Occasionally on this blog, I recommend new publications or websites. I want to take a moment to review WORKSHIP – Recalibrate Work and Worship, by Patrick Lai. I believe it is a must read for anyone who is hazy about what it is we are involved with – Business as Mission. I recommend that you buy one and ask your pastor to read it. Chapter 2 is a story that alone is worth the price of the book, as it captures everything in the story of one young lady. Here are some quotes from the book.
- In this book, a Biblical foundation for the integration of faith and work is laid out (xv).
- Over 90% of all missionaries sent out from North America go and serve among reached people groups where churches exist (2,6).
- At this very moment, there are Christian businesspeople working in every country of the world. No land, no country, no government is closed to profitable, job-creating, tax-paying, government-honoring business (7).
- If the people of God are to freed for ministry in the workplace, worship will need to be viewed as involving the whole of life and not just Sunday morning – Martin Luther (23).
- Roughly 80% of Jesus ministry, or two-thirds of His outreach happened in the natural flow of his life (30).
- We need to recalibrate our perceptions of work and worship, so they come together … we need to distinguish “church worship” from worship that we do daily in our workplaces and homes (34).
- The Hebrew word avodah is translated as “service” and it is translated as “worship”, and it is also translated as “work” (37).
- A command to harvest is a command to plow, sow, cultivate and water (58) … plowing involves prioritizing our witness through our works before our witness through our words (68).
- Preaching and proclaiming is one part of God’s strategy for winning people, yet love is His supreme strategy (82) … when people see the Gospel, they will then listen to the Gospel (84).
- Love is not taught, it is caught (95).
- BAM is about making our Sunday talk into a Monday walk. Whatever we believe and profess in church on Sunday should be permeating our lives and business practices the rest of the week (112).
- The New Testament never labels some work as sacred and other work as secular … we need to recalibrate our evangelistic methodologies and strategies … (131).
- The workplace has been the catalyst for bringing thousands of people around the world to worship Jesus (back cover).
- “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord …” (Col 3:23)
Check out this book on Amazon here.
Larry W. Sharp, BAM Support Specialist, IBEC Ventures
Larry.Sharp@ibecventures.com