- On Success
- The Christian’s life shouldn’t be about success or failure but about responding to God’s call for our lives. (Genesis 1)
- The idea that we are responding to God, the ‘caller’, is very contrary to popular culture’s idea to respond to your ‘inner voice’. Jesus’ death could be viewed as a ‘failure’ but was the ultimate success from a Gospel standpoint.
- On Responding to God’s Calling
- Calling is more about an active journey than a destination driven by our intimacy with God.
- In the ambiguity and unknown of calling, our faith becomes something real.
- God’s calling to the world is ‘flourishing’.
- On ‘Exile’
- God’s response to human sin is exile, and it is also God’s way of realigning His people to His calling.
- God called Israel to seek the prosperity of a kingdom that is not their own, Babylon. (Jeremiah 29: 4-7)
- God often calls Christians into organizations that, from a Christian perspective, don’t often deserve to flourish.
- On Working in a Job You Don’t Like
- What would Babylon look like if God’s people weren’t there? Christ is the example of the ultimate exile and entered a world not created for Him.
- The very reason we want to quit our jobs is often the very reason God has put us there.
- Work is about bringing light to dark places.
- About the Center For Faith and Work
- It’s not about ‘do you bring your faith to your work’ but ‘which faith do you bring to your work?’.
- God’s work of redemption includes individuals, communities, and the world itself (including organizations we work for).
- What Does God Say About Our Careers?
- We have to be able to discern God’s voice in the ‘grey’ of the dark places of the world where we need discernment. Esther as an example.
- Why Is Having An Exile Mindset Good?
- Christians are resilient workers. When everyone left the city during the Black Plagues, Christians were resilient and stayed to take care of the sick.
- On Identity
- Work can easily become the ‘source’ of our identity rather than the ‘reflection’ of our identity.
- Work should not be the thing that brings security to our lives.
- Final Thoughts
- Flourishing of the gospel is as much for organizations as it is for individuals.
- Work is a massive opportunity to experience the glory of God.
Music by John Norman
Facebook Group: “Daniel Dinners”
Email: joshballantine@hotmail.com
Joshua Ballantine 