Malyon Workplace

Competition? ?I always want to win?

?The trouble with the rat race is that even when you win you?re still a rat? ?Lily TomlinGJH PIC March12 b

Introduction

Is competition God?given, and therefore fundamentally good? ?Or a result of the fall and therefore fundamentally bad, or somewhere in-between? To what extent are you motiv
ated by your competitive instincts in your workplace? Like ambition, competitiveness can be a very positive Christian quality when it channels the drive to fulfil our God-given potential to be creative, to serve, to step out in faith. It can also be very bad when it leads to self-obsession, self-aggrandizement and self-promotion. [Read more…] about Competition? ?I always want to win?

Monday Matters – Interview with Mark Bilton by CPX

Work, in one form or another, takes up a large chunk of our lives. Does Christian faith have anything to say to our experiences of success and fulfilment – or of boredom and failure – at work?

Mark Bilton has been a CEO and director of several multinational companies, and has won awards for his work as a ?change catalyst?.?He is also the founder of Called to Business, an organisation that helps people think about the role of faith in the workplace, and the author of Monday Matters: Finding God in Your Workplace

Click here to see his interview with the Centre for Public Christianity. [Read more…] about Monday Matters – Interview with Mark Bilton by CPX

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

The Gospel at WorkIt 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)

The Gospel at Work – the King’s purposes in our work (Chapter 4)

The Gospel at WorkAcknowledging that we are working for the King is one thing but the question remains, “What is the purpose of our work?

Chapter 4 of?The Gospel at Work?(TGaW) explores multiple biblical perspectives with six motivations/purposes suggested:

  1. Work to love God: This is in obedience to loving God with all our heart, soul and mind (Matt 22:37, Ephesians 6:5-7). ?Whole-hearted work should be a mark of the follower of Jesus. [Read more…] about The Gospel at Work – the King’s purposes in our work (Chapter 4)

Discipleship in the marketplace – Edmund Chan

edmundchanEdmund Chan is coming to speak at the Queensland Baptist’s annual convention in April 2015. ?Great to see he is already well tuned into the missional opportunities in the marketplace as outlined in this article.

In summary, Chan identifies three?paradigm shifts that need to take place for the marketplace movement to flourish:

1. ?From marketplace to mission -??Where do the MAJORITY of men and women spend the MAJORITY of their time interacting with the MAJORITY of the lost world?” At church? NO. In the neighbourhood? No. It is in the workplace. It is the place where most Christians spend most of their time.?? [Read more…] about Discipleship in the marketplace – Edmund Chan

Ambition – Catherine de Fontenay

In this honest, and at times amusing video (16:37), Associate Professor of Economics Catherine de Fontenay reflects on being a Christian and ambition in the workplace.

 

 

The Gospel at Work – Idleness in Work

The Gospel at WorkChapter 2 of The Gospel at Work explores the second way that we can experience work (having explored work as an idol in Chapter 1)

Whereas idolatry is an over-identification with work, idleness is an under-identification with our work: We care too little about it and find ourselves being idle in our work.?

Here’s a few ways that we can fail to recognise God’s purposes in our work, e.g.

  • We see Christian work as what we do at church
  • We regard work as a necessary evil to endure so we can support the work of the church?
  • We regard ordinary work is not our true calling
  • We work to live not live to work – work gets in the way of real life