Facilitating Marketplace Ministry in a Blue-Collar Context: Where, Why, and How

The Context

The local church serves as the foundational expression of the body of Christ throughout the world and the fundamental means by which God’s Kingdom advances. Educational institutions, parachurch organizations, and similar entities all fill significant and necessary roles. Still, interaction between a local congregation and its community remains the place where, in large measure, the Kingdom either advances or fails to advance. At the local level, individuals and communities either experience the transformation of Christ or continue their march toward eternity without Him.

My own ministry has been devoted to and centered within the local church. For twenty-five years I have served as pastor to Jefferson Assembly of God, a Kansas congregation of fairly typical Assemblies of God history and character. The church grew from Bible studies in a local home some thirty-seven years ago. The congregation has seen reasonably steady growth since then, but in recent years has plateaued at an average Sunday morning attendance around 230.

Members of Jefferson Assembly come from four small communities in the area (each less than 1,000 in population) and from the northeast edges of the state’s capital city, Topeka. Significantly for purposes of this study, employment is generally at blue-collar manufacturing jobs and more varied pink-collar jobs,1 including government-related clerical work and education-related employment with the local school district. The church’s participants represent five area school districts. Most adherents generally live in rural or small-town settings within a fifteen-mile radius of the church. The congregation enjoys relatively new facilities that were constructed ten years ago on a two-lane state highway just outside of one of the communities served.

Jefferson Assembly of God is staffed with a full-time senior pastor, full-time youth and children’s pastor, and full-time secretary. Ongoing ministry includes most of the programs a person might expect in an Assemblies of God church, for example, a Sunday worship service, Sunday school, and Royal Rangers, M-pact Girls Clubs, children’s church, and youth meetings. Additionally, seasonal events and targeted outreaches pepper the annual calendar. In many ways, then, Jefferson Assembly of God represents a prototypical Assemblies of God congregation, making my ministry context similar to thousands of others across the nation.

The Problem

Like so many churches, members of Jefferson Assembly of God often express frustration at not being able to serve more fully in the various ministries of the church because of work obligations. Along the same vein, members sometimes convey deep-seated unhappiness with their work environments, work-related relationships, and work demands. Although both reflections hold merit, they also expose a presumption that in a perfect world, there would be less involvement in work and more involvement in the kinds of spiritually significant things that go on at church.

This presumption reveals two false presuppositions: (1) that real ministry only happens at the church facilities, and (2) that employment only pays the bills so people can get on to things that really matter. The Bible reveals something different about significant spiritual activity and about the dignity and value of work.

The Scriptures, for example, hold work in remarkably high regard in and of itself. In Genesis 1, as God’s work of creation unfolds, He deliberately and thoughtfully declares each progressive development “good” (Gen. 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31).2 Upon forming Adam, God immediately gives him significant responsibility and authority. In an environment unmarred by sin, Adam continues the work God began, shaping the world by the work of His hands.

Work remains valuable and virtuous throughout the Old Testament. God blesses the household of Potiphar under Joseph’s competent management and empowers Bezalel with all necessary skills for the construction of the tabernacle. Key elements in the Mosaic Covenant reveal God’s concern for just treatment of the laborer and Proverbs celebrates the prosperity that hard work brings.

Instead of valuing labor, however, many individuals live alienated from it. People dread Monday and celebrate Friday. Even believers often endure jobs they sometimes despise, convinced that no other attitude is possible, much less merited. They have yet to connect the intrinsic dignity of work with the realities of a difficult day at the office or the challenges of working third shift at the plant.

Moreover, unaware of their place in a “royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9), many have fully isolated work from worship, leading secular lives void of sacred meaning apart from the hour or two they might spend at a church activity each week. They fail to recognize that their ministry as a member of the body of Christ extends beyond the walls of the church building to include anyplace and everyplace they go.

The New Testament, however, affirms a cooperative relationship between the believer’s daily tasks and the outworking of God’s eternal plan. The redeemed “are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:10). Paul affirms that even the most demanding labor is ultimately offered not to one’s employer but to Christ. To slaves he writes, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Col. 3:23-24). Interestingly, what some suggest were nothing more than shop rags for the Apostle Paul became means of grace, “so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them” (Acts 19:12). The saving act of God in Christ redeems all things, including otherwise ordinary and even wearisome toil.

The church must renew her understanding of the workplace as another domain of life where the reign of Christ must be manifested. The believer must embrace an understanding of work as fundamentally good and an opportunity to declare God’s greatness in the power of the Spirit. Followers of Christ must recognize the workplace as a mission field “ripe for harvest” (John 4:35) and themselves as the laborers Christ has chosen and anointed for the task. The members of Jefferson Assembly of God are no different, standing in need of fresh confidence, understanding, and involvement in workplace ministry.

The Purpose

This project sought to infuse members of the work force who attend Jefferson Assembly of God with a deep and motivating sense of the call of God, specifically with regard to their job, their workplace, and their coworkers, through the development and implementation of a short-term local church intervention aided by the analysis of relevant discipleship-measurement data. The intervention gave special emphasis to facilitating each participant’s understanding of his or her sense of vocation as a divinely granted opportunity for Kingdom-advancing ministry in the name of Christ.

Definition of Terms

Blue-collar Worker—a member of the working class generally associated with manual labor. Blue-collar workers may be skilled or unskilled and are usually involved in physically building or maintaining something.

Pink-collar Worker—a member of the working class associated with service sector jobs stereotypically held by women, for example, day care workers, public school teachers, hairdressers, and secretaries.

Workplace—the place in which a person works on either a voluntary or paid basis.

Marketplace—used interchangeably with workplace.

Description of the Project

This project will educated, motivated, commissioned, and encouraged members of Jefferson Assembly of God toward engagement in workplace ministry. The process took place in six phases. First, I completed a biblical-theological review of pertinent work-related Scripture passages, concentrating on the nature of work itself, the role of the Holy Spirit in human labor, and the significance of the believer’s work in light of Christ’s Kingdom. I also conducted a contemporary literature review researching the particulars of blue-collar culture and investigating both historical and contemporary efforts at faith-work integration within the blue-collar context.

Second, I recruited volunteers from Jefferson Assembly of God to complete the Discipleship AssessmentTM from Discipleship Dynamics.3 I combined data from those assessments with Discipleship AssessmentTM data from other churches across the nation for analysis. I examined the sections of available data specifically addressing work-faith integration in pursuit of identifiable differences between white-collar and blue-collar marketplace ministry. Pertinent findings impacted the development of intervention materials.

Third, I developed resource materials addressing the biblical view of work, the opportunity to serve a Kingdom-advancing role even in the workplace, and the authorization to do so through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. These resources consisted of a four-week sermon series, a small-group Bible study, and the development of a mechanism for follow-up and support during the fifth phase of the project.

Fourth, I recruited thirty field intervention participants by targeting individuals who are employed a minimum of thirty-two hours a week in a job not requiring a college degree. These participants completed a pre-assessment using the Discipleship AssessmentTM tool. Then, with the resources developed in phase three, I conducted a four-week intervention at Jefferson Assembly of God, concluding with a distinctive service prayerfully commissioning blue-collar workers to embrace God-given opportunities for ministry in their workplace context.

Fifth, over the following six weeks, those individuals who submitted to commissioning were invited to participate in a follow-up group providing encouragement and feedback in their efforts to embrace marketplace ministry. At the conclusion of the intervention, participants were again asked to complete both interview sessions and the Discipleship AssessmentTM as post-assessment tools.

Sixth, I conducted a quantitative assessment of the intervention by analyzing any significant difference between the pre- and post- Discipleship AssessmentTM scores of intervention participants. Additionally, I conducted a qualitative assessment by means of follow-up interviews conducted in both one-on-one and small-group settings. Based on the results of those assessments, I developed recommendations for Jefferson Assembly of God in particular and for local churches generally.

The role of faith in the lives of blue-collar workers remains a subject largely ignored within the local church. An examination of the biblical connection between work and faith in the context of ordinary labor will provide a solid foundation for the development of resources facilitating workplace ministry in this neglected environment. The implementation of these developmental tools holds potential to effect new insight and changed behavior among America’s blue-collar work force, producing a more holistic practice of discipleship and a more comprehensive advance of Christ’s kingdom.

Blue Collar Work: Theological Literature Review

Perhaps no single subject dominates the personal landscape of Americans more than workplace concerns. Frustrations with hours, assignments, and expectations, the challenges and rewards of co-worker relationships, anxieties regarding job security, the delights of career advancement, or concern over lack of the same, and even worries about retirement capture the attention of Americans while both on and off the clock. Many workers despise their jobs while other workers delight in them. A few even seem to experience both responses simultaneously.

Christians often ponder the same questions and experience the same challenges. Believers commonly struggle with questions of faith and the workplace. Many see no real connection between the place of employment and the house of worship, no association between the daily devotion and the daily grind. Scripture, however, reveals a strong and significant relationship between the workplace and faith, addressing work-related questions and concerns with answers that often contrast conventional wisdom.

Three key passages form the basis of a solid biblical-theological framework for discerning biblical answers to work-related questions. This chapter will examine these passages and suggest that work be ultimately understood as imputed through creation, informed by rest, empowered by the Spirit, and fueled by anticipation. Such an understanding holds potential to transform the worker, the workplace, and the world by equipping the Christian worker to engage his or her work responsibilities as an opportunity for kingdom- advancing service.

Imputed Through Creation

The language of Genesis 1 invites the reader to marvel as God’s creation of the heavens and the earth unfolds. The Scriptures establish clearly the pattern for how God works; He speaks, and life results. This happens verse by verse, like the growing refrain of a great concerto’s musical theme. At God’s voice, light fills the darkness, vegetation fills the land, fish fill the oceans, creatures fill the forests, and birds fill the air.1

In Genesis 1:26, however, the Divine Composer introduces a new motif and a new instrument through which to sound it: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”2 This straightforward declaration and the verses that surround it begin the biblical revelation that shapes a Christian perspective on work.

God as Worker and Humanity in His Image

Blue Collar Work: Contemporary Literature Review

This project exists to develop materials and processes enabling the blue-collar and pink-collar1 worker to integrate more effectively personal Christian faith into the daily challenges of work. This requires not only a biblical theology of work as outlined in chapter 2, but likewise a definition for and understanding of the blue-collar worker, a knowledge of the historical development of the blue-collar labor sector, an awareness of both historical and current efforts toward integrating faith and work for the employed non-professional, and a working knowledge of the current best practices in facilitating marketplace ministry. This chapter will examine these topics, focusing on the themes and emphases of current related literature.

The Challenge of Defining the “Blue-Collar” Worker

Traditionally, three key variables define blue-collar work: physical labor, an hourly rate of pay, and limited educational requirements. Usually, blue-collar jobs stand in contrast to white-collar employment—jobs normally characterized by a focus on mental acumen, a salaried compensation structure, and specific requirements regarding higher levels of formal education. For their categories, The U.S. Department of Labor groups blue-collar and service occupations together, specifying blue-collar employment as work in “precision production, craft, and repair occupations; machine operators and inspectors; transportation and moving occupations; handlers, equipment cleaners, helpers, and laborers; and service occupations.”2 Within the relevant literature, the term “blue-collar” appears somewhat more loosely applied and even often used interchangeably with the label “working-class.” This study will focus on these kinds of jobs and workers.

Although entrepreneurial blue-collar workers exist, the majority function in the employ of others, often with limited workplace autonomy. Much of the current marketplace ministry material addresses the white-collar environment generally and executive-level jobs and entrepreneurial business owners specifically. Such individuals often have liberty to offer significant direction to their businesses in view of Kingdom priorities. The blue-collar worker, by contrast, generally punches a time card and accomplishes the tasks assigned to him or her by someone else. “Decision latitude”3 appears rare. This study will consider particularly the unique parameters of market-place ministry for the employee with limited workplace autonomy.

The use of pink-collar as a label for labor-intensive work typically done by women originated during World War II but ultimately gained popularity via Louise Kapp Howe’s 1977 book Pink Collar Workers: Inside the World of Women’s Work.4 Howe adopted the nomenclature in her argument for women’s equality within the workplace. More recently, the designation speaks without prejudice of any non-professional job predominantly held by women.5

An Historical Context for Current Realities

Historically, the distinction between blue- and white-collar workers finds its roots in the transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy and, more significantly, in the corresponding implementation of mass production techniques. The work of Frederick Taylor helped both create and define this line of demarcation between the two labor categories. In the early twentieth century, Taylor conducted time-motion studies of factory workers to determine “exactly what they did, how they did it, and how they could do it faster.”6 Eventually, through Taylor’s analysis, workers’ jobs were broken down into simple and separate tasks, and they received only one or two tasks to do, over and over again. The division of labor began.

Specialized but monotonous work assignments resulted from Taylor’s analysis, all eventually as part of a larger mass-production process. Managers were expected to think and workers were expected to labor. Indeed, Taylor designed the assigned tasks to require as little thought as possible, famously telling a congressional committee in 1912 that “the science of handling pig-iron is so great that the man who is ... physically able to handle pig-iron and is sufficiently phlegmatic and stupid to choose this for his occupation is rarely able to comprehend the science of handling pig-iron.”7 Clearly, brawn trumped brains for the tasks Taylor identified. In such a context, the utilitarian nature of employment evoked the label “factory hands,”8 as if no other part of the employee mattered and laborers were as interchangeable as wrenches and lunch pails.

The labor-intensive nature of such work meant employees wore more industrial- friendly attire—durable canvas or cotton clothing in darker colors that would hide dirt and grime and hold up better to wear and tear. White-collar workers, typically working in office environments with no call for physical on-the-job exertion or reason to think they might get their hands dirty or clothing soiled during working hours, dressed in white or in lighter and more colorful garb. While never a hard and fast rule, the dissimilarity in workplace apparel both led to the terminology and solidified in the American psyche the division between those who work with their minds and those who work with their hands.

In reality, distinctions in the current blue-collar environment have blurred. Many stereotypical presumptions regarding blue-collar employment match current realities. For example, in spite of computerization and automation, blue-collar work often still involves significant manual labor. As was true a century ago, workers continue to cluster toward the lower socioeconomic classes. In spite of waning union influence nationally, many blue-collar workers still proudly carry membership cards and value their union connections highly.

Not everything remains unchanged, however. Today, work regularly consists of something other than simple and repetitive assembly-line tasks. “Now,” reports David Francis, “manufacturing jobs require—at the very least—familiarity with technology, advanced math, and computer skills.”9 New materials and processes demand specialized and advanced training, although not necessarily in the form of a college degree. “The new economy,” explains David Kusnet, “is creating a new kind of skilled worker, with expertise in emerging technologies and vast opportunities for advancement but usually without a degree from a four-year college”10 Ralph Whitehead describes these laborers as “new collar workers,”11 while Tom Janowski labels them “semi-engineers.”12 These technically challenging job opportunities continue to expand. For blue-collar workers, employment looks appreciably different heading into the twenty-first century.

Even as opportunities expand on some fronts, however, they diminish on others. In recent years, American companies have outsourced significant numbers of well-paying manufacturing jobs, disproportionately ballooning the percentage of low-paying, service industry-related jobs within the blue-collar sector. More easily than in white-collar professions, blue-collar employers sometimes circumvent regulations designed to protect and benefit full-time workers by hiring help through “temp” agencies or outsourcing entire categories of workers. A new employer may offer displaced employees their same jobs back but as new employees with no or limited job protection. “After working here for fifteen years,” said one displaced worker, “I would have had to start out as a ‘new employee’”13 For those able to secure necessary training and acquire the required skills, opportunities exist within the blue-collar job sector. For those with more limited resources, a difficult job market looms.

The Blue-Collar Worker: Three Qualities, Three Concerns

Contemporary literature reveals three unique cultural qualities consistent among blue- collar workers and three commonly-held and abiding concerns. This section will highlight each of these characteristics in an effort to paint a picture of key elements within the blue- collar worker’s world. Unique cultural qualities include direct communication, close-knit loyalties, and hands-on practicality. Concerns include job security, financial stability, and questions of personal identity.

Qualities of the Blue-Collar Culture

Direct Communication—“Say What You Mean”

Blue-collar people speak directly and candidly, significantly more so than other social classes. They tend to say what they think without much subtlety or nuance, avoiding “self- censorship [and] hidden agendas.”14 Like many other blue-collar qualities, this inclination toward direct speech shows up most clearly in its contrast to patterns of communication within white-collar circles.

While president of Haverford College, John Coleman invested a two-month sabbatical in working a series of entry-level jobs incognito. He interrupted his work as a ditch digger in Atlanta by returning to Philadelphia to conduct a meeting in his role as chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. No one at that meeting knew he had spent the past two weeks digging ditches in Atlanta.

The meeting itself centered on a weighty report from examiners with the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C. Coleman’s lasting impression of the meeting involved the difference in conversation between the working-class ditch diggers in Atlanta and the white-collar accountants from Washington:

I was struck by how little we communicated to one another in simple, unambiguous ways. Whatever I learned beyond a few surface impressions was more often in well- guarded response to my questions than as a result of the examiners’ independent offerings. … When they had something critical to say, they did so in such a circuitous way that I probably missed much of it, and I replied in kind. Whatever happened, I learned that ditch English has a power to communicate that bank English lacks.15

Tex Sample, from the other end of a white-collar, blue-collar exchange, arrived at a similar conclusion. His articulate and wide-ranging response when questioned about the veracity of the Virgin Birth was summarily dismissed by the working-class laborer who had asked the question:

For him, thinking and knowing seemed to have too much of an indecisive quality about them, an entertainment of options that avoided conviction. He was thoroughly suspicious of the balancing act of college-trained people who could go on and on about their opinions, but who then got lost in their fancy talk and delayed, when not avoided, commitments and action.16

Blue-collar people have little use for lengthy discourse, valuing direct communication and tangible action.

