Christianity and work conference

From their website:

Project Contempo 07 Forum
Date: September 29 (1 to 5 pm)
Location: North Toronto Chinese Baptist Church
Cost: $15 per person

Bosses and colleagues may say, "work smarter; not harder," but the Old Testament offers a different approach: work smarter; work wiser.

• What does it mean to "not lean on our own understanding" at work?
• How does one "fear the Lord" in the office?
• How does one learn to discern and avoid traps on the job?

Join us for the 2007 Contempo Forum on Saturday, September 29th from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and hear Dr. Glenn Smith, Executive Director of Christian Direction in Montreal speak on applying Proverbs to the contemporary workplace. Dr. Smith was a well-received speaker at Urbana 2006, where he presented a seminar on "Managing Your Career in Light of God's Global Mission."

Course evaluation

Thanks to everyone who returned a course evaluation. I've tabulated results below. Thanks also to everyone who attended and participated and thanks for your words of encouragement. I hope our time has helped all of us understand God's will for our work better.

1. Depth of content covered:

not deep enough 1 2 3 4 5 too deep

1:

2: ****

3: **********

4: **********

5:

2. Breadth of material covered for the course subject matter:

too broad 1 2 3 4 5 too shallow

1:

2: *****

3: ***********

4: ********

5:

3. Presentation of the material:

Weak presentation 1 2 3 4 5 strong presentation

1:

2: *

3: **

4: **********

5: *****

4. More guest speakers? Y=14 / N=4

Suggested speakers:

• different industries
• testimonies
• more experienced people at work

5. More time for small group discussions? Y=7 / N (or blank)
• Big group discussion is good too

6. Suggestions for other courses. Check all that apply:

6_ Personal finances

7_ Christian leadership

8_ Office politics

13 Christian ethics

9_ Role of a Christian manager

10 Christian world view of economics and capitalism

8_ Knowing God’s will and our calling

7_ Evangelism and apologetics

7. Suggestions for courses (not work-related). Check all that apply:

12 Book of the Bible studies. Which one(s)? _____________

8_ Bible character studies. Who? Judges_________________

7_ Basic Christian doctrines/ Introduction to systematic theology

12 Dating and marriage

4_ Christian parenting

7_ Small group leaders training & community building

8. Suggestions for any other Sunday School topics:

• Hot topics: gay marriage, abortion, war/defense
• Church history
• World religions
• Current events
• Trinity
• Unconventional missions opportunities

9. Suggested start time: 11:00 am=1; 11:15 am=14; 11:30 am=8

10. Any other comments:

11. Name (optional): ______________________________________

Class survey on work topics

We started the course with a T/F survey of various work-related topics. I asserted that every statement below should be false. Some for surprising but logical theological reasons. Others for subtle interpretation of the statement.

Thanks to all those who returned surveys throughout the course. I've tabulated the results below. The many of you who thought various statements below were true certainly stimulated our class discussion. Thanks.

	T	F
1. Work is a result of original sin.	6	10
2. There will be eternal rest in heaven and no work.	6	10
3. Earthly work is temporal and will not last into heaven.	10	6
4. Pastors have a higher calling.	5	11
5. God does not call us to a “boring” job.	6	10
6. “Tent-makers” haven’t figured out their calling yet.	0	16
7. Vocation is our work outside of church.	4	12
8. Christians at work focus on spreading the “good news”.	5	10
9. Doing well at secular work does not matter to God.	1	15
10. “Protestant work ethic” is incompatible with unions.	2	11
11. Economic progress and political will can solve world hunger.	4	12
12. From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.	9	4
13. Wealth is a blessing from God.	13	3
14. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt 9:24), thus Christians should not be rich.	1	15
15. Tithing is calculated on net income after taxes.	5	9
16. TCBC budget is less than half a million dollars.	7	9
17. Donations to missions and other Christian charities is tithing.	11	5
18. Donations to any charity count towards the tithe amount.	4	13
19. Tithing shows Christian maturity in money management.	9	8
20. Christians do not work for the military nor defense contractors.	0	17
21. Christians do not work for ad agencies selling lingerie.	1	16
22. Christians do not work for tobacco companies.	3	14
23. Christians must be whistle-blowers when they see illegal activities at work.	6	11
24. Christians should not declare bankruptcy.	2	16
25. Christians do not engage in “tax avoidance”.	9	7
26. Christians do not engage in office politics.	2	15
27. Christian businesses should close on Sundays.	9	9
28. Unemployment is a direct message from God about your work.	1	17
29. Christians should form business partnerships with non-Christians to evangelize.	8	10
30. Christian or not, the purpose of a business is to make a profit.	11	5
31. A husband is the head of his household and should strive to earn more than his wife.	2	16
32. Ideally, mothers of small children do not work.	3	15

(I also returned people's survey back to whoever wanted it. Just ask.)

