gather workers’ vocational requests and petitions. Through prayers and petitions offered in the sanctuary, workers can slowly begin the practice of dialoguing with God about their work.
• Worshipers who regularly carry their life and work to God in the sanctuary are being formed to carry God’s life and work back into their workplaces.
• The sanctuary’s ability to shape and scatter workers is critical to the health and mission of the church.
• The worshipers’ knowledge that they are not alone, that the community prays with and for them, can have a profound impact as they disperse toward Monday. It is from a prayer-filled community that they move toward a prayer-filled vocation.
• Workers need spiritual guidance on how to habitually draw near to God, listen to God, and faithfully worship God in and through their daily work. This requires spiritual wisdom and practice.
• Empowering the vocational mission of the laity in the city through the ministry of the word and sacrament is the pastor’s mission.
• In order for church leaders to serve the priesthood of believers, they will need to become more conversant with the working lives of people in their communities.
The authors state that in light of the modern West’s struggles with worship and work, their research intentionally looked to other times and other cultures for wisdom. To this end, they primarily draw insight from premodern, non-Western, and nonurban contexts to learn from their collective wisdom. Ancient Israel, early Christianity, and the global and rural church serve as the primary guides throughout the book.
As Reformed scholars, the authors worked hard to highlight important insights from Catholics, Pentecostals, Anglicans, Baptists, and Eastern Orthodox. They also sought to learn from racially and culturally diverse worshiping communities across the United States and around the world. The purpose of the book is to explore how faith and work can be reconciled through gathered worship. The book aims to articulate a vision for worship that is “vocationally conversant.” By “vocationally conversant” the authors mean forms of worship that engage work and workers in a divine dialogue. Worship that is vocationally conversant facilitates an honest exchange between workers and their God. This book is focused on paid work, and is primarily focused on reexamining Sunday worship in the sanctuary. The author’s primary goal is to explore how gathered worship on Sunday can help reconcile the modern divorce between faith and work.
While rethinking Sunday in the light of Monday is the focus of the book, the authors also included a short, but helpful Epilogue “Rethinking Monday”. I also enjoyed the helpful side bar articles and examples included throughout the book.
This book will be most helpful for pastors, church leaders (elders, etc.) and worship leaders. The book is not a quick read. It covers much ground. Take your time with it. Read and discuss it with others. You will find that to be time well spent.
Below are 30 of my favorite quotes from the book:
• Worship gathers workers so that they might offer their working lives to God and so that God might offer his work to them. Worship scatters workers, transformed by the work and Word of the Lord, throughout the city to be salt and light wherever they have been called.
• Worship scatters workers so that they can extend Sunday worship into Monday work.
• Worship does not cease come Monday. Disciples continue to worship God in a new way through their daily work.
• A worker who does not practice being an active and responsible priest in the sanctuary will find it difficult to actively assume this role in the workplace.
• Pastors and worship leaders need to cultivate a hungry curiosity about their people’s work. Learning about their careers and callings will improve the sermons they write, the prayers they pray, the benedictions they offer, and the songs they select.
• It is important for pastors and worship leaders to regularly investigate the joyful and heartbreaking vocations that workers carry into worship.
• The more that pastors and worship leaders immerse themselves in the working lives of their people, the more responsive and conversant worship can become.
• Many workers sitting in the pews honestly believe that the cares and concerns of their working lives are not welcome in the sanctuary. They do their level best to suppress thoughts of work while they sit there.
• Intimacy with God at work can begin when a worker learns to bring their work to God in worship.
• The manner in which workers connect with God on Sunday is going to impact their connection with God on Monday.
• All Christian workers, in all industries, are invited to participate in the multifaceted mission of God.
• The workplace is a critical (if not the critical) space in which workers will either learn to follow Christ faithfully or walk away from him.
• The church’s mission is embodied in the diverse work of the people all over the city—and the church’s worship should name and reflect this.
• All work, when done in faithful service to both God and neighbor, is a priestly act of worship.
• God does not simply mandate human work; God delights in human work. God accepts it with joy, not as mere obedience but as worship.
• Human work must be responsive to God’s work, and that is why worshipers must continually rehearse God’s works in song.
• Within today’s faith and work movement much is made of carrying the biblical lessons of Sunday into Monday. The psalms enable the opposite. They give the worker an opportunity to carry their raw emotions of Monday into Sunday.
• Contemporary forms of worship can sometimes feel like a one-way conversation. Workers sit in the pews and are the passive recipients of sermonic monologues directed at them. The psalms, however, initiate a dynamic conversation, a vocational dialogue between the sanctuary and the streets.
• Work without integrity leads to worship without integrity.
• Work cannot be an afterthought in worship, an ancillary issue, a necessary evil. Work and how workers worship matter deeply to God.
• What would it look like for contemporary pastors, elders, and small-group leaders to actually know the workers they disciple and the industries they engage?
• Workers must carefully examine their work and their week before they approach the table.
• Corporate worship, therefore, must be intentionally designed to encourage workers to humbly offer their work and their whole lives as sacrifices—holy and pleasing—to God.
• Corporate worship can and should gather workers’ vocational requests and petitions. Through prayers and petitions offered in the sanctuary, workers can slowly begin the practice of dialoguing with God about their work.
• Worshipers who regularly carry their life and work to God in the sanctuary are being formed to carry God’s life and work back into their workplaces.
• The sanctuary’s ability to shape and scatter workers is critical to the health and mission of the church.
• The worshipers’ knowledge that they are not alone, that the community prays with and for them, can have a profound impact as they disperse toward Monday. It is from a prayer-filled community that they move toward a prayer-filled vocation.