As a result, verbal fluency within the working class is somewhat rare and often even discouraged. According to Charles Sackrey, the number of words spoken in a white-collar household in a day is, on average, three times greater than the number spoken in a blue-collar home—most of the difference attributable to a lack of interaction between parents and kids.17 Education-related studies reveal how early these differences begin to impact the communicative patterns of children of working-class parents. In a study of lexical naming strategies involving children as young as two years old, research revealed that “middle class parents focused on including more descriptive information about objects when discussing them with children, while the working-class parents were more concerned with naming the objects.”18 The study’s author, Jennifer Bloomquist, explains: “In shaping their children’s language development, the working-class parents put more emphasis on providing the right answer rather than on the development of expression [while] the middle-class parents encouraged their children to experiment linguistically through description and elaboration.”19 Working-class parents and children alike were more likely than their middle-class counterparts to clarify with the researcher whether or not more descriptive labels were even allowed, wanting better lucidity regarding expectations. Middle-class participants took that expressive liberty for granted.20

The practice of direct communication sometimes puts blue-collar workers at a disadvantage interacting across social classes. Dan Croteau, raised in a working-class family, describes his employment challenge: “In working-class life, people tell you things directly, they’re not subtle. At [Northfield Mount Hermon Prep School], I didn’t get how they did things.”21 Analyzing interaction within a yacht club consisting of both blue-collar and white- collar members, Alfred Aversa, Jr., notes how the structure of formal meetings left the blue- collar members disadvantaged:

Their unfamiliarity with parliamentary procedure and public speaking … make it difficult for them to be effective participants. Faced with the necessity of having to propose motions and debate them in an orderly fashion, few of them are willing to risk humiliating themselves by revealing their ignorance of the procedure and the idiom of polite debate.22

Raised in an atmosphere of clear expectations and more direct communication, blue-collar workers often struggle in environments marked by understated speech and subtle conversational clues.

Close-knit Loyalties—“Stick with Your Kind”

Within the blue-collar environment, loyalty runs deep—particularly toward entities that are geographically and ideologically close. Loyalty to family stands as the most obvious priority in such environments. “You don’t break up the family;” writes author Alfred

Lubrano, “you orbit close to your kind.”23 Whereas the middle-class family encourages and celebrates the individual achievements of its members, in the working-class world such accomplishments have a place only when family relationships remain intact and unscathed. In Lubrano’s book, Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams, the reader gets a taste of the strength of those loyal bonds when Lubrano—raised in a working-class home— participates in a strike as an adult, white-collar professional. Although he expresses confusion over the reasons for the strike and any justification for his place in it, he concludes, “But I never scabbed.”24

This loyalty stretches even to relationships perhaps more perceived than real. An analysis of working-class support for George W. Bush in the 2004 U.S. presidential election shows that, while Bush and his opponent, John Kerry, had both amassed significant wealth, working-class voters perceived George W. Bush’s attitudes about wealth to match their own more consistently—attitudes that had nothing to do with positions on policy issues or even traditional values, but rather to do with coming by wealth honestly and remaining a down-to- earth person in spite of wealth. Although many argue that logic suggests a different candidate would have better served their interests, this study reveals that working-class voters made a loyal choice for George W. Bush rooted in their conviction that “morals are more important than money.”25 Note that this decision grew from their perception of the differences between two multi-millionaire candidates, both much more like each other than like any working- class citizen anywhere.

Like direct patterns of communication, strong local loyalties often negatively impact the upward mobility of working-class citizens. A 2012 study, for example, highlights a mismatch between the middle-class cultural norms of a typical college environment and the cultural norms usually present in working-class students. Middle-class norms produce an “independent model of self [that] assumes that the normatively appropriate person should influence the context, be separate or distinct from other people, and act freely based on personal motives, goals, and preferences.”26 Working-class norms reflect the opposite—an “interdependent model of self [that] assumes that the normatively appropriate person should adjust to the conditions of the context, be connected to others, and respond to the needs, preferences, and interests of others.”27 The study’s first concern lies with mediating the negative influences of such cultural mismatches, but here reinforces the assertions made that “working-class realities often promote socialization practices that encourage children to recognize their place in the social hierarchy, to follow the rules and social norms, and to be responsive to others’ needs”28—in short, to exhibit a loyal conformity to localized relationships.29

Hands-on Practicality—“If It Works, It Isn’t Stupid”

Blue-collar workers have little time for abstract theory. “The blue-collar world is built on tangibles, not symbols, as the middle-class world is.”30 The thought of sitting in an office all day, attending meetings, and shuffling papers holds no appeal. As a twenty-six-year-old concrete laborer puts it, “I just appreciate that God gave me a body and I don’t think it was meant to sit on a chair.”31 Moreover, blue-collar workers see the results of their labor as something tangible and enduring. “Like if you were to write a paper or something, it’s great,” says a thirty-year-old masonry laborer, “and it may last hundreds of years or not, but concrete walls, unless somebody knocks it down or bulldozes it, it’s usually going to be there.”32 This attitude of intense practicality permeates the blue-collar world, impacting choices in transportation, attire,33 recreation, homes and even spouses.

This propensity for valuing hands-on practicality sometimes results in workplace tension when blue-collar employees must implement less-than-perfect white-collar plans. Workers “often feel resentment toward ignorant managers who give orders without knowledge of what the job entails.”34 A sense of contempt may result. More positively, blue- collar workers recognize, regardless of organizational hierarchy, they, in fact, hold the power to see a job gets done right. “White-collar management has theoretical authority, but the worker decides how a job will be done, through both his knowledge and discretion.”35 Blue- collar workers take pride in their capacities and often even adopt a personal sense of superiority for being able to accomplish an assigned task regardless of management’s failure to grasp what the job requires.

Three unique qualities, then, shape blue-collar culture. Particularly in comparison to other social groups, blue-collar workers (1) practice direct communication, (2) value close- knit loyalties, and (3) appreciate hands-on practicality. These characteristics merit attention when developing any curriculum or other tools for helping link faith to work.

An equal number of concerns persistently arise in the lives of working-class people: job security, financial stability, and issues of personal identity. The paragraphs that follow will examine these challenges and explore the unique influence they bear within the blue- collar environment.

Concerns of the Blue-Collar Worker

Job Security

In recent decades, perhaps no segment of the job market in the United States has experienced more job loss than the manufacturing sector. Timothy Egan reports this mainstay source of blue-collar employment within the American economy “has shed six million manufacturing jobs over the last three decades.”36 Janny Scott and David Leonhardt concur, describing how “globalization and technological change have shuttered factories, killing jobs

that were once stepping-stones to the middle class.”37 Even where new jobs are being created, they do not match the quality of lost jobs. A recent report by the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment notes that employment losses from the recession that began in 2008 were “concentrated in mid-wage occupations with median hourly wages between $13.84 and $21.13.”38 Recovery growth, however, has been concentrated in “lower- wage occupations—jobs paying a median hourly [income] between $7.69 and $13.83.”39 These jobs accounted for only 21 percent of jobs lost during the recession but now account for 58 percent of recovery growth. Such statistics prompt concerns over job security, then, not only with regard to a worker being able to keep an existing job, but also with regard to the elimination of better-paying jobs and the lower-wage jobs replacing them.

Concern over job security impacts the mental health of the blue-collar worker more severely than with other job types. A recent study by Leigh Ann Simmons and Jennifer E. Swanberg revealed that while job-related factors negatively impacted the mental health of every worker, with regard to the working poor in particular, “job insecurity was the single significant correlate of depressive symptoms after controlling for other demographic and work environment variables.”40 Even in situations where other correlates contributing to mental health issues were mediated, a sense of job insecurity continued to promote depressive symptoms.

Changes within the work environment itself magnify employment concerns. Kusnet describes two “social contracts” deteriorating within the American workplace for the blue- collar worker. The first, he says, “involves things that can easily be measured and grasped: a job that lasts a lifetime, regular raises every year, health insurance for your family, and a pension waiting for you when you retire. [In short,] … security in return for loyalty.”41 The second involves an unexpressed understanding that “if you poured your energy and intelligence into your work, then your employer had better show you some gratitude and allow you some discretion to do your job the best way you knew how”42—something Kusnet describes as “trading commitment for respect.”43 The blue-collar worker sees both of these unwritten agreements disappearing. Indeed, Kusnet describes how employees wonder whether their commitment to their job is misplaced altogether. He describes “an increasing conflict between workers’ commitment to their occupations and employers and their sense that their employers do not share their dedication.”44 Rank and file workers fear they often carry more commitment to the success of their employer’s business than the level of commitment they see evidenced in the business owners and members of management themselves. Specifically, they see priorities that would facilitate business longevity sacrificed by business leaders for short-term financial gains. As a result, concerns over job security continue to fester.

Financial Stability

Of course, concerns over job security only intensify concerns regarding money. While some highly skilled workers earn significant income, many low and unskilled workers survive on little more than subsistence wages. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics wage estimates from May of 2013, workers such as janitors, grounds maintenance workers, and auto mechanics, earned median hourly wages ranging from $10.86 per hour to $19.17 per hour. This compares with wages for occupations such as claims adjusters, database and systems managers, and marketing and sales managers where wages ranged from $29.43 per hour to $54.61 per hour.45 Even across social classes, people understand this concern impacts blue-collar workers more significantly. “For middle or upper class women with high levels of education,” for example, “work is generally considered a career aspiration, a choice based on self-fulfillment motives.”46 The presumed motive for lower class women with less than a college degree remains financial survival.

Understandably, hourly employees like these not only struggle to survive, but often resent the wages sometimes paid corporate CEOs. “In 1974,” writes Darren Wood, “the ratio of a corporate CEO to the pay of their average worker was 34 to 1; today it is 531 to 1.”47 Such inequity only multiplies blue-collar frustrations regarding money.

Working class attitudes about money factor in, as well. Ruby Payne writes about the “hidden rules”48 that shape how various economic classes view money. Where a member of the middle class typically views money as a resource to manage, and a member of the upper class views it as something to conserve and invest, members of the working class—especially those surviving on subsistence wages—view money as a resource to use. The difference is subtle but significant. For the working poor especially, they often see the intentional management of financial resources as fruitless because of the incessant demands made on such a limited supply. A child of working-class parents, Angela Witiker notes how, unlike those she eventually came to know in middle-class circles, “she had never had enough money or [any] reason to save”49 and consistently ignored things like late fees and interest rates “because she couldn’t pay the bills anyway.”50

Additionally, in many working class environments, the community almost views money as communal property with a concurrent expectation that anyone among them with unspent cash or an unexpected windfall should share his or her good fortune with everyone. Payne illustrates this propensity with the fictional scenario of a working class woman who receives a Christmas bonus. When she testifies to her blessing at church, she’s approached by three different people: “one asks for $50 to have the electricity turned on; one asks for $100 to feed her brother’s family, one asks for $60 to replace a pair of broken glasses.”51 While a firm “No, I have other plans for this money” may, for a member of the middle class, seem the

obvious response to such requests, the culture of the working poor pressures its members toward a different conclusion. Such circumstances by no means serve as characteristic of every blue-collar worker, but many in low-paying jobs do consistently struggle to stay afloat financially in a cultural context that views money differently than its middle- or upper-class counterparts.

Personal Identity

Personal identity stands as a third concern of blue-collar workers. This challenge appears fueled by two competing realities: first, the negative experience of life as a sometimes-demeaning battle of survival, and second, the positive experience of satisfaction found in blue-collar work generally and in the completion of work well done, particularly.

Job insecurities and financial constraints certainly feed the collective sense of life as a battle. Particularly in contrast to white-collar, career-minded workers, blue-collar people tend to view life less as an opportunity to achieve and more as a struggle to survive. Leslie Rubin captures the sentiment, summarizing the childhood memories of working-class adults she interviewed:

They recall parents who worked hard, yet never quite made it; homes that were overcrowded; siblings or selves who got into “trouble”; a preoccupation with the daily struggle for survival that precluded planning for a future. Whether they recall angry, discontented, drunken parents, or quiet, steady, “always-there” parents, the dominant theme is struggle and trouble. These realities not only reflect the past, but dominate the present.52

Lubrano, noting that blue-collar workers often view life’s challenges as key to personal development, describes struggle as “central to blue-collar life and the chief architect of character.”53 Working-class occupants intuitively perceive their disadvantages: “We blue collars grew up understanding at an early age that it’s who you know. … And we didn’t know anybody.”54 Some embrace a fatalistic attitude regarding the future. “God doesn’t close one door,” says one, “without slamming your fingers in another.”55 Of course, not every blue-collar worker sees life in such a dim light. Still, understanding life as an ongoing battle and struggle as a constant companion remains widespread within the blue-collar world. In Blue-Collar Ministry, Tex Sample, one of the few writers actually targeting ministry within this specific arena, describes how a forty year-old man from working-class roots but now a multi-millionaire felt compelled to continue “striving for dignity”56 over a passing remark made twenty-five years earlier. Anthony DePalma, writing about an illegal immigrant who quit his job, again, after an argument with his boss, clarifies, “In his mind, preserving his dignity is one of the few liberties he has left.”57 Building a healthy personal identity in the face of constant struggle remains a daunting task.

Were this the only component to a blue-collar sense of personal identity, a consistently bleak outlook would result. These workers, however, often gain a sense of significant value and take great pride in what they accomplish individually and collectively within the workplace. A study by Thomas Gorman shows that “working class respondents differentiated themselves from middle-class respondents by noting they do real work, do more important work, and are more down-to-earth.”58 Jeff Torlina argues that the lower occupational prestige assigned to blue-collar labor may have more to do with arbitrary judgments made by social scientist than with the realities of job satisfaction as experienced by blue-collar workers. “Stratification theory,” he writes, “depends upon a model of the occupational prestige hierarchy in which white-collar occupations are generally recognized as superior to blue-collar occupations. This reflects the standards of the professional class, not the working class.”59 Torlina, that is to say, suggests that white-collar professionals— who understandably celebrate white-collar work—embraced early on a fundamental paradigm for social science research that elevated the status of white-collar jobs and minimized the significance of blue-collar employment. As a result, “consciously or unconsciously, the dominant theories of social inequality promote an inferior identity for working-class people.”60 The framers of paradigms within the social sciences decided without sufficient basis to esteem white-collar employment more highly than blue-collar labor.

Torlina’s research suggests blue-collar workers feel differently about the stature of white-collar professions versus their own: “Blue-collar workers do not equate white-collar occupations with prestige. … Education and income levels are simply not signs of prestige or importance for the sampled working-class men. In fact, they actually see these variables in negative ways.”61 Indeed, many blue-collar workers believe white-collar workers have sold

out, choosing the pursuit of money over the opportunity to do real work. By contrast, they see their own work as more valuable than just money and desirable for reasons intrinsic to the work itself. In an emotional testimony before a Senate panel recently, one West Virginia coal miner spoke for himself and his co-workers, declaring convincingly, “I take pride in being a miner.”62 That brief expression captures the heart of many blue-collar workers who see their jobs as practical, challenging, and essential for the continuing growth and progress of the American economy.

Conflicting realities, then, shape the challenge of personal identity for the typical blue-collar worker. A perception of life as an ongoing struggle and cultural norms that often minimize or dismiss the value of blue-collar labor battle against a more positive and intuitive sense of self-worth fueled by occupational pride and practical on-the-job accomplishments. Job security, financial stability, and personal identity remain ongoing concerns for blue- collar workers.

The Blue-Collar Worker and the Faith at Work Movement

In recent years, the faith at work (FAW) movement has gained remarkable momentum, resulting in hundreds of new books and organizations. This movement seeks to elevate a biblical understanding of the relationship between faith and the marketplace for the working public. Currently, the FAW movement typically targets entrepreneurs and business owners. A century ago, however—long before the utilization of the standardized phrase “faith at work”—church and working-class connections flourished, as well. In multiple

settings on varied levels the church, both through professional clergy and devout non-clergy, brought the influence of Christian faith to bear in the marketplace of the common worker.

Regrettably, the bonds of association between the laborer of faith, his or her work, and the church itself have deteriorated significantly over the second half of the twentieth century. Yet blue-collar workers still matter deeply to Jesus, His Kingdom, and the spiritual health and economic vitality of the United States. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, blue-collar workers still comprise 61 percent of the American work force.63 Given the potential for the kind of economic, social, cultural, and spiritual transformation that would result from a revitalization of faith-integration in the blue-collar environment, the church must recognize, understand, and address this division. This section will begin that process by reviewing historical points of connection between people of faith and the blue- collar environment.

The History of Blue-Collar Faith at Work

Modern production techniques first began to impact the U.S. labor market in the early decades of the 1800s. The creation of goods transitioned from small artisan-operated shops to centrally-located, factory-based production. Attitudes about work and compensation shifted, as well, from an artisan-determined pace and price to the idea of labor purchased at an hourly rate. A producer ethic gave way to a profit ethic, alienating craftsmen from the creative control they once enjoyed over both product and remuneration. In the space of a few decades, “machines replaced hand tools; factories replaced shops; factory workers replaced artisans; large cities replaced small villages; [and] mass-produced goods replaced handicrafts.”64 This shift demanded a re-examination of the implications of Christian faith in the American marketplace. Christians responded in several key cities: Methodist Protestants in Baltimore, Stilwellites in New York City, Congregationalists in Boston, and Quakers in Wilmington, Delaware all gave leadership in support of labor.65 Efforts in Delaware led to the birth of the Association of Working People.

