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One would hardly need to do much more supplemental preparation to lead a group through the material.Ī few minor points in the book gave me pause. The Leader’s Guide adds a “Lesson Overview” for small groups (complete with times!) and “Bible Conversation,” a guided tour (with ready-made questions) through relevant biblical passages that ground the topic at hand. For example, of image-bearing he asks, “How can Jesus’s work and presence in your life affect your own fears, expectations, desires, and goals?” (41) With this in mind the worker is more confident in his or her identity as image-bearer of God.īoth the Leader’s Guide (pictured and hyperlinked at left) and the Participant’s Guide (pictured and hyperlinked up top) have a “Big Idea” introducing the lesson. But in our partnership with God (Creator, Provider, and Redeemer), the Gospel calls us to several roles: image-bearers (lesson 4), imitators (lesson 5), bond-servants (lesson 6), stewards (lesson 7), ambassadors (lesson 8), and messengers (lesson 9).Īlexander offers guidance and asks questions to help the reader think through each of these roles, which build on each other. We are flawed and so either pretend or perform at work, if we’re not careful (lesson 3). Our jobs (whether inside the home or outside it) turn a mirror on our hearts, motivations, and idols (lesson 2). Vocation is discipleship, in other words, and the workplace is one of a few “chief laboratories of the gospel” (65).
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“Work” for Christians moves from being “a daily grind” to the locus of God’s work and presence, that space where we live out our faith (14). If “vocation” is an imposing word or concept, Alexander helps demystify it. The book’s first exercise inspiringly calls for the reader to “jot down how your work reflects aspects of God’s work” (12).
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A biochemist, for example, is a provider because she or he says, “I help in harvesting and/or restoring of natural resources” (11). Alexander is at his best in offering specific examples of each of these kinds of work. We, too, as participants in this work, create, provide, and redeem (10). Having lain the foundation of work as partnership with God, Alexander addresses God’s work as Creator, Provider, and Redeemer. Work is, ultimately, “a partnership with God” (10). The “ vocation or calling of those who live by faith” is that “even the simplest tasks we perform by faith become acts of worship reflecting God’s character and ways” (8). What is work? Alexander says, “Work from a biblical point of view is whatever activity a believer pursues in the sight of God, for the glory of God, to the benefit of others” (3). Through a combination of biblical study, good theology, practical application, and hands-on exercises, Alexander’s book is capable of helping any Christian living out faith at work. It will help you see how Jesus’s work for you applies to the work you do every day” (1). Alexander says, “This study is a tool to help you build a bridge from your personal faith to your work. The Gospel-Centered Life at Work is “about the spiritual dynamics of work and life and how God uses our work in the lifelong process of making us more like Christ.” Robert W.