When Our Work becomes God's Work
The Crux of work and faith integration is about developing a Church that speaks beyond Sunday, where it is relevant to the work life that encompasses 2/3 of our waking hours. If churches do not speak to this segment of our life, the church will not be relevant and engaging. when the church speaks to the work life of the people, the church will be engaged. The integration of faith and work would mean our work matters to God and God matters to our work. The few pointers below would encapsulate the Intergration-
Tip #1 - Calling is a balancing factor towards morality of work
Calling is needed because without it work will degenerate to an end in itself with selfish ambitions. Calling ( faith in God) acts as an inner ballast in balancing the morality of the work, calling is the guard rail for work and without it work will will be degenerated to achieved our selfish goal. Work of a Christian should be governed by his calling.
Tip #2 - Vocation would rendered our work dignified and important
Vocation brings dignity to work no matter how small the work is. Work done for the glory of God would mean that it is holy, dignified and purposeful. We are saved to serve God through serving our neighbours, this is because God does not need our service but our neighbours does. This is how God cares for the world and how God love the world through us , where he called us, sanctified us and formed a union within us, by participating in our life to serve others.
Hence our work is important to God and God is important to our work, and this would rendered our work to be God's work in serving the people. This is how work becomes dignified and important because of our vocation to work.
Tip #3 - Faith at work through our vocation is redemptive in nature
Faith at work through our vocation brings the redemptive plan of God to the work we are doing. Through our work the 'fallenness of work' are given hope when faith is integrated with work. When work is done in the most effective way and with hosnesty and sincerity, there is hope for the fallenness of work. This is the crux of work and faith integration-to redeem the fallenness of the work. The right to preach and lived out the Gospel is evidence in our work through the successes of our work. This is achieved when we work with all our hearts as unto the Lord in all that we do (Col3:23), and in this we are proclaiming the Gospel through our actions. When the church equips the workers to realize the redemptive purpose of work, the world can be renewed through the good works and when this happens, the church can remain relevant to its mission, to portray faith/calling as a redemptive mission for the work life.
Tip #4 - Faith at work helps us to find our identity in Christ
Faith gives meaning to our work, it points us to who we are; the starting point of the integration- the who is doing the work and why he is doing it. We are designed to work before the fall, although after the fall the cultural and creation mandate is not lost, and it is redeemable and awaiting for its fulfillment. Our identity is intact shaped by our faith and the church plays an important role to forged the fomation of this identity.
Finally, Our work becomes God's work through faith
Our work matters to God and God matters to our work, this is when our identity is clear and we begin with who are are called to be. This is governed by faith where God participate in our called life, to save us to serve God while we serve others.
Joint us as we bring this integration, which link faith and work to enable us to realized an engaged Christian and church life .