Workship

“The Hebrew root word for ‘work’ is also the root word for ‘service’, particularly service to God in worship. By combining the two English words, ‘work’ and ‘worship’, I hope to challenge people to integrate their faith and work. Work does not just refer to what is done in paid employment. I believe God sees work as any purposeful activity requiring focus and effort. It could be housework, schoolwork, caring for children or parents, study, paid work, voluntary work, etc.” — Kara Martin In her book, Kara explores the biblical view of work, provides six spiritual disciplines to integrate faith and work, shares practical wisdom on how to make a difference in the workplace, and offers ideas to help churches better equip their congregations to live out their faith at work.

The workplace has been the catalyst for bringing thousands of people around the world to worship Jesus. Regular trained evangelists and missionaries dominated missions for centuries. Their Christ-like service has penetrated 75% of the world. However, the remaining 25% are mostly beyond the reach of traditional missionary strategies and methods. The opportunities to shine His light into the darkest places have never been greater. The marketplace and the workplace require our work and worship-workship-to finish His assignment of reaching all peoples. We need to recalibrate.

How does faith at work look like in reality? In this follow-up to Workship 1, Kara Martin shares more practical wisdom on making a difference in the workplace. Topics range from hospitality and leadership, to ethical issues and workplace conflict, to reflections on unemployment, women and work, and the future of work. Kara also provides effective ways that churches can adopt to better equip their congregations to “workship”, addressing areas like service programmes, workplace visitations, and mentoring. From the church to the local community, Workship 2 helps bridge the sacred-secular divide and inspires workers to thrive in their working.

Along the wide waters of eastern North Carolina, the people of many scattered villages separated by creeks, marshes, and rivers depend on shallow-water boats, both for their livelihoods as fishermen and to maintain connections with one another and with the rest of the world. As Lawrence S. Earley discovered, each workboat has stories to tell, of boatbuilders and fishermen, and of family members and past events associated with these boats. The rich history of these hand-built wooden fishing boats, the people who work them, and the communities they serve lies at the heart of Earley's evocative new book of essays, interviews, and photographs. In conversations with the region's fishermen and boatbuilders, the author finds webs of decades-old social history and realizes that workboats are critical in maintaining a community's memories and its very sense of identity. Including nearly 100 of Earley's own striking duotones, this richly illustrated book brings to life the world of a fishing culture threatened by local and global forces.

Leading Consciously addresses the issues of motivation, decision-making, communication, time management, effective learning, work psychology, organizational development, and self-mastery. The author weaves together the insights of some of the most remarkable leaders of the world whose lives embody great truths about leadership and self-transformation, masters such as M. K. Gandhi, Edmund Hillary, Mother Teresa, and Albert Einstein. Debashis Chatterjee is an international management thinker, Fulbright scholar, corporate philosopher, mystic, and writer. He is a member of the faculty in Behavioral Sciences at the Indian Institute of Management in Lucknow, India. An immensely popular speaker on the themes of spirituality and modern management, Chatterjee organizes frequent leadership retreats for diverse audiences of executives, doctors, scientists, political leaders, and social service workers in India and around the world.

Business for Transformation focuses on answering the question: “How do you start a business that transforms communities of unreached peoples?” Starting a business cross-culturally involves thousands of decisions. Until now, BAM and B4T practitioners have been lacking a tool that explains how to start a business that engages unreached people for Jesus’ sake. This book draws on years of experience from scores of OPEN workers who are BAM/B4T practitioners. BAM/B4T are among the faster growing segments of the worldwide mission movement. It is written for new workers and coaches who need practical guidance in setting up and doing business in hard, churchless areas.

In 1998, fiery Eleanor “Els” Gordon thought the new century would find her married to her childhood soul mate, rejuvenating her family’s Scottish Highlands estate, and finally earning a managing director title at her investment bank. Maybe she’d even have the courage to discover why her estranged mother ran home to Italy thirty years earlier. But when 2000 dawns, Els is mourning her fiancé and her father, and she’s unemployed, broke, and sharing an antique plantation house on the Caribbean island of Nevis with the ghost—or “jumbie”—of Jack Griggs, the former owner. Jack’s jumbie wangles Els’s help in making amends for wrongs committed during his Casanova life, and in exchange he appoints himself Cupid on behalf of a charter captain who’s as skittish about vulnerability as Els. Meanwhile, Els lures her mother to Nevis in hopes of unraveling the family secrets—but will the shocking truth set her free, or pull her fragile new happiness apart? A moving and lyrical novel that transports readers from lush tropics to rugged highlands and back again, The Moon Always Rising explores how the power of forgiveness can help even the most damaged person fix whatever is broken.

Whether the issue of the day on Twitter, Facebook, or cable news is our sexuality, political divides, or the perceived conflict between faith and science, today’s media pushes each one of us into a frustrating clash between two opposing sides. Polarizing, us-against-them discussions divide us and distract us from thinking clearly and communicating lovingly with others. Scott Sauls, like many of us, is weary of the bickering and is seeking a way of truth and beauty through the conflicts. Jesus Outside the Lines presents Jesus as this way. Scott shows us how the words and actions of Jesus reveal a response that does not perpetuate the destructive fray. Jesus offers us a way forward—away from harshness, caricatures, and stereotypes. In Jesus Outside the Lines, you will experience a fresh perspective of Jesus, who will not (and should not) fit into the sides.