TheHighCalling.org: Excellence

Being an Agent (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:00:00 GMT

In our celebrity -driven culture, we’re aware of the role that agents play. They represent their clients in many ways. Usually when we think about agents, we’re thinking about money. Agents represent their clients in financial negotiations. Although agents may serve their clients in other ways, negotiating a favorable contract is what we expect them to do.

Have you ever thought or daydreamed about being an agent? It could be cool representing a pro athlete, a movie star, an author, or some other celebrity. Imagine walking into a meeting and announcing, “I represent Ms. Big Shot Client.” What an ego boost that would be. People would see us differently. To paraphrase Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, we could really be somebody.

So let me tell you about an opportunity. The most influential man the world has ever known is looking for agents to represent him. Jesus wants you and me to serve as his agents representing him to the world. He wants us to act on his behalf in our everyday life situations at home, at work, and in the community. When people see us, Jesus wants them to see him. Everything that we do needs to reflect the love of Christ.

We may not think that we’re worthy to be Jesus' agent, but we have been chosen to represent him. God’s faith in us needs to be reciprocated. God’s grace is sufficient, the Spirit is our guide. We are agents of Jesus.

Serve him well.

Subtle Evil II (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:00:00 GMT

In a continuing vigilance toward the workings of subtle evil and its insinuation in our daily lives, there are some concerns to note. There are many good causes in the world . . . all of them are worthy of our time, money, and efforts. Yet, we don’t have unlimited time, resources, or energy to help everywhere.

What are we to do?

To start, we stay in prayer. Communication with Christ helps us discern our proper path. Study the gospels and see Jesus’ clear plan for his life’s mission. He wasn’t dissuaded from his path of obedience. The temptations in the desert are the clearest examples, but there were other opportunities to veer from the mission set before him. Jesus stayed the course.

What often happens with us is that we get busy doing the next thing. Our focus on the big picture of our mission gets blurred. Someone comes to us with a great idea or an emotional plea, and we find it difficult to resist. It is a worthy cause or good idea after all. So we incorporate a new idea into our mission. It distracts us just slightly. But over time, we begin to devote more time, more money, and more effort into the new idea. Slowly, it becomes part of our mission, and we adjust.

Another idea or cause comes along and the cycle repeats itself. Now we find ourselves still doing great work but not exactly the work we were called to do. We adjust our mission to include new initiatives. Without stopping to analyze how each new idea, appeal, or initiative fits our overall mission, we find ourselves in a situation where we have several slightly differing missions, which are all good but not the one mission we were called to carry out.

This is how subtle evil works. There is nothing bad about doing good. However, if we allow outside issues, no matter how worthy, to distract us from our mission, we’ve given in to the temptation that Jesus resisted. Gradually we ask ourselves, “Why haven’t we accomplished more?” or “How did we get here?”

Reviewing our mission, whether personal or professional, requires vigilance.

They Will Know We Are Christians (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Dwight Lacy, chief financial officer of our organization, recently returned from a reunion at Harvard. While there, he ran into fellow Harvard MBA alum Andy Wasynczuk. Since 1988 when Robert Kraft bought the old Sullivan Stadium until 2005, when the Patriots won their third Superbowl, Wasynczuk worked for the Kraft family and served as Gillette Stadium’s and the New England Patriot's chief operating officer.

What has impressed Dwight is Andy’s commitment to live out his Christian faith in all he does. As a Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard, Wasynczuk is in a unique position to influence future business leaders. He told the Boston Globe :

"So much of our society tends to glorify the individual, and sometimes the results end up well below the kind of output that people banding together for a purpose bigger than themselves would achieve—and that is true in the business world. To reinforce that message with the next generation of leaders is really important."

This is an example of how Christians act as culture-shapers in society. Church historians, such as Norbert Brox and Justo Gonzalez, believe that the quality of life in the community of believers attracted many people to the first-century church. The relational message of Jesus, to love one another, is a missing element in evangelism today. At the Foundations for Laity Renewal, we believe it’s the responsibility of every Christian to reflect the qualities of the Kingdom as we influence those around us through kingdom principles. As the song tells us, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”

Education in the Faith (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:00:00 GMT

It is increasingly apparent that there is a strong need for theological education today. This is not only important in our seminaries for the clergy but also in our churches for the people in the pews. As followers of Jesus, we need a strong education in the faith.

Armed with theological understanding, the concept of Jesus as fulfillment of the Law becomes clearer. It can be discussed theologically and infused into the daily lives of the Christian community. The Scriptures are given to a community and need discussion within the community. The entire Church receives the vision for God's plan and the responsibility for carrying out that plan. The plan is embodied by Jesus' relational ministry, his message of love.

Putting theological and relational leadership into implementation calls us to work with God as co-creators. Creativity is what separates Adam from the other animals. He was, as we are, created in God's image. Although we are finite beings, we share with God the attribute of creativity. We have the ability to imagine possibilities and take those possibilities and bring them into being through our actions. We take what is and apply new ideas to generate something new.

Trinitarian servant leadership is the fulfillment of the commonly held notion of servant leadership. Where Jesus gives us the model of the servant as leader, the paradox that is a glimpse of the relationship between the Father and the Son, he also promises us an advocate. This advocate is the Spirit of unity. The Holy Spirit provides the unity necessary to make sense of the paradox of the servant leader.

Through theological understanding, we are able to create patterns of behavior, servant leadership, that advances society through the teachings of Christ.

Modeling Christ in the Workplace Through Work Well Done (Bible Reflection)

Matthew Alexander — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Ben Edwards, the former CEO and chairman of A. G. Edwards, led his company to become one of the ten largest brokerage firms in the nation. He was also known to be a committed Christian and man of integrity. Whether on or off the job, he lived in line with a higher moral standard, and he found that higher standard in the Bible.

A Christian Leader in the Workplace

A friend of mine who worked for A. G. Edwards told me that their CEO was involved in Bible studies for professionals and was intentional about encouraging others to know and love God. He lived generously by investing his time, talent, and money into other humans as he helped to build Christ's Kingdom here on earth. He was active in his local church, in missions, and with Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis.

His executive style and formula for success were based on Jesus' Golden Rule: Treat people the way you'd want to be treated. He taught his executive team, managers, and investment advisors to practice the following simple principle: place the clients first, the employees second, and the shareholders third. He believed if you took care of the first two, the shareholders would be rewarded.

From Abstract Principles to Business Plans

To be true to these principles, Ben Edwards didn't allow A. G. Edwards to engage in several profit centers common in the financial services industry such as creating proprietary products or trading its own accounts, because they may have put the firm's interests ahead of the client's. He encouraged his financial advisors to offer only the best products and services in the business—not just to those that paid the firm or for the advisor with the biggest commissions.

His plan worked. Under his stewardship, the company grew from 40 offices to 700 nationwide with a reputation of excellence and integrity. The company was on Fortune magazine's annual list of “100 Best Companies to Work for in America” for ten straight years.

All Good Work Serves God

Dorothy Sayers often said that all work done well and for God's glory is Christian work. This means we model Christ in the workplace best when we perform our work so well and with such a good attitude that we inspire others to desire to know and worship God.

Paul explained it like this: “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve” (Col. 3:23-24).

Christians in the workplace should be motivated by our desire to glorify God and to inspire others to desire to know him. Work done well is uncommon, and it will be noticed by our colleagues and clients or patients.

God is honored when the products we create and the services we provide are excellent, based on the simple values of care, competence, and consistency. We are to care about the welfare of our clients. We are to pursue a high level of competency to enable us to deliver high quality products and services. And we should be consistent in our pursuit of excellence.

Our Work Is Also Evangelism

Those who don't know Christ may be inspired to seek him. And those who have turned their back on the church and Christianity, perhaps due to a previous bad experience with other Christians, may be influenced to reconsider Christianity.

It is too common to experience other Christians in the workplace who talk the talk but don't walk the walk. They talk about morality and Christian stuff, but their work is lousy and their attitudes are poor. They may deliver poor product to the client or treat clients poorly or complain about their jobs or slander colleagues. Such negative behavior hurts workplace morale, undermines work relationships, and adversely affects clients.