Economic difficultly marked the years immediately following the civil war. Predominantly, church leadership inclined toward continuing support of free-market capitalism, reinforcing “the idea that poverty and failure was equivalent to sin.”66 But by 1900, Darrell Wood argues, the persistent problems of the industrial revolution resulted in the development of four major religious responses. First, a “worker’s expression of Christianity”67 arose, influencing the modern American labor movement principally through the creation of the Christian Labor Union. These pragmatic people identified particularly with Jesus the Carpenter who, for them, “expressed God’s solidarity with the poor”68 and provided an example for subversive activity on behalf of the impoverished. They believed God’s vision of a just society demanded they act on behalf of the oppressed.

The Social Gospel, a second response, grew from the work of middle-class clergy and academic scholars who were “sympathetic to the cause of labor, urban renewal, and prison reform.”69 David Miller offers that by this point in American history “the compartmentalization of faith and work into separate domains or spheres of life became the norm.”70 Within Protestantism, three broad streams of thought resulted. Conservative social Christianity, rooted in premillennial eschatology, limited spirituality to individual conversion and evidenced no real interest in addressing societal concerns.71 Radical social Christianity, tied to postmillennial theology, focused almost exclusively on cultural renewal. The Social Gospel, from Miller’s perspective, most successfully harmonized concern for both the individual soul and society’s unjust structures. Still, Miller admits, “with its perceived labor orientation, the Social Gospel never gained a nationwide or grassroots following in the broader church and found its popularity limited largely to congregations in the more liberal northeastern states.”72 He suggests that may have been so because the Social Gospel’s pro- labor orientation clashed with the priorities of church members residing in higher socioeconomic classes.

Third, Wood writes about well-known evangelists who enthusiastically supported big business and “condemned the poor for creating their own poverty through laziness and immorality.”73 As an example, he quotes D. L. Moody: “I don’t believe a man would have a lazy hair on his head if he was converted to the Lord Jesus Christ.”74 Writing in 1907, Lutheran minister Luther Waring offers a similar declaration: “We hear men complaining that they do not have a chance. Let them but work half as hard as they loaf and half as hard as they complain, and they will make something of themselves.”75 Wood submits that some of these evangelists found solid financial backing in successful business owners and warmly receptive hearts in middle- and upper-class audiences.

Finally, Wood identifies a fourth response in “liberal elite pastors who embraced the new biblical interpretations that questioned the authority of Scripture.”76 These, too, predominantly believed poverty to be the fault of the worker. Wood offers the ostentatious Henry Ward Beecher as his example. Beecher, he reports, “embraced the social application of Darwinism and the ‘great law of subordination’ among social classes.”77 With regard to labor, capitalism, and the American economy, then, it appears that at the opening of the twentieth century, liberals and fundamentalists alike found reasons to adopt positions at every conceivable location along the spectrum.

With the increasing secularization and commercialization of the American economy, however, the need for any religious underpinning in support of labor organization diminished, threatening a vital connection between work and faith. In 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) emerged as an alternative to faith-based labor efforts. The Wobblies, as they were known, saw religion as private, churches as hypocritical, Jesus—the one “who died at the hands of the greedy elite”78—as a friend of the worker, and the IWW as the new religion of American labor. This thoroughly secular vision advanced in spite of overtures extended by the church. As Wood explains, however, the growing separation between the church and labor was neither complete nor final:

Ironically, as the IWW moved farther away from Christianity, church leaders were moving toward an enthusiastic embrace of the cause of labor. A number of Protestant denominations followed the example of the Federal Council of Churches and adopted “Social Creed,” which expressed the main tenets of the Social Gospel’s stances on child labor, governmental reform, and the elimination of poverty. With Pope Leo XIII’s letter Rerum Novarum on labor issues, Catholic leaders actively tried to support and influence the AFL. Official church endorsement of labor’s cause was becoming a reality.79

David Montgomery reports that in 1901, the advisory council of the National Civic Foundation included twenty-three Protestant clergymen and editors, two Catholic editors, and Archbishop John Ireland.80 This newly-formed organization ultimately proved instrumental in “expanding and helping make uniform state laws regarding child labor, workmen’s compensation, and factory safety.”81 In 1912, the American Federation of Labor initiated the Labor Forward movement. In the launch city of Minneapolis, by the campaign’s opening day, “more than twenty-five ministers … had announced that organized labor would be welcome in their meeting houses during the labor revival.”82

A report prepared by the Interchurch World Movement in 1919 showed how biased reporting negatively impacted the efforts of striking steelworkers, occasioning positive governmental action on behalf of labor. In 1932, the Federal Council of Churches established the National Religion and Labor Foundation.83 Still, as two World Wars broke the visionary optimism once so prevalent at the beginning of the “Christian Century,”84 the secularization of the workplace and the divide between the church and the common laborer solidified. In his classic work Your Other Vocation, released in 1952, Elton Trueblood laments the loss:

There are large churches without a single member who also belongs to a labor union. The characteristic supporters of the Christian movement are white-collar workers, managers, professional people and farmers. The gravity of the loss is made vivid by the fact that, in some cities, meetings of labor unions are now held in labor “temples” at eleven o’clock on Sunday mornings.85 In short, the province of labor is so far lost that, far from thinking of itself as a part of the Christian movement, it has set itself up as a genuine rival, in the competition for loyalty.86

Trueblood then notes the labor movement’s Christian roots:

There is no doubt that this loss is very great. The sense of its seriousness is accentuated by the recognition of the degree to which the earlier labor movement was so largely inspired by conscious Christian motivation. Men … became union organizers in an effort to make Christian ideals prevail, but little of this connection now remains.87

Already then, by the 1950s, the common laborer and perhaps, to some degree, the church, had divorced faith from work. While interest in the connection between faith and the marketplace continued to develop among certain business professionals,88 its link within the blue-collar arena faltered. Rather than an integrated understanding of faith and work, Miller concludes that “businesspeople and other churchgoers … found the paradigm of conflict—an unbridgeable chasm between faith and work—to be the only way to make sense of the tension between faith and work.”89 This perspective voided the connection between the two elements, resulting in a compartmentalized worldview—something that ultimately proved not only theologically problematic but pragmatically unworkable.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, Miller explains, the FAW movement gained fresh momentum. This new vitality grew from a renewed appreciation for the possibilities of integration with regard to the conflicted elements of faith and work:

Integration acknowledges the distinctive natures of faith and work, as well as other different spheres of life, while also bringing them together in a reconstructive, dialectical, and holistic fashion. The quest for integration avoids the naïveté of expecting the kingdom of God to be realized here on earth, but it also rejects the alternative extreme of despair and cynicism. The quest for integration seeks to approximate wholeness and balance while recognizing the difficulty of attaining it. It knows the reality of sin, yet it hopes for sanctification and transformation in light of salvation promises, even if these can only be fully realized in an eschatological horizon beyond our present capacities.

Although any movement toward the integration of faith and work seems both significant and positive, the action in this third wave of FAW activity seems to occur almost exclusively in the domain of business professionals. Miller’s language reveals the movement’s bias: “Businesspeople want the ability to bring their whole selves to work … Christian businesspeople and other professionals find common agreement [against] living a bifurcated life …”90 (emphasis added). Carefully chosen gender-neutral verbiage discloses the unintentional oversight of another neglected subgroup: labor.

This study exists to help address that omission. Neither the church as an entity nor its members individually can continue to isolate the richness of Sunday from the realities of Monday. While the business owner or white-collar executive takes full advantage of opportunities to embrace biblical values and express Christian redemption in activities and decisions that set the course for his or her business, the hourly employee—down to the most common laborer—must sense the same richness of opportunity to fulfill God’s purpose and express Kingdom realities in the simplest and even most mundane work assignment. The church has too often fixated on less practical matters. As Miroslav Volf observes, “The number of pages theologians have devoted to the question of transubstantiation—which does or does not take place on Sunday—for instance, would, I suspect, far exceed the number of pages devoted to work that fills our lives Monday through Saturday.”91 If Whelchel is correct, however, at least some of that energy and attention on the part of the church is misplaced. Whelchel concludes, “The most overlooked reason for the failure of the church to influence the culture is the loss of the Biblical doctrine of work.”92

Certainly the challenges have changed from a century ago, when issues like workplace safety, reasonable compensation, and manageable hours demanded immediate attention—although reviewing that list suggests each one may still need consideration even now. Today, however, the blue-collar worker frustrated by monotony on the job, for example, may need help understanding the significance of ordinary labor or perhaps biblical direction on how to improve his or her employment opportunities in a changing market. With the advent of multi-national corporations, questions about ethical activity international in scope may impact the decisions of the person stocking shelves at the discount store. The waitress or custodial staff wounded by society-wide attitudes that place value on a person according to the perceived status of his or her employment may need fresh awareness that, for his first assignment, God handed Adam—formed in His image and for His glory—a garden rake. The church must seize existing opportunities and create new occasions to help laborers understand the intimate connection between faith and work and the value of their work in God’s Kingdom.

Emphases in Current Literature

Facilitating Marketplace Ministry in a Blue-Collar Context: Results

Building upon the insights gleaned from the literature review as described in chapters 2 and 3, the field project consisted of two related pursuits. First, the work- and faith-related perceptions of blue- and white-collar workers were compared and contrasted through the analysis of data from a national assessment instrument. Second, that information was combined with other project research to create ministry tools designed to establish and strengthen the understanding of work-faith relationships among blue-collar workers. These resources were field tested through implementation in a local church setting. This chapter details the preparation and execution of the project, summarizes the results of the project, and offers thoughts on the project’s contribution to ministry.

Preparation of the Project

The preparation of the project was accomplished in two distinct phases: (1) Data Assessment and (2) Field Intervention. The next two subsections detail these processes.

Data Assessment

Measurement Instrument

The Discipleship AssessmentTM from Discipleship Dynamics1 served as the measurement tool for work-related attitudes among blue-collar and white-collar workers for this project. Jefferson Assembly of God was one of six churches involved in the reliability assessment phase of the development of this new instrument. Discipleship AssessmentTM measures five broad discipleship dimensions and forty specific outcomes of discipleship. The data for the validity and internal reliability of this instrument is high.2 For this study only the responses to the eighty-three questions related to the dimensions of faith and work were analyzed.

Sample

Of the initial 319 Discipleship AssessmentTM participants, 128 people identified themselves as white-collar workers while fifty-three identified as blue-collar. Given the disparity in the number of participants from each category, and in order to provide equitable groupings for analysis, several steps were taken with the data before analysis. First, all participants not working full-time were eliminated, leaving eighty-three white-collar workers and thirty-one blue-collar workers. Next, the records of white-collar workers were randomly deleted, first by eliminating every second participant in the data list (beginning with the second participant listed) and then by deleting every fourth participant (beginning with the first participant listed). After completing those two steps, the records of thirty-one full-time white-collar workers remained, matching the number of full-time blue-collar workers who completed the assessment.

Data Analysis

Each question was answered on a seven-point Likert Scale. The averages were computed separately for every answer, and the results of the averages obtained by white- collar workers were compared to those of blue-collar workers. When the average scores between the two groups differed by 10 percent or more, it was deemed that a significant difference existed in the average scores between the two groups. Tables 1 and 2 list those statements where the mean responses between the two groups were significant. Table 1 shows statements perceived by blue-collar workers to be less characteristic of themselves, while Table 2 shows those statements they perceived to be more characteristic of themselves.

Table 1. Statements Less True of Blue-Collar Workers by a Difference of 10 Percent or More3

Table 2. Statements More True of Blue-Collar Workers by a Difference of 10 Percent or More 4

To dive deeper into the data, Download Appendix A, B, C

Findings

Overall, the results of the data align with the expectations held when approaching this project. A review of the data prompts four observations. First, and most striking among all the results, blue-collar workers consistently indicated less awareness of any certain calling in their work than did white-collar workers. The following statements—six out of the thirteen statements for which significant differences exist—all relate to a lack of a sense of divine purpose on the job:

• I feel like I’m on a “divine mission” when I’m at work.
• My career has become a “divine mission.”
• My work provides me a sense of purpose in life.
• God has called me into the career that I am in now.
• The primary purpose in my career is to make a difference for others.
• I often wish I could have a clearer understanding of my gifts and talents.

In each case, blue-collar workers revealed a more limited perception of divine mission, calling, and purpose, and likewise a more limited understanding of their gifts and talents, than their white-collar counterparts. A key challenge of the field intervention, then, became connecting what might be perceived as ordinary or mundane work to God’s divine purpose. The biblical record of Adam fulfilling God’s mandate by cultivating a garden, the hands-on nature of Bezalel and Oholiab’s craftsmanship, and Paul’s exhortation to slave laborers in Colossians 3 all took on deepened significance as a result.

The second most prominent distinction relates to the first, reflecting a potential lack of connection on the part of blue-collar workers with their workplaces and perhaps with others in the workplace. Blue-collar workers consistently perceived the following statements as less true of themselves than did white-collar workers:

• I understand the competitive advantage that my company has.
• I have a good grip on the future challenges that face my field of work.
• I feel like a “shepherd” for other disciples.

With these statements, blue-collar workers indicated less understanding of their company’s competitive advantage, less understanding of future job-related challenges, and less awareness of any personal leadership influence toward other followers of Christ who share the workplace with them. To some degree, a white-collar worker might rightly be expected to have a broader perspective on the company as a whole and the unique opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Equally, a white-collar worker might be more likely to carry supervisory responsibilities on the job and therefore live with a greater awareness of his or her circle of influence.

Still, these distinctions highlight the risk of the blue-collar laborer reducing his or her work to nothing more than the machine-like completion of a series of assigned tasks in order to receive a paycheck. The Scriptures present work differently, giving rich dignity to all honest labor and tying the work of even the least-esteemed workhand to the greater work of God. Here, then, the biblical revelation of God himself as a worker and of humanity’s capacity for work as a reflection of His image carry deepened consequence. Additionally, the role of the Holy Spirit in calling and equipping individuals according to God’s plan adds eternal value to every job. Moreover, positive relational influence on the job should be capitalized upon regardless of whether a worker carries supervisory responsibilities or not. During the field intervention, Adam’s role as a creator of culture helped address this challenge.

Responses to statements B and F—“My debt is under control” and “I don’t really have any contact with poor people”—highlighted the financial challenges sometimes experienced more acutely in the blue-collar context. The strong concern about debt among blue-collar workers confirmed the conclusion of chapter 3 that financial security remains one of the weightiest issues within the blue-collar community. Perhaps as a result of those financial constraints, blue-collar workers are also more likely to have had contact with poor people. While all of this accentuates the challenges of blue-collar workers in terms of financial limitations and may point to the need for additional practical instruction in matters like money management, it also suggests that the blue-collar community itself may serve as a significant avenue for ministry among the poor through pre-existing relational connections.

To the advantage of such ministry, the Scriptures clearly declare that while the wealthy may face unique challenges that hinder their embrace of the gospel (Luke 18:25), the Kingdom is within close reach of the poor (6:20). The harvest may be most plentiful (10:2) among those who possess the least. Additionally, as a heightened awareness of the significance of human labor impacts job performance positively, the potential exists to see “redemption and lift" 5 improve the financial status of blue-collar laborers.

In another interesting disparity, responses to statement K revealed that blue-collar workers are more likely than white-collar workers to believe that “trying to play the good guy in business will harm profitability.” This attitude may issue from the somewhat rough- and-tumble nature of blue-collar culture in general, where a sense of life as a fight for survival dominates. This view may also, however, reflect a focus on conflict over labor rights within a company itself more than a focus on the fight for any company’s success in the marketplace at large. Blue-collar workers often view the world through the lens of labor- management battles. Addressing the limited sense of connection that blue-collar workers feel with their company overall may form part of the solution here.

The blue-collar propensity for simple and direct communication appears to show up in statement L, where—significantly more than white-collar workers—blue-collar workers agreed, “I would rather our youth participate in gospel outreach than in community service.” In the same way that broad generalizations sometimes describe the whole world for the blue- collar worker, life is often viewed in fairly distinct categories—for example, the rich versus the poor, labor versus management, or liberal versus conservative. Here, the blue-collar workers see a strong distinction between gospel outreach and community service. They do not as easily recognize, understand, or embrace holistic and nuanced approaches. This project addresses those challenges by connecting and overlapping otherwise distinct concepts like work, ministry, and calling.

Analysis of the data, then, suggests that the church’s greatest challenge involves helping the blue-collar worker understand and develop his or her sense of divine calling and purpose. Concurrent with that challenge, the typical blue-collar worker needs help understanding the unique capacities afforded him or her both in the form of natural talents present at birth and fresh gifts resulting from the presence and anointing of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, blue-collar laborers would benefit from a fresh understanding of ministry opportunities and a more holistic conception of ministry.

