Thank God it's Monday by Alistair Mackenzie  Article produced for Canvas magazine Issue 3 4th quarter,1996 TSCF New Zealand

"Most of us spend almost 40% of our waking time at work. In contrast, the average evangelical Christian spends less than 2 percent at church during their working years. Yet the evangelical church puts most of its energy into that 2 percent: almost nothing into the world of work." This is the lament of Canadian, Calvin Redekop.
 
 

Brian Walsh and Richard Middleton, in their book 'The Transforming Vision', sound the same warning: "The problem isn't that the Christian community is lacking in doctors, farmers, business people and musicians. The problem is that there are so few Christian doctors, farmers, business people and musicians. Most of us are Christians and something else; we do not engage in our daily tasks integrally as Christians ... Well-meaning Christians are merely adding faith to their vocation rather than letting faith transform their vocation."
 
 

This is alarming! So what can we do about it?

A quick look at Christian history suggests that this problem of relating our faith to everyday work is not a new one.

Distorted Christianity!

In the Greek world work was considered a curse. Aristotle said that to be unemployed was good fortune because it allowed a person to participate in political life and contemplation. Society was organised so that a few could enjoy the blessing of "leisure" while slaves did the work. The medieval church christianised this Greek view of work. The priestly or monastic vocation was considered far superior to ordinary, everyday work.
 
 

Restoring the Balance.

It was initially through the work of Martin Luther that the 16th century Reformers recovered a sense that all of life, including daily work, could be understood as a calling from God. According to Luther, we respond to the call to love our neighbour by fulfilling the duties that are associated with our everyday work. Work is our call to serve. This work includes domestic and civic duties as well as employment.
 
 

A New Distortion.

Unfortunately, with the passing of time the concept of vocation became so closely associated with occupation or career that these words became synonyms and secularised, without any reference to the calling of God. Both capitalism and Marxism encourage us to look for personal fulfilment through the work of our own hands. Once people worked to live, now they are living to work. Whereas once the medieval Church threatened to divorce faith from work, now faith and work have become fused and work is idolised. This same distortion deprives the unemployed person, or someone working at home with children, of status, security and satisfaction by emphasising that these are primarily associated with employment. Work, once degraded, is now worshipped.
 
 

The Destructive Consequences.

Some of the destructive consequences of these misunderstandings of the place of work in the life of faith include:

Full-time pastoral ministry or missionary service being elevated above other vocations (medieval monasticism).

The Sunday-Monday gap: the world of the marketplace is seen as 'secular' and depraved: the world of the church as 'spiritual' and divine (Greek dualism).

Workaholism and the devastating consequences of unemployment - work is seen as the true vocation and the source of fulfilment (Marxism and a distortion of the Protestant work ethic).
 
 

Is There An Answer?

We need a path that will lead us between the twin heresies of divorcing faith from work and idolising work. We must rediscover that our primary vocation is the call to follow Jesus. But we must also recognise that this call embraces the whole of our lives, including our work. We must strive to maintain a broad definition of work that encompasses not only paid employment, but also domestic work, church work and voluntary work. In this way we can seek to live a more radical, yet also more balanced, discipleship through the whole of our lives. The balance will be different for different people. Employment remains an important part of life through which we express our discipleship. But it is only one part of a multi-faceted life of discipleship. Unemployed people, home makers and voluntary workers have a vocation too! Our vocation as Christians doesn't depend on paid employment, but it must be expressed through our employment.

What Does This Mean For Students?

Study is about more than just learning other people's thoughts so we can repeat them to pass exams. It is about discovering how God's world works. It is about developing a Christian mind and world view and learning to think Christianly. How much better equipped would we be to live as Christians in the world if we applied the same effort to understand our faith as we do to understand our studies? Jesus calls us to love God with our minds, as well as the rest of our being. Is this reflected in the way you are working to develop a Christian mindset? Passing exams is part of equipping ourselves for future service. But developing a Christian character and world view is just as important.
 
 

God's Work and Our Work.

The story of work begins in the very first chapter of the Bible where we meet God at work creating the cosmos. The significance of work for Christians stems ultimately from the Biblical assertion that we are people made in the image of a working God. Genesis chapter 2 portrays people acting as co-workers with God, creating families, gathering food, cultivating the earth, studying and naming the animals and given responsibility for the supervision of creation. God's creativity and human work are intimately connected from the beginning, certainly well before the advent of sin into the scheme of things. Then, following the first sin that we read about in Genesis chapter 3, we are confronted with the destructive impact of this on the world of work and the pain and struggle that ensues. As a result of this, to God's creative and sustaining work is also added God's redeeming work. From this point on the Bible is full of examples of the partnership between people and God in this redeeming work. This culminates in the work of Jesus. Jesus said, "I do what I see my Father doing (John 5:19)". The work of Jesus echoed the character and purposes of God and was done in response to his Father's initiative. The significance of work for us as Christians lies in similarly discerning ways in which our work is connected to God's unfolding work. It is important for us to explore ways in which we can express through our work stewardship, service, creativity, witness, truth-telling, preservation, healing, community building, justice and peace-making etc... These are clear expressions of the character and on-going work of God. This does not mean that all the monotony will suddenly be taken out of mundane work, nor that we will no longer experience struggle in our work. Sometimes becoming more aware of God's desires introduces us to new struggles. But it does increase the likelihood of our work and worship becoming better connected, with the hope that each might become infused with the other. There is a desperate need for our evangelical pietism to be injected with a healthy everyday spirituality.
 
 

Work As Anticipation.

Ultimately our work is an act of eager anticipation. We seek to live now according to the values of a community that is still to come. When Jesus said "Do not be anxious about material concerns, but seek first the Kingdom", he implied that our preoccupation is more important than our occupation. The way we go about our work is a reflection of what our hearts and minds are set on. It is a vision of the "Kingdom come" that directs and inspires our work. Jesus taught us to pray "Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." We work in a way that anticipates the fulfilment of this prayer and we rejoice that we have been enlisted to work as partners in God's work. We affirm that in God's purposes there is worthwhile work for everyone, both here and now, and in eternity!
 
 

Alistair Mackenzie recently completed a thesis on the Theology of Work. He works with the Christchurch branch of The Bible College of N.Z.
 
 

Points to Ponder:

Are you adding faith to your vocation or letting faith transform your vocation?

Can you identify ways in which your daily work is, or could be, connected with God's work?

What can you do to strengthen the sense of connection between your work and God's work?

Talking and praying with other Christians about faith and work issues is one way of taking them seriously. Who will you talk to?

For more about faith and work resources contact Alistair at amack@xtra.co.nz
 

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