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Our eldest son, Nathanael, is in full-time Christian service. He works as a fish biologist for the State of Washington. |
Nancy Pearcey, author of Total Truth, says many Christians fail to see work in business, politics, the arts, and science as ways to serve God. She notes that many young people think if they really want to serve God, they will go into "the ministry." To them, this means being a pastor or a missionary.
The problem, Pearcey maintains, is the "sacred-secular distinction," dividing life into "sacred" and "secular" categories.
The Sacred-Secular Divide [SSD] is a mental stronghold that's hard to remove. Yet, ridding young people of SSD is an essential part of Christian education, whether formally at school, or informally at home.
Our son, Nathanael, knows he’s doing God’s work by managing fish because we dismantled the Sacred-Secular Divide at the dinner table. We chewed it up and spit it out.
The Sacred-Secular Divide [SSD] is a mental stronghold that's hard to remove. Yet, ridding young people of SSD is an essential part of Christian education, whether formally at school, or informally at home.
Our son, Nathanael, knows he’s doing God’s work by managing fish because we dismantled the Sacred-Secular Divide at the dinner table. We chewed it up and spit it out.
I don't want to be critical of pastors [they have a tough job], but when was the last time your pastor talked about how fish management fulfills God’s purpose for human beings to govern well over Planet Earth?
If you are a parent, when was the last time you talked about this at your dinner table?
If you are a parent, when was the last time you talked about this at your dinner table?
When was the last time the car mechanics in your church were brought up front and commissioned to serve God through fixing broken automobiles?
All cars belong to Christ, but some are broken. The whole earth is the Lord's, and everything in it. Not just fish, but metal, glass and brake fluid. He's relevant to it all. Ruling well over God's stuff is the work of God. It's what God had in mind for human beings when He commissioned us to govern over this beautiful-but-now-broken planet.
I'll say it again: repairing cars and fish management, done in response to the First Commission of Gen. 1:26-28, is the work of God.
Yes, so is the work of pastors and missionaries. Yet, somehow, calling fish management and automotive repair “the work of God” is nearly heretical. It doesn't come easily to the evangelical mind.
I'll say it again: repairing cars and fish management, done in response to the First Commission of Gen. 1:26-28, is the work of God.
Yes, so is the work of pastors and missionaries. Yet, somehow, calling fish management and automotive repair “the work of God” is nearly heretical. It doesn't come easily to the evangelical mind.
Jesus was a carpenter for most of His 33 years in Palestine, yet He only did what His Father showed Him to do. Was He doing the work of God before He became an itinerant teacher?
He was doing exactly what His Father showed Him to do. Carpentry, for Christ, was the work of God.
He was doing exactly what His Father showed Him to do. Carpentry, for Christ, was the work of God.
Posted by Dr. Christian Overman
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