Workplace Discipleship 101

Workplace Discipleship 101 contains encouragement and practical advice for Christians who are serious about living out their faith in their daily work lives. This book is packed with simple, practical suggestions organized in an intuitive format with straightforward language. Answering questions such as “How can I serve Jesus while I’m at work?” and “What does it look like to follow Jesus in my field of work?”, this book provides Christians with practical insight and biblical inspiration no matter where they work. The book is split into three main sections: “Preparation” (how to get ready), “Presence” (what we do at work), and “Post Workplace” (beyond the workplace). Key points and features: • Biblically and theologically based. • Presents information in an easy, understandable way. • Discusses the importance of work and discipleship. • Offers insightful questions for application. • Fills a hole in the growing “faith at work” genre of literature. “Few people I know have thought more deeply and practically about the integration of the Christian faith in the workplace than David Gill. In Workplace Discipleship 101, David Gill’s keen intellect, ethical clarity, and encouraging heart frame a persuasive and practical guide for all apprentices of Jesus who long to embrace an integral faith. This book is an invaluable resource I have been waiting for. I highly recommend it!” Tom Nelson, Lead Senior Pastor, Christ Church, Kansas City; President, Made to Flourish www.madetoflourish.org; Author, Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work

In his memoir, What Are You Doing About It?, ethicist and activist David W. Gill takes readers on an exciting inside tour of the academic, cultural, religious, and political landscape in which he has lived and worked for the past several decades. From Berkeley to Bordeaux, Chicago to Boston . . . from the business trenches and the local church to the seminary and the graduate school of business . . . from marching in the streets to the writer’s study . . . from entrepreneurial leadership to institutional challenge . . . Gill never wavered in his mission to promote the ethical insights and values of Jesus and Scripture in the workplace as much as the churchplace. This is a story to inspire a new generation of thoughtful activists.

In Equipping Christians for Kingdom Purpose in Their Work, Tom Lutz and Heidi Unruh offer advice to those who seek to influence the faith of people outside the church. Pastors, Christian educators, life coaches, workplace mentors, college professors, and any Christian who considers their vocation to be one of discipleship will find nourishment in this book. Few resources are designed for personal disciplers--those who connect with other believers on a personal basis with a deep interest in their spiritual growth. This book fills the gap. This one-of-a-kind resource shows how to disciple others in and for their work. Most "faith and work" books focus on pastors and church programs, or they speak directly to workers. But this resource comes to the aid of those who offer spiritual guidance to working Christians. This guide makes faith-and-work discipleship accessible to anyone who influences the faith of another. With short, readable chapters filled with case studies, examples, and practical resources, readers will learn how to equip others to fulfill their kingdom purpose in their work. Sample topics include: Principles for Effectively Connecting with Adult Learners Structure for One-on-One Discipleship Meetings Research on Vocational Discipleship and Kingdom-Centered Spiritual Maturity Various Leadership Models Scripture Passages on Being an Image-Bearer Selected Scriptures for Faith and Work Principles

If you know God loves your work, you can—as Paul put it—“work at it with all your heart.” But too often even Christians find it hard to engage fully with what occupies them for hours every day. This book will help you relate your work to God’s eternal kingdom purposes. Here you will find not just one or two but several biblical reasons for getting up and going to work. During your lifetime you will spend, perhaps, 100,000 hours working in paid or unpaid work. Will you see spiritual significance in those hours? In the end, will they really matter? These easy-to-read chapters will help you view your daily work within a new and much larger perspective. For example, what if you were to begin seeing your work as a worship offering that God gladly receives? Or what if you were to discover how he intends to use your work to further your own spiritual growth? Get set to move from “Thank God, it’s Friday!” to “Wonderful, it’s Monday again!”

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 approach: 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.

Return to the Parish: The Pastor in the Public Square is a pastoral theology that challenges pastors to view their local community (rather than their congregation) as their primary sphere of ministry. Too many churches have become insular by hoarding their resources (including their pastors) and trying to sustain their own survival instead of seeking the peace and prosperity of their town or city. By breathing new life into an old idea of “parish,” this book casts a vision for pastors (and churches) to actively engage their community with the gospel rather than simply perpetuate more programs inside the church. It offers a new paradigm for pastoral ministry, where pastors model and mobilize their churches to make disciples of Jesus Christ in the public square through community involvement and cultural engagement. The book chronicles seven young pastors (from diverse ministry contexts) as they seek to become “new parish pastors” who lead their congregations into engaging various sectors of the public square: business and workplace, science and technology, healthcare, politics, education, the arts, and multiethnic settings.

Christianity Today Book Award—Church and Pastoral Leadership The Gospel Coalition Book Awards Honorable Mention Pastoral leadership is in crisis. It's not just that many pastors feel overwhelmed and stressed out; many have lost their way. With the risk of burnout at an all-time high, what pastors need is not just a new leadership strategy, but a new framework for ministry—one that will help them move from survival to flourishing. In these pages, Tom Nelson looks to the biblical image of the shepherd leader in response to the contemporary context. If pastors are to lead congregations, then they must first learn what it means to be led by the Good Shepherd. Pulling from his years of experience as a lead pastor and president of a nonprofit, Nelson offers pastors and ministry leaders a timely vision for leadership that incorporates in-depth biblical teaching and whole-life discipleship. His wisdom and insight provide a roadmap for ministry resilience and longevity.

Western culture is increasingly polarized, and Christians often feel they are “under siege” by the dominant secular culture. Compounding the problem is that Christians cannot agree among themselves how to respond to a culture that is increasingly “post-Christian.” The authors have observed five basic responses by Christians to this feeling of “exile”: (1) assimilation and acceptance of the new cultural norms, (2) withdrawal from cultural engagement, (3) anger directed toward society (and toward other Christians who don’t see the issues as they do), (4) fear, or (5) seeking power to “take back the culture.” Scripture calls us to a different way, speaking into the world with a new voice. Micah calls us to “seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly” with God, Jeremiah calls us to “seek the good of the city,” and Jesus calls us to be salt and light while knowing that in this world we “will have trouble.” In short, we are to engage the culture we live in as disciples of Jesus. But how practically is that done? In this book, the authors look carefully at the lives of twelve biblical characters who also lived in “challenging times” for guidance in navigating our post-Christian world. Rejecting assimilation, withdrawal, anger, fear, and power-seeking, we are challenged today with the ancient words of Mordecai to Esther: “Who knows whether for just a time as this you have come to this position in your life?”