Integration of Faith/Work/Life
The key concept here, similar to discipleship since this is a subset of discipleship, is that we all live out of a narrative about the world and our work. We are constantly either reinforcing our received default narrative (e.g. that our purpose is to make more money, accumulate power, garner respect, etc.) or living out of and supplanting the default narrative with a gospel narrative. Jesus commanded us to go out into all the world and make disciples. We are all missionaries where God has called us. However, our project goes beyond evangelism, though it is never less than that. Our call is to change the world around us as agents of God’s gospel shalom/renewal to the people/ideas/structures where God has placed us.
This first wave or resources are recommended by our InterVarsity Campus Minister, Mickey Sanchez. If you have resources on this that you’ve found helpful, especially anything more specifically about your field/vocation, please let us know as we’d like to list it here for others to benefit from as well. Feel free to contact Mickey Sanchez with questions about any of these resources or if you would like some advice or coaching on discipleship and spiritual formation.
General
Websites
InterVarsity’s Emerging Scholars Network and Blog
Lots of article from across the disciplines
The Mockler Center for Faith & Ethics in the Workplace
A resource center of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Project by former director of The Mockler Center
A focus on Discernment
Created by Redeemer Presbyterian Church (NYC)
Books
Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work by Tim Keller
Foundational text on what it means to integrate your faith and work in any discipline. Summarizes different streams of Christian thought in this area. Especially helpful is its focus on the narrative behind our work and how the gospel re-narrates our work. Everyone should read this!
Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life (IVP)
Foundational text on how to do faith and work integration in the minutiae of every day life. While not about work, per se, it involves the re-narrating or re-imagining of the world around us through the eyes of gospel faith. We all have eyes of some faith that we live out of, often unconscious as Every Good Endeavor points out. What would it look like to see the world differently? This book takes the theoretical concept of re-narrating our work in Keller’s book Every Good Endeavor and works it out practically in everyday life (not just work). Everyone should read this after Keller’s book!
Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good (IVP)
A reflection on what it means to use your calling/gifts/talents in a way that brings about human flourishing.
Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch (IVP)
How do we change the world around us?
Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power by Andy Crouch (IVP)
Becoming aware of our power and using it in redemptive ways
To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (Oxford University Press)
How do we change the world around us through the institutions we are part of? Bit more academic but very good. In conversation with Andy Crouch. Both approaches are needed.
Discernment (in general)
How Then Should We Choose?: Three Views on God's Will and Decision Making
Good overview of three main ways Christians have approached discernment
Discipline/area Specific
Coming soon…Please send us your favorite books/sites/videos on integrating your field with your faith.