"Making Much of Christ from 8 to 5"
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From a chapter by that title in John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life:
- We can make much of God in our secular job through the fellowship that we enjoy with him throughout the day in all our work.
- We make much of Christ in our secular work by the joyful, trusting, God-exalting design of our creativity and industry.
- We make much of Christ in our secular work when it confirms and enhances the portrait of Christ’s glory that people hear in the spoken gospel.
- We make much of Christ in our secular work by earning enough money to keep us from depending on others, while focusing on the helpfulness of our work rather than financial rewards.
- We make much of Christ in our secular work by earning money with the desire to use our money to make others glad in God.
posted by JT at Thursday, January 25, 2007
10 Comments:
The Puritans really had it on seeing the workplace as a way to honor God. Apparently, so does John Piper.That rocks my world...I love the saints of the Lord.
I especially like #2. Maybe its because i teach at a Christian school and i've found joy in presenting and pondering a Christian worldview of my subject areas.
anyways, its always good to hear folks valuing vocational calling.
I am not sure it helps to divide life into the "sacred" and the "secular." It seems that the best motivation to glorify God in the marketplace is by affirming that Abraham Kuyper was right when he said, "There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, 'This is mine. This belongs to me.'"
Calling some work "secular," leads people to believe that God is less interested in it. I'm sure that isn't what Piper intended and yet the result is the same. Making much of God from 8-5 starts with recognizing that God is Lord of all and is "redeeming all things to himself" (Colossians 1:23). Therefore everything is sacred. The "secular" simply doesn't exist.
Anonymous, I whole-heartedly agree that everything belongs to God and is, therefore, sacred. And I think you understand that Piper was not in a sense seeking to differentiate between what we as creatures would see as "sacred" or "secular".
But I think Piper is using the layman's terms and trying to encourage the layman in doing so. Because those who do not work for the church or are not specifically involved in ministry in their line of work, I think, are particularly vulnerable to struggling with how they can glorify God in their workplace. So in using the term "secular" I think Piper is recognizing that the reader is working in the world and not in direct conjunction with the church and they need encouragement to serve God there. It is not to disregard that God owns all things, but that you can glorify God in all things, including working in the secular workplace.
I appreciate Piper quite a bit, but he can seem to me to be a bit contradictory or at least confusing when it comes to the layperson vs. vocational ministry issue.
A few weeks ago he gave an address to a group of young people where he was encouraging them toward missions and ministry, not toward jobs in corporate america. He said "You don't want to be dropping nickels from your SUV into someone else's dream." What about all those countless donors who are dropping their nickels (and dollars and more) into other's dreams and embracing those dreams too? Is that not of value in furthering kingdom work? I took it as kind of a smack. Perhaps I'm wrong....and should be convicted.
I love John Piper and his ministry, but...there still seems to be a secular/sacred divide in his mind. What he wrote in "Don't Waste your life" confuses me with his more recent statement.
i agree with Jordan.
I think the whole point is to glorify God in all areas of life, even though not all of us are "in the ministry." He is using the term "secular" to relate to people who do see a division between sacred and secular, and moving them toward bringing the two together. Piper does this in other areas, not just when talking about our "secular" (i.e. not vocational ministry, like a pastor) employment, but also in regard to academics (see "The Supremacy of God in the Life of the Mind, www.desiringgod.org), and any other area where we might live out 1 Corinthians 10.31. Thanks be to God for John Piper.
For the Supremacy of God in all things,
Chris.
Right on Piper. Thanks for the quick summary JT.
Jordan and (anonymous),
You seem to assume that because Piper wants young people to consider missions that he does not want them in corporate America. Don't Waste Your Life makes it clear that not everyone can be a goer but many must be senders. He simply does not want the dreams of the sender to be all that different from the dreams of the goer. Both should dream of the glory of God spread throughout the world. If the goer and the sender are both weighted down by the dreams of fully-loaded SUVs then God is not glorified, the American Dream is.
I think Piper's plea for young believers to consider missions or full-time vocational ministry stems from his recognition that many do not even consider the possibility. They think that short of some dramatic "calling" experience they should pursue the "culturally normal path" of finding a job in the secular work force. Piper's concern is that such people often "go with the flow" of the "American Dream" without stopping to consider if God would have them use their gifts, resources, training, etc. in a full-time vocational ministry capacity. Thus Piper is a "prophetic" voice in challenging young men and women to actually wrestle with the possibility of ministry rather than simply being pulled along in the cultural current of the American Dream.
Piper's comments summarized in this post reflect his exhortations to those who are not in ministry. As such such they serve as practical wisdom as to how to demonstrate their supreme joy in Christ without drowning in the current of "living the American Dream." I think that is the context in which they need to be understood.
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