Lunch & last class

Last class will be Sunday April 29 and we will have a lunch in the church basement during the regular class time slot. If you haven't already signed up, please do so.

It's been a pleasure facilitating this class. I've learned a lot about how to relate my faith to my work and I hope everyone has as well.

Thanks to those who did the opening survey as well as the course evaluation at the end. I will be posting those results shortly.

Evangelism

Apologetics is the rational defense of our faith. It's similarity to "apology" is not accidental. Apology is a rational explanation of our actions; saying sorry is secondary. The "ology" is the study of, just like "biology" and "physiology". So apology originally means the study of the rational defense of our faith. "Evangelism" comes from the Greek for "Good News".

Like a good murder mystery, evangelism can be approached in a fun way based on motive, method and opportunity. Our motive is captured in our testimony and our testimony is also the best method of evangelism. Rarely does someone come to the Lord based on an intellectual debate. Personal relationship is key and the so called lifestyle evangelism. Some corporate cultures facilitate friendships but the reality is that most working relationships are professional not personal. So evangelism in the workplace is that much more complex because of that dynamic.

Methods are many. The Four Spiritual Laws, The Bridge and The Roman Road are all good summaries. While the focus is on our testimony and strong relationships, a succinct summary of the Gospel message is needed as well.

Finally, opportunities can be created. We need to find ways to work in our faith into our workday conversations. Discussions of weekend activities, current events or just our lives can be a good way to lead into a conversation on faith.

Our group exercise was to pair off and do one of the following with your partner:

1) Role play a water cooler conversation and work in a discussion about Christianity.
2) Give your testimony.
3) Give an exposition of the Gospel

Unemployment

If we're unemployed we obviously should turn to God. The imprecatory Psalms (e.g. 55:15, 58:6, 69:28, 137:9) are difficult passages of cursing and anger. As applied to unemployment, they give us permission to bring all of our feelings to God, no matter our situation and feelings.

Unemployment should also trigger a review of our calling. It is merely one factor that contributes to the overall determination of God's will. All the other criteria in determining our original calling are still in effect. There's no easy answer; it is possible that unemployment may trigger a change in our understanding of God's calling for us or it may just be a test of our perseverance in pursing our calling without pay. Our calling continues after retirement and thus may offer an alternate perspective on unemployment.

Secular advisors give much the same practical advice as Christian authors would: looking for work is your work, build networks, develop your hobbies and spend time with family and friends. Christian authors add that the extra time should be spent with God either in devotions or in service.

Friends of unemployed are challenged not to make the mistakes of Job's friends and incur God's rebuke in Job 42:7. Sometimes the best that we can do is to simply walk alongside our unemployed friend and offer to meet physical needs. Advice isn't necessary appropriate.

Finally, all of us should prepare for unemployment. In today's economy of multiple employers and even multiple careers, unemployment is a fact of life. Cultivating a good relationship with God and a small support group are things that should be done while employed. Educating family and friends on your employment situation helps them too to prepare for your situation. Certainly a good understanding of our calling beforehand helps. 1 Cor 10:13 prepares us for any trial or temptation that may come.

Special thanks to Ivan for sharing with us his experience with unemployment. May his example and words of encouragement prepare all of his. God can work through all things.

God worked 6 days

Jesus undoubtedly worked weekends and evenings, travelled and was carrying the ultimate pager: a direct line to God. Even historically, work weeks were much longer. The 40 hour work week was a 20th century invention. Finally, God worked 6 days not 5 like us. So why are we so stressed?

One reason, is that we may not understanding our calling and understand that our work is doing God's will for our lives. Our work may not be interesting nor "close to God" but if it is in God's will, we are to do it for God. If our work is for God, we can do so with the assurance that Jesus had in his work. No doubt Jesus had work stresses but he worked with the assurance that what he did was for God. The Tyranny of the Urgent is the classic booklet in managing priorities according to God's will.

Another reason we are stressed is that we may not be working as efficiently and effectively as God intended. We need to ensure that we are acting in God's will in the day-to-day activities of workplace leadership and office politics. As per our previous discussions, these are complex topics with potentially surprising answers. We need to study God's word in this area of our lives and then trust God to give us the wisdom and strength to carry out His will in our work.

Finally, I'd like to suggest we are off balance when we don't know how to rest. Our hobbies and other activities may crowd into our rest time. Worse they may not even glorify God. Without rest in God, even a 40 hour work week may seem very stressful and long.

Our group discussion was to review our individual work/life balance and see how we might help each other achieve that balance.

Good Friday, Easter Sunday and remainder of the course

We took a straw poll and decided we will still have a class this upcoming week on Easter Sunday. So we will start promptly at 11:30 so we can allow people to get to their Easter Sunday activities afterwards. We will wrap up by the end of April as Pastor Nolan will start a new class in May. We will cover at least work/life balance, unemployment and evangelism in the workplace. We also decided we would have another social at the of the course.