Instead, we are called to serve our clients with excellence. The quality of a Christian's work and attitude should be different from the quality of work and attitude of those who don't know Jesus. We are working for him, and therefore our work should be good. Clients should be able to clearly see the quality and value of our goods and services.

In their excellent book Your Work Matters to God, Douglas Sherman and William Hendricks write:

The key to bringing the culture and the church back together, to renewing the workplace and reforming the church—may well be a movement of people who are known for their hard work, for the excellence of their effort, for their honesty and unswerving integrity, for their concern for the rights and welfare of people, for the quality of the goods and services produced, for their leadership among coworkers—in short, for their Christ-likeness on and off the job. What could an army of such workers accomplish?

Doing excellent work with a good attitude is the right thing to do, and it is an excellent way to let our light shine on a hill so others may see it.

Questions for personal reflection, online discussion, or small groups:

Read Col. 3:23-24 again. Who do you consider your boss? How can you work for that person as if working for the Lord?
What does it look like to “love your neighbor” when your neighbor is a coworker, employer, customer, patient, student, or client?
How can we accept responsibility for doing good work with a good attitude, without rationalizing our way to workaholism and burn out?

Spiritual Steps on the Road to Success (Personal Reflection)

Becky Garrison — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:00:00 GMT

I've lost count of the recent conversations I've had with friends who've found themselves adrift these days. How do we define ourselves when we can no longer look to a career that provided us with both financial security and a sense of identity? While no one product can provide a cure all for an ailing economy, Dr. Linda Seger's book The Spiritual Steps on the Road to Success helped me to refocus my priorities moving forward.

In this book, she notes how a successful career seems to need certain elements. First and foremost, we start with a basic question. Am I using my God-given talents in a way that contributes to the welling being of others in ways that adds value and goodness to the world? Seger places spirituality into this equation, which she defines as a sense of connectedness with God through one's work.

Connect with God through Your Work and Talents

She acknowledges that while we do need to be able to make a living, we don't need to be rich or even make much money in order to be successful. People are, according to Seger, when they earn a livable wage while using their talents to benefit others. Throughout the book, she notes that we maintain success by keeping our connection to God alive and following wherever God might call us.

Even though someone might be performing good deeds, if they still feel empty and unfulfilled, Seger suggest that either they're not doing the right work for them or they don't have the right relationship with God through their work. Even if we have many material things, if the spiritual side of our lives is not being fulfilled, we are missing an important part of success. Our job should bring us a sense of something that is Good beneath the surface. Good work fulfills us by helping us recognize our contributions, and our connections with others. It is fulfilling.

Seger's Definition of Success at Work and Life

Seger's book was at the printers before the current financial crisis hit, so I asked her via email how she'd redefine success in 2009. She agreed that not having money can bring a great deal of worry when one cannot meet the basic necessities of life. But she added that she's never defined success in terms of how much money or things people have. This means her definition of success remains constant regardless of the current economic indicators.

For those who have had to rethink their career trajectory as a result of losing their jobs, Seger suggests that time off can help people re-evaluate careers and re-think work as contribution rather than work as something we do to get paid. Those facing unexpected free time could give to others through volunteer work, which might test their calling by doing something for free in the field that they are interested in pursuing. People can still contribute and add value to the world and use their God-given talents, in spite of the fact that they aren't being paid for it. Volunteering has the potential to help us recognize our calling. If we're willing to do something for free, chances are, we really like it. And volunteer work can lead us to similar jobs that we can do for pay later.

Throughout this book and in her emails, Seger reminded me that times of financial uncertainty can teach us to put our trust more in God, not as the God who makes us prosperous, but as God the Provider. Often, we need far less than we think we need. These times can help us put our focus on the true things in life, not just the trappings of success that society teaches us.

Questions for personal reflection, online discussion, or small groups:

Think about movies, news, TV, and the internet. What does our culture teach us about success?
Think about your own work. What parts of your daily activities help you connect to God?
If some activities do not help you connect to God, how might you change the way you approach those activities?
Peter says, “If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11). Do you think of God more as one who makes you prosperous or one who provides for your needs?

Work & Play: Aesthetics (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:00:00 GMT

We’ve been professionalizing play for centuries. We call it patronage. The arts have been professionalized, and now it’s time for games. We can turn our play into work and justify it as noble gain.

At its best, art provides a glimpse of beauty. The poet, the painter, the sculptor, photographer, novelist, and on the list grows of people who play with their medium to produce joy. They are at play. But long ago, we surrendered art to work. Over the centuries, the arts increasingly became work. They’ve become professionalized. Bought, sold, bound, performed, and criticized, the arts are a utilitarian extension of our creativity. Our language confirms what’s already happened; an artistic creation is a work of art. It’s not a play of art because that demeans the artist and the artistic creation. One exception may be theater arts where the production is literally called a play. In that case, play has become a synonym for pretend, so we have play actors. Perhaps it’s our need to be taken seriously in all that we do that we avoid the word play in all that we do. We want people to know that our effort was more than some frivolous pastime.

Roger Kahn wrote a book about the Brooklyn Dodgers in which he laments being known as just a sportswriter. Literature was always what he strived to write. Being known as just a sportswriter seemed so limiting. Kahn relayed a story of the time he went on assignment to interview Robert Frost.

Frost greeted him, "So you're the sportswriter?"

"Yes," Kahn sighed, "but I write other things as well."

"Of course," Frost said. "When I was young," Frost told Kahn, "my family worried I would be a pitcher and waste my life. Later they worried I'd be a poet and waste my life." He flashed a wry smile. "They were right."

Even a distinguished writer like Roger Kahn longed for his work to be something more. His craft couldn’t be just about the wordplay, and his occupation couldn’t rely upon games. His writing had to be seen more seriously. We can’t allow play into our work. Art has been taken seriously for centuries, but it is something rather new for games. It’s only in the last century or so that games have moved to be taken seriously as work.

By contrast Robert Frost was a school teacher by trade. Even in his years at Amherst where he was a distinguished professor, he shared with Kahn the regret that no student ever asked Frost to recite one of his poems (Into My Own p.142).

We all long for validation. There must be some justification for what we do. We make our play into work instead of the other way around. If we bring play into our work, we celebrate God. We rejoice. The validation for our art comes from our Creator.

Work & Play: Transcendence (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Play expresses beauty, truth, and goodness. Wherever we find these attributes, we find play. Wherever we find play, we find God. Play serves as a sign of God operating in our lives.

Laity Lodge Youth Camp is an example of how we (The Foundations for Laity Renewal) engage in play and relate that to faith. Through play, we engage campers in fun activities. Their experience of God is connected to that fun. Eugene Peterson’s Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places is the message we want our campers to hear. Rather than being overburdened with shame and obligation, campers connect Jesus with joy and rejoicing.

LLYC incorporates free play and fun into the program to help campers form a deeper relationship with Christ. Free play means choosing to engage in play as opposed to being forced into an activity, which by the nature of force negates the idea of play. So play is voluntary. Free play is not without structure or rules because outside of structure, there is chaos not play.

About a year or two after the fall of the Soviet Union, we had a small group of Russian studentsand their interpreter spend a week at LLYC. On the night they were leaving, I had a conversation with the interpreter. She was a nice but very serious woman in her forties. I asked her about the experience and her thoughts.

What she said hit me profoundly: “My first impression was that camp was chaos. But I began to notice that every time you rang the bell the children showed up to where they were supposed to be.”

I heard her words, but the look on her face is what sticks with me. Her look was one of deep puzzlement. She didn’t understand why the kids responded so well without an authoritarian presence controlling them. This may have been a transformative moment for her, a real understanding of freedom.

In our Laity Lodge Youth Camp program, play is a decisive factor. The connection among the players with the spirit of joy and freedom breaks down the barriers that separate us from God. The presence of the Spirit is profound for campers but also for the staff. Through play comes recognition of beauty and its human expression. If we embrace the experience of free play without cynicism, doubt, or confusion, we deepen our spiritual response.

The LLYC motto is, “The best two weeks of your life.” The claim comes out of experience, and the experience is rooted in play. Campers and staff alike play freely and experience the joy of God. There exists within play a transcendent element that opens us to a relationship with our Creator.

