The Gospel Works Podcast

For thousands of years, humans have striven for the knowledge and the power necessary to shape their world to their desires, while trying to protect their privacy and autonomy from others. Big Data and the AI revolution are combining to change the world. It is possible to know more and do more in the world, and for the world to know you, and influence you, more than ever before. In episode 17, which is a bit heavy, we discuss how we, as believers, have to wrestle theologically with issues of power, control, knowledge, and freedom in this new world. 

Join us as we talk with Lance Blount about the world of auto repair, how God prepared him for that work through Campus Crusade and 20 years in the military. Lance adds a new dimension to being a follower of Jesus as a business owner as he talks about trust, honesty, grace, and having a high view of every person that you interact with. 

Working on Wisdom (WoW) is an attempt at a shorter-form series within The Gospel Works podcast, where we examine how the book of Proverbs speaks to ordinary work and ordinary workers. In this episode, we will look at 3 proverbs that talk about when work becomes worthless. And that's something worth thinking about. 

Join us for a great interview with Ryan Doyle of Intrepid Wholesale. He's got a great story about starting a regional grocery wholesale business, and there's a lot to learn about what it's like to start your own business and what God can do through it. 

We've talked about uncertainty, risk, and work. In episode 13, we make dealing with uncertainty practical as we discuss how AI and robots might affect the future of work, and what to do now given that nobody knows how it is all going to work out.

Last episode, we discussed the necessity of uncertainty (and therefore risk) in God's divine order, and how that makes faith a necessity for living in God's universe. In this episode, we discuss how wisdom is God's complement to faith, and how our view of risk has changed across the ages. We also dive in to cognitive biases, and how wisdom and faith in Jesus should reorder believer's view of risk in the workplace and in all areas of life. 

We have spent a lot of time talking about making decisions, but decisions are not made in an emotional vacuum, and they are definitely not made with complete or perfect information. In episode 11, we discuss the necessity of uncertainty (and therefore risk) in God's divine order. We do not know everything, and what we do know is often wrong. Then we'll talk about how faith is a necessity for living in God's universe, not just because of the Fall but because we are not God.  

Last episode, we discussed the necessity of judgment at work, and promised to give you some tools for exercising judgment. In episode 10, we will discuss two different perspectives to use when making judgments, and how they impact the way that we work and the way that we share our faith. Trigger warning: we do discuss math in this episode, but if you can make it through that, the payoff is worth it.

Knowing may be half the battle, but making the right decision based on that knowledge is at least as important. In today's episode, we investigate the necessity of judgment at work. It is a risky, but unavoidable consequence of our God-given gift to pursue wisdom and make meaningful decisions.

We've talked about making wise decisions in faith, but how are we supposed to learn how to be wise and follow Jesus at work? Should we choose our default: online lectures, books, sermons, or whatever? Or is there another way? In this episode, we will discuss some of the different kinds of knowing, and how knowledge has changed over the centuries. We'll also look at Jesus's "minimum requirements" for learning in Matthew 7, and how those get played out in the early church in 1 Timothy. We'll end with an ode comparing pastors, not to a summer's day, but to a sweaty PE coach. It'll change your life. 

Finally, after all the prologue, we get to have a real life conversation with a real life believer who works.  We have Keith Philippi, retired founder of a precious metals company. We have a great conversation about what it was like working in the 1970s, how coming to faith as an adult changed his business, and what he is doing now working 40 hours a week for the Boys Ranch of New Mexico in retirement. 

We've travelled a long way together in our discussion of work and theology and wisdom. But some of the material may have been novel or controversial. Is it true? In this episode, we are going to talk some about a field of special interest for me, the history of biblical translation. We are going to take a hard look at some common objections to the wisdom view held by faithful people who are reading a version of the Bible that they do not understand well. If you have ever stumbled over "lean not on your own understanding" this episode is for you. Even better, we are also going to take a deep dive into 1 Corinthians 7 where the Apostle Paul spends an entire chapter helping believers think through some of the most important decisions of their lives. 