A class member has graciously offerred to host a showing of the "Passion of Christ" in his condo party room this Friday at 2 pm. This is in preparation for the Good Friday evening service at our church. Please contact me via email at samwsamw@gmail.com if you're interested.

Ethics and politics

We continued our discussion on ethics and focussed on the political aspects. Interesting office politics inevitably involve an element of an ethical dilemma, otherwise it would be just a simple leadership situation. Few workplace ethical situations have a simple resolution: they invariably involve working with people to resolve. Working with people is office politics and the only Christian response is good Christian leadership. The book, Clever as Serpents: Business Ethics and Office Politics, by Jim Grote and John McGeeney makes this connection with a focus on office politics (and from the slightly different Catholic point of view).

One class member shared about her struggle to motivate department members in a union environment. Her ethical issue is straightforward: whether to intervene in the performance of a subordinate. The harder problem is the political problem of leading that department to greater effectiveness and productivity. It is a very difficult problem in leadership and our prayers are with her.

Ethics

As illustrated by the class taking turns answering "Scruples" questions, ethics can be a complex subject. In terms of approaching ethics in a work setting, it is helpful to separate the problem into an ethical analysis portion and an implementation or response portion. The implementation invariably involves interacting with people. Thus our previous discussions on office politics are critically important in a good response. As before, the response may be thought of as a leadership situation: we want the organization to accept our ethical analysis and thus are providing leadership.

Most books on ethics focus on the analysis portion. There are non-Christian ethical models, the simplest being a "normative" model where what is right is simply what the majority agree upon. There are multiple Christian frameworks for ethical thinking. The ultimate, of course, is the entire Bible. Conversely, a simple one is to go back to our original discussion on the meaning of work and the meaning of life. "To glorify God and to enjoy him forever" can be a basis of ethical behaviour. Other authors will provide a simple checklist; yet others will provide a very complex model for thinking.

The Intervarsity Ministry in Daily Life website provides a three prong ethical model that is a summary of Alexander Hill's book, "Just Business: Christian Ethics for the Marketplace". It asserts holiness, justice and love are the key Christian concepts relevant to ethical thinking. More interestingly, it presents it as a triangular balance of these concepts: holiness in it's extreme is isolating; justice without love is harsh; love needs to be "tough" and not permissive. Because these elements need to be balanced, it provides a richer model for thinking than a simple checklist. At the same time, three items make it simple enough to be remembered. The rest of the class was spent apply this to some sample situations.

(As a side note, while the distinction between "morals" and "ethics" is often blurred, introductory philosophy courses will define morals as the precepts you hold whereas ethics is the study of such precepts.)

Office politics continued

We recapped our definitions of office politics from last Sunday emphasizing the importance of good Christian leadership in resolving complex political situations at the office. We elaborated the importance of communications. Engineers model communications as: source, encoding, the message corrupted by channel noise, decoding and recipient. Proper encoding allows CDs to take scratches without the music being lost. Surprisingly, marketing professionals and advertisers use exactly the same model. Proper phrasing of the message takes into account how the recipient will decode the message so that the right ideas get through.

Conflicts are all too often a result of poor communications and misunderstandings. When the parties understand each other, conflicts can be from differing objectives. Often parties will agree on long-term goals (e.g. make money), but differ on intermediate goals to get there. Secular conflict resolution courses attempt to provide a framework for rationally reconciling such differences. As Christians, it is important to understand the purpose of our work as it relates to God's creation. That can often provide the long-term goals and thus guidance on how to proceed.

Conflicts can also have roots in irrational behaviour; humans are sometimes irrational. Strong communications and political skills take that into account and give room for irrational behaviour. The whole dating process deals with an often irrational behaviour. Dating is political, an act of leadership as well as a sales situation. Christian behaviour in that arena is can be a model for Christian behaviour in the office.

We continued open sharing of political situations at the office. A class member shared a wonderful example of how a senior staff member actively solicited her input to get her to do something. She was, in a sense, manipulated and even recognized it as such. But the process was open and ethical and achieved the active buy-in of all parties. It was an example of good leadership and good politics.

Office politics

"Politics" in the general sense is about governance of society; our politicians are our leaders. Office politics is about how things are done in the office. It is about leadership in the workplace. "Politics" by itself should be a neutral term (just like "diet" and "budget") but it has often taken on a negative meaning unjustly. Every situation in office politics has a solution in better leadership. While many of us may never have formal leadership positions, we will all have to deal with office politics. Every time we want something from someone, that is a leadership situation. At work, interactions are all about wanting something from the other party, if only in a trivial sense. Thus we all need to be leaders all the time.