Whenever we infuse play into our work, we find God. Whenever we infuse play into our families, we invite God in. The same is true of our work, social activities, community, or wherever we engage in play. As we play we express beauty, truth, and goodness.

Work & Play: A Continnuum (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:00:00 GMT

A game is more than just a win -or-lose proposition. When we objectify play, when we reduce it to the bottom line on the scoreboard, we professionalize the game. Professional sports are good business, but they aren’t a good model for healthy play. Consider what we’ve done in most youth sports. The kids don’t really get to experience the fullness of play because too many coaches control the movements of the players making all the strategic decisions. Instead of learning how to make decisions, the players carryout the decisions of the coach which diminishes the teaching value of the game.

Let’s visualize a continuum of play. One pole is “free play” and the other pole is “professionalism.” Free play is when the players are moving freely and making their own decisions. At the professional end of the continuum, coaches determine where players should be, how they should move, and what actions they should perform.

There are other elements to consider when we play. Improving our skills can give players more freedom in the game. Effective strategy enhances the play experience. Playing with teammates or against an opponent builds camaraderie in the struggle of the game.

Fair play is a major element of play that is eroding. The essence of sportsmanship is fair play, including playing within the rules and honoring an opponent. The ethics of games begin with obeying the rules. Outside of the rules, there is no game. So cheating negates play. Ironically, cheaters can be more common in professional games because of their win-at-all-costs attitude.

Excellence in play requires giving your best effort. But excellent effort creates beauty, whether it is the gracefulness of a player or a well-executed strategy. Through excellence, we recognize beauty. And the opposite is also true. Through beauty, we see excellence. The two are intertwined. And both bring us closer to God.

For highly competitive people, games still offer a fun experience if they keep a healthy perspective. Play is fun. The benefits are rich, and playing games offers much more than just a chance at winning.

Stumbling Over the Text (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:00:00 GMT

There are two concerns that occupy my mind when writing or presenting. One concern is proof texting and the other one is the “fusion of horizons.” I try hard to avoid stumbling over either concern.

A professor once told our class, “Any text taken out of context is a pretext.” He spent the semester instilling a sense of placing everything in its context and not using a verse or passage outside of the context for which it was meant—wise words.

Proof texting generally is a misrepresentation of any text. There are a few different examples of proof texting. One example is when we take a text out of context and use it inappropriately. For instance, we can read the Scripture, “the LORD said to him, ‘Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness’ ” (Hosea 1:2), and then apply that verse universally as a command to marry an adulterous wife and raise the children of unfaithfulness. Obviously, that verse taken out of context does not provide the meaning intended in Hosea. The example may be absurd, but the principle remains . . . taking a text out of context is a pretext.

Another example of proof texting is to have an idea and then look to the Bible for proof of that idea. Let’s say I believe I can earn my way into heaven by my actions. As proof, I cite the parable of the sheep and goats emphasizing verse 46, "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life" (Matt. 25:31-46). Using the text in this way is an inappropriate use. It distorts the meaning of the parable.

A third example is to open a Bible randomly and choose a text as a guide. Here, too, the following example is absurd, but the point is well made.

Looking for an inspiring word from God, a man randomly opens his Bible and allows his eyes to fall on the page. He is immediately drawn to a verse. “He went away and hanged himself" (Matthew 27:5). Abruptly, he closed the Bible and opened to another page. Immediately his eyes were drawn to a new verse, "What you do, do quickly" (John 13:27).

Proof texting is dangerous because it falsifies the meaning of the text. It is a pretext.

The second of my concerns comes from hermeneutics, the “fusion of horizons.” Hermeneutics is a philosophy term having to do with method of inquiry. When reading a text, there’s a specific criteria to my inquiry. In interacting with a text, there is the horizon of the author, the author’s purpose and meaning; the horizon of the text, the words deliver their own meaning apart from the author’s intent; and as a reader, I come to the text with my own horizon of meaning and purpose. Taking all of these horizons into account creates a “fusion of horizons” when interpreting the text.

They Came Anyway (Bible Reflection)

Christopher Smith — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 06:00:00 GMT

"Someone just triggered the silent alarm," our bank manager called out from behind the teller windows. He studied his console a moment longer and then announced, pointing at me, "It was him."

It was my very first day on the job, working for the loan officers in this branch. To get familiar with my new surroundings, I'd been checking out the various drawers and cubbyholes in my desk. I found a button that looked like it would open a latched door, but when I pushed it, nothing happened. Or so I thought. It had actually been the alarm.

"The police are going to come," the manager warned us. "Everybody get ready. Go to your desks and sit with your hands in plain sight. Don't make a move, and don't say anything." (Fortunately there were no customers in the branch at the time.)

"Can't you just call and tell them it's a false alarm?" I asked.

He chuckled. "They come anyway."

Of course they do. If real bank robbers found out an alarm had been triggered, the first thing they'd do was make the manager call and say it was a mistake.

Within moments, police officers came rushing through both entrances to the bank. They had their hands on their holsters so they could draw their guns instantly if they were needed. But they slowed their pace when they surveyed the tranquil scene.

The manager stepped forward. "Sorry, guys," he said, "false alarm. But thanks so much for coming."

The officers smiled. They knew the manager from patrolling the area, and they'd apparently had to respond to false alarms before. "Glad it's nothing," they said. "You know we're here if you need us."

They went back to their work, and we went back to ours. I kept telling myself that my second day on this job would have to be better than the first! But in one sense, it had actually been a good day. I learned an important lesson from those officers. They "came anyway."

In our daily work, we often don't expect anything to interrupt the routine. We don't suspect that emergencies or breakthroughs could be waiting behind ordinary-looking assignments. But they just might be. That's why we need to fulfill each task we're given faithfully. We may think a prospect won't be interested, but we still need to make the sales call. If we're working security, we need to check every door, even the one that's been locked every time before. If the numbers are off by even a little, we need to find out why.

The Bible tells how Elijah once commanded his servant to go and check the sky for rain, while he prayed (1 Kings 18:42-44). The land of Israel was in the midst of a prolonged drought, and the servant likely expected to find the sky clear, which he did. When Elijah sent him out a second time, he found the same thing. This kept happening each time he went. After a while, he could easily have decided he could report a clear sky without even checking. But God was about to send a great rainstorm. It would end the drought, show God's mercy, and demonstrate the power of prayer (James 5:6-18). The king and people needed to know well in advance that the storm was coming so they would acknowledge that God had sent it, and so they could take shelter.

Fortunately, the servant kept checking faithfully, and on his seventh trip, he saw a small cloud. When he reported this to Elijah, the prophet recognized this was the harbinger of the great storm. He immediately warned the king and people. God was glorified, and the people were kept safe, because this servant "came anyway."

We can do the same each day.

Entering the Workforce (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:00:00 GMT

As my daughter, Lindsey, begins her final year of college, I’m reminded about the difficulties of entering the workforce for the first time. More accurately, she’ll be entering the workforce looking to launch a career. It brings back some memories. When I graduated college looking for a teaching position, unemployment stood at 15%. What made matters worse is that they were closing schools as the population moved away in search of job opportunities. Fortunately, Lindsey is better able to face these trying times. She’ll graduate with a math and science teaching degree from a highly regarded school.

While finding a job may not be quite so difficult, I know the anxiety she has. She wonders whether she’ll find a job. I wonder whether she’ll find a job with quality leadership and morally responsible people. Those issues affect quality of life. And since teaching requires a time commitment of at least fifty to sixty hours per week, her well-being depends upon the right situation.

It took many jobs and cities for me to land in a place that met my emotional needs, moral leanings, and where I could make a decent wage. I’ve worked in places where the moral leadership was great but the pay lousy. I’ve worked other places where the moral leadership was absent, but the pay was good. It took awhile for me to realize my need for all three components—emotional, moral, and pay.

There are other ways to deal with the lack of moral leadership, emotional support, and wages. I have a friend who has spent more than thirty years changing the culture of a workplace. He didn’t blame anyone for their shortcomings or complain about a lack of consistent direction. He went to work every day as a faithful servant of Christ. He focused on his students and their welfare. Through his work, his faith transformed a culture.

