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Our Secular Vocation: Rethinking the Church's Calling to the Marketplace
The divide between the sacred and the secular life has dogged Christians for centuries. Even today, many Christians and church leaders still assume that the workplace is inferior to pastoring, Bible study, mission trips, and the like. This volume provides a different it surveys the persistence of the sacred-secular divide in Christian history to develop a more robust theology of vocation while engaging with both the Old and New Testament. Charles offers a vision for numerous ways Christians are called to live faithfully in the so-called secular world.
336 pages, Paperback
Published January 15, 2023
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August 15, 2023
Despite its somewhat confusing title (it comes from Dorothy Sayers’ classic essay “Why Work?”), this is an excellent book about the Christian’s vocation, and one that I would commend to you. The author tells us that the church is largely silent about work, vocation, or the marketplace to which 99 percent of those in the body of Christ are called. The marketplace is the chief setting in which Christians impact society. It is there that, day in and day out and generation after generation, Christian influence will produce its greatest effect. But Charles tells us, tragically, most pastors and Christian leaders remain ill-equipped to offer counsel on matters of work. He wonders how anyone can take Christianity seriously, particularly in a post-Christian era, if the church has little vision for that domain in which all people—not just Christians—spend so much of their time?
The book represents an attempt at synthesizing the theological and the hermeneutical, the historical and the contemporary, the ethical and the pastoral, and is organized as follows:
Chapters 2 and 3 are of a theological nature. They examine the roots of our social and ecclesiastical predicament with a view to then probe its theological underpinnings.
Chapter 4 looks back in history to the early sixteenth century in an attempt to appreciate a significant breakthrough in terms of the church’s understanding of work, vocation, and the marketplace.
Chapters 5 and 6 go together insofar as they illuminate perspectives on work in the Wisdom literature of Ecclesiastes and establish a link between our work and our callings (our vocations).
Chapters 7 and 8 include reflections on the church’s presence in society, and questions of discernment and guidance with respect to vocation.
This thoroughly researched and well-written volume covers a number of subjects including rewards, retirement, education, poverty, calling, divine providence, doctrine of creation, the need for a serious theology of work, wisdom literature, Martin Luther, the book of Ecclesiastes, the false dichotomy of the sacred-versus-secular mindset, discernment, the priesthood of all believers, and the common good.
Below are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
• Our work, embedded in the context of our individual callings, is nothing less than worship.
• Since work is participation or cooperation in God’s purposes and activity in the created order, it has an intrinsic ethical value of its own.
• To work is to reflect God’s nature, his very likeness.
• Our mission is the marketplace.
• The tragic reality is that few people see their daily work as connected to the purposes of God and as a means by which to flourish.
• All legitimate work is an extension and expression of God’s work.
• Work is a gift, instituted at creation. As a gift, it conveys a sense of dignity, value, and fulfillment.
• In our cultural context, retirement is almost universally viewed as a release from work. However, this perspective lacks any biblical warrant. Scripture nowhere releases human beings from their labors and service to others as long as they can breathe.
• Scripture promises that our endeavors, however long we live and regardless of whether we are paid, have enduring value.
• Jobs may (and usually will) change, but one’s underlying calling does not, since it is given by God and transcends a job, an occupation, or a particular season of life.
• Work is a heavenly vocation and divine gift to be received with gratitude.
• The teaching of Ecclesiastes is that work is a satisfying gift coming from the hand of God.
• God equips us with specific giftings and abilities and plants within each of us unique burdens for the purpose of serving him and serving others.
• We do not get to select but instead receive our vocations from God.
• We discover our vocations through a progressive and gradual process, which entails the various seasons of our lives.
• Vocation, then, is properly understood as a way of life and not merely a job, occupation, or even a “career.”
• Every believer, then, has a particular calling—a vocation—even when he or she may not have a clear sense of it, or even a clearly defined career or occupation. This means that even should my work, my job, or my career come to an end, my calling (my vocatio), which is all-encompassing and broader, does not.
• Vocation entails the basic awareness that, based on the image of God within us, we are created for work, which can be a form of worship.
• Vocation entails a willingness to serve others and thereby serve the common good.
• Every endeavor, every labor, every task has meaning and purpose when done to honor God and serve the neighbor.
• Vocation and our calling in Christ determine a person’s identity, not what we do or achieve.
The book represents an attempt at synthesizing the theological and the hermeneutical, the historical and the contemporary, the ethical and the pastoral, and is organized as follows:
Chapters 2 and 3 are of a theological nature. They examine the roots of our social and ecclesiastical predicament with a view to then probe its theological underpinnings.
Chapter 4 looks back in history to the early sixteenth century in an attempt to appreciate a significant breakthrough in terms of the church’s understanding of work, vocation, and the marketplace.
Chapters 5 and 6 go together insofar as they illuminate perspectives on work in the Wisdom literature of Ecclesiastes and establish a link between our work and our callings (our vocations).
Chapters 7 and 8 include reflections on the church’s presence in society, and questions of discernment and guidance with respect to vocation.
This thoroughly researched and well-written volume covers a number of subjects including rewards, retirement, education, poverty, calling, divine providence, doctrine of creation, the need for a serious theology of work, wisdom literature, Martin Luther, the book of Ecclesiastes, the false dichotomy of the sacred-versus-secular mindset, discernment, the priesthood of all believers, and the common good.
Below are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
• Our work, embedded in the context of our individual callings, is nothing less than worship.
• Since work is participation or cooperation in God’s purposes and activity in the created order, it has an intrinsic ethical value of its own.
• To work is to reflect God’s nature, his very likeness.
• Our mission is the marketplace.
• The tragic reality is that few people see their daily work as connected to the purposes of God and as a means by which to flourish.
• All legitimate work is an extension and expression of God’s work.
• Work is a gift, instituted at creation. As a gift, it conveys a sense of dignity, value, and fulfillment.
• In our cultural context, retirement is almost universally viewed as a release from work. However, this perspective lacks any biblical warrant. Scripture nowhere releases human beings from their labors and service to others as long as they can breathe.
• Scripture promises that our endeavors, however long we live and regardless of whether we are paid, have enduring value.
• Jobs may (and usually will) change, but one’s underlying calling does not, since it is given by God and transcends a job, an occupation, or a particular season of life.
• Work is a heavenly vocation and divine gift to be received with gratitude.
• The teaching of Ecclesiastes is that work is a satisfying gift coming from the hand of God.
• God equips us with specific giftings and abilities and plants within each of us unique burdens for the purpose of serving him and serving others.
• We do not get to select but instead receive our vocations from God.
• We discover our vocations through a progressive and gradual process, which entails the various seasons of our lives.
• Vocation, then, is properly understood as a way of life and not merely a job, occupation, or even a “career.”
• Every believer, then, has a particular calling—a vocation—even when he or she may not have a clear sense of it, or even a clearly defined career or occupation. This means that even should my work, my job, or my career come to an end, my calling (my vocatio), which is all-encompassing and broader, does not.
• Vocation entails the basic awareness that, based on the image of God within us, we are created for work, which can be a form of worship.
• Vocation entails a willingness to serve others and thereby serve the common good.
• Every endeavor, every labor, every task has meaning and purpose when done to honor God and serve the neighbor.
• Vocation and our calling in Christ determine a person’s identity, not what we do or achieve.
Displaying 1 of 1 review