We've talked about making wise decisions in faith, and we've debunked the sacred secular divide. But how are we really supposed to figure out what to do with our lives? Isn't full-time ministry really where God wants us, and isn't regular work or homemaking or whatever God's second best for my life? In this episode, we will go through these kinds of normal questions. We will discuss calling in the context of 1 Peter 2 and the priesthood of all believers. We'll look at the "sacredness" of all work in the Thessalonian epistles. We will also have a nice discussion on how to find work if God isn't whispering the answer in your ear and you don't get extra credit for going into the ministry. Hint: Wisdom is involved.

You may be a theologian, but that knowledge does not translate into making wise decisions. What are you supposed to do now?  In this episode, we show how theology (or "the fear of God") is the beginning of wisdom, but it is not the end. If you think that biblical wisdom mostly involves on waiting for further instructions from the Lord, this is the episode for you. We demonstrate that this view undermines our God-given responsibility to live and to work and to make meaningful choices. We also outline a framework for understanding biblical wisdom, borrowing heavily from Garry Friesen's classic Decision Making and the Will of God.  

Work is not a curse or a cross that we must bear. It is God's good gift, even when it feels disconnected from our faith. Are you just getting by at work? Are you trying to follow Jesus but don't know how? Have you searched your Bible in vain for references to "meetings", "salary scale", "evaluation", or "hostile environment"? Is work only spoken about in vague generalities at your church, and is money only mentioned when it is requested? If so, then this podcast is for you. Work is part of God's plan for the transformation and redemption of the world, and we, and our world, are the poorer if we ignore it.   The Gospel Works is a podcast for workers who try to follow Jesus. Scripture speaks about work broadly—schoolwork, housework, volunteer work, professional labor, and ministry alike—and we take that breadth seriously. We discuss how the Bible applies to real work issues with  regular people. Thoughtful conversations, in-depth looks at the Word of God, and more than a few jokes. Join us as we journey together to reclaim work as the good gift that God intends it to be.

We have seen that work is God's gift to humans, but it is influenced by the curse, and by the redeeming work of God. So what are we supposed to do about it?  In this episode, we are going to discuss our secret identity as ... theologians. You may not know this yet, but you are a theologian, just like every other human being you will ever meet. To live, you have to think about where we come from, and what life means, and why we are here. You may be good at that, you may not be, but everyone is a theologian. It's the human condition.   But theology may not mean what you think it does. We outline 4 traps that many theologians fall into. They lead to bad theology, and therefore to a hard life. We'll also set our sights on the albatross of the Christian faith: the sacred secular divide.  

In Episode 1, we saw that work was part of God's good design in Creation and in the eternal kingdom. But it sure does not feel that way right now!   In this episode, we turn to Genesis 3 and the entrance of sin into the world. Work comes under the curse, but it remains a good gift. We explore how frustration, futility, injustice, and exhaustion shape our experience of work, and why both over-identifying with work and despising it miss the biblical diagnosis. Then we look at how God, both through common grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ, is redeeming work in this world and using it for transformation until Christ returns.   Understanding how sin distorts work helps us name what has gone wrong and prepares us to undertake the difficult task of confronting it in the name of Jesus.    

In episode 1, we begin by asking "What is God's perfect design for work?" Everything in our experience tells us that work is a mixed bag at best. Are we just trying to make the best of an unavoidably bad situation? Or is work more like marriage - a God-given gift that is unavoidably influenced by sin? That decision makes a big difference in the way that we approach work theologically!  We start in Generis and look at the role of human work in the Garden of Eden and then we move into the Prophets to take a glimpse at how work might look after Jesus returns and establishes the kingdom of God. We want to understand what purpose that humans (and our work) play in this beautiful universe that God made for us to live in without looking at the complications that emerge because of sin. We'll also do a little foundation building: defining work biblically and putting work and rest together to help us understand work in context.