His path was not my path. I needed a culture where moral integrity was a high priority. My prayer for Lindsey is that she finds a place where she can use her God-given talents to transform her life and the lives of others according to God’s purpose.

The Patience of Job? (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Trite statements, used to represent the theme of a book or movie, really get me worked up. One of my all-time favorites is the expression “the patience of Job.” What a total misrepresentation of a book. Job isn’t about patience. It’s about how our way of seeing and interpreting the world is not God’s way. It’s a book of wisdom. We learn obedience to God and his ways even if we don’t understand them; or worse yet, even if we don’t think it’s fair.

Whenever natural disaster strikes, people come forward and ask,"How can God allow such suffering to take place?" While it may be an honest question, it reveals a rather shallow understanding of God. Let me state that I feel if we have never asked this question, we show ourselves to be callous if not cruel. The point is not who asks the question or why they ask it. The point is driven home in Job—we all experience suffering. None of us searches out suffering. If we could, we’d choose to avoid it. But like Job, we suffer, we deal with it, and we move on with life. We come out of our suffering stronger and closer to God.

This is where we can address one of the unfathomable mysteries of God. Out of our suffering we receive strength, and we glimpse a piece of transcendent reality that we would not otherwise know. This is the beginning of wisdom.

Strength doesn’t mean that we come away from suffering undamaged. Just living into our forties reveals that we don’t take the same chances we did in our twenties. Life teaches us. Some lessons result in wisdom, some result in humility. Other lessons may harden our hearts and damage our souls. A hardened heart can keep us from experiencing the love of God.

The Book of Job takes us through the difficulties of everyday living. Job’s story is a lifetime of suffering told in a condensed form. We see how others talk about him and how they treat him in his time of great suffering. We see Job’s anger with God and his friends. But Job comes to understand that the way humans see things is not the way God sees them.

1 Then Job replied to the LORD:

2 “I know that you can do all things;
       no plan of yours can be thwarted.

3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’
       Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
       things too wonderful for me to know.

4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
       I will question you,
       and you shall answer me.’

5 My ears had heard of you
       but now my eyes have seen you.

6 Therefore I despise myself
       and repent in dust and ashes.”

This is hardly a book about patience, unless patience is defined as persevering throughout a lifetime. Job humbles himself before the Lord and comes to understand two important truths. The world belongs to God, and we are his subjects.

Interview with Bill Yeargin, CEO of Correct Craft (Interview)

Christine A. Scheller — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Bill Yeargin is the refreshingly down-to-earth President and CEO of Correct Craft, an 84 year old company that manufactures and sells the Nautique line of inboard wakeboard and water ski boats. He has been at the helm for just under three years, but is a well-known figure in the marine industry, having served on the executive team at Rybovich Yachts and on both national and international industry boards. Yeargin is the author of two books, Yeargin on Management and What Would Dad Say? and has published more than 200 management and leadership columns. He shares his practical advice in person at management conferences throughout the world. At home in Orlando, Florida, he boldly combines faith, service and work. Yeargin talked to TheHighCalling,org about how he does this and about leading his company with integrity in these challenging times.

My first question may be a silly one to ask a native Floridian, but here it goes: Do you and your family enjoy boating?

Totally! I wake skate and wake surf . . . and my family and friends all enjoy boating. My daughters are seventeen and eighteen. I truly believe one of the reasons we have a close family is because of boating. It is a great way to spend time with each other and one that everyone loves!

The Correct Craft mission statement is "Building boats to the glory of God." How do you glorify God in this type of business?

By loving God and others. Also, I believe we better demonstrate our faith when we show it through our actions, rather than our words. We are not afraid to be bold about our faith, but we are much more interested in living out our faith than sharing it through bravado.

What unique faith challenges do you face as a manufacturer of luxury goods?

We struggle with the same things as everyone else. I am not sure we have any unique challenges, even though they may feel unique when we are experiencing them.

We take our responsibility to develop and build good products very seriously. Our faith is one of the reasons that we do not cut corners. That shows up in the awards we have won; yet we don't do the right thing for the awards. We do the right thing because it is the right thing to do.

Tangible examples would be the modesty of our models and the lack of alcohol at our marketing events. I think it is fair to say that our models are the most modest dressers in the boating industry, for which we have been criticized some in the past. Our faith definitely impacts us in this area. We are not caught up in the "sex sells" mentality.

We also put a Bible verse in our brochure, but I would one hundred times prefer people know our faith is important through our actions and how we treat people rather than know it because we wear it on our sleeve.

You also told New Man eMagazine that it's more difficult to separate business and Christian principles than to integrate them, but that you, like all of us, fall short of your own ideals. How do you walk out failure, particularly in relationship with customers, peers, and coworkers who don't share your faith?

I stumble in my faith walk so often that I have a lot of experience walking out failure! First, I know that I will inevitably fall, so I don't try to hold myself up as an example. I try to communicate in our events that I am not any different than anyone else, and if you watch me long enough, I will let you down. (I don't mean to; it just happens because I am human.) Second, I try to be quick to confess when I mess up and never try to cover up anything. I think it is important that leaders don't set themselves up as super-human, because they will eventually just hurt someone by letting them down.

On a related note, you instituted voluntary Bible studies, community-service projects, and mission trips when you came to Correct Craft. Was there resistance to these changes?

None. We have done all of our faith-related activities on a voluntary basis, and we respect an employee's right not to participate. Shortly after arriving at Correct Craft, I implemented a weekly Bible study and soon thereafter the mission trips. We have taken employees on two trips to Mexico to build houses for the needy and one trip to Nicaragua to work at a shelter for homeless teenage mothers. The employees who went on these trips loved the opportunity to serve and were incredibly blessed.

Does Correct Craft pay for employees to do community service or mission trips?

Most times not. However, we have on a couple of occasions taken training days and used them for community service. In those cases, the employees were paid. Employees are not paid to go on mission trips, but we do subsidize the cost of the trip to make it easier for more employees to participate. I write a CEO blog, Nautique Insider, and have written a few times there about the trips and community service in which our company has been involved.

Do you have any suggestions for others who might want to offer voluntary faith-based activities in the workplace?

Don't hesitate; just do it. The key is to offer the opportunity, but also to make sure that there is no recrimination against those who choose not to participate. We go out of our way to make sure there are no negative consequences to not participating in our faith related activities. We love people to join us, but if they choose not to do it, that is their right.

It's been a challenging season for business. Instead of laying off employees, you initiated a program that combined scaled down boat building with training and community service. Can you tell me more about that?

At the start of 2009, we were beginning to experience a significant slowdown in the boating industry caused by the global macro-economic downturn and exacerbated by the severe credit crunch, both in our retail and wholesale operations. We knew we may have to make employment cuts, but we also wanted to obtain a clearer picture as to how long these environmental issues would impact us before making those decisions. For the first three months of this year, instead of sending our employees home when we did not have production work for them, we implemented a significant employee development program. This program provided training to our employees in many different areas such as teamwork, commu

Work Is Noble (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Growing up, I saw particular value in physical labor. One time when I was boy, I told my father that I’d never work in an office. I said, “I want to do real work.”

It’s funny how things work out. The only skills that I had in the area of manual labor were digging ditches and carrying heavy supplies. My brother was mechanical. He and my dad would work on cars. I stood there bored to tears waiting to fetch the next tool they needed.

I discovered through painful trials that working in the trades was not my forte. That didn’t stop me from trying to find meaningful work in factories. There was plenty of good work, but it just didn’t fit my core identity. So I struggled to find my calling and finally went back to college. What a painful decision that was. For me, the only thing worse than working in a factory was sitting in a classroom. But back to school I went.

I have a strong belief that work is noble. Books like Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew Crawford, The Mind at Work by Mike Rose, or Working by Studs Terkel reinforce this view. Work derives nobility from its concrete nature. Work is real, not abstract or conceptual. Work is true because I can feel its reality. Work produces something tangible. The material nature of things is good. Even God became corporeal.

Jesus is the Incarnate Word of God. He is corporeally human and fully God. Also he is logos, the fullness of reason.

