Book Review Archives - Malyon Workplace

The Gospel at Work ? How do I handle difficult bosses and co-workers? (Chapter 7)

It would be hard to imagine any worker who has not been confronted with the issue of a difficult boss or a challenging co-worker. ?No wonder the authors?of?The Gospel at Work?(TGaW) devote a chapter to this pervasive workplace issue.

I once had a boss (in a parachurch organisation) who would regularly say, “It’s the people things that kill.”??We can write reports, hammer nails, iron shirts, analyse spreadsheets, design solutions all day. ?But often the greatest stressor in the workplace is the people we work with or for – they just don’t seem to see the world the way we do!

So it is just a little jarring when two paragraphs into Chapter 7, Traeger and GIlbert ?observe that,?‘The difficulty we?perceive?with our?co-workers?or bosses or employees?often?doesn’t have as much to do with them as it does with us.” [Read more…] about The Gospel at Work ? How do I handle difficult bosses and co-workers? (Chapter 7)

Gospel Centred Work – small group studies from Tim Chester

Well known author and pastor Tim Chester has put together an excellent resource for small groups wanting to explore what it means to be God’s person in the workplace. ?

Or as Chester puts it, ‘… if we are to be gospel-centred people living gospel-centred lives then we need to think through what gospel-centred work involves. What does?it mean to live for Jesus in the workplace? We need to connect Sunday morning to Monday morning.’

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

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.