Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship with Monday Work. Tom Nelson. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2011. 234 pp. $15.99
Work Matters is a welcome addition to my digital bookshelf because Tom Nelson, writing as a pastor, has effectively bridged the gap not only between Sunday worship and Monday work, but between the pastorate and the laity.
I’ve met many seminarians working “secular” jobs who view their work as a necessary evil until they can find a full-time pastorate somewhere. They live with no sense of calling to their current place of employment and almost feel as though they are “serving their time now” in exchange for their dream job later. That’s not true with everybody. But how many books have you heard of that extol the high calling of vocation, “Christian” or not?
This book is geared more towards the modern working man, from the minimum wage earner, to a the business professional, to the CEO of a major corporation. But pastors and others serving in the ministry can benefit from this too. After all, work is work, and that work can be pretty challenging.
Tom Nelson, a pastor himself, believes it’s time for us to develop a good theology of work, reminding readers that work, for us, should be synonymous with worship, not a four-letter word we mutter under our breath when the alarm clock sounds on Monday morning.
I once teased my wife when she was asking me about my plans for the week and said, “Don’t talk about Monday as if it’s already a foregone conclusion.” The truth is, work already is a foregone conclusion, for her as a stay-at-home mom, and for me as an employee of a very large accounting organization, and for most everyone else.
In chapter one, Nelson takes us all the way back to Genesis to point out that God created Adam to work in a garden. Work is part of God’s purpose for our lives, one that is wholesome and good. When we work, we have the opportunity to worship God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength—our whole being.
Nelson is not living in a dream world about work. He recognizes how draining and frustrating our jobs can be, which is why his second chapter deals with Genesis 3, the fall. Sin introduced a curse for us, bringing frustration and futility to our work. Yet even the writer of Ecclesiastes, in all his talk on futility, says work should be something we delight in (Ecc. 3:12-13).
Though our work may be subjected to futility now, it was not always so and will not always be so. Just as Christ has redeemed us and is coming again, so too He will redeem our work. All creation groans in anticipation of His coming. That happens with our work too. But just as the servant with ten talents received greater reward for his faithfulness, so too our work on earth prepares us for greater—and more meaningful—work in eternity.
This is only the first four chapters. The book goes on to discuss the meaningfulness of our work and the value of our work developing Christ-likeness in us. His chapter on how “common grace” and promoting the common good should be communicated by our work owes much to the Puritans. Nelson’s concluding chapters address some of the challenges we face in our work, from temptations to sin to periods of unemployment. He rounds it out with a call to the reader to plug in and participate in the church and her work in the world.
Although he doesn’t address retirement or sinful vocations, he proves the assertion of his title: Work matters.
Overall, the book was a helpful reminder of the value inherent in my work and the challenge to live by the axiom “The only Christian work is good work well done.” I’m going to worship God through my work today. Will you?
I received a digital copy of this work from the publisher via NetGalley for the purpose of review.
Crossway.org has the ebook of this on-sale for $5.99 currently. I picked it up for a family member a few days ago. (Actually they have ALL their ebooks on sale for 5.99)
I picked up The Gift, the second book in the Chiveis Trilogy. The first book was pretty good, and I want to read the second one before the third comes out this June.
http://www.crossway.org/books/chiveis-trilogy-tpb/
Good review. Sounds like a good book. Thanks, Andrew.
Andrew,
You said
I’ve met many seminarians working “secular” jobs who view their work as a necessary evil until they can find a full-time pastorate somewhere. They live with no sense of calling to their current place of employment and almost feel as though they are “serving their time now” in exchange for their dream job later. That’s not true with everybody. But how many books have you heard of that extol the high calling of vocation, “Christian” or not?
Have you been there? I speak from experience. I graduated not once but twice with two degrees from the same seminary (M.A. and MDiv). I worked hard for eight years of my life, only to watch all of my classmates go into full-time ministry! I have been looking for two years with no interviews. Lots of time and money spent on sending resumes to potential opportunities.
Please do not be so quick to judge those of us who are not happy in what we currently do, because we know God has called us to something else and we are having a hard time processing why it seems illegitimate for us to have the same desires as anyone else to serve in full-time vocational ministry, since we spent the time and money to train for it. It does not help when one’s local church seems to have abdicated their responsibility in this arena either. Another discussion for another time.
There are a lot of people out there who have trained, studied, served God in their local churches and have a desire to be involved in full-time vocational ministry, but it seems as if no one wants to help in the process. I am not the only one. I currently mentor an individual who was in full-time ministry and was treated wrongly by a pastor and was forced out of his pastoral position and he has been working secularly for over nine years and it seems that pastors and churches are penalizing him for trying to do right by his family. Each year that goes by, it makes it harder for him to try to get back into full-time ministry. Let’s try to answer some of these questions, instead of passing judgment on those of us who have a desire to serve, but are being prevented for some unknown reason (1 Tim. 3:1)
Terry,
I stand by what I say. You’re not alone in how you feel. What I wrote, I wrote from experience. I needed to read this book because I’ve felt like my job is a necessary evil. I’ve felt like my job is just “serving time.”
But you know what? There’s something holy and good about honest work, whether that be behind a pulpit or behind a counter. I too believe that God has called me to full-time missionary service, but that doesn’t mean that’s the only thing He’s called me to do or that’s what He’s called me to do right now. Did you view your seminary training as a necessary evil or preparation for ministry? Do you think that God had a purpose for the schooling, but secular work is just wasted time? It’s not. He has a purpose for it all.
I think you need to read this book. I did. And right now missionary service looks to be at least six years off. God may have different plans, but that’s what I see. I think you fit that description I gave. I don’t want to judge you. I want to encourage you. Vocation is good. Work is holy. But if you don’t see that, you will always view working behind front counter or punching numbers into the computer as work that is beneath you and beneath your calling. I challenge you to read the book.
Andrew,
I appreciate the discussion and exchange of ideas. I look forward to reading the book. I agree that work is good otherwise I would have quit a long time ago. My frustration is that I have seen so many people go into ministry right after seminary. I also saw two of my classmates get hired at the church that I am a member of. The hard part is that I have a desire to be involved in local church ministry, but my “job” takes 45-50 hrs of my week, I am a husband and a father of two children and whatever is left, I attempt to minister. I looked back and saw that when I graduated in 2010 that I am the only one in my class that is not in full-time ministry. When all of these factors converge, the question tends to be asked, “Ok, where I am wrong or what did I do wrong?” Our church recently hired a new youth pastor, as a deacon, I sat in on the interview process and kept hearing that the candidate has a desire to be involved in local church ministry and that is great, but if I were to say the same thing, the reaction I get is that my desire is wrong or illegitimate and that is hard to reckon with.