Advancing the stories and ideas of the kingdom of God.
What does Sunday liturgy look like when it celebrates vocation?
Using Psalm 90 as an example of a benediction that affirms work, Tom discusses the importance of bringing Monday into Sunday and affirming the vocations of all congregants rather than labeling some forms of work (e.g. ministry) "higher" than others.
From age 12 to 30, Jesus spent time in a carpenter shop. What does that mean for us?
From age 12 to 30, Jesus spent time in a carpenter's shop. What does that mean for us? Tom Nelson highlights the importance of the fact that Jesus spent most of his time on earth working – creating, shaping and fixing with his hands. The magnitude of Jesus' "hidden years" serves to remind us that work most certainly matters.
“Vocation is at the heart of it.”
According to Genesis 2:15, work is fundamentally contribution rather than remuneration. Through an examination of the creation story, Tom discusses "an integral God, who has an integral creation, who places humankind within that to accomplish a purpose of cultivating and keeping creation."
We have an integral God who is an integral worker.
Exploring Genesis 1-2, Tom discusses how humans are integral – and not an afterthought – to God's design and are to follow God's model of work in both productivity and procreativity.
We must understand the centrality of a robust theology that informs our lives and vocations.
In this segment, Tom encourages all of us – not just those in ministry – to approach life and work with a robust theology that is grounded in a complete view of Scripture. He warns that the danger is to "see what we know rather than to know what we see in the text" of the Bible.
Restoring the image requires Christians to engage with and create culture.
The image will not be restored if God's people avoid or disassociate with culture. Rather, Christians must engage with culture and create culture as image bearers who are designed to flourish within the created world.
Are you an image bearer, or are you in poverty, safety or idolatry?
By utilizing a 2 x 2 grid, Andy explores the four quadrants of the various relationships between authority and vulnerability. He surmises that high authority and high vulnerability are ideal since other combinations of the two lead to forms of poverty, safety, idolatry and injustice.
Ideal image-bearing is a balance of authority and vulnerability.
Andy discusses two seemingly incongruous characteristics of image bearers: authority ("capacity for meaningful action") and vulnerability ("exposure to meaningful risk").
The world that God creates is filled with potential, and it is waiting for image-bearing.
When image bearers follow the mandates in Genesis 1-2 to cultivate and to create, the latent possibility within the created world is realized and flourishing commences.
How Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22 are vital to understanding the relationship between work and culture.
Often, the interplay between work and culture is examined beginning with Genesis 3 and ending with Revelation 20. Andy contends that the "missing chapters," (the first two and last two of the Bible) hold tremendous power in understanding how image-bearing, cultivating and creating are brought to fullness in these settings.