• Workers need spiritual guidance on how to habitually draw near to God, listen to God, and faithfully worship God in and through their daily work. This requires spiritual wisdom and practice.
• Empowering the vocational mission of the laity in the city through the ministry of the word and sacrament is the pastor’s mission.
• In order for church leaders to serve the priesthood of believers, they will need to become more conversant with the working lives of people in their communities.
May 14, 2022
There's not a book like this on the market. Most faith & work resources talk about the work itself and how the action, the heart behind it, the community of it (both artisans and local communities), and the formation of the worker are all important. Amen.
This book explores how the congregation includes workers and how their work is recognized and included in the worship and how the worship leaves with them and goes back out to the shop, laptop, crop, or countertop of our labors.
If you have only 2-3 books on Faith & Work, make this one of them. (Every Good Endeavor would be the other one I would press into your hands)
This book explores how the congregation includes workers and how their work is recognized and included in the worship and how the worship leaves with them and goes back out to the shop, laptop, crop, or countertop of our labors.
If you have only 2-3 books on Faith & Work, make this one of them. (Every Good Endeavor would be the other one I would press into your hands)
January 10, 2024
Afer I heard Matthew speaking on this theme, I dove into the book. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time, opening a whole new lense through which to look at.
The authors propose a kind of worship services that make space for the audience to connect their daily lives to God.
If what we do in our daily lives matters to God, it should matter in worship.
The book gives a thorough examination of the way in which work and worship functioned together in the Old Testament. This theological basis gives the foundation for the further creative exercise on how to integrate work into worship.
The authors propose a kind of worship services that make space for the audience to connect their daily lives to God.
If what we do in our daily lives matters to God, it should matter in worship.
The book gives a thorough examination of the way in which work and worship functioned together in the Old Testament. This theological basis gives the foundation for the further creative exercise on how to integrate work into worship.
November 1, 2021
This is an impressively well-written and insightful work, which draws on biblical (largely Old Testament liturgies) and liturgical sources (from the ancient church and the contemporary church around the world) to offer practical resources to churches and Christians in the workplace who are seeking to connect faith and the everyday realities of the workplace.
July 15, 2024
A very good book for worship leaders and pastors. I'm neither, but learned a lot about how churches could and should recognize people's vocations during corporate worship services, why and how. Many practical ideas too. The epilogue describes the book I really need, how to integrate my work and worship during the week.
October 1, 2022
I liked this book, found it relevant and very practical in its outlook. Down to earth, wise, livable. I found the choice of authors they quoted sympathetic.
Still 3 stars for me because for some reason I found it quite hard to go through the book.
Still 3 stars for me because for some reason I found it quite hard to go through the book.
January 7, 2025
A helpful book on connecting how Sunday mornings impact how we view the rest of the week. It was a book more about principles than practicalities. It is a really helpful book in building a theological framework for the workplace and how gathering on Sundays can be of benefit to work
June 17, 2021
Very few can produce such a multi-faceted, constructive and lively work as this. Well done.
June 27, 2022
Interesting takes
December 31, 2022
I read this book for class wasn’t my favorite
September 26, 2022
Back in the early 2010s – having temporarily stepped away from the non-profit world to ply my wares in the (gasp!) for-profit marketplace – I read a pile of books coming out of the so-called “faith and work” movement. For those unfamiliar, the movement was (and is) trying to bridge the unhelpful gap that so often exists between Sunday morning worship and Monday morning work. In other words, God doesn’t only care about our gathered worship, our personal prayer time, or our charitable giving. He also cares deeply about our Monday to Friday lives, what the Book of Common Prayer calls “the work you have given us to do.”
I appreciated many of those books and learned a lot from them. But I also had frustrations. Like, why did so many of these books seem to be written primarily for pastors, rather than workers? (Trickle-down theories of change tend to be problematic for me.) Besides that, how many of these conversations were actually relevant to people who operate forklifts or work in toll booths or bus tables for a living?
Thankfully, much has been done over the last ten years to both broaden and deepen the conversation. One book that is poised to take the movement in fruitful new directions is Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy (Baker Academic) by Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Willson. One of the things I appreciate in the early pages of this book is the authors’ emphasis on embodiment and ritual. As James K.A. Smith has taught us, no human being is merely a brain on a stick. Ideas alone – even good, true, Christian ideas – don’t change our lives. We are what we love.
Kaemingk and Willson share that conviction. Echoing Smith, they write, “gathered worship equips workers for their scattered worship in the world.” But then they extend, or flip, that idea: “if sanctuary worship is going to be formative for workers, their working lives will need to be brought into it.”
I could say much, much more about this book. There’s a lot to commend here.
I appreciated many of those books and learned a lot from them. But I also had frustrations. Like, why did so many of these books seem to be written primarily for pastors, rather than workers? (Trickle-down theories of change tend to be problematic for me.) Besides that, how many of these conversations were actually relevant to people who operate forklifts or work in toll booths or bus tables for a living?
Thankfully, much has been done over the last ten years to both broaden and deepen the conversation. One book that is poised to take the movement in fruitful new directions is Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy (Baker Academic) by Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Willson. One of the things I appreciate in the early pages of this book is the authors’ emphasis on embodiment and ritual. As James K.A. Smith has taught us, no human being is merely a brain on a stick. Ideas alone – even good, true, Christian ideas – don’t change our lives. We are what we love.
Kaemingk and Willson share that conviction. Echoing Smith, they write, “gathered worship equips workers for their scattered worship in the world.” But then they extend, or flip, that idea: “if sanctuary worship is going to be formative for workers, their working lives will need to be brought into it.”
I could say much, much more about this book. There’s a lot to commend here.
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