Field Intervention

The Review of Published Research

Research into the biblical foundation for a theologically-grounded understanding of work shaped the creation of project-related ministry tools used in this intervention. Four key themes emerged as central components behind any biblical perspective on work. The literature review revealed that (1) work is not something to endure or avoid, but something to embrace and enjoy as God’s gift to humanity and as an expression of His image and dominion; (2) Sabbath rest serves an essential role in humanity’s experience of work, providing a necessary counterbalance against humanity’s propensity to give work unwarranted significance; (3) the Holy Spirit’s calling and equipping interlaces the work of every willing individual with the work of God himself and of others toward accomplishing God’s eternal plan, and (4) work gives humanity the opportunity to prophetically expresses the ultimate consummation of all things in Christ in ways that God himself will redeem, refine, and renew in His Kingdom come.

A review of blue-collar-related contemporary literature focused on identifying key characteristics common among blue-collar workers and exploring both the historical and current relationship between blue-collar workers and the Faith at Work movement. Although economic developments and technological advances have resulted in significant changes within the blue-collar environment over the past fifty years, a review of contemporary literature suggests that blue-collar workers retain the same sort of down-to-earth qualities present since the earliest days of the labor movement. In short, blue-collar workers appreciate direct communication, hold close-knit loyalties, and value hands-on practicality. Additionally, blue-collar workers share three common concerns: job security, financial stability, and the challenge of building a positive personal identity in a milieu often filled with mixed messages regarding significance and worth. All of these factors shaped the development of ministry tools employed in the local church field project.

The Scheduling of Field Intervention

The intervention design originally called for a ten-week project—four consecutive weeks of Sunday services trailed by six weeks of small group follow-up. However, when research highlighted the strong blue-collar partiality toward brevity of speech and practical application, I compacted the Sunday services and small-group follow-up meetings into a single, more intense, four-week process. The shorter timeframe also simplified plugging the intervention itself into the broader church calendar. The project was also compacted and simplified by replacing planned focus groups with informal, one-on-one conversations with blue-collar workers. These conversations confirmed the conclusions drawn in chapter 3 regarding the nature and challenges of blue-collar labor.

Considering potential dates for the field project, I eliminated the summer months of June, July, and August, as well as the winter months of November and December due to competing activities. Between the remaining spring and fall options, the fall was preferred due to the density of pre-existing activities on the spring calendar. Having assessed the best fit for the church calendar overall, the intervention began on September 28, 2014.

The Development of Field Project Materials

Development of the field project materials focused on introducing blue-collar workers to the truths uncovered in the biblical-theological review while giving particular attention to the unique qualities revealed in the contemporary literature review and the comparative analysis of assessment data. I developed four sermons, each focusing on one of the four biblical themes unearthed during the work-related biblical-theological research. From those sermons, I also created discussion guides designed to expand on and reinforce key themes from the messages through small-group interaction. A brainstorming session with church staff members produced the series title: 9 – 5 ‘til Kingdom Come. We chose this title in an effort to tie the ordinary workday to Christ’s eternal Kingdom. Additionally, this title was chosen in hopes that, through participation in the project process, what might have sounded foreboding upon first reading—the thought of laboring without end—would become, ultimately, a confident declaration of human work as a prophetic anticipation and expression of Christ’s Kingdom.

A project graphic was created for all printed materials and electronic media used throughout the campaign. In an effort to mix the often manual and mechanical nature of blue- collar labor with the future-orientation of Kingdom work, the graphic featured “9 – 5” in a handwriting-styled font and the words “’til Kingdom Come” in an LCD-display type font layered over an electronically enhanced representation of mechanical levers and gears. Utilized in church publications, promotional posters, Facebook posts, sermon graphics, and small-group discussion resources, the image visually connected the various elements of the project.

Preparation for the final Sunday service required the creation of a second project- related graphic. As part of that service, participants were commissioned for ministry in their workplaces much like a person might be ordained as part of a public worship service. Often, in the commissioning of ministerial professionals, candidates receive a shepherd’s crook, an ordination stole, or some other token as a tangible reminder of those spiritually significant moments. For this project’s commissioning service, a simple but emphasis-appropriate t-shirt was prepared as a sacred reminder for each participant.

The commissioning gift bore a logo designed to reinforce the instruction offered particularly during the second half of the project. Specifically, the third service for this project focused on work done in the empowerment of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by the Old Testament craftsmen Bezalel and Oholiab (Deut. 31:1-11). The final service focused on the reward promised in Scripture for work done “with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters” (Col. 3:23). In an effort to memorably connect the participants’ commissioning experience in the final service with the pneumatological example of Deuteronomy 31 and the eschatological promise of Colossians 3, each participant received a denim-blue t-shirt featuring a screen-printed, pocket-sized logo. The logo featured the image of a crown and, below the crown in ornate script, the words “Bezalel & Oholiab.” Below that, in smaller block letters, the shirt read “By Appointment to His Majesty the King.” To the casual observer, the logo might appear to simply promote a quality-focused business; however, to the cognizant wearer the shirt provides a reminder that he or she, through Spirit-empowered, Kingdom-focused work, serves the same eternal King and God-glorifying purpose as did Bezalel and Oholiab.

The development of project materials also required the creation of various paper forms, email lists, and electronic spreadsheets for the purpose of recruiting participants to the project and tracking their ongoing participation.

The Recruitment of Field Project Participants

I primarily recruited project participants from among the attendees of Jefferson Assembly of God in Meriden, Kansas. Given the breadth of job categories occupied by blue- collar workers, I only set two parameters: participants were to be employed thirty-two hours a week or more in a job not requiring a college degree. I recruited through announcements made during public services of the church, email appeals, and personal conversation with known contacts. A printed recruitment and response handout offered details on the expected level of involvement for participants and a perforated card for removal and submission by interested parties. Thirty-one different participants engaged the process on various levels. Ultimately, twenty-five individuals completed the project by participating in exit interviews designed to provide a qualitative assessment of the project.

Execution of the Project

The local church intervention phase launched on September 28, 2014, with that Sunday’s morning service at Jefferson Assembly of God. Mid-week follow-up began that Tuesday, as small-group discussion opportunities for each sermon were available Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. and the following Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. throughout each week of the campaign. Evening meetings generally lasted an hour and a half while the Sunday morning sessions were limited to an hour. Participants had the option of attending whichever follow-up session best fit their schedule. In the event of a Sunday morning absence, I asked the participants to listen to the message online the following week. Participants unable to attend a discussion session during any given week were asked to review the discussion questions privately.

The project’s first week focused on Genesis 1-2:3 and “The Gift of Work.” Examining the Scripture’s creation account, participants were encouraged to recognize work as part of God’s gift of a perfect world to His human creation, a reflection of what it means to be made in His image, and a means of filling and subduing the earth in His authority. The follow-up session for week one made use of a number of discussion questions and included a brief video by Andy Crouch titled Stepping into Culture.6 In the video, Crouch highlighted various ways in which the church has approached culture over the last century, but—building on Genesis 2 and Adam’s responsibilities in the Garden of Eden—encouraged believers to embrace the priorities of creating and cultivating culture.

Week two also emphasized Genesis 2:2-3 and “The Gift of Rest,” arguing that a biblical understanding of work remains incomplete apart from a biblical understanding of Sabbath rest. A brief video titled Workaholic7 introduced the Sunday morning message, which presented Sabbath rest as a form of testimony, an opportunity for celebration, a tool for building identity, and a prophetic expression of the eternal rest promised the people of God (Heb. 4:9).

Having rooted humanity’s work in the creation account, week three focused attention on “The Gift of Ability” and the role of the Holy Spirit in human work. The story of Bezalel and Oholiab in Exodus 31:1-11 introduced a message about the purposeful calling, abundant empowerment, and cosmic connection the Holy Spirit provides to humanity’s work. This service also utilized a video testimony by actor Stephen Baldwin describing how a Spirit- empowered housekeeper led him and his wife to the Lord.8 The discussion group material connected all of this more explicitly to the theological concept of vocation.

Week four celebrated “The Gift of Future” and the eschatological promise of “an inheritance from the Lord” for labor offered “as working for the Lord, not for human masters” (Col. 3:23). The sermon particularly emphasized the concept of humanity’s work as something the Lord “preserves, sanctifies and directs … toward the future age of God's redemptive reign.”9 As a celebration of human labor, the congregation was encouraged to “Wear your work clothes to Worship!”—dressing for church service as if it were an ordinary work day. At the close of this final service in the series, the thirty-one project participants were invited to present themselves before the congregation as the church’s spiritual overseers gathered around them, laid hands on them, and commissioned them for ministry in their workplaces. Over the following week, the series concluded with discussion of Sunday’s material in small-group follow-up meetings.

Results of the Field Project

Three weeks after the conclusion of the field intervention, twenty-three participants reflected on their 9 – 5 ‘til Kingdom Come experiences in small-group and one-on-one interviews. Interviews were conducted using open-ended questions about project themes along with a checklist of key thoughts for noting congruent responses. The interviews were conducted in a variety of locations convenient to the participants, including the church facility, a local restaurant, and a workplace cafeteria. Each interview gave participants the opportunity to articulate their experiences as they desired while the interviewer listened for points of correspondence (or dissonance) between what was said and the primary emphases of the study series.

This qualitative assessment by way of interview responses showed a strong understanding of and appreciation for the materials presented along with a corresponding transformation of attitudes about work and its place in the life of faith. With regard to the emphasis of week one, presenting work as God’s gift, one participant remarked, “This filled my understanding of work with a whole new purpose. I spent a long, stressful time lining up with corporate goals. Now I’m lined up with God’s goals.” A production line worker noted a fresh perspective, as well. “It’s great to know I’m not just putting in my time,” he announced. “I have a new awareness of purpose.” A bank clerk announced succinctly, “My work became bigger.” A print shop employee caught the connection between Adam’s activity and his own: “By my work,” he boasted, “I’m bringing things into being. Even if it’s only cutting dog food labels, I’m creating.” What had been merely a job for many became, instead, a means of expressing God’s character and accomplishing God’s purposes through work.

The conversation surrounding Sabbath rest during week two also sparked significant reflection and transformed action. One couple described how they were now choosing to intentionally practice Sabbath rest by establishing certain non-negotiable boundaries for themselves. They had agreed together to make sure their Sabbath had a different character than other days. A machinist acknowledged a deeper understanding of the reasons for and principles behind Sabbath rest. “Life has changed to the point that Sunday isn’t the only day for the Sabbath,” he said. “For today’s schedules, it’s not so important the day of Sabbath but that you actually acknowledge the Sabbath.” Others commented on how what had been a ritualistic requirement was now becoming a treasured priority. “I had treated Sabbath as ‘got to’—as though I was going to work,” said one. “Now I realize ‘I get to.’” Another participant—a secretary—said about Sabbath observance, “I did it happily, but on autopilot. Now, I experience deliberately looking forward to … to anticipating … the refreshing.”

A number of participants were now considering the concept of the Sabbath from a new perspective and pondering what it ought to look like for them. My administrative assistant, in observing this process, made the following comment: “It seems as if, for these participants, it had always been something legalistic—something one had to do,” she observed. “Now, some were experiencing their new-found Sabbath freedom with a bit of anxiety. They were being forced to ask themselves, ‘What should Sabbath look like?’” In a culture that increasingly views every day as just like any other day, this study challenged workers to consider the implications of the biblical call to Sabbath rest.

The impact of week three, focusing on the equipping and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, seemed more difficult for participants to articulate. Men, in particular, found describing the place of the Holy Spirit in their work problematic. Still, the sessions carried impact. One young lady who after a fairly recent job change labeled her new job as “underwhelming” still described how the Holy Spirit was helping her recognize her gifts and abilities through her employment. “Although this job is not what I imagined,” she shared, “through it the Holy Spirit has given me a fresh understanding of myself and who I am.” A young man described the work of the Holy Spirit this way: “He helps me to remember who I serve … who’s my boss … that I’m working for God and I want to please Him.” A heavy equipment operator summed up his on-the-job experience with the Holy Spirit by saying, “We were created to work. And work is worship. And the Holy Spirit is in our worship.

Therefore He’s always on the job.” Although points of correspondence between the instruction offered and the comments of the participants interviewed seemed not as direct as some of the other emphases, still, participants found reason to celebrate a fresh awareness of connection between themselves and the activity of the Holy Spirit on the job.

Week four, on the other hand, carried particularly distinct and rich impact. Participants found the concept of a renewed earth (as part of a “new heaven and a new earth”) particularly compelling, especially when coupled with the idea that work today might somehow connect both to eternal reward and to continuing work in the age to come. Because of this fresh perspective on eternity, one participant—a truck driver by day and blue-grass musician by night—remarked, “I’m going to have to rewrite every gospel hymn I ever sang!” As a result of his new outlook, that worker was called into his boss’s office so that his supervisor could reprimand him—tongue-in-cheek—for being too happy on the job.

People were consistently taken aback by the thought that eternity might not involve so much an escape from this earth as the renewal of this earth and the continuing participation of the redeemed with it as part of God’s eternal plan. “I’d seen heaven as a giant sanctuary where we couldn’t help but stand and worship forever,” said one individual. “But the idea of work continuing in a new earth excites me!” Said another, “I was concerned about being flat-out bored in heaven. I’m happy to know the value of work and that in heaven, I’ll be busy!” A third participant—a custodian—announced with fresh understanding, “My work is part of something spectacular.”

One laborer shared a fresh understanding of his responsibilities as a steward of the earth: “God didn’t create the earth and all that’s in it and say, ‘It’s no good—I hate it, but I’ll use it for now.’ No, he rejoiced over it … and we have a responsibility in it now!” A construction company employee celebrated his new understanding of the connection between today and eternity: “Wow—I’m excited—excited that somebody would step away from the old to embrace the new. The box is open. We’re in the game!” In the past, he said, “we’ve raced toward Sunday to receive a blessing, and thrown six perfectly good days away. It’s all now!” As the project developed, the connection between today and eternity seemed the most important connection to form. Encouragingly, it appeared to be the insight that carried the most weight when the process was completed.

The Project’s Contribution to Ministry

Over a century ago, Christian leaders who understood the implications of the gospel for every worker acted on behalf of the common laborer in the context of the workplace. As a result, work conditions improved, the workweek was reduced, on-the-job safety enhanced, job security strengthened, pay increased, and the American middle-class born. That biblically-rooted challenge of contemporary labor practices, paired with the harnessing of the American propensity toward productivity and creativity, resulted in national prosperity on levels never seen before or since. Certainly not every day was prosperous or trouble-free, but on the whole, America grew to a place of international leadership in large part through the labor of her people.

In more recent years, the connection between the workplace and the gospel has been largely forgotten. Lack of understanding, neglect of biblical truth, and broader cultural challenges to the Judeo-Christian heritage historically so characteristic of this nation have resulted in separating Sunday’s worship from Monday’s workplace. Where the sacred finds honor at all, it still often remains subject to the now-so-common sacred-secular divide. Where efforts are being made to restore those connections in the marketplace, the focus lies almost exclusively with business owners, entrepreneurs, and upper-level management— people with some level of liberty and autonomy to infuse their workplace with biblical values and a sense Christian mission.

This study set out to change that by renewing the faith-work connection for blue- collar laborers—people with workdays often characterized by limited workplace autonomy, undesirable and sometimes unsafe work environments, and employer practices that too often fail to recognize the humanity of employees and the dignity of honest labor. Although the challenges for the blue-collar worker may be different than they were a century or more ago, the biblical implications for every laborer remain just as significant and compelling. Moreover, if the glory of labor as the Scriptures portray it could once more capture the sleeping giant that is the American workforce, significant transformation would result on multiple levels. Not only would a new spiritual vitality infuse work, but common employer challenges like absenteeism, tardiness, and employee theft (of product, materials, or company time) would plummet and productivity would, of necessity, increase. The American economy, so marked by stagnation and lethargy in recent years, would, by default, awaken. The economic recovery sought so earnestly through political and financial manipulation would, instead, become a happy by-product of spiritual revitalization.

This project, in ways I am unaware of otherwise happening, offers a small and initial expression of how to initiate this spiritual rebirth. Rooted in the most common and basic entities—the eternal truth of Scripture, the dynamic organism called the local church, and the everyday American worker—this promise of national revitalization requires nothing that the most ordinary American community lacks. Because of that, although the present impact of this study remains limited, the potential for exponentially greater impact stands—and stands in a way that pleads for development and duplication. The day that every person who claims the name of Christ works as a Christian ought to work—“for the Lord, not for human masters” (Col. 3:23)—the world will be unable to ignore the transformation.

Facilitating Marketplace Ministry in a Blue-Collar Context: Evaluation

This chapter contains an evaluation of the 9 – 5 ‘til Kingdom Come field intervention and related project elements. These pages discuss the keys to the project’s effectiveness, keys to the project’s improvement, implications of the project, specific recommendations for local churches in light of this intervention experience, and specific recommendations for further study.

Evaluation of the Project

Keys to Project Effectiveness

This project proved successful on at least two counts. First, the analysis of Discipleship AssessmentTM data confirmed the basic premise of the study itself and the conclusions drawn from the contemporary literature review. Second, the qualitative assessment of the field intervention suggests the process resulted in both transformed attitudes and new behaviors. At least three factors contributed positively toward the effectiveness of this project: Ready participants, pertinent information, and a contextualized presentation.

Ready Participants

The twenty-five participants who engaged the intervention process from its initiation through final post-process interviews did so eagerly and energetically. Contributing factors appear to include a clear delineation of expectations during the recruitment process, a sense of affinity with other participants who were also part of the blue-collar sector, the appeal of assisting with a project believed to be significant, and the opportunity to examine a subject of interest in a familiar setting. Regardless of specific motivations, participants readily tackled the study material, schedule commitments, conversational opportunities, and challenges toward transformation this process entailed. Without ready participants, the intervention obviously would not have succeeded.

