Young Workers
Whatever sort of work you do,
ENGAGE wants to help you be an ambassador for Christ...
ENGAGE wants to help you be an ambassador for Christ...
Welcome to your new work life!
Engage Work Faith is here to help you adjust to work-life and see it as your mission field!
ENGAGE has put together:
• Some tips from SA workers to help you in the early days of starting work
• A giveaway - a short book by Professor John Lennox about being salt and light at work
• Short reviews on a few books that may help you build a biblical scaffold for understanding your work
• Some handpicked verses to remember and encourage you in your new job
Tips from SA Workers
Embrace Rest: Recognise your limits and practice regular rest. After a few weeks, you can find yourself saying: “Why am I so exhausted!” Working is actually tiring! Not only do you have a new job, but you need to wrap your head around people’s names, where they fit in the team and all the routines that at this stage are not habit for you. Give yourself time to adjust to all this and don’t expect to keep up the same social diary.
Don’t neglect church: Most of your day, you’re plunged into a secular context, so you need to connect to other Christians, sit under God’s Word, praise God and have time to apply that Word specifically to your context. Ask your small group to pray for the adjustment
Focus on character not just skills: Although you’ve been employed for your skill set, don’t underestimate the importance of being a pleasant human being. Research says a job is composed of skills (16.5%), which are essential but also character (83.5%). Trust, patience, kindness, self-control, .... the fruits of the Spirit that Paul lists in Galatians 5 are critical to develop into a good worker!
Build Relationships: Invest time in getting to know your coworkers. Jesus compared sharing faith to fishing. Fishing involves a lot of patience. Show colleagues love and support and be ready to share your faith naturally when opportunities arise.
Talk about your job to others at church: Often people don’t mention work to their church community but it's such a big part of following Jesus, so tell people how you’re going.
Seek Guidance: Talk to mentors and experienced professionals in your field to gain realistic insights into potential career paths. Pray for wisdom and clarity in your decision-making process.
Some great resources to help you as a new worker
Have No Fear: Being salt and light even when its costly by John Lennox
This book is great to read in your first year of work.
Copies are available to give away to the first 12 people who fill in this form to connect with ENGAGE.
This will help ENGAGE to support you in your new work life and connect you with other working Christians.
Copies are available to give away to the first 12 people who fill in this form to connect with ENGAGE.
This will help ENGAGE to support you in your new work life and connect you with other working Christians.
Working without Wilting by Jago Wynne
Review by Craig Broman
I met the author in 2003 when he began as workplace minster at All Souls Langham Place and in 2013 after a decade of working with young graduates in London.
The book is really a compilation of 10 years of seeing where the Bible speaks into the environment of London workers. At a time of soul searching about the economy, leadership & a bleak global future, Christians need to know why they work and how to be faithful ambassadors for Christ in their workplaces.
He aims to help Christians NOT wilt in their faith at work from start to finish. Who is it for?
• Brilliant tips for those starting a job
• Great encouragement for those in the middle of their worklife
• And great advice for those about to step off the work treadmill
It’s not the book to find a comprehensive doctrine of work. However, it brings the Bible to bear on a huge range of real life work scenarios. As a pastor, it clarified for me that my church members’ workplaces, not our church, was often the frontline for evangelism. My job on the backline was to equip them for that critical place of mission and witness.
The book is really a compilation of 10 years of seeing where the Bible speaks into the environment of London workers. At a time of soul searching about the economy, leadership & a bleak global future, Christians need to know why they work and how to be faithful ambassadors for Christ in their workplaces.
He aims to help Christians NOT wilt in their faith at work from start to finish. Who is it for?
• Brilliant tips for those starting a job
• Great encouragement for those in the middle of their worklife
• And great advice for those about to step off the work treadmill
It’s not the book to find a comprehensive doctrine of work. However, it brings the Bible to bear on a huge range of real life work scenarios. As a pastor, it clarified for me that my church members’ workplaces, not our church, was often the frontline for evangelism. My job on the backline was to equip them for that critical place of mission and witness.
Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller
Review by Karen Petterson & Craig Broman
In his book, Every Good Endeavour, Tim Keller calls people to re-appropriate the idea that work is a vocation or calling, not merely as a means to one's own advancement. He does this by asking the question; 'Do we work to live, or live to work?' Keller argues (along with 16th Century Reformers, Calvin and Luther) that all work, even so called secular work, is as much a calling from God as the ministry of a church minister or full time Christian worker.
In order to work this way he says you need to know the Bible's answers to three questions:
1. Why work?
2. Why is it so hard to work?
3. How can we overcome the difficulties and find satisfaction in our work because of the gospel?
The book is incredibly comprehensive in its survey of the Bible, church history and current culture. It doesn’t give as much space to evangelism at work or workplace mission as I would hope. This is in fact an increasingly difficult area for Christians in a politically correct and religiously hostile workspace.
Some useful questions raised include:
• How many pray about their work?
• How many struggle to integrate their desires for their work with what they understand God desires for their work?
• Do workers recognise that their work contributes to society?
Keller reflects that the church is touching the world at large through the faithful presence of its people in the workplace.
In order to work this way he says you need to know the Bible's answers to three questions:
1. Why work?
2. Why is it so hard to work?
3. How can we overcome the difficulties and find satisfaction in our work because of the gospel?
The book is incredibly comprehensive in its survey of the Bible, church history and current culture. It doesn’t give as much space to evangelism at work or workplace mission as I would hope. This is in fact an increasingly difficult area for Christians in a politically correct and religiously hostile workspace.
Some useful questions raised include:
• How many pray about their work?
• How many struggle to integrate their desires for their work with what they understand God desires for their work?
• Do workers recognise that their work contributes to society?
Keller reflects that the church is touching the world at large through the faithful presence of its people in the workplace.
Bible verses to memorise for your work
Why you work and who you work for?
“Whatever your task, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord not human masters since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.”
— Colossians 3:23-24
The way you talk with other workers about Jesus?
“But in your hearts, reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience.”
— 1 Peter 3:15 & 16
Manage your work tasks well and ask for God’s help
“May the favour of the Lord our God rest on us: establish the work of our hands, YES, establish the work of our hands.”
— Psalm 90:17
A good podcast episode to listen to from ENGAGE’s ‘The Eleventh Hour” podcast: Hospital Hesitancy: Aaron‘s Story S1 Ep09
An interview with a nurse thinking about how to take faith to work.
An interview with a nurse thinking about how to take faith to work.
(Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.)
ENGAGE would love to meet you and help you set up good patterns for a lifetime of work as a Christian.
Connect with ENGAGE