Joy at Work: Where does that idea come from?

Keith Starcher
DayStar Consulting, Inc.

The last few Weekly Insights have considered thoughts from Dennis Bakke’s book Joy at Work.  One might wonder where the author obtained these ideas?  In his postscript, Bakke reveals the answer to this question—the Bible. (The postscript is available as a PDF document at http://www.dennisbakke.com/pages/Postscript)

Bakke suggests that our work and our faith come into alignment if we keep this in mind:

1.      As part of seeking holiness and honoring God, we are called both to steward resources to serve people’s physical needs and also to spread the story of redemption and the other teachings of Jesus.  There is little evidence that God considers work related to the Great Commission a higher calling than the work of managing His creation.

2.      Clergy and others who are set apart to share Jesus Christ and His message of salvation by grace alone are obviously important in God’s design for the world.  However, their calling does not automatically rank higher than the work of farmers, artists, teachers, factory workers, etc.

3.      Being called to work in a “secular” organization is no better or worse than being called to work in a church, a para-church organization (e.g., Habitat for Humanity), or an institution run by Christians. 

4.      If I see my work as a mission for God, my attitude and behavior at work are likely to change in a markedly positive way.

Wow!  No wonder Dennis Bakke has been taking “some heat” from the clergy.  But when I first read the above four points, my heart was glad.  I only wished someone would have shared these ideas with me when I first started my career in business.  For example, after I graduated from Penn State in 1973 with a B.S. in Metallurgy, I worked for Westinghouse as a metallurgical engineer for about three years.  But then I left Westinghouse to work full time for our church and Christian school (as the business administrator) because I felt that for me to please God, I needed to be a full time worker in His church.  That job lasted less than three years as I soon realized that God did not need to call me into “full time ministry.” I had been in His full time ministry even when I worked at Westinghouse!

Bakke continues to support his Joy at Work ideas by considering how God paused at each step of the Creation process to pronounce His work “good.”  The joy He found in both the process and the extraordinary results is obvious.  God enjoyed working. 

Jesus reminds us of God’s enjoyment of work in the parable of the talents in Matthew 24:14-29.  Bakke states that this parable “reinforces my interpretation of the purpose of work.  It helps support my conclusion that the purpose of business and other man-made institutions is to steward resources with a goal of creating products and services beneficial to people.”

Bakke also declares that the parable of the talents “reminds me that stewardship is more about the eight to ten hours a day I work at the office than it is about the two hours a week I volunteer at the church or at another not-for-profit organization.” 

Note also that in the parable all the stewardship decisions were delegated to the servants.  The linkage between joy and decision making is obvious.  Joy at work is possible if we invest our talents as God intended.  Or as the Olympic runner Eric Liddell said in the movie Chariots of Fire, “When I run, I feel His pleasure.”   

Going back to the book of Genesis, what do you think Adam and Eve did to occupy themselves in the Garden of Eden before the Fall?  Genesis 2:15 states, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”  We call the Garden of Eden “Paradise,” and so it was.  And one of the reasons it was paradise involves the fact that there was meaningful work to do that was rewarding and fulfilling and brought glory to God.   

The Fall really messed things up regarding “joy at work,” but there is good news—Christ provided redemption.  And this includes our work as well.  Any person who has been regenerated by our Living Lord can approach his/her work as God designed it from the beginning.  And part of his design for work is that we work to use the resources of the created world to serve our needs and the needs of others.  And although the Scriptures don’t promote managing people as resources, the Bible does promote servant leadership where leaders serve the people they lead.  The bottom line: God intends our daily work to be a substantial part of our service to Him. 

If you and I believe this, then one of the things we can do to respond today is to begin to pray fervently and regularly for our daily work and the daily work of other Christians who serve in the marketplace.  Each of us needs this prayer support as we steward God’s resources and impact others for His kingdom while we meet with customers, deal with upset employees, read financial reports, etc.  Our work is our calling.   We will be held accountable by God for our work.  Thus, we need each other’s prayer support. 

Perhaps one of the most important roles of the local church is helping people discover the work that God has planned for them and then empowering them to perform that work in a manner that serves others and pleases God.   

Bakke closes his postscript by saying, “Business and other secular work can be seen as both a mission (to help people in practical ways) and a mission field.  We can serve God by working effectively in a world that is hostile (or at least indifferent) to His existence and to His message.   

Well, there it is.  Your work and my work matter to God.  My work at Geneva College and through DayStar Consulting are vehicles through which God may use me to bless others and bring glory to Himself.  I am not alone in this.  God wants to help you as well—so that you may have joy in your work as you bless others through your work.   

What do you think?  Does this Weekly Insight make sense to you?  If you’d like to share your thoughts with me, please send me an email at keith@daystarconsulting.com.

Keith

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