"In the beginning was the Word [logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it" (John 1:1-5).

Acedia, Rehearsals, and Me (Personal Reflection)

Dena Dyer — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 06:00:00 GMT

When we open a new show at the Rockbox Theater, the professional theater where I work, I thoroughly enjoy the audiences' reactions to the hours and hours of practice put in by our cast and crew.

What I do NOT enjoy is the rehearsal process itself. I've been involved in singing and acting for most of my life, and I still abhor rehearsals.

It's just so much work.

I admit it—I'm lazy. While I love the spotlight and the actual performance aspect of live theater, the long hours spent away from my kids, hobbies, friends, and home frustrate me. I have to keep reminding myself that without the "boring-ness" of repeated rehearsals, our crew of singers and musicians wouldn't be successful. Self, I say, God wants you to be a good steward of your talents. That means putting in gobs of time . . . mostly in obscurity. And I continually tell myself that excellence of any sort takes hard work and discipline.

The irony is, I abhor acedia when I see it in other people. Kathleen Norris has talked about this idea of spiritual apathy in her recent memoir, Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life.

A few years ago, an aspiring actress who worked at a burger joint asked my hubby how to break into the arts. He suggested she audition for her local theater and take acting lessons. But she waved off his advice, saying, "I'm good enough already. I just need someone to notice me."

I was appalled at her attitude. And I have a feeling she's still selling burgers.

But I see the same tendency in my kids—especially regarding chores and schoolwork—and I know they're probably getting it from dear old Mom. I hate this bent towards laziness in myself, and I truly am praying about it.

After all, acedia is most definitely a spiritual problem. Proverbs is full of scriptures touting the blessings that follow discipline, and the hardship that results when it's absent. Hebrews 12:11 says, "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

In our media-drenched society, a governor-turned-presidential candidate or aspiring singer can go from obscurity to fame in seconds. Hard work and discipline are no longer the only ways to achieve lasting success (Paris Hilton, anyone?). But in the spiritual realm and the other areas that really matter—parenting, marriage, friendship—the things that last are those that take the most time and effort.

I long for the harvest of righteousness and peace mentioned in Hebrews. But that harvest won't come if we're lazy, sitting around and hoping for it. Each day, we have to rehearse the truths God has given us. We must sit with the Word and meditate on (and with) our Savior. As we continually surrender to God's work in and through us, he will produce holiness.

This high calling takes hard work.

It takes my time.

It takes my discipline.

Our Goal is Love (Audio)

Howard E. Butt, Jr. — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Some years ago, Henry Nouwen died of a heart attack. He was a Catholic priest and psychologist best known for his book The Wounded Healer.

Those words, "wounded healer," speak volumes. In our brokenness, we live under God's blood and blessing. Yet, Henry would say sadly, "Many people . . . think they are unloved and unsafe. When suffering comes, they believe it affirms their worthlessness."

This is Howard Butt, Jr., of Laity Lodge. Henry believed our great spiritual quest is to learn to live our brokenness under the blessing and not the curse. Where we stumble and fail, God's grace and mercy thrive. Our goal is not perfection, but love . . . in the high calling of our daily work.

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Col. 3:13-14)

Finding God in What You Do - an interview with Ken Eldred (Interview)

Drew Dyck — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Ken Eldred is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and ministry pioneer. For over 20 years, Eldred served as CEO of Inmac, a public company he founded. He assisted in founding Ariba Technologies and has participated in business ventures in the U.S., Europe, China, and India. Eldred's passion is to bring Christ into the workplace. Toward this end, he has developed a model called "kingdom entrepreneurship" that encourages Christian businesspeople to spread the gospel by starting for-profit businesses in the U.S. and abroad. Eldred is co-editor of On Kingdom Business (Crossway), winner of a 2004 Christianity Today Book Award. His most recent book is God Is at Work (Regal).

When you became a Christian, you thought that in order to do real ministry you would have to become a pastor. Is this idea—that real ministry happens only in conventional ministry—still pervasive in the church?

Yes, I think it is. It screams at you more by its silence. It's not that people talk negatively about business; they just don't talk about it at all. So it's assumed that it's not something that's important to God.

It's also created a gender divide in the church. Several studies have shown there are a disproportionately small number of men in church. I think part of the reason is that pastors talk a lot about relationships. Women tend to be better at relationships than men. Men need help in this area. But when that's all that the pastor talks about, the women sort of say, "See what I told you?" So the guy's ribs get a little sore. Finally he says, "The pastor has nothing to say about my biggest concern, which is providing for my family's needs. He just picks on the weakest area of my life." He starts thinking "What am I doing here?" Then he walks away. Then the kids start to walk away and only the wife stays. It's going to get worse because more and more women are joining the workforce and they're going to wonder, "Does God have anything for me in my business life, because that's where I spend eight hours of my day?"

How can church leaders connect more effectively with business people?

Church leaders need to go to their business community. And when I use the word business, I mean people that are in the workforce, because ultimately everything is a business. The pastor needs to go to them and find out about their problems, learn about what they fear, what gets under their skin, and about what they're dealing with in the office. Thirty years ago, when I started my company, I invited my pastor to come over. We were operating with about 200 employees at that point. We were growing. And I said to him, "I don't know how to bring Christ into this business. How do I do that?" He looked at me and said, "I don't know either." That was the last conversation we had.

We're pretty good at being "the church gathered." We've learned how to worship. We're pretty good at teaching, at least inside the church. But we really haven't followed the model that Christ gave us of the church scattered—being out in the community, spending time in the public arena. Who is the moral authority of this nation? It's the pastors. They have to stand up and be part of this broader community. Pastors are our shepherds. Jesus went out and he took the twelve with him and he showed them how to live. He never was a businessman. He wasn't a fisherman like Peter, but he showed Peter how to operate in the world.

You base your ministry on a "kingdom business model." What does that mean?

It's been defined various ways, but when you get down to it, it's an attitude. It's a sense of priority. Is Jesus number one? Is he the center of all things? Or is something else the center? A business person can be a loving Christian. But if that person is focused on the bottom line as the primary driver, that isn't Jesus, and the bottom line becomes the god for that hour. We have to always ask, "Who is Christ in the middle of what we do?" And it forces us to ask what business is really about and what we expect to accomplish.

In your book, you add a new term to the business lexicon: "the triple bottom line." Can you explain that?

A growing trend in secular philanthropy and economic development is commitment to a "double bottom line." This means that not only must a business provide strong financial returns, but it must also provide significant social or environmental returns. Kingdom business rests on a similar recognition that our objectives should go beyond financial returns. For the Christian, however, effective transformation involves addressing economic, social, and spiritual conditions. So we have a three-fold objective for kingdom business, a "triple bottom line" that may be outlined as follows:

profitability and sustainability
local job and wealth creation
advancing the local church and building spiritual capital

Each of these objectives is important, and they should be pursued simultaneously. None should be sacrificed.

If we operate a business within a kingdom model, we're not only interested in what comes in

Attention (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Focus is tough for me right now. One of my sisters just had surgery for cancer, and trying to stay on task is sometimes difficult. Dealing with business items helps me to dial in my focus. When I try to write, though, things tend to distract me easily. So I labor, trying to create something meaningful and helpful in the high calling of our daily work. As you read the following, keep in mind that I wrote this over a couple of days and took almost any opportunity to turn away and attend to something else.

The concept of attention has captured my interest lately. Attention is the scarce commodity in the age of information. We’re bombarded by information. Where do we focus our attention?

Take a typical day. We begin the day wanting to accomplish certain things. They may concern our work, our family, civic duties, or rest. Whatever our agenda, we soon discover challenges to what we hoped to accomplish. We become distracted by the unanticipated events that pop up. Urgent needs keep us from staying on track. Conversations, meetings, phone calls, news reports all have a way of stealing our attention.

Listen up. I need your attention.

On the flip side, just gaining attention is a challenge. At some point, we all need to gain someone else’s attention. Advertisers are consumed with gaining attention, and marketing efforts revolve around managing customer and potential customer attention. On a more personal level, we try to gain the boss’s attention, an employee’s attention, or a spouse’s attention.