Pertinent Information

Every individual participant had good reason to engage the intervention process because he or she was a full-time employee. By implication, the subject matter of the study addressed pertinent information. Not every study a church leader conducts connects so readily with the felt needs of those who engage it. By addressing the topic of work—a subject already significant in the life of each participant—this study avoided one of the most challenging obstacles to effective interaction. Participants found the study relevant and stimulating in part because the subject matter was already significant and germane.

Contextualized Presentation

The value of efforts made to connect tangibly with a blue-collar context cannot be overstated. Although room for improvement in this regard still exists, a study that carries insight from Adam the Gardener, Bezalel the Craftsman, and Paul the Tentmaker—all of it rooted in the promise of Jesus the Carpenter—seems especially powerful when challenging people whose work is so often physical and tangible. Compacting the series to four weeks made the opportunity manageable for people who care most about practical application.

Visual representations celebrated the manual and mechanical over the automated and informational. In a culture that often overlooks and even disparages the beauty of basic human labor, celebrating a scriptural perspective on physical work connected powerfully with blue-collar people.

Keys to Project Improvement

While the success of the intervention exceeded my expectations, room for improvement certainly remains for future iterations. Further development of this project should focus on three key areas: layered accessibility, improved illustrations, and expanded assessment.

Sermons on Blue Collar Work

These sermons were written and delivered by Pastor Kent Duncan as part of a project facilitating marketplace ministry in a blue-collar context.

You can find out more about the project here.

The Gift of Work for Blue Collar Workers (Sermon Notes)

So…how do you like your job?

A Gallup poll released less than two weeks ago has some startling things to say about the realities of the American workplace. And some related research, though not quite so recent, reveals some equally fascinating data about workers attitudes regarding their jobs.

In a report released on August 29th of this year, Gallup says that “Adults employed full time in the U.S. report working an average of 47 hours per week.”1 Think of that—the average “full time” American worker is really working six 8-hour days a week, not five. Nearly four in 10 (40%!) say they typically work at least 50 hours…and 18% say they typically work over 60 hours a week.

I’d say the 40-hour work week isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, huh?

A survey done about a year ago by Harris Interactive reported that “55 percent of American workers would like to change careers. [More specifically], nearly 80 percent of working adults in their 20s and nearly two-thirds of those in their 30s would like to do so.”2 Now—that survey was done for the University of Phoenix, so there might be a little “institutional bias” built into the survey there…but a larger survey—150,000 participants— released by Gallup a year ago says something similar. Gallup reported that “70 percent of American workers are either disengaged or actively disengaged in their jobs.”3 Specifically, about 50% don’t really care about their jobs—they’re just putting in their time. And about 20% resent their jobs enough that they look for ways to “muck up” the works!

Put another way, On average, only about 30% of us really like going to work.

Wow! For something that eats up roughly a third of your life—think of it: sleep takes a third, work takes a third, and your pastor would like a good chunk of the other third, please—it has to be a tough thing to dislike your work that much.

And in case you’re wondering—this isn’t an east coast or west coast thing: Kansas lines right up with the national averages on this one.

So…is that the deal? That once I finish school and enter the work force, the odds are I’m really not going to like what I do with a third of the rest of my life—and I might even hate it? That “life’s hard, and then you die, and then they throw dirt in your face”…but before all that, I get to plug away, 9 to 5 for 40 or 50 years…(and for some of us, it won’t be that convenient—there’ll be 2nd shift, 3rd shift, and swing shift work!)

No wonder everybody know how this phrase ends: “Thank God it’s … Friday!” No wonder Loverboy made a hit when they sang “Everybody’s Working for the Weekend”!

Work’s a bear, isn’t it?

Over the next four Sundays, we’re going to be looking at the subject of work—at what the Bible has to say about work—about God’s intention for the place of work in our lives. And I’ll just tell you up front: For all the frustration that work can be…for all the challenges of having too much work, too little work, or (at times when we wish we had it) no work at all … for all the difficulties of satisfying the impossible boss or getting along with the unbearable co-worker or motivating the unproductive employee … I’m convinced that God intends for our work to be a purposeful and pleasing part of our lives. That—in spite of its challenges—work can become something we look forward to and understand differently when we consider what God has to say about work. That over the next four weeks, God the Holy Spirit would like to transform our hearts so that the thought of "9 to 5 ‘til Kingdom Come" transitions from sounding like something ominous and foreboding—like a threat— to sounding, rather, like something rich with hope and promise (as I believe it is). So let’s dive in together. And there’s no better place to start than at the beginning —Genesis, chapter 1. I’m guessing you’re familiar with these opening words:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

Discussion Guide for The Gift of Work for Blue Collar Workers

These discussion questions relate to Kent Duncan’s sermon: The Gift of Work for Blue Collar Workers. Learn more about his integrated outreach to blue collar workers by reading his thesis: Facilitating Marketplace Ministry in a Blue-Collar Context.

Tell us something about yourself by answering one of the following questions:

1. How’d you end up with the job you’ve got?
2. What’s the best part of the work you do?
3. What’s the worst day on the job you’ve ever had?
4. What do you do/make at your job?
5. If you could have the perfect job, what would it be?

Discussion Questions relating to this week’s sermon: The Gift of Work for Blue Collar Workers

1. Read Genesis 2:8-17. This passage shows that Adam had work-related responsibilities even in the Garden of Eden. What does this suggest to you about the nature of work? How’d you imagine Adam’s experience of labor in the Garden of Eden?
2. Genesis 1:27 says that humanity is created “in the image of God.” Ancient accounts from other cultures use that phrase as well, but only of a nation’s king as their god’s representative over the land. What do you think is the significance, then of Genesis describing every human as formed “in the image of God”?
3. In Genesis 1:28, Adam’s assignment is to “fill the earth and subdue it,” to “rule over” it. In Genesis 2:15, Adam is directed to “work” and “take care of” the Garden of Eden. How does this relate to God’s creative activity in Genesis chapter 1?
4. The Hebrew words translated “work” and “take care of” in Genesis 2:15 are the same words used throughout the Old Testament for the ministry of Israel’s priests. What does this tell you about how God views human labor?
5. G. Charles Aalders suggest that “caring for” the Garden included defending it against “hostile forces."1 Bruce Waltke agrees, declaring that “as priest and guardians of the garden, Adam and Eve should have driven out the serpent."2 These comments suggest that Adam’s responsibilities in the garden included not only the cultivation of the ground but also the defense of God’s territory. In what way do your work responsibilities reflect these of Adam?
6. Andy Crouch suggests that over the last 100 years or so Christians have typically reacted to culture in one of four ways: by (1) condemning, (2) critiquing, (3) copying, or simply (4) consuming it. He suggests a fifth possibility: cultivating culture. How do Adam’s responsibilities to cultivate and create within the Garden shape your thoughts about God’s purpose in your work?
7. In what ways might you view your work differently this week in light of the Scriptures we’ve looked at today?

The Gift of Rest for Blue Collar Workers (Sermon Notes)

We spent time last Sunday discussing what the early chapters of Genesis reveal about God—and about us—in relation to work. We discovered that work is central to the character of God—it’s part of who He is as revealed in what He does—and, therefore (we discovered), that part of what it means for us to be formed in the image of God is that we were made as workers, also! That contrary to a very common sentiment, work is not a curse to be avoided, but a gift to be embraced—that there was work for humanity from the beginning as part of God’s gift to us of a perfect world. And it was significant work, purposeful work, work that continued God’s creative activity and reflected our position as partners with God in ruling the earth!

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28)

In the Garden of Eden, our job was to “fill the earth and subdue it"—not just to populate it, not just “load” it with bodies, but to fill it with life, civilization, culture—to continue to develop it even beyond the beautiful place it was when we received it, to partner with God in marching civilization toward its consummation in Christ!

And the truth is—though humanity’s sin altered the challenges of work, it did not change the fundamental character of work as both “good” and “purposeful.” God’s intention for our work is that, in it, we share His regency…and that through it, we cultivate and create and bring order and beauty, just as He did in developing this earth from something “formless and empty” (Gen 1:2) to something full of life and vitality. He shaped it and filled it (it might be more accurate to say He “began the task of shaping and filling it”) and then created us (as part of that process) and generously empowered us to continue the task He’d already begun of “shaping and filling” this world with His goodness.

But God’s gift of work—as good as it is…as “burdened with glorious purpose” as it is—God’s gift of work isn’t (alone) the whole story. Our work—even done in partnership with God and in ways that continue His creative activity—our work is not complete in and of itself. Rather, Scripture makes it clear that our work must be informed by rest.

The same two verses of Genesis that sort of “wrap up” the creation account of Genesis 1—Genesis 2:2-3—…the same verses that describe God as “worker” three times in two verses (I kind of imagine the author of Genesis saying, “What part of God as Worker don’t you understand?)…those same verses tell us something else about who God is and about the pattern God establishes for us. Genesis 2:2-3 says that:

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. [3] Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2:2-3)

Surprise! The same verses that announce so boldly “God as Worker” announce just as boldly “God as Sabbath Observer,” announce that the God who works is also the God who rests! And who—in doing so Himself—calls us to rest, as well!

These two verses are really quite amazing—partly because even when God does nothing, as it were, even when He rests from all his work. He’s still creating. Something new is brought into being that didn’t exist before. “In the first six days,” Bruce Waltke says:

“In the first six days space is subdued; on the seventh, time is sanctified.” Bruce Waltke

Do you see that? Do you see that, by “resting from all the work of creating he had done” God “makes something different” of that seventh day—that He gives it an altogether different character. He infused that seventh day with a distinctive significance—with a purpose all its own…somehow unique from the rest of the week?

I think understanding the significance and purpose of that *seventh* day is as essential as understanding all rest—that understanding “Sabbath” is essential to understanding what it means to be a worker formed in the image of God. And I’ll confess that I’m a little concerned—as I try to speak with you about the significance and purpose of the Sabbath—that what you think you know about the Sabbath…or what you’ve heard other preachers say about the Sabbath (because I’m the guy who’s finally getting it right!)…or perhaps legitimate questions you carry about the Sabbath… are going to get in the way of what I’d really like for you to hear most of all, this morning.

Maybe, you know, it’s a real frustration to you how you see people “disregard” the Sabbath and you think it ought to be observed more strictly…or maybe you’ve never understood why the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday (basically) and the Christian Sabbath is Sunday (generally)…or, you know, maybe there’s something else. Let me ask you this: Whatever your questions or concerns might be—would you be bold enough to just lay those aside for a few minutes and hear my best understanding of the heart of God on this matter of the Sabbath?

I’m convinced if we can hear God’s heart on this matter, it’ll help us with some of the more “technical” and “application-related” questions we carry—like “How do I actually ‘observe the Sabbath’ in 21st century America?” When we know God’s heart on the matter, we get better answers to our questions. More than that, I am convinced ‘observing the Sabbath’—if we can understand it and embrace it—is a “work related” principle that will transform our lives. The Sabbath, I’m convinced, serves Four Critical Functions.

If we can sort of “zoom out” far enough to get our heads (and hearts) around these four critical functions of the Sabbath, not only will we get better answers to some of the more specific questions we have, but—more importantly—we’ll live “better lives” on every level, because we will be living in alignment with God’s intentions for us—intentions He held even as He formed us from the dust of the earth. We’ll live fuller, more satisfying, more God-honoring and influential lives because we’ll be operating within our manufacturer’s specifications (so to speak)!

I jammed up a paper shredder the other day. It was a light-duty unit, made for 3 sheets of paper at a time, not even designed to handle staples or paper clips or anything like that. I tried to run a plastic credit card through it. I knew what I was doing, and did it anyway (ever done that?), and jammed it up and nearly burned out the motor in the process. I was trying to do something it wasn’t designed to do! And when I turned it upside down to take it apart for repair—‘cause there ain’t nothin’ I won’t at least *try* to repair, right?—I saw that my paper shredder had a specified “duty cycle.”

Do you know what that is? It’s a limit on the amount of time you’re supposed to actually *use* the machine relative to how long you have it on. I think it was, like, 2 minutes of “non-use” for every 4 minutes of “use”—but I don’t remember, because I have no intentions of following those guidelines…I’m going to use that machine until I break it! But how many of you understand that the guidelines are there for a reason…and as I persist in ignoring them, I’m gonna burn up the machine and then it won’t be good for anything except taking up space in the paper shredder cemetery!

Well, in Genesis 2 (and in any number of other places in the Scriptures) there’s a pattern of “Sabbath” that God establishes "manufacturer’s guidelines.” Following those guidelines—embracing the practice of Sabbath—fulfills four critical functions. I’d like to identify those for you and discuss them with you just a bit.

So we’ve all got these two key verses in our heads, right?

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2:2-3 NIV)

Why does embracing that pattern matter? Why would God establish the Sabbath? First Sabbath is Testimony. When I practice Sabbath, I testify that I am under God’s authority, in partnership with God’s leadership, and dependent upon Him for who I am and all I enjoy.

Now listen—I’m gonna read that little 3-point list again, and I’d like you to ask yourself if you want that to be true of you. When I practice Sabbath, I testify that I am (1) under God’s authority, (2) in partnership with God’s leadership, and (3) dependent upon Him for who I am and all I enjoy.

Let’s assume (for the moment) that God and I become business partners. To be clear, I’m a minority owner—God’s the majority owner, and so God’s the One who gets to call the shots. I’ve pledged to operate under His authority…and in partnership with His leadership…and to remain dependent upon Him for who I am and all I enjoy. (That’s really a pretty good description for what it means to live this life of faith, isn’t it?) God moves us to the great Northwest where we open up a logging business: G & K Lumberjacks: Sawing Logs ‘til Kingdom Come. Like so many business start-ups, we’re underfunded. So we start with nothing more than a two-man crosscut saw. (Abbey—Use pic on flash drive if possible) But the trees are plenteous. We’ve launched on a beautiful Monday morning. So we get to work. We work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. The getting’s good, the sales are moving along, the money’s coming in, we’re feeling good so we keep working. We work Thursday, then Friday, then Saturday, and we are about to break even! If we’ll just keep going, we’ll not only make it—we might even get ahead of the game a bit - we can move this business along! I’m pretty excited, and I want to see this thing succeed! But at quittin’ time on Saturday, God says, “Good week’s work—we’ll take tomorrow off…and start again on Monday.” Here’s my question: What does it say if I decide to work the next day, anyway? If I know my best work is only done in partnership with Him, and I know my true identity and blessing are found in Him (I am who I am because of Him), and I’ve declared He gets to be king, what does it say if He says “six days on—full bore, if you want—and one day off” and I decide to work that seventh day, anyway?

I find this the idea of me—out in the forest alone, trying to operate a two-man saw— the perfect mental image of what many of us have done with the Sabbath. Clearly—as long as I’m out there clearing the forest when He’s said “This day is mine,” I’m not operating under His authority. I’m not in partnership with His leadership. And I’m not depending on Him for who I am and all I enjoy.

Instead, I’m declaring the opposite—that I’m my own boss and I’ll be deciding what to do with my time—…that I’m not working in partnership with Him—‘cause I’m clearly working whether He’s working or not. And that I apparently have decided I have to make it on my own—because I’m clearly not depending on Him for who I am and all I enjoy…I’m depending on what I can get done with one more day’s work!

And that’s exactly what we do when there’s no practice of the Sabbath in our lives— when there’s no time strictly devoted to Him! We do it with our work—when we think we’ve got to work every day regardless just to stay afloat—we make work our source, instead of trusting God’s provision, and end up giving “work” the place that only God should hold. But many do it not only with work…but with leisure, as well—when nothing about our non-working hours says, “Even this time is sacred—even these moments are to be lived under His authority, and in partnership with Him as the source of who I am and all I enjoy!

And here’s the trouble with that: The practice of Sabbath is rooted in creation itself, and comes with the understanding that the purpose of work—that the purpose of life—is not just to stay ahead of the bill collector. The purpose and joy of work is so much bigger than that: Partnering with God toward the world He envisioned when He first began to speak it into existence! That reality begs the question of whether working 24/7/365 reflects the kind of world our God is working for, and, equally, begs the question of whether every spare moment outside of the workplace being spent in a frantic rush from one activity to another really reflects the kind of world our God is building!

By contrast—when I learn to embrace and practice Sabbath—I testify that my life is tied to something bigger than the 9 to 5, bigger than the accumulation of “more,” bigger than the non-stop agenda this world (our culture) would like to impose upon us. Sabbath is Testimony

Second, Sabbath is Celebration. In Deuteronomy, chapter 5—one of the places in Scripture where the Ten Commandments are found—Moses says to the Israelites:

Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work (Deuteronomy 5:12-14)

And the next verse—verse 15—gives the reason for observing the Sabbath:

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:15 )

That command—as it stands—is (of course) uniquely applicable to the Israelites, as none of us were physically enslaved in Egypt. Nor were we physically brought out of Egypt with “a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” as Israel was. But the principle behind the command is absolutely transferable and applicable to those who count themselves among the people of God. The reason Moses gives for observing Sabbath adds a new layer of meaning to the practice of Sabbath…and gives us one more reason to make sure we observe the Sabbath—as a celebration before the Lord our God!

