Malyon Workplace

Embracing vocation in the city – a talk from Amy Sherman

Amy Sherman is the author of ?Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good, a brilliant exploration of what it means to use the gifts God has given us in bringing the kingdom of God to bear, hear and now. ?Read more here.

In this video (17.08),?She encourages churches to invite all their members in joining God’s mission of restoring all creation through using their vocations.

Firstly, she?explores the meaning and practical implications of Proverbs 11:10 (When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy) as a context for her discussion of the key idea of?vocational stewardship:

The strategic, intentional deployment of all the dimensions of our vocational power to advance foretastes of the kingdom of God.”

 

Sherman argues that this understanding is fundamental to the mission of the church and provides three examples of what this might mean if taken seriously:

  • Bloom where you are planted: “We need to call our people to live missionally in and through their vocation, right where they are right now – in the positions they are in now, in the firm they are in now, in the vocational sector they are in.”
  • Support social entrepreneurs: “for too long we have been asking our bankers and engineers and our architects for their ‘can goods’ and we need to be asking them for their vocational insights and networks and power.”
  • Gather guilds for targetted initiatives: “We can gather people together within their profession … and get them thinking about ways in which together as educators or as business people or as lawyers they could attack particular problems in the community.

At Malyon Workplace, we resonate strongly with the first of these ideas – encouraging Christians to ‘bloom where they are planted, helping them to see their workplace as a frontline for living out their faith day by day.

Kingdom Calling ? Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good (Amy Sherman)

$T2eC16dHJIQE9qUHuE5pBQKNLcpcFw~~_35[1]Amy Sherman provides an important addition to the expanding library of materials that look at issues of integrating faith and work, and what it means to not just be a ?called out? people but a ?sent back? people ? sent to partner God in his redemptive mission in the world (see p.12).

Sherman starts with the theological foundations ? ?What does a rejoiced city look like?, she asks.? ?What do the righteous look like?? Why are we not like that??? Those familiar with Tim Keller?s writing and his focus on culture and city will find much that is familiar here but from a more focussed?workplace perspective.

Part 2 considers ?Discipling for Vocational Stewardship? (Integrating work and faith, Inspiration, Discovery, Formation) and Part 3 looks at ?Pathways of Vocational Stewardship? (deploying vocational power though four different avenues).

Check out the?Vocational Stewardship website?for additional information and resources (includes a download of Chapter 2)

One?reviewer?concluded as follows:

The book confronts us on various levels. It asks the individual to deal with his or her personal character issues because each believer serves as a representative of God?s Kingdom of righteousness in this world. It challenges every disciple to respond to the Holy Spirit?s call to develop his or her own vocational stewardship: to find out how they can use their platform, their networks, their influence, their position, their skills, and their reputation/fame to promote the common good. Kingdom Calling challenges pastors (the main targets of the book) to reexamine their ecclesiology and to refocus their task to the ultimate purpose of ?equipping the saints for the work of the ministry? (Eph. 4:11-12). It also challenges those of us in the theological academy to ensure that we are faithfully and adequately training future pastors and missionaries to promote the sub-title of the book: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good!

I would suggest that Sherman?s Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good is a significant contribution to counter global spiritual unemployment.