As a follow-up to his three-part blog series, CFWLA friend, Robert Covolo sits down for a conversation with Matthew Kaemingk & Cory B. Wilson, authors of the new book Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy.
In this episode, they discuss how and why the book came together, the intersection of work + worship, what we can learn from the Old Testament and the early church on the relationship between work + worship, and how to best respond in our lives today.
AUTHOR BIOS
Matthew Kaemingk (Ph.D.) is associate dean and assistant professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary. Matthew also serves as a fellow at the Center for Public Justice and a scholar-in-residence at the De Pree Center for Christian Leadership.
Cory B. Wilson (Ph.D.) is Jake and Betsy Tuls Associate Professor of Missiology and Missional Ministry and directs the Institute for Global Church Planting and Renewal at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Robert Covolo is a Cultural Theologian and Author of Fashion Theology. He is a regular contributor and friend to us here at the Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles.
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On The Symmetry Between Work And Sunday Worship: (Matthew Kaemingk; 9:46)
“So what we want to see Sunday morning to be is not a moment of worship, but the beginning of a whole week of worship. And Sunday morning is really part of a training ground in God's economy. That on a Sunday morning we learn to live and work by God's patterns, after God's work in the world, so that when we go out into the week, we extend those patterns of grace and beauty in our working lives. So rather than saying Sunday morning as an escape from the world or as an escape from our work, it's just another aspect of what it means to live before the face of God.”
On How Israel's Relationship To Work Can Help Us: (Cory B. Wison; 27:32)
“…So their idolatry made a lot of sense. And when you read through the prophets, and say “Oh, my gosh, I can't believe Israel's going back to those idols again.” You need to stop short of that. And need to actually, bring yourself under the examining light of scripture to say, where are you tempted to buy into the practices of the market that are unjust, that, you know, are unjust.”
On Bringing Our Working Selves to our Worshipping Selves: (Matthew Kaemingk; 50:00)
“Bring your work to God. He will transform, lift it up, and redirect it. He is faithful and throughout scripture, we are encouraged not to come before God empty-handed, but to bring him the beauty and the brokenness that we experience, his yoke is easy, his burden is light. And so it's good news that we can be our full selves and we can bring our work to him.”