You see, if Israel’s history is anything, it is a prequel to our history! If Israel’s deliverance from slavery is anything, it is a prequel to our deliverance from sin! What God did for the Israelites through Moses, He most certainly did in greater measure for us through Christ. And so—when Moses speaks to the Israelites and says, “Stop working! Stop your work a day a week—cease from your labors as our God did at creation—and dedicate that day in celebration to the saving act of God when He brought you out of Egypt”—well, there’s no doubt that such a celebration ought to be duplicated in the life of every New Testament believer—and that at least as often!

Honestly—we’re so remarkably foolish in this regard! Think about it. Do you suppose after 400 years in slavery…I mean—I don’t care how long it’s been since you’ve had a little vacation or even a day off…nobody here’s been going at it for 400 years! But please note: the Hebrews were not merely “household servants” in 1950s America, where “Christian or not,” Sunday was considered a day of rest…most everybody got a day off. No—the Hebrews were slaves in pagan Egypt. I assure you—they never heard their bosses say the words “day off,” and never dreamed of a day for Sabbath every week. So do you suppose that, after 400 years in slavery, God had to say it more than once to anyone? “Take the day off! Celebrate your freedom!”

Do you understand—one of the things that says to a liberated slave is, “You are more than just a piece of property—more than just a machine for production. You are a human being formed in the image of a loving God who has delivered you from bondage, supplying your greatest need—and so a God who can be trusted to supply your every need! Your richest identity is not found in what you accomplish, but in who it is you belong to! You are mine—my treasured possession!” Indeed, that’s exactly what Moses says to Israel, just a few chapters later:

The LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised (Deuteronomy 26:18 )

We testify to that when we embrace the practice of Sabbath, and embracing the practice of Sabbath gives us opportunity to celebrate that, as well. That’s why so frequently worship is associated with Sabbath. They’re not the same thing—and by all means, worship should be a constant of every day. But a Sabbath day allows a freedom for worship - an opportunity for worship - that simply isn’t always possible on a day filled with labor. Sabbath is Testimony Sabbath is Celebration

Third, Sabbath is Identity. Certainly that was true for Israel. For Israel, Sabbath observance served—and still does serve—as continuing evidence of what? Not rules and restrictions that bind her from “doing anything” on the Sabbath, but rather, of) her unique standing in the world as “chosen by God for covenant with Him.” God says as much—Exodus 31:13:

This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come. (Exodus 31:13 )

If it is nothing else (and I think we’ve already shown, it’s much, much more, but) if it is nothing else, the Sabbath serves as an identifier, an authenticator: this one belongs to the Lord!

There’s a synagogue near the house where my wife grew up. Every Saturday, without fail, you will see scores of faithful Jews walking down the street, dressed for worship. The first time you see the firs* person, you may be confused—“What’s that about? Who’s that? Where are they going dressed like that?” But if it takes you any longer than about 60 seconds to catch a clue, well, we’ve got to expand your understanding of cross-cultural experiences! Because when there are dozens of people, who every Saturday, dressed for worship, filling the sidewalks of what is, really, a main automotive artery. It doesn’t take long to figure out who they are! Their commitment to Sabbath observance serves identity—and by that I mean not just helping us to identify them—but helping them to identify themselves! Sabbath observance becomes a tool that helps shape their identity! “This is who we are…this is what we do!”

Now, there are a boatload of identities to be embraced in our world. You can identify yourself politically—“I’m a moderate.” “I’m a liberal.” “I’m a libertarian!” You can identify yourself socially—“I’m a hipster.” “I’m goth.” “I’m a member of the Purple Hat Society!” You can identify yourself by your leisure pursuits—“I’m a fisherman.” “I’m a sports fan.” “I like the races!” And the fact is, if you chose to, you could identify yourself as a person who chooses to observe the Sabbath that God himself ordained. You could identify yourself as one who observes, embraces, and practices the Sabbath.

“How could I do that, pastor?” By decided what it is about the Biblical Sabbath that’s non-negotiable to you.

We all have things that are non-negotiable. For some of you, being pro-life politically is non-negotiable. You could agree with every other position a candidate takes, and if they’re not pro-life, they’re not getting your vote. For some of you, being debt-free is non-negotiable. If you had the chance to buy a million-dollar house for $10,000 but had to borrow the money to do it, you’d turn it down because you’ve determined never to be in debt again.

What’s non-negotiable for you with regard to the Sabbath? Here’s the deal: If Sabbath observance—whatever that looks like—is something actually built into created order itself by what God does when He rests on the seventh day…if God really does establish, by resting, a pattern for humanity (formed in His image) to follow—what would it be that identifies you as one who practices what God has ordained?

When you decide what that is, it will serve not only to identify you as “Sabbath observant” to others, but will shape your own identity in a way that helps you say, “This is what I do because this is who I am. I’m not letting the world shape me into its mold. I’m shaping my world to reflect God’s mold, God’s pattern.” Sabbath is Testimony Sabbath is Celebration Sabbath is Identity.

Fourth, Sabbath is Promise. This practice of “Sabbath” is really a prophetic practice. We “cease” our activity—at least once a week, if I read the Scriptures right—we stop with our manipulation of our world, our striving, our clamoring—to rest in what Christ has done for us. To acknowledge that He’s God and we’re not. To strengthen, renew, and celebrate our grace- founded relationship with Him. And we do all that in prophetic anticipation of (we take a prophetic action that anticipates) what He has promised for all eternity, a Sabbath rest for the people of God! There remains, then, a Sabbath rest. Make every effort to enter into that rest.

We are promised a day—an eternal day—when the sin-induced toil that marks our work in this present age will be eliminated…and the heavens and earth will be united in righteousness…under our altogether righteous King, Jesus the Christ. If you had to list a dozen words or so that would describe that age, this would have to be one of them: Rest. Sabbath rest. And so—like so many other things we do—we choose, we determine, to observe Sabbath here and now. We let that choice mark us as unique, and as uniquely His, because we are choosing to live the future, now, to taste the realities of the coming age in this present age.

Do you think, in “Kingdom Come” you’ll be running around like a chicken with its head cut off? Just fighting to get your “to do” list completed? Just hoping to stay afloat? just wishing you could sit down for a minute and rest? Why don’t you show the Devil you can? Why don’t you just trust God enough to do so? To open and use His gift of Sabbath?

What I am talking about involves more than “whether or not” you show up for church on Sunday. There are a million good reasons to be obsessively faithful to church even if God had never ordained a “Sabbath.” I am asking you to make Sabbath as big as God has made it—and ask yourself: “What is it about my life that reflects this ‘Sabbath rest rhythm’ that God Himself has built in to the order of creation? What part of my life is Sabbath?”

Some of us couldn’t identify Sabbath in our lives. But to make work (which is actually the focus of our conversation this month) all it should be, and to make life itself all it should be—ordained and blessed by God and useful for His purposes—we’re going to have to learn to make Sabbath all it should be, testifying by it, celebrating through it, finding identity in it, renewing in our hearts God’s promise through the practice of it! To properly appreciate the gift of work, we must also embrace the gift of Sabbath.

Discussion Guide for The Gift of Rest for Blue Collar Workers

These discussion questions relate to Kent Duncan’s sermon: The Gift of Rest for Blue Collar Workers. Learn more about his integrated outreach to blue collar workers by reading his thesis: Facilitating Marketplace Ministry in a Blue-Collar Context.

Tell us something about yourself by answering one of the following questions:

1. Recognizing that leisure and Sabbath are two different things, what is your favorite leisure activity, hobby, or pastime?
2. What’s the weirdest “Sabbath rule” you’ve ever heard of?
3. As a worker made in the image of God, how do you observe Sabbath for yourself? With others? Why?
4. What do others know about your Sabbath and why you practice it?

Discussion Questions relating to this week’s sermon: The Gift of Rest for Blue Collar Workers

Note: while considering these questions, please remember: Sabbath observance is more than just church attendance.

1. Bruce Waltke says, “In the first six days, space is subdued; on the seventh, time is sanctified.” What seems distinct to you about the seventh day versus the other six?
2. All sorts of labor-reducing, time saving devices have been created in recent decades. Recent advancements have made communication almost instantaneous. The internet puts information, education, social connection, household services, and entertainment at our fingertips. Still, many people seem more pressed for time than ever. What does our practice of Sabbath say to an increasingly time-crunched culture? How can our practice of Sabbath affect us as we seek to live God-honoring lives in that same culture?
3. On the seventh day, God rested, marking His work of creating and establishing a patter for Sabbath rest. Israel, newly created by God, testified to her unique standing with God through the same. Jesus himself faithfully observed the Sabbath (Luke 4:16). How important is it for us, as a “new creation” in Christ, to develop a life marked by Sabbath rest?
4. Since Sabbath has to do with “ceasing,” Sabbath-related questions often center on what that means – on a suitable definition of work not to be done. Tilden Edwards suggests that “the principle involved here… is not so much the physical nature of an activity but its purpose.” If the restful intent of Sabbath time is to recognize our dependence on God, what kind of work (or other activity) can be done on a day of Sabbath rest?
5. Sabbath, according to Willem VanGemeren, is not a word that refers to “remedying exhaustion after a tiring week of work. Rather, it describes the enjoyment of accomplishment, the celebration of completion.” How does this truth inform your understanding and practice of Sabbath rest?
6. People develop and express personal identity in a variety of ways. In what ways do you see a commitment to Sabbath observance developing your identity? In what ways does Sabbath observance express your identity? How would this be different from the ways other people express and build their identities?
7. In the New Testament book of Hebrews, the author announces that “the promise of entering his rest still stands” (Hebrews 4:1) and encourages believers to “make every effort to enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:11). Harold Dressler suggests that, even at creation, the Sabbath was “an eschatological*, proleptic** sign indicating some future rest.” In what ways does practicing Sabbath rest today anticipate the Sabbath rest promised eternally through Christ? *eschatological: dealing with ultimate or final things; with Christianity, having to do with the destiny of humanity, the Second Coming, or the Last Judgment. ** proleptic: the representation or assumption of a future act or development as if presently existing or accomplished.
8. In what ways might you view your work – and your rest – differently this week in light of these Scriptures?

The Gift of Ability for Blue Collar Workers (Sermon Notes)

I know. I say this all the time. But this morning’s text tells one of my favorite “Bible stories.”

There are certain stories that are just favorites, you know? Who doesn’t love the story of David and Goliath? I love the often-overlooked detail that, before David showed up at the battlefield, for 40 days the armies of the Israelites and the Philistines had faced off shouting their war cries at each other every morning. Then they apparently just dropped their weapons to their sides and walked back to camp! (Can you imagine the Chiefs and their opponent traveling to the stadium, taping up, suiting up, going through their pre-game routine, taking the field with fireworks and fog machines, crowd roaring, high fives and chest bumps all around, and then just pulling their helmets off, heading back to the locker rooms, and calling it a day???) Or who doesn’t love the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel? (We talked about it a few weeks ago.) All the prophets of the false God Baal crying out to their god with no response. And Elijah just egging ‘em on—“Cry a little louder—maybe your god’s on vacation, or taking a nap, or using the men’s room!” Who doesn’t love the compassion Jesus shows the woman caught in adultery? Or the healing He brings to Jairus’ daughter? Or the moment when He tells his professional- fisherman disciples how to fish—“Cast your nets on the other side, boys!”—and He turns out to be right! We’ve all got our favorites, I’m betting. (I’m hoping, at least!) But there’s a Bible story that’s been added to the “favorites” list for me as I’ve been examining what the Bible has to say about work. It’s a story found in Exodus, chapter 31, and it has to do with the construction of Israel’s tabernacle following their covenant with God at Mt. Sinai.

God has delivered the Hebrew people—the descendants of Abraham—from slavery in Egypt. He’s brought them to Mt. Sinai under Moses’ leadership, where He covenants with them. We’ve talked about how all this is really an expression of the same kind of creative activity we see God doing in Genesis—He takes chaos and gives it form and structure. He creates a “people” where, before, there was just “property.” His actions recognize Abraham’s descendants not as machinery but as human beings, and by those actions, then, He gives them an identity, an identity together as “the people of God”.

Rightfully, God wants to be “present” and “known” at the center of their existences. And so He instructs Moses that a tabernacle is to be built—a “place of dwelling,” a “sanctuary,” a sacred place where God would meet with His people and they with Him. God gives Moses explicit revelation regarding the design of the tabernacle—and it is a complex, costly, elaborate, and beautiful undertaking. If you’ve ever looked at blueprints for the construction of a building, and especially if you’ve read any of the accompanying specifications - that’s kind of what Moses gets from God. Not only details on the construction, but specifics as to materials and surfaces and fabrics and decorations. When I read through the Scriptures that lay out the details of the tabernacle and its construction, it boggles my mind! On the right day, I love complexity! “Life’s in the details, my friend!” But even I get lost in the intricacy that’s involved in what we know about the construction of the tabernacle for the Israelites. God, on the other hand, wasn’t thrown by the details, or by the challenge of getting the tabernacle built. He knew just what to do and just how to do it. And that’s where we’re going to pick up the story in Exodus 31. Exodus 31:1-11 says this:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you: the tent of meeting, the ark of the covenant law with the atonement cover on it, and all the other furnishings of the tent— the table and its articles, the pure gold lampstand and all its accessories, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, the basin with its stand— and also the woven garments, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests, and the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place. They are to make them just as I commanded you.”(Exodus 31:1-11)

Pentecostal people love to talk about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost—Acts, chapter 2. Pentecostal preachers love to preach about the activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of the early church - the evidence of the God’s activity among God’s people—about salvation, and healing and deliverance from demons—all when the church lives full of the Holy Spirit. But Pentecostal people and preachers alike ought to be reminded that the first person ever recorded in Scripture as having been “filled with the Spirit of God” was not an apostle or even a preacher—it was a guy who worked construction. My blue-collar buddy—Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.

“See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God" (Exodus 31:2-3)

And the evidence that, indeed, he’s been filled with God’s Spirit shows up first on the jobsite! Talk about redefining “the initial evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit”! When you don’t limit your reading about the Holy Spirit to the book of Acts—when you include the first infilling recorded anywhere in the Bible—the initial initial evidence appears to be marketplace skill and ability—the blessings of God upon this worker! God says to Moses, “I’ve made this guy the guy for the job: by filling him with my Spirit!”

And that really takes us to where I want to go, this morning while I talk with you a bit about “The Gift of Ability.” We’ve talked about the gift of work—how we, because we’ve been formed in the image of the God who works, were made for work, ourselves— His work—“good works He prepared in advance for us to do”! is work that continues the creative, cultivating process He began in Genesis, chapter 1.

We’ve talked about the gift of rest—of Sabbath, really—and how it serves as (1) a means of testimony, as (2) an opportunity for celebration, as (3) a tool to for building our identity in Him and as (4) a way to prophetically declare (and live in the now) the Sabbath experience He promises will be ours for all eternity.

Today, I want to talk about the Gift of Ability —those abilities God gives us by means of the Holy Spirit. And I invite you to expand your definition of “gifts given by the Holy Spirit” beyond those listings of the “gifts of the Spirit” we read about in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12 and Ephesians 4…to consider that whatever capacities you enjoy… whatever strengths you exhibit… and whatever opportunities you may have to invest who you are fruitfully in the world around you…serve as evidence of the beauty of Holy Spirit empowerment for every facet of your life. What we discover from the account of Bezalel and Oholiab is that God chooses us purposefully God equips us bountifully God connects us cosmically

Let’s talk about it a bit. First: God chooses us purposefully. There’s no doubt—God chose Bezalel with a purpose in mind. The whole passage opens with Bezalel’s being chosen: “See, I have chosen Bezalel… (Exodus 31:2 ). And then goes on to list a dozen tasks (or more) for which Bezalel was chosen. If you whittle those eleven verses all down to the core, what God tells Moses comes out something like this: "See, I have chosen Bezalel…and I have filled him with the Spirit of God… to make everything I have commanded you," (Exodus 31:2, 3, 6 NIV) in order that he might build a tabernacle to My glory…in order that he might make everything I have commanded you to make, so that I might be in the heart of this nation, at the center of my peoples’ lives, rightly celebrated and rightly available! There was purpose in Bezalel’s calling!

God’s always doing that, you know? The Scriptures are filled with examples of God calling people with a God-honoring, Kingdom-advancing purpose in mind. He calls Abraham:

“Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:1-2)

He calls Moses:

"Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.’”(Exodus 8:1)

He calls Gideon:

“Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” (Judges 6:14)

He calls Jonah:

“Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it…” (Jonah 1:1)

He calls Peter:

"Simon son of John, do you love me? …Feed my sheep." (John 21:17 )

He calls Paul—then Saul—on the Road to Emmaus:

“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:6)

And here’s something I know about God—he’s no “respecter of persons.” Paul makes it clear that that’s true regarding where we all stand before God in terms of our sinfulness and need of forgiveness. "God does not show favoritism" (Romans 2:11). And Peter declares that’s equally true of God’s readiness to pour out grace on everybody (much to Peter’s surprise)—Acts, chapter 10: "God does not show favoritism" (Acts 10:34).

The same is true of the purpose with which God forms us and calls us! He doesn’t form some of us purposefully. And others, sort of nonchalantly or carelessly. God doesn’t have a day on the job where, you know, He didn’t sleep well the night before, or ate something that upset his stomach, so He’s not paying attention. No—I’m convinced—what was true for Jeremiah. What God said to Jeremiah is true for us:

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” (Jeremiah 1:5)

The specifics of your call may be different than someone else’s, but the respect He affords you as one formed in His image, as one fearfully and wonderfully made, means you were formed with just as much intentionality, just as much thoughtfulness—that you are just as “burdened with glorious purpose”—as any human being who’s ever lived! “See, I have chosen Bezalel" (Exodus 31:2).

