Picking up where we left off last week, we continue discussing the Christian work ethic and, in particular, delve into Max Weber’s “Protestant work ethic” hypothesis. Next Rose shares about her own career path, including graduating with a 4.0 in graphic design and her two year struggle to find a career job. After that, we looked at three criteria for honorable work:
- Does your job require you to sin?
- Are you contributing to something that causes harm?
- Is it dishonest work?
If you can say, “No,” to each of these, then you’re in good shape. However, considering that the most common jobs in America are retail salespersons, cashiers, food preparers, and office clerks, all of which pay well under the mean wage, how should a Christian feel about such work? We talk about how we have to be careful to find our identity in Christ rather than in our job, no matter how well or poorly it pays. Drawing on the work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi we talked about ideal jobs that produce enjoyment, enable a team mindset, and better our world. Last of all, we addressed how we as Christians should think about unemployment.
Great conversation guys. I’m a millenial who is also a follower of Jesus. I’ve been blessed with what I view as the perfect job for me, and I’ve always been viewed as a great employee by my employers (so they tell me) but I still struggle in the simple things like taking a extra few minutes during a break or having a bad work attitude every now and then. Listening to this was both challenging and encouraging. Thanks guys
Your two-part series on work is perhaps the best discussion on the subject that I have listened to. It has been a well-timed encouragement to me. Thank you!
Coincidentally, I have been reading Dallas Willard’s book, The Divine Conspiracy. Just this morning I came across a section in chapter 8 called “The Glory of My Job,” in which he addresses the subject of being a disciple of Jesus in the workplace. He begins the section by saying, “But let us become as specific as possible. Consider just your job, the work you do to make a living. This is one of the clearest ways possible of focusing upon apprenticeship to Jesus. To be a disciple of Jesus is, crucially, to be learning from Jesus how to do your job as Jesus himself would do it. New Testament language for this is to do it ‘in the name’ of Jesus.”
He then gives several general guidelines for how (and how not) to do this, all of which complement what you guys talked about.
Thanks again for your insights and the thoughtful consideration you give to each week’s episode.
Thank you, each one and all, for the superb job and keen perspectives each of you contributed to this Off-Script discussion. Sean knows that I am very honored to work as a consultant developing custom software, usually for embedded systems (machines that have a computing system inside them, such as a helicopter cockpit, giant telescope mirror polishing machine, or a hybrid marine propulsion system). It’s clearly a fairly deep career, and so I approached this discussion with some natural skepticism of whether or not a full spectrum of issues would be covered, wondering if perhaps it would have been better rather if I would have been one of the speakers. After listening however, it was obvious that I needn’t have ever had any doubt, and how long a time it’s been since I was (a) so completely wrong; (b) so delighted to be so! Once again, well done and thank you.