Revolutionary Work is the latest in a long list of recently published books about faith and work. Based on a sermon series by William Taylor, here are three questions we'd like to ask him about it.
"Hooper writes from the conviction that even the most seemingly happy and content people don't have it all if they don't have God. That knowing Him means knowing not just another good way to live, but a better way. Indeed, the best way. He writes to remind those people who do know God of this; don't forget His way really is a better way."
Too many theology's of work are so dense or long that they don’t end up serving the very people who should be reading them - workers! This book doesn’t make that mistake.
In his book The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis made the case that friendship may just be the most significant of all human loves. So how do I develop close friendships, especially with my work colleagues who don't follow Jesus? A practical and personal reflection on "how to hang out with your mates".
"If you are in Christ, your worth and value does not come from your work. Your worth and value does not come from what you achieve or accomplish. If you are in Christ then you are being remade in the glorious image of God, a God who loved you to the point of death on a bloody Roman cross. That’s what makes you valuable". How the Gospel brings hope to a person immersed in a culture of “I am what I do”?
"If work is the chief means by which we achieve our value and worth, it becomes everything. And that is a crushing burden to place yourself under, a burden which tragically crushes many people today". How the Gospel provides hope to those trapped in finding their value and worth in their work.
"God could have provided us with ready-made chairs, or already harvested crops, or excavated gold. He could have given us orange juice in a bottle. But in His great wisdom God instead says to humanity you take the oranges and just see what you might create with them...The task God has given us as His co-workers is to see and connect what has not been connected and made before".
"Who can truly understand our hearts? Only the One who made them. And who can heal them. The solution to solving your pressure is not within you, but outside of you. It lies with the healer of your hearts".
"Envy rots the bones" says the writer in Proverbs. And perhaps the one area of life where many of us feel it most acutely is in the workplace. How does the Gospel help us overcome this rot, and release us to live free from the grip of envy?
"Education changes lives. It doesn’t change our eternal destination, but I believe it’s a powerful social force for good that God has given us. My program helps many students each semester stay at university, and I hope that this translates to productive, useful lifelong service of others".