Many Christian office politics discussions will give a series of practical principles: honesty, integrity, openness, sincere praise, networking, communicate well, keep your word, be fair, stewardship, etc. Given our course curriculum coverage on leadership already, there is nothing further to add: the Christian response to office politics is simply good Christian leadership.

To provoke thought, we looked at the "The 48 Laws of Power", a series of "laws" for office politics. Compared to Machievelli these laws are clearly un-Christian and immoral. The purpose of looking at these laws is to promote critical Christian thinking in our response to these possible workplace situations. We used these situations to solicit real life examples from class members.

Someone shared in how switching jobs she had to earn the trust of the "in group". The advice was to use her understanding of how her work maps to God's creation: excluding staff limits available talent and potentially weakens the project. If she can share this vision, the project strengthens, and her leadership demonstrated.

Disagreements with the boss is common. When corporate culture allows it, direct and open objections are expected. Alliances with peers against the manager for objective reasons can win the respect management.

Matthew 10:16 exhorts us to be both "clever" and "innocent": we can't naively avoid politics but we need to be true to our Christian values.

Study the Bible to do well at work

Is Christian leadership sufficient for leadership in the workplace? We discussed various common workplace behaviours that are clearly non-Christian and concluded that those aren't good leadership behaviours anyways. Someone gave the example of "shoeshining". (BTW, that's the most polite term I've heard for that behaviour!) Yes, that happens at work all too often. However, are there secular management books extolling that virtue or corporate education programs on how to "shoeshine"? No, because no senior executive would tolerate middle and lower management making decisions based on "shoeshining" and it isn't a good leadership skill.

A more interesting suggestion from the class is that Christians tend to be more forgiving. I suggested that well-lead secular organizations encourage appropriate risk-taking and failures are tolerated as part of the training process. The classic management story in this area is the VP who lost a million and was expecting to be fired. When the president "forgave" and was asked why, the response was that the organization just spent a million on the VP's education and wasn't about to let the competition benefit from that. Conversely, I'd like to suggest Christians are sometimes too forgiving. We can't be too forgiving of the person, but we can sometimes be too forgiving of the behaviour.

More bluntly, do Christians finish second because our faith automatically limits our secular "success"? I'd like to suggest no, Christians can lead in a way that's consistent with our faith and still be successful. Bad leadership is bad leadership. In fact, Christian leadership training can sometimes be superior to secular leadership training. Our leadership skills are rooted in Christ and deep character development. Secular leadership can often be surface-level techniques.

Last week we asserted that long term secular success is largely a matter of leadership. This week we concluded that Christian leadership is sufficient for secular leadership. Christian leadership is based on the Bible. Logical transitivity leads to the surprising conclusion that we should study the Bible to do well at work. Hence the subject line of this post. This also illustrates the gracious provision of God: work is ordained by God and He provides the Bible so that we can do well at it. Praise God!

Churches encourage us to do well in many areas of our lives such as marriage and parenting. Given the centrality of work in our calling, the church should likewise help us do well at work. We then brainstormed on how:

• leadership courses (including: gifts surveys, personality types, etc)
• leadership opportunities
• small groups to share frustrations and situations
• mentors

Comments strongly encouraged as this is the basis of a career ministry at church.

Leadership at work

Long term success in the secular workplace is largely a matter of leadership. If you're not already convinced of this from the plethora of secular leadership materials, we looked at 3 lists from a secular emloyer: a hiring checklist, an annual evaluation checklist and a “leadership competency” checklist. What was interesting is how important leadership was to even the most junior employees. There can never be too many leaders in any organization, secular or sacred and Christ calls us to always be leaders, if only to Christ.

Are Christian leadership techniques applicable to the secular workplace? We showed a secular manager's manual that listed the same "leadership styles" discussed last week. Workplace leaders are given the MBTI test. "Open ended questions", "active listening" and other counselling advice is taught at church and work. So yes, clearly Christian leadership techniques are also applicable to the workplace. Our group discussion exercise was to find ways in which our church leadership activities benefit our secular work: on the resume, in the interview or on the job.

The above is just good secular advice that any secular career counsellor would give. The more interesting question from a Christian perspective is whether it OK to apply what we do at church to what we do at work? Many had reservations on "ulterior" motives in church service. If our work is what God called us to do, then there is nothing "ulterior". In previous discussions, we are to work hard and to be properly ambitious in our work. If our church can help us do God's will at work that is a good thing. Phil 1:15-18 goes as far as to suggest that advancement of God's work is sufficient motivation in itself.

Canadian Workplace Conference

Concurrent and co-located with MissionFest Toronto is the Canadian Workplace Conference. While I have never attended the conference (& it's not cheap!) the agenda looks interesting. If any of you end up going, give us a report!

Also, one of our local Christian newspapers, ChristianWeek, has a series on the theology of economics. It reflects some the discussion we had on capitalism.

