Quarterly Review: Every Good Endeavor
TwoTen reviewed Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller and offered up our own opinion on the book. Check it out in the article below...
Tim Keller's most recent book focuses on our lives at work. It is an outstanding resource in the juxtaposition of faith and work, drawing from numerous sources of religious and secular texts, as well as the Bible itself. As pastor of Redeemer Church in New York City, he founded Redeemer's Center for Faith and Work over ten years ago as a means of filling the need for spiritual significance in the workplace. Katherine Leary Alsdorf is the executive director of the CFW and wrote an inspiring foreword to the book.
She describes wrestling with her "call to serve God in business" and her deliberation about the role of a Christian in the marketplace. Observing that many (if not most) churches are more concerned with helping marketplace workers serve inside the church rather than equipping them to serve in the world, Alsdorf sets the stage for the book, writing, "The answers will all hang on this essential theology: the knowledge of who God is, his relation to man, his plan for the world, and how the good news (or gospel) of Christ turns our lives and the way we work upside down."
Every Good Endeavor goes to great lengths to show how God designed man to work and that all work is meaningful and is our primary way of pleasing and magnifying God. He explains that everything that is created is by God and through God's direction. There are many misconceptions about what it means to be a Christian business or to be a Christian in a business. Keller describes the concept of "common grace" in which all of mankind benefits from advancements in science, art, technology and so forth. Even though such advancements may come from non-Christians, the benefits they provide are inspired and directed by God to further His purpose and for our benefit. Having this frame of reference allows you to see the hand of God in all things.
This book is a virtual textbook on faith and work. It will challenge your thinking and help you to refine the perspective that you have on your own workplace ministry.
For additional articles from TwoTen, subscribe for free here.