Neither your place and calling—nor mine—may seem as noteworthy or significant in our eyes as the place and calling Bezalel was afforded, but—you know what—we’re not in charge—we don’t get to make that call. (“Coach, I don’t want to play right field—I want to pitch!” Well, guess what—there are times and places where you just trust that the coach knows why He has you positioned where He has you positioned. And if you want to pitch instead of playing right field, at least part of getting the opportunity to pitch involves playing right field like there’s no tomorrow!) Here’s what I do know: Just as purposefully as God chose Bezalel, He’s chosen every one of us. “You did not choose me,” Jesus said:

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit--fruit that will last--and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” (John 15:16)

What can we learn from Bezalel and Oholiab? First God chooses us purposefully.

Second, God equips us bountifully.

I preach to myself here, and you can listen in if you want. And my guess is that you ought to—that you need to—because my guess is you’re just as inclined as I am to look at what you don’t have, think about what you lack, than you are to consider what you do have, and more than that what God is willing to bountifully supply to you! I defy you to find me a place in the Scriptures where God and all He supplied was not enough! I defy you to find me a place in the Scriptures where God was stingy! God gives to Adam what? "Every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it” (Genesis 1:29). God says to Noah: “Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything” (Genesis 9:3). God tells Abram (Abraham): “Look around … All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever” (Genesis 13:14-15).

One might conclude that God is not only the God who works and the God who rests, but the God who gives--and that in abundance! When Jesus feeds five-thousand with five loaves and two fishes, “They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish (Mark 6:42-43). There were leftovers enough for each of the twelve disciples to require a carry-out basket! (“This little Styrofoam thing isn’t gonna work—you got anything bigger?”)

When you get to the end of the book—the consummation of all things in Christ—the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21 is marked by such abundance that “the nations … walk by its light and the kinds of the earth … bring their splendor into it” (Revelation 21:24). Our God, my friend, is more than enough. He acts in ways that are abundantly generous toward us! We’ve said this before, but God acts not out of our lack but out of His abundance!

“Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

What’s the motivation there? To be sure, our need was great—beyond our capacity to meet it. But it’s not the need that motivates God’s actions—it’s His abundance!

“From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.” (John 1:16 )

I’m hungry for you to understand, this morning, that God’s abundance toward you—His ability and willingness to supply every need and equip you for every good work— doesn’t stop the minute you step on the shop floor or into the office or into the classroom or into wherever it is you find yourself employed! God equips us bountifully.

And—here’s a thought—through His purposeful calling and bountiful equipping (presuming here that our lives are submitted to Him) God continues to engage this world and shape it according to the intent He had for it when He formed it! He gifts Bezalel and Oholiab and “all the workers” (Exodus 31:6 says) with “ability” to carry out His purpose…to continue His work. Just as He gifted Adam with certain capacities to continue His work in that sanctuary we know by name as the Garden of Eden…he gifts Bezalel and Oholiab and “all the workers” with the capacities needed to see “His kingdom come and His will done” in the construction of the Tabernacle for Israel. And I declare today that He’s done the same with you—equipped you (not minimally, but bountifully) so that you--on the job and off it—can be successfully about your Father’s business. God chooses us purposefully God equips us bountifully

And third, God connects us cosmically.

I love myself for using that word—“cosmically!” I know—that’s not a word we use every day - unless, perhaps, you’ve delusions of grandeur or are really into sci-fi or something. But the reality—and think about this in terms of what we just said about how the calling and equipping of God is one of the ways He continues his creative and cultivating work in the world—He gifts people with what they need to do the tasks He wants to see accomplished—the reality is that one of the greatest things God does with our work, then, is to connect us to “everyone else” and “everything else” that’s going on around us in ways that (at the same time) tie our work to His eternal plan in ways that help us see the connection (and sometimes just “trust” the connection) between our quite local activity and God’s cosmic activity between what we’re doing in our small world 9 to 5 and what God is doing in His boundless world for all eternity!

Listen—we’ve talked about broadening our understanding of what Scripture means when it describes those “good works which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10) broadening our understanding of that to include the reality that maybe those works involve our activity, and our productivity, on the job! Well, it’s only three verses prior to this verse that where the Apostle Paul declares that part of the reason God does that is: “in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus”(Ephesians 2:7 NIV). Paul connects the “good works” God’s prepared for us in the here and now—yep, even “good works” that are no more “spiritual” than just giving an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay—Paul connects even those good works with the eternal destiny every one of us carries of bringing glory to Jesus forever and ever in His coming Kingdom!

I declare that my work and your work is cosmic in scale. We act, too often, like the activity of the Holy Spirit on the earth today is limited to the salvation of the human soul, and by that we miss the greatness and engagement of God with our world. The Scriptures reveal that the activity of the Holy Spirit has liberty to engage the whole person and the entire planet…including every laborer’s task and every economic system—or, as Abraham Kuyper (who we quoted a week or two ago) has said:

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’” Abraham Kuyper

I love it that the first person about whom (the Bible says) God himself says "I have filled him with the Spirit of God" (Exodus 31:3) I love it that that guy was a construction worker. That Bezalel and Oholiab— filled with the Spirit of God—knew their task was not just to build a portable tent…but to create a place of worship to God Almighty. I tell you that that’s our task, as well. Called purposefully, and equipped bountifully, and connected cosmically…we’re privileged (yep, even in the rough and tumble of the day- to-day 9 to 5) to complete those “good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Discussion Guide for The Gift of Ability for Blue Collar Workers

These discussion questions relate to Kent Duncan’s sermon: The Gift of Ability for Blue Collar Workers. Learn more about his integrated outreach to blue collar workers by reading his thesis: Facilitating Marketplace Ministry in a Blue-Collar Context.

Tell us something about yourself by answering one of the following questions:

1. What is the most creative part of your work?
2. When you were first hired, what was your biggest challenge?
3. When someone new comes on the job what is a key thing that you have to teach them?
4. Tell of a time when you have added wisdom to your tasks at work.

Discussion Questions relating to this week’s sermon: The Gift of Ability for Blue Collar Workers

1. Read Exodus 31:1-11. Filled with the Spirit, Bezalel and Oholiab shaped and assembled raw materials to construct a tabernacle. Bible Scholars suggest that their labor echoes God’s labor in forming the world (Genesis 1). Assuming that’s so, can you see your work displaying that same connection? In what ways?
2. According to Exodus 31:1-6, God chose Bezalel and filled him with His Spirit purposefully. How would you describe God’s purpose in Bezalel’s call? What conclusions might you draw about God’s purpose in calling you to the work you do?
3. R. Paul Stevens suggests we’re called “to Someone before we’re called to do something.” How does your relationship with Christ precede and shape your calling as a worker?
4. The Scriptures consistently reveal God’s ability and readiness to supply generously. In what ways is your work marked by God’s generosity in equipping? Are you able to make God’s abundance a consistent part of your work experience? If so, what evidence of this God-confidence can be seen?
5. “[Spiritual] gifts in the new creation,” writes Terry Cross, “do not only serve a sacred, invisible really, but also serve the physical needs of humanity.” In what ways can you see God’s gifts serving His purposes through you on the job?
6. God’s purposeful call and generous equipping connect our work to His cosmic plan as He gifts and places us to continue His creative activity in the world. In what ways do you see your work connected with God’s? In what ways do you see your work connected to other people?
7. What difference does a sense of God’s calling make when you consider your work as rooted in His call, blessed by His abundance, and connected to His plan?
8. In what ways might you view your work differently this week in light of these Scriptures?

The Gift of Future for Blue Collar Workers (Sermon Notes)

So…let’s review:

The Gift of Work - As creatures formed in the image of the God who works, work for us is (1) not a curse, but was part of God’s gift of a perfect world to us…and work is (2) one way we’re privileged to participate with Him in dominion over all the earth. We’re invited to cultivate, create, and shape this earth according to God’s purposes—just as Adam did in the Garden of Eden. Because of sin, our work is certainly not trouble-free, but it remains fundamentally good and fundamentally purposeful, as it has been since the beginning.

The Gift of Rest - Sabbath rest is equally good and purposeful … and practicing Sabbath serves at least four critical functions. First, it serves as testimony … that we’re under God’s authority, working in partnership with Him, and dependent upon Him for who we are and all we enjoy. Likewise, Sabbath gives opportunity for celebration—the celebration of all sorts of things, but primarily the celebration of the finished work of Christ by which our redemption is secure. We don’t take a Sabbath because our work is complete—we take a Sabbath because Christ’s work is complete! Furthermore, Sabbath serves to shape our identity—both (1) with others (how we treat Sabbath rest tells *other* people something about our relationship with God)…and (2) within ourselves—we become different people when we choose to practice Sabbath than we would be had we not chosen to practice Sabbath. Finally, Sabbath speaks of promise, as by the practice of Sabbath rest, we anticipate that ultimate place of completeness in Christ He has secured for us for all eternity.

The Gift of Ability - Our work (and our rest), then, is rooted in the past activity of creation. Everything we said about work and rest the first two Sundays grows from Genesis 1 and 2—creation! But our work is equally rooted in the present—in the reality of redemption … whereby *every one* of us is privileged to know the fullness of the Spirit’s work as did Bezalel and Oholiab, who we talked about last week. *We* have experienced what Bezalel and his co-workers experienced—how (through the Holy Spirit) God calls us purposefully, equips us bountifully, and connects us cosmically. Surely that’s all we’d really need to know, right? Surely that’s enough! That the goodness and inherent rightness in our work is rooted in creation (past) and renewed in our redemption (present)!

And that’s where you say, “Oh, no, Pastor Kent—tell us more!” Alright—I will. There’s at least one more Scriptural revelation about our work that’s worth our chasing together this morning … and I’m not sure we didn’t save the best for last. I want us to talk together, this morning, about: The Gift of Future.

I’m praying, this morning, that our attitudes about our work be captured by a fresh sense of the future promised us “in Christ.” It is a powerful, beautiful, redeemed and righteous future—and worth every investment we might make in it in the here and now.But what I want to say about our future in Christ is rooted in something we’ve been saying over the last few years. So let me start by saying it again. In short: When Jesus shows up on the earth, time is transformed.

Jesus spends his first 30 years or so on this earth in obscurity—and BTW, everything we know about those years says Jesus spent them doing carpentry - that the redeemer of all Creation knew the joy of working with His hands, of building stuff, knew the discipline of swinging a hammer and guiding a chisel…that Jesus knew what it was to smash His thumb … to have calloused skin and a sweaty brow! But after 30 years or so of working as a craftsman—an artisan—in the village of Nazareth, Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan River as something of the signaling of a transition point into a more public ministry. The Holy Spirit descends upon Him from heaven like a dove. The Father speaks from heaven—“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” And after forty days of testing in the wilderness, Jesus heads back his hometown of Nazareth, and there—in His hometown synagogue—He’s not Jesus the Carpenter, but Jesus the wannabe Rabbi. And He’s given the privilege of reading the Scripture to the congregation on the Sabbath.

Now, there was an assigned reading for the day, but Jesus chooses to ignore it. (Think of this in terms of my having asked Ed to read a particular Scripture today, and having him—without any clearance—choose to read something else. You know how that’d go over with me and my tidy little order of service, right? That’s what happens here!) The Gospel of Luke tells us that when the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Jesus, he unrolled it to a different place than where he had been assigned to read from.

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

It was—I’m sure—a powerful reading of the text! (I mean, you’ve got the Word reading the Word!) And here’s what you’ve got to know about that: This was a prophetic passage. It was something the worshippers at Nazareth anticipated coming to pass in the future…and perhaps even well into the future. It’s the same kind of thing we think when we read about the breaking of the seven seals in Revelation or the Battle of Armageddon. We’re sure those things are going to happen—and maybe even very soon—but we don’t think they’re happening “now.” Not just yet! But Luke says that Jesus, having read this prophetic passage from Isaiah:

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:17-21)

Today this Scripture is fulfilled! What you’ve just heard is happening now! That, my friend, if true , is a startling reality, a profound revelation that compels a re-evaluation of the nature of the age in which we live! I know, right! I don’t think we spend much time considering “what age we live in.” But the Scriptures paint the picture of a coming age of righteousness and peace and wholeness (“shalom” would be the Jewish word to use there). It's an age when everything will be as it should be and one thing we know is that everything isn’t as it ought to be today.

So we must not be there yet, right? But Jesus shows up and says, “Oh yes we are!” I mean—if I can paraphrase it a bit, and interpret Jesus’ words here a bit, what Jesus says is that anywhere He’s present and anywhere He reigns eternity starts now! “You’ve passed from death to life” 1 John says. “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!”

The Scripture Jesus reads is about the future—there’s no doubt about that. The Scripture speaks to a divine “year of jubilee,” really, in which sin is pardoned and debt is forgiven and healing is accomplished and liberty is restored! But while his listeners were busy thinking that that only happens somewhere down the road, Jesus says “Nope—that future starts now!” “Today this Scripture is fulfilled …”

And here’s the thing: In the life and ministry of Jesus…and—listen closely—in the life and ministry of the church, as well (read the book of Acts), the kind of things we expect to be true of eternity (“heaven,” we usually say) begin to happen in the present—in the now. Sins are forgiven. Bodies are healed. Demons are defeated. Relationships are restored. Death—ultimately—is overcome! So that the only reasonable conclusion to reach is this one: In the ministry of Jesus, and in the life of the church, God’s promised future becomes present reality! The age to come invades the age that is! (And) “Holy Spirit-filled,” “Holy Spirit- fueled” believers live the future now!

And (just to be clear)…that future we live now—just like the future that *awaits* us—doesn’t consist of (1) harps and (2) angel wings and (3) floating about eternally on fluffy clouds. The future that awaits us isn’t about “just” the redemption of our souls, but also about the resurrection of our bodies. And the promise of our future isn’t limited to “heaven.” It's a new heaven and a new earth—the promise of the whole of creation “filled with God's righteousness,” one translation says:

But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:13)

We’ve talked about this—but when you read the closing chapters of Revelation, the end of the story is not to float about eternally on a cloud, nor is it even a return to the beauty of Garden of Eden. (“People longing for a return to Eden,” says a guy named Paul Rude, “desire the wrong end of the journey”). The end of the story is not an escape from earth, nor is it a return to the Garden of Eden, but it is the hope—the confident assurance—of “a new heaven and a new earth”—all of it enjoying the continued development into the God-honoring civilization God Himself intended when He formed it!

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. [4] ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4)

That’s not primarily a vision of heaven. That’s a vision of what happens on a renewed earth! Jeff Van Duzer says:

“The last chapters of Revelation reveal that God will get what God wanted from the beginning. With the arrival of the new heaven and the new earth, the curse has been reversed and God’s intended “goodness” has been restored. The sea, which in the Hebrew worldview reflected a dangerous chaos apart from God, is to be gone forever. The intimacy lost in Genesis 3 will be fully restored. Once again, God will dwell with humanity and, in contrast to the whole of human experience since the Garden, men and women will once again be able to see God’s face.”1

Or as Amy Sherman has put it more succinctly: “If anything, this gospel is about heaven coming to earth, not us going to heaven.”

Our opportunity—by virtue of the incarnation of Jesus Christ and then the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh—our opportunity is to—in some way… on some level— live our promised future now. To flesh out and by everything we do make heavenly realities earthly realities in the power and authority of the Holy Spirit, just like Jesus did. To see His kingdom come, and His will done on earth as it is in heaven. In my mind, here’s where it gets good. That’s true in every area of my life and yours—including our work.

In Colossians, chapter 3—which is really my text for this morning (some of you can’t believe I’m just now to my text, and some of you are relieved that, at least, I finally got here!). In Colossians chapter 3, I’m convinced that the Apostle Paul is quite aware of everything we just said about how the appearing of Jesus changes everything . He's quite aware that we get the privilege of living the future now, of “pulling heaven” into our earthly existence, as it were.

Aware of the transformation of the age accomplished by Christ, the Apostle Paul challenges believers to:

• set both heart and mind on things above (Col 3:1-2)
• put to death what belongs to the sinful nature (Col 3:5)
• put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Col 3:10)
• to whatever you do … do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus (Col 3:17)
• to do all in the name of the resurrected, ever-living Lord!

And then, in Col 3:18 Paul begins to give some very specific ways in which that is to happen:

• Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
• Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
• Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
• Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged. (Colossians 3:18-20 )

And then we get to the matter of employees:

• Slaves, obey your earthly masters…

I know I know that when I read that, some of you (of course) say, “I’m no slave—what’s that got to do with me?” But I’m also completely confident that others of you know exactly what that has to do with you, because—at least at *some* point in your 9 to 5—that’s exactly how you feel—like a slave! And maybe it’s not even your boss or your work situation, per se, that leaves you feeling that way. Maybe it’s just the reason you’re working in the first place. You wouldn’t work that job or work that way—that many hours, perhaps - if you didn’t you have to. But life has you at that spot and you simply feel you have no choice!

Or maybe it is your boss or your workplace. Maybe you’re sure you’re nothing more to your company than another piece of equipment, that the minute there’s a tool that’ll do your job better, faster, cheaper. You’ll be history and that, in the meantime, all they want to do is grind as much out of you as they can! You’re not a person to them— you’re just a wrench, a calculator, an answering machine. The Apostle Paul has a word from the Lord for you, my friend—because it’s a word for labor offered under even the most distressing circumstances: “Slaves.”