Leadership course recap handout

TCBC Work Sunday School– Leadership Styles

Type	Slogan	Leader’s modus operandi	Underlying aspect of EQ	Works best when…
Commanding	“Do what I tell you”	Demands immediate compliance	Drive to achieve Initiative Self-Control Change catalyst	In a crisis, for a turnaround, with problem employees
Authoritative	“Come with me.”	Mobilizes people toward a vision	Self-confidence Empathy Change catalyst	When change requires a new vision, or when clear direction is lack
Affiliative	“People come first.”	Creates harmony and builds emotional bonds	Empathy Building relationships Transparency	To heal rifts in a team or motivate people in stressful situations
Democratic	“What do you think?”	Forges consensus through participation	Teamwork Collaboration Building bonds Conflict management	To attain buy-in, consensus, get input from stakeholders
Pacesetting	“Do as I do, now.”	Sets high standards for performance	Drive to achieve Optimism Service	To get quick results from a highly competent and motivated team
Coaching	“Try this.”	Develops people for the future	Developing others Empathy Self-awareness	To help people improve or develop long-term strengths

Type	Slogan	Exemplars	Strengths & Weaknesses
Commanding	“Do what I tell you.”
Authoritative	“Come with me.”
Affiliative	“People come first.”
Democratic	“What do you think?”
Pacesetting	“Do as I do, now.”
Coaching	“Try this.”

Case Study: The Youth Pastor, the Senior Pastor, and the Deacons

A youth pastor (authoritative preference) has come up with some creative but untested ideas to grow his youth group. If these ideas were to be carried out, not only would it lead to tremendous/holistic growth to the youth group, it may even bring a paradigm shift to the whole church. He was eager to share his ideas with his senior pastor, the rest of the pastoral team, and the deacon board. He booked 20 minutes during the next deacon board meeting to share his ideas with the whole group. The night before the meeting he was too excited to sleep. All he could do was to imagine what God would do through these ideas.

During the meeting, his senior pastor (pacesetting preference), and others (which include all preferences) listened to the youth pastor’s hopeful, energetic, spontaneous, and at times sporadic presentation. He truly believed without a doubt that the new ideas would multiply the youth group and also the church exponentially.

After his presentation, he was greeted with questions after questions:

- What are the logical steps in carrying out these ideas?

- How do these ideas link to the overall mission/vision of the church?

- How much resource would these ideas take up?

- How would the youth/congregation feel about all these?

- Etc.

Divide into groups:

Group 1: Outsider’s perspective (impartial observers who do not know preference types)

1. How would you describe the interaction between the two pastors?
2. Is this a typical/unusual situation for most churches?
3. What are possible solutions for this case study?

Group 2: from the youth pastor’s perspective (authoritative preference)

1. How would the youth pastor feel/think after the meeting? Why?
2. How might he present his ideas in order to ensure a better response?
3. What other people in the board (type preferences) could potentially be an ally to him in this?
4. What important ingredients does the youth pastor’s preference type bring to his church?

Group 3: From the senior pastor’s perspective (pacesetting preference)

1. What might the senior pastor feel/think about this presentation? Why?
2. How might the senior pastor help the youth pastor in the presentation?
3. What important ingredients does the senior pastor’s preference type bring to his church?

Group 4: From the deacon’s perspective (all preferences)

1. How would the deacons feel/think about this presentation? Why?
2. Which deacon would relate more to which pastor in this case study?
3. As non-staff leaders, how do the varying preference types of deacons contribute to the church?

Check out http://tcbcleadership.blogspot.com/

Christian leadership

Earlier in this course, we concluded that working hard and being ambitious in our work can be a good thing. In many work settings, long-term success is more about leadership than any specific technical skill; you can't be a VP without leadership skills. We started our discussion on workplace leadership by looking at leadership in a Christian context. Yu-Ling and Jasmine taught an 8-month course on Christian leadership last year and were kind enough to recap it today as special guest speakers.

Their handout is in a separate post.

We then closed with a list of current open leadership opportunities at TCBC:

• TCBC treasurer/accountant (& finance team members)
• Image editor
• Sunday School coordinator (adult, primary)
• softball coaches & governors (minimum 3 each)
• softball tournament organizer
• summer retreat leader (multiple team members to follow)
• small group coordinator
• Sunday School teachers (all ages)
  
• Children’s worship leaders
• A/V team coordinator
• Ushering coordinator
• Nuit Blanche @ TCBC 2007

If you're interested in any of these, don't hesitate to contact me!

Gross or net

We recapped the church vs parachurch as recipients of tithing. The key is if we define tithing to be God's money, we must seek God's will for it. In our session on calling, we concluded that the methodology for determining a calling may be applied to any situation for determining God's will. The methodology includes consulting God's community. If we write a cheque in the privacy of our rooms without prayer or consideration, then it is almost certainly not an example of seeking after God's will. If we seek the full affirmation of God's community: our pastor, our church treasurer, say, then it is very hard for anyone to criticize. That is why the focus has been on the giver and not the recipient. The best way to avoid an apparent conflict of interest is to give up complete control of God's money and give it to our local church.

