Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work Author: Visit Amazon's Timothy Keller Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0525952705 | Format: PDF
Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God's Work Description
Review
"Tim Keller's ministry in New York City is leading a generation of seekers and skeptics toward belief in God. I thank God for him." - Billy Graham
“This is the book I give to all my friends who are serious spiritual seekers or skeptics.” -Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life, on The Reason for God
"Every Good Endeavor will soon become a classic on faith and work, not only because it's intelligent, but because it's accessible... Drawing on decades of study and ministry, Every Good Endeavor may soon become one of the most important contemporary books on faith and work." - Comment Magazine
Like so many life issues for Christians, the word balance is instructive when it comes to work. Every Good Endeavor deftly explains how we can relish and enjoy our work while honoring God and serving others, all the while avoiding the extremes of negativity on the one hand and idolatry on the other." - The Gospel Coalition
"Most people sitting in the pews of our churches on a Sunday morning spend more time in the workplace than anywhere else. Yet we can too easily make following Christ a matter of personal devotions and church activity... This is great book on an important area that is too often neglected." - Tim Chester
About the Author
TIMOTHY KELLER was born and raised in Pennsylvania and educated at Bucknell University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Westminster Theological Seminary. He was first a pastor in Hopewell, Virginia. In 1989 he started Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City with his wife, Kathy, and their three sons. Today, Redeemer has more than five thousand regular Sunday attendees and has helped to start nearly two hundred new churches around the world. Also the author of Generous Justice, Counterfeit Gods, The Prodigal God, King’s Cross, The Meaning of Marriage, and The Reason for God, Timothy Keller lives in New York City with his family.
- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Dutton Adult (November 13, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0525952705
- ISBN-13: 978-0525952701
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
While others have written more scholarly defenses of the theology of vocation, Every Good Endeavor is the most accessible and helpful book I've ever read on integrating a Christian perspective with our daily work----whether that work be "blue-collar" or "white-collar," physical or mental, menial or high-profile. Moreover, Keller simultaneously (and winsomely) speaks to non-Christians who are trying to make sense of the frustrations and pleasures of their work lives.
Keller begins with God's plan for our work: The idea that work preceded the Fall, that work gives dignity to humankind, and that work allows us to cultivate the created order such that others are served. Keller also relates our vocation to the gospel doctrine of justification by faith alone:
"First, if religious works were crucial to achieving a good standing with God, then there would always be a fundamental difference between those in church ministry and everyone else. But if religious work did absolutely nothing to earn favor with God, it could no longer be seen as superior to other forms of labor.
The gospel of salvation through sheer grace holds a second implication for work....many modern people seek a kind of salvation--self-esteem and self-worth--from career success. This leads us to seek only high-paying, high-status jobs, and to 'worship' them in perverse ways. But the gospel frees us from the relentless pressure of having to prove ourselves and secure our identity through work, for we are already proven and secure."
The second section of the book unpacks the many frustrations of work that the Fall made inevitable. As Christians, however, we can know that while our work in this world will always fall short, "our work in this life is not the final world.
The Christian Scriptures give us hope for work, but work can be deeply frustrating and difficult, so the spiritual hope must be profound if we are going to face the challenge of pursuing vocation in this world, according to Timothy Keller in this book. Everyone has the experience of imagining accomplishing things but being incapable of producing them. Without God, all our best endeavours ultimately come to naught, but with God our work can be part of bringing about the future healed world.
The book goes on to consider a number of aspects of work and the relationship between work and faith, including the importance of work as an indispensable component in a meaningful human life; the dignity that work gives to us as human beings, regardless of its status or pay; work as a way of cultivating creation; work as an act of worship to the God who called and equipped you to do it; problems with fruitless, pointless and selfish work; the relationship between work and idolatry; and the ways in which the Gospel changes the nature of work.
I was particularly interested in the Epilogue, which describes what the author's church, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, does to help its people integrate faith and work. The church has five primary ministry areas: worship and evangelism, community formation, mercy and justice, church planting, and faith and work. Redeemer's Center for Faith and Work runs an intensive theological and leadership development program for young professionals, an entrepreneurship initiative, vocation groups, retreats and classes, literary publications, art exhibits and performances, and a range of lectures and conferences.
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