Workplace Discipleship 101

 

     Workplace Discipleship is a primer on living and sharing Christ in our everyday workings. I was expecting a workbook, and am afraid that lent disappointment to the book. And rather than ultimately devoted to searching out practical ways of witnessing to co-workers etc, it focuses mostly on maintaining Christian principles and ethics in the workplace. Both of these rather threw me off, and I found the book hard to get into. However, it is filled with good advice and applications, some that were new thoughts to me. If one were struggling to keep their Christian ethics/morals while in a non-Christian workplace, this book could be very helpful to them. Many relevant subjects are addressed, such as: remaining constant in prayer throughout the day; being aware of current events to know how to respond to them; realizing that we are here to further God's work, not our own gain; finding ways to bring goodness, wisdom, productivity, etc into our workplace; being an example of an upstanding, honest worker; bringing light to those around us; accepting diversity and building on the strengths of it; finding appropriate ways to share the Gospel without pushing it; dealing with conflict; and so on. 

     An excellent approach in this book is its focus on the whole day, the whole week. Bring these principles home and apply them with your family. The application that stood out most to me is on rest and keeping Sunday to refresh and revive. Even if your church duties, or whatever it may be, keep you from having a day to rejuvenate, make it up somewhere. David speaks from Marva Dawn's book, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly, to say: "Sabbath is about ceasing---stopping from our work, from productivity and accomplishment. It is about trusting that God will take care of the world and our work while we let go for a time." pg 216  It is also a day to worship God and delight in His Word. When we begin to take this wholly, it will positively impact our entire week. The book is divided into three sections: Getting Ready For Our Work / Impacting Our Workplace / and Moving Beyond Our Workplace. While self is not to be the focus, we do need to be in the right place before we can properly impact those around us. And when we have done this we can move on to our workplace and family. 

     All around I found this to be an informative guide (though possibly a little slow), and if I had read it with better expectations I think I would have gotten more from it. It is well-rounded, covering many spheres and applications, and is well-based in Scripture. 

   I received a copy of this book from HENDRICKSON PUBLISHERS and was not required to write a positive review.