We had a small group discussion where we shared some of our motivations for giving to non-church groups. Those who felt compelled could share whether they consider that tithing or not; though that is really only encouraged in a personal small group rather than a large Sunday School class.

The topic of gross or net should be approached by remembering the key principle of tithing: it's about the 100% not the 10%. We are simply God's stewards in deciding what to do. So it really depends on the motivation for "deducting": for most, if it is an attempt to minimize what we give then the attitude is wrong. For some, there may be good, legitimate reasons. For example a draft-dodger objecting to a war could hardly tithe on that portion of the tax spent on war.

For the rest of us, the specific answer is found in the idea of giving to God our "first fruits". Prov 3:9, Ex 23:16a, Ex 23:19a. Anything less means we're giving God our second fruits and the government first fruits.

The economic counter argument to the "net" position is that we must tithe on all our increases. So fine, deduct & tithe on net, but remember to tithe on every benefit you receive from tax money or otherwise: the subsidized portion of education, the subsidized portion of TTC, health benefits, work health benefits, expensed lunches at work, red pouches, etc.

We ended the class with 2 Cor 9:6,7. We shouldn't just be a cheerful giver, but a "hilarious" giver.

What counts as tithing?

The secular econcomist concludes that a logical giver should only give to a single charity after careful consideration of the options. This is because if the donations are small, the world hasn't changed after the first donation thus whatever reasons made the first donation valid still applies. Donations to a second charity means the giver is purchasing psychological benefits. (See "Giving your all" by Steven Landberg in Slate Magazine, Jan 11, 1997. Disclaimer: this is a secular article on charitable giving, not a Christian view.)

How does this apply to Christian giving? At the very least we need to carefully examine our motives. We need to answer the rational economist's analysis as well as to God. As an extreme application of this logic, most of us are already giving to our local church first thus we should only give to our local church. While I'm not advocating this extreme position, it certainly forces us to think.

We then looked at the view of churches and para-church organizations. Not surprisingly, churches take a firm stand that tithing is to the local church. (See for example Saddleback's view.) Parachurch organizations do not oppose the primacy of the local church but leave open the possibility of tithing to para-church groups. (See for example, Urbana.) Noted Christian finance author Larry Burkett acknowledges the importance of the local church but also leaves open the possibility of giving to other needs as counting towards tithing.

So a fair summary of the state of this internal Christian debate is that churches assert that only churches should be the recipients of tithing. Para-church groups acknowledge the importance of the church but leave open the possibility that giving to non-church groups may also be considered tithing. I'm not aware of any mainstream group that would give absolute liberty to the giver to pick and choose the recipient and still count that as giving to God. And that, I think, is the key message: if we define tithing as giving to God, we cannot insert ourselves and our motives into that and still claim it's all for God.

The key passages we looked at were Mal 3:10, Neh 10:35 and Deut 12:5,6.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a traditional pulpit view of this topic. Many Christians would only want a Bible-based discussion and rightly so. The economic view and looking at the view of various organizations are illustrations only and clearly should not be viewed as doctrinal statements.

Tithing at TCBC and in the NT

Our church treasurer came into speak to us about the workings of the finance department. It is quite humbling the amount of work that is required to handle all the finances in a relatively large church such as ours and help is always welcomed. We were encouraged to give faithfully (and regularly to help even the annual finances). Thanks to all those who asked some interesting questions.

Matt 5:21-22 & 27-28 teaches that Christianity goes beyond OT legalism. The OT law is not to murder; Christ asks us not to hate. The OT law is not to commit adultery; Christ asks us not to lust. So if the OT teaches us to tithe 10%, what is the New Testatment teaching? The only conclusion I can come to is that all our money is God's. We are to dedicate 100% of our income to God. We are just stewards. This is consistent with our ultimate meaning of life: to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. All of our money is to glorify God, not just the portion we "give back" to Him. To me, how we spend the other 90% of our income is far more challenging than what we give in tithes and offerrings.

We then made the connection between spending and work. Whatever we spend on, someone else is working for it. If we don't think certain work is acceptable to Christians, we shouldn't be spending on that either. Likewise, if we condemn someone else's job, we need to condemn those who spend money on that service. Do Christians drink beer? If so, then there needs to be Christian brewers and breweries. Instead of a hypothetical discussion on what jobs Christians can do, we should have a very practical discussions on how Christians spend money.