In dealing with gaining or maintaining attention, we make choices. We filter the incredible amounts of information that pass before us. Mentally, we sift through the visual and auditory messages that bombard our senses. We search for information that is important to us. Often we band in groups of like-minded people. Using social networking tools, talking over the phone, or meeting face to face, we align ourselves with people whose information we value. They help shape us because they have our attention. And likewise, we help shape them as we have their attention.

Two books have fueled my passion for pursuing attention as a commodity to be managed. First, The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information by Richard A. Lanham lays out a philosophy for the attention economy. Second, The Attentive Life by Leighton Ford, calls us to deep reflection and prayer. The Lanham book inspired me to inquire about attention and give it considerable contemplation. Leighton Ford’s book discusses the rhythm of life and the prime object of and purpose for our attention.

Even as I’ve tried to maintain my focus on writing this post, I’ve allowed my attention to wander. It’s helpful to have this struggle with attention because it forces me to see more deeply the challenges of our attention economy. And it helps me to lean into the love of Jesus to help me do what’s necessary.

Artists and Pastors (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 06:00:00 GMT

An Artists Retreat finishes up today at Laity Lodge. Actually, it's a retreat for those who pastor artists about how to do that more effectively. The visual artist Makoto Fujimura and arts pastor David Taylor made an outstanding team.

I was only able to be out at the retreat for a short period of time. But what struck me beyond the quality of the speakers was the quality of the guests. What I mean is that more than 85% of the guests were at Laity Lodge for the first time. When I arrived at the retreat, they'd been there about thirty hours. What I saw was a very comfortable group of people who were very warm in greeting and very comfortable in the setting. Moments after I arrived late for breakfast, L. L. Barkat came over to say, "Hi." This was our first face-to-face meeting, and it led to some delightful conversation.

Watching people talk to one another as they flowed in and out of groups at meals between sessions and during free-time was exciting to see. Many of these were engaging conversations filled with insight, humor, and grace.

One example is a converstion I had with Mark Philpot. At one point, I brought up arrogance as something that I've been reflecting on lately. Two things that can really irritate me are arrogance and pretense. But I was wondering if there is any advantage to arrogance. This was met with curiosity. I tried to explain that I was thinking that perhaps a truly knowledgeable person who came across as arrogant might actually have a right to be arrogant. Mark responded that arrogance denies grace. An arrogant person doesn't recognize that it is God's grace that makes their knowledge possible. Arrogance points to the person. Humility points to God. God's grace is recognized through humility.

Faith Without Work (Personal Reflection)

Christine A. Scheller — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Last fall, my husband and I did something few 40-something Americans envision. We moved in with my parents. After a family tragedy and a looming recession that didn't bode well for either my own or my husband's industry, we decided to take a radical step by leaving Southern California where we had lived for six years—it was time to move back East. Not only did we need the personal support this move represented, we also needed to tap into our primary social and professional networks to find work.

Critical to our decision was the fact that my parents have a large home. There's room to spread out. We've also missed each other and wanted to be together in our time of grief. Finally, we've all had previous experience with communal living and know how to navigate the landmines. Everyone's faith and character is being stretched, and we're each being blessed in unexpected ways.

As to vocation, my approach has generally been to knock on doors until the right one opens. Lately I've done a whole lot of knocking, but no one appears to be home. My patience has been tested, and along with it my faith and self-confidence.

The first professional step I took after we were settled was to make an appointment with a career counselor. I had read an article that suggested if job seekers aren't getting interviews, their resume needs modification; but if they are getting interviews and no offers, their interview skills need improvement. I surmised that my resume was not working for me and asked the counselor to evaluate it.

He identified an issue I had long suspected as a barrier. My work history has been almost entirely within the religious sector. Together, we worked to downplay a potential negative. We also highlighted non-religious work experiences and contacts. Ultimately though, I must trust God with my vocation: past, present, and future. In college, I had changed my major for expediency and then had succeeded beyond expectation. Later, I sailed through many open doors in my industry. That was then—things change.

The counselor commended steps I was already taking: depending on family at a challenging time, applying for positions via job boards, tapping into both personal and professional networks, cleaning up my online reputation (e.g. changing the setting on my blog so that only the front page comes up in Internet searches and asking other blog hosts to remove attributed comments from theirs). He also suggested that I make connections through LinkedIn.com (a networking site for professionals) and attend job fairs.

When I finally landed my first interview, I was nervous. The fact that I had to get out there and sell myself within months of a devastating loss was more than I thought I could handle. I also needed to be careful not to communicate desperation to a potential employer. Thus, I considered the interview primarily as a learning experience. Yes, I wanted the job, but trusting God to care for me as he had always done reduced my anxiety.

Matthew 6:25-26 tells us not to worry about our lives: what we will eat, drink, or wear. Jesus admonishes, "Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" God knows what my family and I need, and when.

I shed some healthy tears with my family before I left for the interview and was strengthened with the knowledge that they were praying for me. The issues I had been nervous about turned out not to be as awful as I'd imagined. The two-hour process was much less taxing than I'd feared, and I was able to project more confidence than I actually possessed. As anticipated, I didn't do particularly well on a specific skill test, but excelled on another.

I didn't get the position. The closed door told me that I should stop applying for jobs that depend largely on my weakest skill set and focus instead on those that tap into my strengths.

Financial need is forcing many of us to adapt creatively to a volatile job market and tightening economy. The process can be both uncomfortable and frightening. It can also be an opportunity for growth, if we remember who cares for the birds and opens barn doors.

God does all things well in His time.

John Wooden's Hands (Personal Reflection)

Leigh McLeroy — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 06:00:00 GMT

A few years ago, I attended a sports breakfast that honored a then-95-year-old basketball legend named John Wooden. Coach Wooden, who recently turned 98, lives in California. At his age, he doesn't travel much, so he wasn't at the event physically. But we felt his presence.

Huge photos of the man at various stages of his career hung behind the dignitaries seated at the head table. The first showed a handsome, dark-haired young man in a Purdue basketball uniform, crouching as if he were about to pass the ball he held cocked and shoulder high. He gripped it tightly with both hands, his strong fingers splayed across the ball's rippled surface.

In the next photo, Wooden was a still-young coach with a whistle around his neck and the sleeves of his zippered athletic jacket pushed up on his forearms. One hand rested on his hip, and the other loosely cradled the ball that rested in the crook of his arm.

The final photo showed the Wooden most of the basketball world remembers: a wiry man dressed in a dark suit and tie, sporting horn-rimmed glasses and crouching on the sidelines in front of his players. One hand rested on his knee, and the other gestured emphatically with a rolled-up sheaf of papers. Maybe Bill Walton was listening. Or a guy named Lew Alcindor.

In every photo, Wooden's hands told a story. They were strong. Purposeful. Articulate. They belonged to a man whose standard was excellence. Nothing less.

Ten times John Wooden led his teams to the NCAA championship. Once he won that title as a player himself. He won over 80% of the games he coached . . . an astounding record in any era. His former players recalled the pithy sayings he repeated often to them. Things like "Little things make big things happen," and "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" And as good as he was at his job, ESPN reporter Rick Reilly said Wooden never made more than $35,000 a year—including 1975, the year he won his 10th and final NCAA championship. What's more—he never asked for a raise.

Thanks to satellite technology, Wooden was with us live that morning. When the large screen in the banquet hall lit up with his image, the crowded room quieted to a hush. I noticed his hands resting in his lap as he listened to the praises of the presenter, his thin fingers fluttering occasionally, and one hand alternately squeezing and holding the other. He was a man accustomed to motion and intensity—and even at 95 those hands gave him away. He seemed most comfortable when he lifted the trophy he was awarded that day. He knew how to handle its heft, and with both hands, he held it up. (He'd had plenty of practice.)

When the master of ceremonies asked the coach if he had any words for his audience, he spoke a few words he must have recited thousands of times, to his players and to himself, ending with the line: "Make each day a masterpiece." And his working man's hands testified that he had spent a lifetime taking his own advice.

Don't just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ's servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you're really serving God. (Eph. 6:6-7, The Message)

What a Way to Make a Living (Wisdom from Howard E. Butt, Jr.)