Now is this where I need to stop and say—this exhortation applies whether your labor is extorted from you on a job you hate … or you offer it joyfully as part of a job you love! The exhortation stands—even in a job you hate … even under circumstances you would change completely were it within your power to do so—because surely that was the situation for at least some of the slaves to whom Paul writes. To “slaves,” there is a challenge and a promise:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord (Colossians 3:22)

“Earthly masters,” of course, suggests that maybe some other master is a part of this equation, as well. Paul challenges workers to diligence not only when the boss is looking, but even when you think the boss isn’t looking. He calls for “sincerity of heart”—a singleness of intention in your work , a focus of purpose. (I think that’s tied to the purposeful calling we talked about last Sunday.) And, yes, even your labor should be done with “reverence for the Lord.” (How would you wait a table if it were Jesus you were waiting on? How would you bus that same table if it were Jesus you were picking up after? “with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.”)

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. (Colossians 3:23)

There it is again! A reminder that there’s a master greater than any human master— that your boss (whether he or she recognizes it or not) answers to a greater boss— ultimately, to the highest power of all. And before you get too happily vindictive about that (“Can’t wait—God’s gonna show them a thing or two!”) … so do we! We answer to the King, as well. And our work, ultimately, is not just to earn a paycheck or advance a career or make a name. It is, ultimately, an offering to the Lord. You, too, are working “for the Lord, not for human masters!” But we work “not only when [their] eyes are on us” or “to curry favor” … we work “with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord” … we work “with all our hearts, as working for the Lord” because our work is rich with promise! Verse 23 again…

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters [24] since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24)

Oh, here’s something I want you to know: Your paycheck is bigger than you think! Here’s a little secret: There’s a second set of books! Your employer has a set of books. The IRS is looking over your employer’s shoulder to make sure those books are tidily kept! But there’s a second set of books the IRS doesn’t know anything about! There’s a second set of books your employer will never access. The King of Kings has an account with your name on it (you’re not a number to Him…only the hairs on your head)! And He’s keeping track! He’s making notes! And here’s His promise for diligent, God-centered, pure- hearted, “I’m offering my work to Jesus most of all” workers: “You will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.”

This word “inheritance”—the word that gets translated “inheritance” here—I don’t have time to explain it in depth, but there’s an “end-time” character to the word when it’s used in the New Testament—an “eschatological” character (for those who’ve been part of the discussion groups). Using that particular word here (the Greek word is “kleronomias” if it matters) …using that word ties this passage to this very thing we’ve been saying about our future in Christ and bringing future realities into this present age. This word in this context tell me that it’s not just the stuff I might consider “spiritual” that gives me the opportunity to express and advance God’s future Kingdom in the here and now. It’s not just the time I spend in personal devotions … or volunteering at church. Rather, it includes, even, the quite ordinary and earthy and practical labor I offer on the job—under Christ’s reign, even my “9 to 5” becomes a means of (1) serving divine purpose and (2) advancing a heavenly Kingdom!

“Working for the Lord” certainly involves exhibiting the kind of character qualities that the Scriptures encourage—Paul has identified several of those himself in the opening verses of this chapter. But the eschatological character of “kleronomias” encourages us to understand our human labor as a means of anticipating and expressing God’s coming kingdom in the here and now. Our work becomes a way of anticipating and striving toward the realization of the Kingdom of heaven on earth!

When I weld, I lay down a bead that I’d be happy to present to Jesus.When I care for a patient, I offer the kind of generous care I expect to be the norm when Jesus reigns without rival over a new heaven and a new earth.When I drive a nail or finish a concrete pad or calculate a profit or instruct a student or help a buyer find just the right car or finish a tax return or build a tire or sweep the shop floor or decorate a cake…when I do it just like I’d expect to do it in the New Jerusalem when that day comes, I’m making the future a reality now! I’m quite literally seeing Christ’s kingdom come, Christ’s will done, on earth as it is in heaven. And I’m helping to march this world toward its consummation in Christ! I am, as a guy named Murray Dempster put it, “participating in Kingdom-signifying deeds of anticipatory transformation.” That work is never lost! Says Dempster, these “are the kinds of human effort that God preserves, sanctifies and directs teleologically toward the future age of God's redemptive reign.” Murray Dempster didn’t just make that up, pull it out of a head filled with rich imaginings. Scripture says so. What’s built (1 Cor says) with “wood, hay or straw” will not survive the refining fire that consumes this earth. But the Scriptures promise that.

Their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. (1 Corinthians 3:13)

God’s refining fire will test the quality of each person’s work, and what is built using “gold, silver, costly stones” will survive! And when it survives, "the builder will receive a reward" (1 Corinthians 3:14).

I am pointing you toward a shift in the focus of your work. Honestly, for many of us, work probably doesn’t have a focus. We do our jobs to earn a living, like it, love it, or hate it, it is what it is, and we have a hard time seeing it being anything else. But the Scriptures we’ve looked at over the last few weeks have shown me that both my work and your work has its foundation in creation itself—the past—and finds meaning in our present redemption and the call of God that redemption brings (the present). Today I want to move you from the past and even the present … toward the future. Toward the “kingdom-signifying deeds of anticipatory transformation” you can engage in through your work. Toward every moment on your job being an action that looks forward to Jesus’ return and Jesus’ unchallenged reign in a world just full of His righteousness. I want to point you toward 9 – 5 ‘till Kingdom Come.

I used the word “eschatological” a few minutes ago. It’s a word that has to do with end times: with “last things,” with how time as we know it wraps up and eternity (and the unchallenged reign of Jesus our King) is ushered in. Here’s a sentence or two for you to consider as I’m wrapping things up this morning. They’re the words of Miroslav Volf – a Croatian theologian who’s become one of my favorite thinkers. He loves Jesus. He loves the reality of the present gift and activity of the Holy Spirit. And he says about all of this:

“At its core, Christian faith is eschatological. Christian life is life in the Spirit of the new creation or it is not Christian life at all. … Christian work must, therefore, be done under the inspiration of the Spirit and in light of the coming new creation.” -Miroslav Volf

I want our work to be grounded in the history of our creation. I want our work to be rooted in the present of our redemption. But oh, how I long for our work to be pointed toward, shaped by, representative of, our future—that future where everything about this world finds its consummation in Christ! Let my work be marked by the kind of righteousness – the kind of justice and shalom – the rightness and integrated peace – that will mark this world when everything Jesus lived, died, and rose again to accomplish will be reality! It is God’s Gift of Future.

Discussion Guide for The Gift of Future for Blue Collar Workers

​

These discussion questions relate to Kent Duncan’s sermon: The Gift of Future for Blue Collar Workers. Learn more about his integrated outreach to blue collar workers by reading his thesis: Facilitating Marketplace Ministry in a Blue-Collar Context.

Tell us something about yourself by answering one of the following questions:

1. What is the most satisfying part of your work?
2. How do you spiritually prepare for your workday?
3. What have to told God recently about your job (the tasks you perform, your job position, your relationship with coworkers)?
4. What do you look forward to as a reward at the end of your work years?

Discussion Questions relating to this week’s sermon: The Gift of Future for Blue Collar Workers

1. Based on the significance of passages like Luke 4:17-21 and Acts 2, our study suggests the very nature of the age in which we live is transformed by the ministry of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Think about these changes and give three or four implications that result.
2. In a recent book, Amy Sherman describes our promised future as marked by two key elements: “justice and shalom.” About justice, she writes, “The justice of God is all about restoring wholeness in relationships – with God and with other human beings.” [1] In what ways do you have opportunity on the job to work toward this justice?
3. A second element Amy identifies in our promised future is “shalom” – something she suggests finds expression in four quadrants: peace with God, self, others, and creation. When you think about this “shalom” as an expression of Christ’s Kingdom, where do you see your work fitting in?
4. Read 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1-4. These Scriptures suggest a more “down to earth” eternity than we might ordinarily think. Rather than the destruction of this earth and our “escape” to heaven, verses like 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1 describe “a new heaven and a new earth.” In what ways does the thought of an “earthly” eternity change your ideas about the future?
5. Consider Jesus’ resurrected body. In what ways was it like His pre-resurrection body? In what ways was it different? What might Jesus’ glorified body tell us about what life in eternity will be like for us?
6. Describing how our work can be shaped and motivated by an awareness of Christ’s kingdom, Darrell Cosden says, “work becomes a type of eschatological* mandate rather than simply a creation mandate”.[2] How does it change your understanding of work when you focus forward towards our full redemption as compared to looking backward to the stories of Adam and Bezalel? *eschatological: dealing with ultimate or final things; with Christianity, having to do with the destiny of humanity, the Second Coming, or the Last Judgment.
7. When we work giving attention to Christ’s coming Kingdom, Murray Dempster says we participate in “kingdom-signifying deeds of anticipatory transformation.” Further, he declares that these “are the kinds of human effort that God preserves, sanctifies and directs teleologically* toward the future age of God’s redemptive reign.”[3] Think about your work as “prophetic.” How does it change your understanding as you consider the possibility that God will redeem and preserve such labor? *teleological: having to do with ultimate purpose or design.
8. What action might you apply to your work this week in light of these Scriptures?

Facilitating Marketplace Ministry in a Blue-Collar Context: Post-Project Interview Notes

This appendix contains a transcription of notes made during post-field intervention interviews with twenty-three participants in Kent Duncan's thesis project: Facilitating Marketplace Ministry in a Blue Collar Context. These interviews were taken three weeks after the conclusion of the series. Interview questions are followed by participant responses, either in the form of direct quotes as recorded from the respondent, a summary restatement of the respondent’s thoughts as perceived by the interviewer, or a combination of both.

Responses to Question 1: How have your thoughts about work changed over the last thirty days or so? What’s different for you when you think about your job today versus what you thought a month ago?

• Respondent spoke of a “re-awareness” of Kingdom purpose on the job.
• Respondent described a fresh sense of “accountability to God for how I do my job—though it is still a ‘job.’”
• Respondent described how, looking around her work aware of God’s purpose, her work became “bigger”—she had “influence.” She doesn’t particularly “like” her actual job so these comments were directed at the “culture” around her. She saw the opportunity to influence the culture of her workplace.
• Absolute change … joyful, happy to be here “called in to see the boss, called on the carpet for being ‘just too happy.’”
• Respondent described a new awareness of purpose – “It’s great to know I’m not just ‘putting in my time.”
• Respondent described a new freedom to be authentic as a believer, as a God-follower.
• “I am happiest at my work when I accomplish and complete my work and do that well. I need others to accomplish that, so I encourage them to do their jobs well. I know God is in that. I’m unhappy when I don’t do well.” Respondent expressed understanding of the continuity of his work as part of others’ lives.
• “This filled my understanding of work with a whole new purpose. I spent a long, stressful time lining up with corporate goals. Now I’m lined up with God’s goals.”
• Respondent made aware of God’s place in the job in a way that causes him to treat people differently.
• “I hated my job to the place of being physically sick. Grasping this concept of Kingdom work changed my heart and influenced the rest of my team. Opportunities abounded because I ‘saw’ them.”
• “I had been struggling with contentment on the job – “9 – 5” came along – completely changed the way I looked at the ‘job’ – bigger, not just the job but also the relationships. When guys complain about ‘work,’ I have something to tell them. I’m happy for work done.”
• Respondent described an acute awareness of Kingdom purpose “It’s humbling to realize I am reflecting God in my daily work –that I’m created in His image and doing what He created me for.
• “I’m bringing things into being – creating – supplying I’m not just cutting dog food can labels. It is bigger than that!”
• Has always known God’s gift of work—inherited from her father’s love of work. Her work shapes and changes others’ lives (house cleaning) – renewed joy in helping (using her gifts).

Responses to Question 2: How has your perception of the Sabbath changed? Can you identify any ways in which you are “observing the Sabbath” differently than you were before participating in the program? If you could change one thing about the way you practice Sabbath rest, what would it be?

• Respondent saw Sabbath as a ritual, a “to do” (happily done, but on auto-pilot). Now she experiences deliberately looking forward to the Sabbath – anticipating refreshing.
• “I find I have ‘focus.’ I had treated Sabbath as ‘got to’ – as though I were going to work. Now I realize I ‘get to.’” (Specifically, she gets to get up early to worship, to serve with her gifts, to celebrate – and, she says, “it makes me different.”)
• “I’m looking now for ways to be deliberate in Sabbath practice.”
• Downtime used to be just “vegetative” or being “busy”—now downtime is spent in God’s Word, prayer, going over the week.”
• Everyone at work knows he will be deliberately setting aside Sunday as a “different” day—a Sabbath. People pile up wealth and think of themselves all week—and continue the same on Sunday. “I believe people are jealous of my Sabbath—convicted by it.”
• “This portion affected me greatly. Sabbath is [now] intentional time set aside with family— teaching children, reading the Bible, etc.”
• “Convicted about Sabbath busy-ness” (Observed that it used to be that church meetings filled a Sabbath). “Now we take the time to minister to our bodies, ourselves. The Sabbath had begun to look like other days and needed to be different.”
• “I’m more conscious of the Sabbath, but working through how to ‘set it aside.’”
• “I’ve reviewed my Sabbath—and am excited to do so. I’m asking myself, ‘Is this rest to me?’ ‘Has my Sabbath rest become work?’ I’ve awakened Sabbath questions—spiritual, emotional; not so much what I do.”
• Anxious about the freedom of Sabbath taught—so looking at “What should it look like?” Feels “Sabbath” has been ritualistic and legalistic—“If I do it properly, I am blessed.”
• (From a couple) “We’ve established non-negotiables to make sure the Sabbath day is different.”

Responses to Question 3: What new understanding do you have of the place of the Holy Spirit in your work? Can you describe ways in which you see your work connected to what God is doing in the world?

• “Though the ‘job’ is not what I imagined (I am ‘underwhelmed’), I realize God has given it to me and I have learned through the Holy Spirit that I am ‘gifted’ in ‘customer service’—settling disputes, calming situations, talking through problems.” This respondent sees God using this spot to teach her for the future—especially about who she is. In her lack of busy work, she has used the time to pray, think, and write about her experiences.
• Respondent walks from job to job in the plant—a lot—and in a job that requires significant multitasking. He believes God empowers him to remember details, observe outcomes, and then encourage right ways in new Christians. He is the “old Christian” at work, and—when he sees young believers cut corners or do not-so-perfect work, he will say, “No shortcuts. You’re working for God now.” He prays particularly for those in positions of authority who abuse that power. The Holy Spirit has taught him to see change.
• Respondent has always enjoyed and felt responsible for mentoring “newbies”—many have tremendous difficulties outside of work. She presses for quality and timeliness regardless of their circumstances. She has realized this is ministry—to teach the job.
• Respondent very aware of the Holy Spirit at work to help her accomplish tasks that seem overwhelming…and then aware that those lives she impacts on the job impact others: “What I have at the end of the day ministers to others in their homes.”
• “The Holy Spirit is recognized by others…even if we don’t respond, people ‘know.’ He influences and changes lives through His work with us in our work. The Holy Spirit has revealed my relationship [with Christ] to co-workers—a new dimension for me.”
• “We were created to work and work is worship. The Holy Spirit is always in our worship, so the Holy Spirit is always on the job.”
• “The Spirit is the energy—the power—to ‘do.’ We have His gifts and abilities. We access the power to do so 24/7.”
• I remember who I serve, who is my boss—I’m working for God. I want to please Him because I love Him. A job well done, no matter what it is, gives pleasure, joy, satisfaction. God gives that also. Following the Holy Spirit brings good results.”
• Respondent talks to people all over the country on his job—mainly elderly people about to give up (or already having given up) possessions. Religion and politics always are topics of conversation.
• Respondent has a clearer understanding that the Holy Spirit is not separate from our workplace. She would always pray for her job and issues associated but then would be on her own to carry on the work. But He accompanies us through the workday—and people know and see.

​​Responses to Question 4: How is your understanding of heaven different than it was two months ago? When you think about eternity, do you imagine work as a part of it? If so, what connections do you see between work today and work in eternity?

• “I’m not escaping from here, from work. But I can enjoy and embrace a new heaven and a new earth.”
• Likes the idea that his work is actually part of something spectacular—that he is helping God to build His Kingdom.
• Had seen heaven as a giant sanctuary where we couldn’t help but stand and worship 24/7—“much like the last night of Fine Arts Nationals.” The idea of work continuing in a new earth excited her.
• “I may have a mansion, but I can go to the country and walk the fields!”
• “We see perfection every day but don’t pay attention. As a result, we’re dull to hints of heaven already all around us.”
• “…being a part of something bigger that continues and changes forever.”
• Respondent thought a lot about how we treat this earth—questions about quality and concern about how we live—how the things we do change the environment here and now.
• “Our abilities continue through eternity—refined, redeemed, renewed!” Several participants affirmed that they found this an exciting, joyful thought.
• “Wow! I’m excited! Excited that someone would step away from the old ‘we’re gonna believe this.’ The box is open; we’re in the game! Here and now!”
• “We race toward Sunday for the blessing. Don’t throw six days away—it’s all now!”
• “Worship is more than singing songs—it’s walking, observing, creating, enjoying, working! These things are not destroyed, but refined, transformed, and deepened.”
• “God didn’t create the earth and all that is in it and say, ‘It’s no good, I hate it—but I’ll use it for now. No, he rejoiced over it! We have a responsibility for it now.”
• “I’ve always been a ‘doer’—and have always been concerned about being flat-out bored in heaven. I’m pleased to know the value of work and that I’m going to be busy in heaven!”