The power of tithing

We passed around a calculator and anonymously determined the total amount if everyone in the class faithfully gave 10% of their income. We then divided into small groups where each group was given a church budget and was asked to characterize their church. If everyone in the room gave 10% the amount collected was comparable to many small churches. Are we particularly wealthy? How could such a small group of people give the equivalent of small church budgets? In fact, the amount was about 20% of our church's budget; we don't have 20% of the church attending our class!

Two obvious conclusions: 1) Most people don't give 10% of their income (at least not to TCBC) and more importantly, 2) many people at TCBC don't work (high school & university students; pensioners). This class is part of the "financial backbone" of TCBC. Any group of working people are the financial backbone of any church. Our responsibilities are self-evident.

That a small group of people can financially support a church is not really that surprising: 10 people faithfully tithing can support an 11th person with a full income. If churches typically spend half their income on salaries, 20 people tithing supports a single pastor church. Thirty will support that plus a part-time secretary, janitor and possibly a pastor intern. In other words, 30 working people faithfully tithing are the beginnings of a "mega church".

So why aren't there more small churches if it's so easy? There are issues of commitment and leadership and people just don't want small churches. But I would like to think the real reason is that we don't want to split the church. We ultimately wish to be united in one body.

Promotions & Capitalism

Even though dictionaries list them as synonyms, assertiveness can be thought of as the positive aspects of aggressiveness that meet a rational goal. Aggressiveness simply lashes out and is hurtful. With proper Christian motives, Christians should be assertive in our work, even to the point of asking for promotions.

Promotions should be viewed in terms of the organization's needs. What are the strategic goals, which should align with our Christian calling, that we can better carry out once we receive the promotion? Compare that to the church where there are many roles but only one body in Christ. A holistic view of our secular workplace organization balanced with the stewardship of our skills and alignment with our calling may dictate that from a Christian point of view it is reasonable and good to be promoted. Furthermore, this "Christian" view should be well-received by even secular bosses if our calling is aligned with organizational goals.

Our group discussion was a role play: Ask for a promotion in a Christian way.

A strong work ethic, ambition and assertiveness sounds very much like the foundations of our capitalistic system. While the Bible doesn't support any economic system, biblical principles do support a properly motivated capitalist system. Greed is not Christian and there are many aspects of capitalism is bad. However, Christians who are ambitious for the right reasons can thrive in the capitalist system.

Exodus 20:15 & 17 support the principle of private property rights. Matt 20:15 and Acts 5:4 gives us the freedom and responsibility to manage our own economic activities. Thus "God is a capitalist" is a dramatic (& obviously simplistic) way to highlight our economic responsibilities as a Christian in our world.

Ambition

Ambition is the first of many ambiguous and grey topics we'll be covering. Ambition with the wrong goals and motives can be bad. Ambition, properly motivated, can be holy and consistent with God's calling. Jesus's disciples wanting to sit at the right&left of Jesus (Mark 10:35-45) didn't receive a simple rebuke from Jesus but a thoughtful response on the cost of that ambition.

The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity by Robert Banks and R. Paul Stevens is available online and it includes a good article on ambition. Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People by Keith W. Drury gives a checklist of when ambition might go wrong. (I haven't read the book and thus can't comment on the rest of it.)

1 Thess.4:11 helps us balance contentment and ambition.

For many Christians, especially in their "secular" work, the issue is often lack of ambition. The parable of the talents demands that we are good stewards of our lives and that will often require ambition to fulfill the dictates of stewardship.

Finally, ambition requires planning and planning is another ambiguous area. James 4:13-16 suggests selfish planning isn't good; we must surrender our plans to God. Luke 14:28-32 encourages us to plan. Proverbs 16:3 and 19:21 reiterates that all our plans are under God.

Classes resume this Sunday.

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had some time off from work just as we did from Sunday School. Classes resume this Sunday January 7th, 11:30 am. Per my announcement at the lunch, we will be moving physical location due to a general shuffling of classrooms. I believe we will be on the 3rd floor of 78 Beverley, outside Pastor Nolan's office, but please check the bulletin.

Also, per the announcement at the lunch, we will be starting our ambiguous and controversial topics (if we haven't already!) For those interested, we will be having a brief time of prayer at 11 am in preparation for some of these topics.

Next class: Dec 17, 2007 - Christmas party

We voted last week that the Sunday December 17 class, next Sunday, will be a Christmas lunch. We passed around a sign-up list and took a collection of $5/person in class today. If you haven't RSVP'd yet, please contact myself or Alicia. Class is cancelled Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

Hope to see everyone next Sunday for an informal time of fellowship.

Why tentmakers are arrogant

Consider someone who has the ability to earn a $50K/yr salary but chooses instead to be a tentmaker. This person only works half-time and can live on $25K. This is classic tentmaking. However, if instead this person earns the full salary and gives away half, someone else can live on $25K and work full-time in ministry instead. Since the tentmaker only can minister half-time, the tentmaker must be twice as good to be just as effective as the person who ministers full-time. Thus tentmakers are arrogant to think they are so good at ministry.