Howard Butt, Jr. — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 06:00:00 GMT

I read this interesting article by Lucy Kellaway in The Financial Times and sent it around to my staff. It's worth reading:

One subject that songwriters labour to avoid
Last week the Guardian newspaper published a list of the 1,000 best pop songs ever written. There were songs about love, sex, heartbreak, protest, life and death. Yet on the subject of work there was almost nothing: Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” got a mention, but that was about it.
Read the rest of the article here.

Interview with Makoto Fujimura - Part 2 (Interview)

Becky Garrison — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:00:00 GMT

In his new book, Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture, artist Makoto Fujimura pens a series of essays exploring life, art, and faith. Makoto spoke with us recently about what it means to be an artist and how we can all be creative in our daily work. He will be a leading a retreat for Pastors and Lay Ministers to Artists at Laity Lodge from April 20-23, 2009.

Following is a continuation of our conversation with artist Makoto Fujimura.

How did your art become a ministry after 9/11?

It was not intentional. I was merely trying to address the concerns of everything around me. A temporary gallery was started—International Arts Movement (IAM)—that was an effort to create an oasis of collaboration in the downtown community. It started simply by conversing with those who were there at the time, many of whom were artists. Because we are artists, part of what we wanted to do was wrestle together. Their art was affected by 9/11, and mine as well. And, it was important to journey together for the time being. It turned into a series of exhibits and performances and small conversations there. It was temporary, but, afterwards, it left a legacy in how these artists began to work with change and how they are influenced by that time.

I wasn't necessarily doing this as a “ministry.” But we did minister to people. Every person struggling through those tough days recognized that something important was going on. This event had awakened in us something that art wasn't able to address at the time.

What would you say to people who feel they don't have the artistic talent that you were given, but yet they still have this need to create?

All of us are created to be creative in some way. We may not call ourselves artists or we may not be a professional artist; but creativity is an essence of being human. When you think about it, things that last in our memories are times when we were part of creating something. And, whether it be procreating, in terms of our families, or generating a business or creating an opportunity of mercy, or creating opportunities for people to hear the gospel—all of these are creative acts. And God calls us to that.

That is especially true of nonbelievers, because Christians know by common grace that God poured his gifts into all of the earth. There's a difference between common grace and special grace of salvation knowledge; but common grace is just given generally to all of nature and all of humanity. So, there's an overriding principle of generative creativity that we all long to be part of.

I think artists are catalysts. If you look at a Van Gogh painting, you see a vision that is sharp and refined and out-of-this-world, in a sense. You'll never see a cypress tree or a starry sky in the same way again. So, it's that kind of vision sharing. It's a gift that's being shared with all of humanity. And you can use that as a catalyst to be creative yourself.

What do you say to artists who feel that the church doesn't value their contributions to what they can bring to the body of Christ?

That's reality. But the question is, do they want to be part of the solution, or do they want to be part of the problem? Many times, artists are really unable to rise above the problem; and they become part of the problem. That's one of the things that International Arts Movement is trying to address. Artists can be the most generous, life-giving group of people because we're asked to be resourceful all the time. We've been trained to deal with having nothing and creating out of nothing—not quite as excellently as God did by far.

We can really provide the world with a sense of purpose and significance, and we can create hope even in desperate situations. Artists have this instinctive capacity to run right into the storm, rather than run away from the storm. I always say that you can choose to be part of the storm, or you can move into the eye of the storm. That is the greatest place to create from and has the most energy, as it were in Jeremiah 23:19. And so, there are all these opportunities, I think, that artists can miss if they don't see the whole picture. I encourage them to be part of the solution.

What about those who don't work as an artist? How can they view their work as a creative ministry?

Whatever your medium of adventures may be, you can certainly learn from the artists. You know, I speak to people all the time who say, “Well, I'm not an artist; I don't understand art at all.” I ask them, “What do you do on Sunday afternoon?” And they say, “Oh, we take a walk in the park, or we see a movie or go to a concert.” And, I say, “Well, so, you appreciate art in that way, or you cook something together or you have a family barbeque.” That's part of our creativity working through us.

What artists do is accentuate those experiences to give us a full reality that most of us are not aware of. They open up this vista of experience. By wrestling through these things and having a Christ-centered attitude toward things, we don't have to fear culture. We can live in it and critique it, because all culture is twisted. There are idols everywhere. Originally, idols were good things turned into idols. Our purpose as Christians is to turn them back into a source of goodness, beauty, and truth. That takes discipline and some knowledge. You can learn from artists how to hear music and how to look at the world in a way that opens up this whole new area of experience.

Why do you say prayer is the highest art form?

Prayer is agreeing with God and saying that there is a “world that ought to be” that God is really preparing. That takes imagination and a great deal of poetry and color and aroma of Christ. Those are all things that the arts can help us with.

What relationship do you see between imagination and curiosity and the fruits of the Spirit?

Oh, goo

Interview with Makoto Fujimura - Part 1 (Interview)

Becky Garrison — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:00:00 GMT

In Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture, artist Makoto Fujimura pens a series of essays exploring life, art, and faith. Makoto spoke with us recently about what it means to be an artist and how we can all be creative in our daily work. He will be a leading a retreat for Pastors and Lay Ministers to Artists at Laity Lodge from April 20-23, 2009.

How do you see your work as your calling?

I knew that my work as an artist was my calling before I was a Christian. You can't really commoditize art. The pure artists feel called to do what they do despite enormous difficulties such as not being able to market their works or having an audience necessarily at that moment. This made more sense after I became a Christian, and I knew who called me and to what purpose. One of the things that I discuss in the book is how the process of creativity and the journey of faith overlap. In fact, I was part of a study group called the Faith and Work Group at Yale that examined: “Why is it that Sunday faith is not translated into Monday through Saturday?”

What did you learn from that study group?

I wrote an essay in the book titled “Optimum Foraging Theory: Can You Have Your Birds and Eat Them Too?” It was based on the experience of our group touring the Tyson Factory and thinking through what it means to have a calling of some kind but also have a market reality.

As a Christian, how do you deal with the commercialized aspect of the art world?

Recently, I have been writing in Refractions and on my blogs about the necessity for the market system in the art world to change into more of a hybrid system. Instead of being based purely on the celebrity-driven, ego-infested market system, it would really take into account one's creativity and the biblical paradigm of Shalom prosperity. That's different from just having market prosperity. God plans for us to be thriving in our creativity. Therefore, there has to be an over-arching system that accounts for that. While there are a few pockets of Shalom prosperity, currently, there is no system like that in place. The church should be one of the first places where that could be possible.

What do you think keeps the church from not being one of those places?

I think it's bought into the commoditized system. It's driven by market desires and consumer mentality. We have big churches, which is not bad in itself, but with mall-like structures and 20th century evangelism, the church kind of turned itself into salesmanship of the gospel—where it can be bought or sold. And the person receiving the gospel is either buying it or not buying it. That's a problem in many ways, as we can imagine.

The ineffectiveness of our not being able to create that hybrid system leads to the gospel being boiled down to some level of commodity. As a church, we need to really reconsider this system by recreating our system and calling for systemic change.

How do you glorify God in your daily work?

I glorify God by fulfilling my calling and being faithful in small things. But it's also about being willing to stand for my faith in certain ways. I do that by being authentic and integrating my faith journey with my art. I work with whoever I work with—whether it be a gallery or the whole system that is driven by a celebrity market system with ideologies that are somewhat opposed to biblical values—but I love the art world instead of disengaging from it.

How do you achieve that balance?

Jeremiah 29 calls us to pray for the prosperity of the city in which God has called us into exile. We are in exile. That's just the reality. But that doesn't mean we can disengage and run away from it. Jeremiah tells us to plant gardens and settle down and get married, which means a long incarnational journey to live and work in the place of exile and to honor God there as Daniel did. We become a better Babylonian than the Babylonians.

What Scripture verses or Bible stories influence your art?

Well, the entire Bible is written by our Creator God for broken creative people of God to create and love. That's how I read the Bible; it's a creative book to be read as our creative journey. So, to me, every single verse in Scripture is filled with creative principles that we can learn from—not for the sake of creativity, but for the sake of sanctification and our journey toward the City of God.

