Lesson 1
Satellite View:
Seeing all work as an opportunity
to serve Christ in the world
Welcome to Lesson 1
Before we get started, please complete the following survey. There are no right or wrong answers, we would just like to get an idea of your general understanding of this topic before we get started.
Now that you've completed the survey, let’s start things off with a question. What was the first thing you remember getting paid to do, and how did it feel to be paid for your work?
How do you think about work?
Watch the next two videos to see two very different perspectives on work.
Is it a necessary evil?
Or is it an opportunity to glorify God?
What does the Bible say about work?
Read: Genesis 1:1-31
Three questions for reflection on Genesis 1:
1) Is creating a form of work? How do these verses show that God is a worker?
2) How do these verses show that work is NOT the result of sin?
3) How do these verses show that work is a calling for all humanity?
Now that we’ve established that work is not a result of sin and we are “called” to work, let’s look at what it means to have a “calling”.
Consider these definitions of calling from Os Guiness in his book The Call.
What do we mean when we say “calling”?
“Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, dynamism, and direction lived out as a response to his summons and service.”
Primary Calling – By God, For God, To God
“Our primary calling as followers of Christ is by him, to him, and for him.”
Secondary Calling – Everyone, Everywhere, Everything
“Our secondary calling, considering who God is as sovereign, is that everyone, everywhere, and in everything should think, speak, live, and act entirely for him.”
We sometimes think of “calling” in terms of pastors or missionaries. But according to Os Guiness’ definitions above, all Christians are called to glorify God in their work. A great example can be found in the life of a man named William Wilberforce. He was an English politician who came to Christ in the late 1700s. After his conversion, he thought that he needed to pursue ministry. But he then realized that God could use him even more profoundly if he remained in politics. Here again is a quote from “The Call”:
“Perhaps most amazingly of all, William Wilberforce came within a hair’s breadth of missing his grand calling altogether. His faith in Jesus Christ animated his lifelong passion for reform. At one stage he led or actively participated in sixty-nine different initiatives, several of world-shaping significance. But when Wilberforce came to faith through the “Great Change” that was his experience of conversion in 1785 at the age of twenty-five, his first reaction was to throw over politics for the ministry. He thought, as millions have thought before and since, that “spiritual” affairs are far less important than “secular” affairs. Fortunately, a minister – John Newton, the converted slave trader who wrote “Amazing Grace” – persuaded Wilberforce that God wanted him to stay in politics rather than enter the ministry. “It’s hoped and believed,” Newton wrote, “that the Lord has raised you up for the good of the nation.” After much prayer and thought, Wilberforce concluded that Newton was right. God was calling him to champion the liberty of the oppressed – as a Parliamentarian. “My walk,” he wrote in his journal in 1788, “is a public one. My business is in the world; and I must mix in the assemblies of men, or quit the post which Providence seems to have assigned me.”
If our primary calling is to be a follower of Christ, then it is helpful to think about whether our identity and purpose is truly rooted in Him.
Is your identity rooted in Christ?
Read: John 1:1-18
Three questions for reflection on John 1:
1) What was Christ’s role in creation?
2) What was Christ’s role in redemption?
3) What is our role in relation to Christ?
Here’s a helpful way, from an unknown source, to remember how rooting our identity in Christ leads to fulfillment in our everyday work.
Jesus
Others
You
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Traffic View - Identifying the challenges of work in the modern economy
