Tag: work

Pastor, Involve Your Wife in Your Job Search

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Are you a pastor? Or are you married to one? Then you’ll benefit from a book I had the privilege of contributing to, Benjamin Vrbicek’s Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church.

When my husband and I got married, he was pastoring middle- and high-school students at our church. He loved his job and was excellent at it––but we knew the end was near. He had agreed to work in this role for five years, at which point he wanted to become a preaching pastor.

We hoped and prayed this would happen at the same local church, but only God knew.

Through many unknowns, we started discussing the possibilities. Would God direct us to stay somehow? Would he have us elsewhere near our home? Or would he call us to pick up everything and move across state lines?

After about a year of waiting, we got the call: We were staying at the same church, in a different role. Hallelujah! But the waiting was intense, and it stretched and grew our marriage in a unique way.

Pastor, as you begin (or continue) your job search, know that your wife desires to be involved. She knows you better than anyone, will speak truthfully, and wants what’s best for you. The following are five ways my husband involved me during our season of searching and waiting––and I hope they’ll be helpful to you.

Through Commitment

As husbands and wives are joined in the covenant of marriage and united in Christ, one spouse’s calling means both spouses must be called. In other words, your wife should have peace and clarity about the jobs you’re looking at and pursuing, especially when it comes to decision time.

My husband always reminds me that “we’re in this together.” No, I may not be preaching on Sundays or pastoring the flock, but I’m one with him, so any job search needs to be a united effort and decision. Your devotion to your wife extends even to this.

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Your Work Matters

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Today’s article is pulled from the archives in honor of Labor Day.

For the past six weeks, I’ve been engaged in a leadership course for The Orchard Network, focusing on doctrine, life and skills according to the Bible and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our second session last week was on work. That’s right. Work. That thing we find ourselves occupied with for the majority of our days, weeks, months and years. That labor we put forth when we’re not at home, being social (though work can be social!), serving in church, or interacting elsewhere.

The session was simply titled “Work Matters.”

Work must be significant because of the amount of time and energy it demands. By its very nature it should make us curious as to why it’s so all-encompassing, and how we can make the most of it.

I will seek to respond to our three “homework” questions, while also phrasing them for you, so that you can equally get thinking about the work God has you doing.

The three questions are:

How can I reflect in my work that I’m made in the image of God?

Where are you creating and inventing?

My work as a Content Strategist and Manager is extremely creative–literally! I’m constantly designing graphics, writing, brainstorming ideas and content, planning marketing campaigns, and dreaming about how things could look on the web.

While it’s quite easy for me to see how my work is creative, I’d imagine some of you reading this are scratching your heads. Perhaps you don’t feel like your work is creative at all. But any time you innovate and find a new way to make a process more effective, whether its teaching your children obedience in a fresh way or helping a customer determine the most delicious combination for their dinner order, you are exercising the creativity of the Creator. If this isn’t clear to you right now, ask God to help you see where you are bearing his image in this way.

Where are you bringing what was once formless into order?

Because my job did not exist prior to my hiring, everything was new at first. There was a boatload of vision to dive into, a job description to understand and expound upon, and a never-before-established pattern of work to execute every week. And what I’ve come to realize is that no two weeks look the same, so God is giving me the chance to consistently bring tasks and projects into order.

What about you? How are you bringing what was once formless into order through your work? Another way to think about this is, “What problems are you solving?”

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Is It Right for Christians to be Ambitious?

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Can Christians be ambitious in a way that is pleasing to God? Or is all ambition purely selfish?

Allow me to lay down some context for the above questions by simply saying this: The pursuit of glory is a never-ending battle between the Spirit and the flesh, and it is a part of the human experience.

For example, in one minute I’ll have a burning desire to use the gifts God has given me in a way that is honoring to him, and it is utterly clear to me that my desires are solely for the spread of his fame. But in the next minute, my thoughts will have turned 180 degrees to my own self-glory: If I use this gift, what will people think? Will I get recognized if I work hard? Will the outcome of this effort be in my favor?

In Paul’s very appropriate (and true) words,

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. (Romans 7:21-23)

Captivity? Yes. A war being waged? Absolutely. My guess is that you know this glory-battle well. In fact, I would not believe you if you claimed you had never struggled with it! The fall of mankind into sin (Genesis 3) was a result of this very battle between the flesh and the Spirit, between “the law of God” and the “law of sin,” so it only makes sense that we would continue to struggle with it to this day.

Now that we’ve pinpointed the problem, what do we do about it? What does the Bible say about Christians being ambitious?

Let’s learn from the story of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra (Acts 14). We are told that the apostle Paul has just healed a lame man, crippled from birth, with the Spirit-empowered words, “Stand upright on your feet.” Imagine that you are a bystander in the crowd and, before your very eyes, a lame beggar immediately becomes well. Amazing! Astonishing! You would hardly believe what you were seeing, and you would immediately assume that Paul had spiritual forces working on his behalf.

This is exactly what is happening in Acts 14. Seeing this miraculous episode, the crowds begin to worship Paul and Barnabas as Greek gods, calling them Zeus and Hermes (v12).

But notice the response of the apostles:

“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them. (Acts 14:15-18)

This account teaches a life-transforming truth about how believers are to examine their pursuits: When the mercy and grace of Christ as revealed in the gospel is our primary focus, then his glory, not our own, will be our ambition.

So when the glory-battle arises within our flesh, we can use these three questions, formed from Acts 14, to redirect our focus to the grace and mercy of Christ… READ MORE

[Post Credit: Crosswalk]