What is the biggest spiritual challenge you face in your work?

I would say it is the market pressure, because I have to survive and feed my family as a full-time artist. So, you toil and labor under the curse. Unfortunately, it's very hard to make what I do sustainable because of market pressure and lack of support from the world and from the church. You have to be entrepreneurial. I'm fortunate that I have that capacity, but a lot of people don't. Oftentimes, that puts them at risk in the world. And yet, God has been kind to me and my family and has sustained us as I fulfill my calling. I consider that a daily miracle.

Speaking of family, how do you juggle your family, your ministry, and your art all at the same time?

I talk about that in the book. It's really an amazing miracle and journey that certainly is a juggling act. I do it because I believe it's important. My journey as an artist and what I create is directly linked to advancement of God's kingdom somehow. If I didn't have a conviction, it would be hard to make it work. But at the same time, there's wisdom there that involves making sure that I have a team around me that protects me from burning out, so my work can be sustainable.

What does your work teach you about your faith in the person of God?

I learn a lot from the process of painting—even the frustration of the business side of things or my own failings in what I desire to accomplish. I hope they are teachable moments for me. Creating art is essentially a discipline in which one learns to deal with these frustrations. They ar

Catching a Glimpse of the Pearl (Personal Reflection)

Larry Julian — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Turning to me, the CEO revealed his fear of sharing his values and beliefs with his employees. "Are you familiar with the Found Out Theory?" he asked. "It's the fear that one's true self—particularly one's faith—will be exposed." Our vulnerability rises from fear—fear of being labeled or being libeled, losing our reputation or losing our finances.

I understood that CEO's fear. I believed revealing my faith in Christ would hurt me professionally. And then Monty came along.

As the ultimate Bible teacher and mentor, Monty didn't just teach me, he revealed the living Christ. I remember the day I reached my breaking point; a culmination of years of rejection by publishers. We were having lunch in Monty's office when I broke down crying as I told him of my decision to abandon my four-year attempt to publish God Is My CEO. With tears in his eyes, Monty hugged me and then, with confidence in his voice, read from his worn Bible and encouraged me to fan into flame the gift of God that was in me. Monty poured God's truth into me until I felt I could make a difference simply by being who God made me to be.

Monty taught that relationships, not dollars, are life's true currency. Three hundred of Monty's students, mentees, and friends came to his memorial service. It was there I discovered that without fail, when Monty had made a difference in a life, that person went on to make a difference in another life.

Chris, a high school drop-out who Monty encouraged until he became a successful pastor, shared, "Monty acted like I was the most important person on earth. He believed in me when I didn't believe in myself."

Ward, a self-proclaimed self-serving insurance salesman, became a defender of the poor in Africa. Ward shared, "When the whole world seemed to laugh at my dreams, Monty embraced them, fueled them with prayer, and then relentlessly held me accountable to the kingdom for their completion."

Charles, another of Monty's students, explained, "In life, there are role models and heroes. Role models are emulated for what they do well, while heroes are admired for who they are. Monty was more than a role model; he was a hero. Like everyone else, he had doubts, fears, and discouragements as he battled cancer, heart issues, and Parkinson's disease, but he never allowed them to be relevant in the purpose God had for his life. Monty always said, "What God permits, I thankfully accept." I experienced an unmistakable freedom and joy in the man; I caught a glimpse of the heart and spirit of Jesus—the pearl (Matt. 13:46). I don't seek to emulate what Monty accomplished, but what he found that gave him the freedom to become who he was. I want that pearl!

Perhaps the greatest gift you can give is to let others see the pearl inside you. When you allow God room to be significant in your life—through your love, attitudes, behaviors, and actions—you create a path for him to be significant in others' lives. That's why your life is so important. You don't need to change the world and do great things for God. Let God help you be a good husband, wife, parent, friend, leader, or coworker. The world is starved for the pearl that is within you!

Your life as an expression of your faith, even with your blemishes and faults, has an impact on the world around you. One of Monty's students had been out of work for a long time. Despite discouragement and bouts of depression, he went to one job interview after another. During this same time period, his teenage daughter was battling bulimia. When her dad later asked how she overcame bulimia, she reflected, "I watched you when you were totally discouraged. I knew that if you could do it, so could I."

Don't allow your blemishes to diminish God's blessings. Expose them as an expression of your faith. Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." You may see a flawed person; God sees a masterpiece. Let who you are speak for what you believe. Through your transparency, God will transform lives.

Soaring Spirit (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Flying from Sam Fuller on Vimeo.

This video is so simple yet inspiring. It is poetic and beautiful without grand production and expensive equipment. Uplifting music accompanies a soaring spirit on a ride from an office on the thirty-first floor. What a metaphor for glorifying God in everyday life and work.

New Survey (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 06:00:00 GMT

We are constantly striving to improve your experience at TheHighCalling.org. We interpret data on a regular basis trying to anticipate your needs. However, sometimes we just have to have your input.

So we've added a badge in the right-hand corner of the homepage. It's near the search function.

Please take our quick four-question survey . It takes about thirty seconds and can really benefit the site.

Oscar Robertson (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:00:00 GMT

I was a senior in high school the first time I saw him play. For me, he was the embodiment of everything my coaches had ever taught me about the fundamentals of basketball. Here was this large linebacker in shorts, a point guard with perfect posture, driving to the basket, shooting the perfect layup. There was no flamboyance in the Big"O." He was the purest player I've ever seen. The closest thing to him was the slighter, perfect jump shooter, Jerry West.

Fundamentally, no player was as perfect as Oscar Robertson, not Jerry West or the young Walt Frazier. Nobody. I saw him near the end of his career. He had been traded from the Cincinnati Royals to the Milwaukee Bucks. Oscar wasn't even the big draw any more. Everybody, including me, came to see the young star, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I came away from that game with a different view of the sport. I didn't know that anyone could play basketball like Oscar Robertson did.

In an era when no one talked about "triple doubles," Oscar Robertson averaged 12.5 rebounds, 11.4 assists, and 30.8 points per game in the 1961-62 season. Those stats rival anything ever produced in the NBA, including Michael Jordan.

The experience of watching that game is vivid in my memory. I've thought about it numerous times. And because I've thought about it so often, I've prayed about it too. As I've prayed, one thought keeps coming to my mind, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." As I follow this concept, I'm led to Deuteronomy 18:13, "Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God." This is the King James Version. It translates the Hebrew word, tamiym about the same as interpreters translate the Greek word telios, which is "perfect." Both words mean completeness in the sense of fulfilling intention.

I understand this as excellence—doing what you do so well that it is pleasing to God. Excellence isn't necessarily flashy or flamboyant. There is grace and beauty in the compete control of a performance. It's using God-given talent and applying it at the highest level possible.

Here's the message Oscar Robertson's game spoke to me: Be perfect. Robertson's perfection, his excellence, helped me to understand the importance of working with excellence. And that excellence symbolizes the high calling of our daily work.

Human Flourishing (Ramblin' Dan)

Dan Roloff — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:00:00 GMT

Yesterday I heard a term I'd never heard before, "Human Flourishing." It was in the context of what we provide through our Laity Lodge programs and TheHighCalling.org. Through our Free Camps, Youth Camp, Family Camp, retreat center, radio encouragements, and on the web, we offer people the opportunity to flourish. Wow! That's a heavy load and challenging responsibility.

In the conversation, Mark D. Roberts pointed out that "human flourishing" was more the intention than "happiness" in the New Testament. God wants us to flourish, not merely to be happy. Flourishing means that we become more fully who we are created to be.

The understanding of the word eudaimonia as human flourishing goes back to Aristotle. This is the Greek word that is translated as happiness in the New Testament. The Aristotelian understanding of happiness is arguably a more complete understanding of the word happiness. It is more consistent with Jesus' teaching.

On this issue, IVP editor, Al Hsu, poses three questions: "So what does it mean for me to be a flourishing human? At work, in my studies, in my family, at church? And how best to contribute to the flourishing of others?"

These three questions are part of what we address at TheHighCalling.org. We feel this is our calling, and we accept the challenge.