The point of this illustration isn't an exercise in micro-economic theory. We all must be good stewards of our income. Sometimes, God just wants us to work hard. To paraphrase Spiderman, with great earning power comes great responsibility. Likewise, the tentmaker must carefully examine his or her motives and truly understand God's calling.

Calling & work ethic

We continued our discussion on calling and clarified that while there is only a single calling for all, that does not mean we all do the same things. It's one body with many parts. While a pastor may have different responsibilities, we are all equal before God.

The idea that there is only one calling is one of the points of the Reformation and has implications beyond work. If we are all called, we can all approach our God directly without the need for special priests. Conversely since work is equally holy to God, secular work (i.e. tending to creation) is not a second class endeavour. We are to treat creation, i.e. the environment, with as much care as we treat our "Christian" work.

Our main group discussion question was "What is your calling and how do you know?" The emphasis is on the "how do you know"? As most of us are likely to be living within the will of God, the struggle is in knowing God. Just like school, the answer itself of what is our calling is only worth part-marks; we need to show our work on how we got the answer. Furthermore, the elements of a calling are in essence elements of knowing God's will. We concluded the same process applies to major life decisions such as marriage or moving.

After her visit last week, Tanya received that week from her seminary this newsletter on calling. Very appropriate for our discussion.

We then discussed how if work is part of our calling, we must work hard. This is the root of the so-called "Protestant work ethic". Verses exhorting us to work hard are available on request. It is important to have a balanced view of the work ethic and we disussed some of the limitations.

One test of whether we are working hard enough is to take money out of the equation. Do we work as hard as we did when we were in school and weren't paid? Do we work harder when we get a pay increase or prospects of a promotion?

In a separate post I'll summarize "Why tentmakers are arrogant" as a application of work ethic and the understanding of our calling.

Calling

We brainstormed on what it means for a pastor to be called into ministry. Elements of a calling that were jotted down on the blackboard were:

• Scripture
• Affirmation of our community
• Circumstances
• Personal gifts, passions and experiences
• Rarely, special visions or "fleecing" (Judges 6:36-40)

We had Pastor Tanya as a special guest. She shared how her calling came about. With her help we clarified the points on the blackboard.

How does a pastor's calling relate to us working folks? We concluded that there is a single calling applicable to all. The implications and applications are obvious.

The original definitions of the words "profession" and "vocation" are rooted in our Christian faith. We looked at Eph 4-6 and Rom 1:1-7 which showed all are called. 1 Cor 7:20 asserts our calling is for our current situation and thus implicitly states we don't have to all be pastors to fulfill our calling.

Meaning of work

The meaning of work has to be discussed in the larger context of the meaning of life. Non-Christian views on the meaning of life may be crudely summarized as nihilistic (no meaning), scientific/biological, or humanist.

Christian views invariably are based on our relationship with God and there are various good summaries. Purpose Driven Life; Mark 12:29-31; Eccl 12:13b are all good summaries. I personally like the Shorter Catechism of Westminster, which asks "What is the chief end of man?" and responds with "To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever". This is a concise summary of the meaning of life.

The meaning of work then logically follows. Our group discussion question, especially in light of John 17:4, was:

• How does your work “glorify God” and help you “enjoy Him”?

The word "glorify" in the above implies worship. Work is worship. Rom 12:1, John 4:21, Col 3:17, 1 Cor 10:31 all affirm that. Furthermore, the Hebrew word "avodah" means both "work" and "worship". Benedictine monks lived their motto, "ora et labora", "pray and work".

Work in heaven & earth

We discussed whether there is work in heaven. Since God worked and there was work in the Garden of Eden, the logical conclusion is that there will be. Furthermore, the following passages also suggest that:

• John 14:2b
• Rev 22:3b
• Is 65:21
• Is 65:23
• Rev 7:15

Does work on earth last into heaven? We don't know if the physical work itself will, but as most work impacts people and there will be people in heaven, the effects of work will last. The key passage is 1 Cor 3:13-15.

The main group discussion question was:

• No matter what it is, your daily work should have eternal significance. How would you explain why your work is important to God?

Origins of work

We looked at the biblical origins of work. The key passage was Genesis 1&2. We discussed:

• God worked & declared his work to be "good"
• Adam & Eve worked before the fall & work is an intrinsic part of our image of God
  
• The Fall made work difficult
• Salvation redeemed work and we should follow Col 3:22-24
  

The group discussion questions were:

1. How significant is it that work was not invented by man, but has its origin in God? How does this make you think differently about your work?
2. Relate your own work to God’s purpose in creation

John Stott, Issues Facing Christians Today, p162, defines work as: "The expenditure of manual and mental energy in service which brings fulfillment to the worker, benefit to the community and glory to God."