14 & 15 Jun 2025 (Pastoral Page) WORK AS GOD INTENDS

By Asst Ps Elaine Ng

Last Saturday at Campference 2025, we had a workshop on discipleship in the marketplace. There, we shared about a new initiative to see church members bring and integrate their faith into the marketplace (paid or unpaid work outside of home) as part of the Discipleship focus envisaged in our Vision 2028 document.  At that workshop, one of the books recommended was “Every Good Endeavour” by the late Timothy Keller.

When I first bought the book a few years ago (pre-Covid), I did not finish reading the book.  However, this same book was the required reading for a Summer Course that I took at Regent College in 2023, and I had to read it again. Then, the experience was different, as was my employment status. I had left my job after 30 years working with the same firm. Suffice to say, it made me wonder with some regret why I never completed reading the book that first time round.

Do we work to live or live to work? Without having a clear theology of work, I used to think the former. Timothy Keller set out to tell readers that it should be the latter and that “every good endeavour, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God’s calling, can matter forever”. To be able to fully realise this, he says that one needs to know the Bible’s answers to the following 3 questions which he sets out to explain in the book:

• Why do you want to work?

• Why is it so hard to work?

• How can we overcome the difficulties and find satisfaction in our work through the Gospel?

To answer the first question, he brings readers through the narratives of creation in Genesis on God’s plan for work. Most Christians know that God worked to create the world and that He also created man and woman in His image to continue to create as well as to upkeep the land and animals. But it may not be apparent to many Christians that work is foundational to our makeup, and we need work itself, rather than money, to survive and live fully. That is the starting point from which he then posits that there should be no difference in what kind of work one does, because work itself has dignity, being something, that God does and that we do in God’s place as His representatives on earth.

When we have a right view of work and accept that all work is continuing God’s work of forming, filling and subduing the earth, it helps us see that work done competently, whatever work it is, is an act of worship to God and a way to love our neighbours. At my previous workplace, I had not always connected doing my work well as an act of loving my neighbours but only as something I had to do as well as I could as an act of worship. But on reflection, I can see why it is considered a way to love my neighbours as work done well directly benefits my bosses, peers and clients (now congregants) and indirectly, the wider society too.

Why is work hard? Many Christians are familiar with how the Fall made work fruitless and difficult. But what may not be as clear to many (including myself previously) is the idea that what seems fruitless on this side of heaven is not entirely so if one understands that on this side of heaven, we will never fully realise our highest aspirations. We cannot. That will only come to complete fruition in God’s future where there will still be work! Realising this, I have become somewhat less frustrated at work and home. If one is clear that work is not fruitless, Timothy Keller further provides guidance on how to make work less pointless by suggesting that one should work within one’s gifts and abilities, to choose work that benefit others and that benefits our field of work. He warns against pride which affects one from choosing wisely and the need for personal significance which instead leads to competition, disunity and strife. Too much focus on work and work easily becomes an idol. I could not agree more. In my previous workplace, I witnessed and often despaired when I saw colleagues (bosses, peers and staff) overwork themselves for personal recognition or get downtrodden when they endlessly compared themselves and their bonuses against others.

After spelling out why work at all and why work is hard, the connection between work and the Gospel (the third question) is addressed. Timothy Keller explains that Christ’s first coming (redemption) and His second coming (renewal) provide a new purpose and direction for work. The work that everyone one does, whether believer or pre-believer, are part of God’s common grace to all humankind to create and sustain life on earth. What does it mean to live the Gospel at work? When a person becomes a Christian, it does not mean that he or she must change his job. Instead, a Christian’s relationship to work should change and he or she should no longer be thinking that work will save or give he or she worth or an identity. We are to serve the work and thereby serve God. It is the behaviours and ethics Christians exhibit as employers or employees in the workplace, rather than the overt proselytising, which should make a difference and point people to Christ and the hope of the renewed future with Him.

Personally, I commend this book as it provides a good overview of work and how it is designed by God to be, highlighting the challenges that a wrong view of work poses and setting out how the Gospel can be proclaimed at the workplace through serving the work well. But beyond this book (and others to be recommended), I would like to encourage those who are serving God in the workplace to be part of BC Faith@Work (name voted by the those at the recent workshop) to get connected to those in your industry/sector for more industry/sector specific sharing and prayer support, to be informed of and participate in upcoming internal or external training/workshops/events. After all, most people spend 99,000 hours at work in their life and as disciples, I am sure we want to take the next step to integrate faith and work better so that we may be Christ’s ambassadors every Monday to Saturday to His glory. Let’s get connected!

BC Faith@Work Announcement

In the 2nd half of 2025, we will be running the Bringing Our Faith to Work Video Series by Biblical Graduate School of Theology (BGST). It is currently envisaged that we will arrange a mid-week Zoom meeting (1-1.5h) over 8 weeks which entails watching a short video together, followed by a facilitated discussion with fellow participants. If this is your Next Step and you are keen to join, please send an email to Asst Ps Elaine Ng at elaine@biblechurch.sg.