Faithful Work: In the Daily Grind with God and for Others

“The daily work of Christians is the church’s greatest opportunity to complement God’s work. Yet for centuries, that opportunity has been largely ignored,” according to this serviceable guide from Chapman, CEO of the Denver Institute for Faith and Work, and Tafilowski (Vice and Virtue), assistant professor of theology at the Denver Seminary. Beginning with God’s creation of the world in Genesis, scripture champions the inherent value of labor, yet “our everyday experience of work” has been damaged by abuses of power, injustice, and systems that artificially separate “winners” from “losers,” the authors contend. Strategies readers can utilize to “redeem work” include harnessing their individual, God-given skills in their careers; seeking “what is best for [their] neighbors—coworkers, clients, bosses, vendors, and customers”; and “celebrating the good and reform[ing] the broken.” In so doing, Chapman and Tafilowski write, believers become “colaborers with God in his great plan to reconcile the world to himself in Christ,” turning their “ordinary days at work [into] an act of worship.” While readers won’t find revolutionary insight, they’ll welcome the authors’ efforts to dignify all manner of labor (entrepreneur, plumber, and stay-at-home parent are presented as equally valid callings) and staunch assertion that faith is just as alive in the daily grind as it is in ministry work, because “our work... represents God in the world.” This succeeds in bridging the gap between the workplace and the altar. (Jan.)