Here, Robert shares a prayer from our recent Reimagining Work event. Join us in prayer over our public servants and the important work they do for the flourishing of our communities.
Our twelfth Reimagining Work gathering, focused on public policy in Los Angeles, brought together distinguished guests and panelists for an inspiring evening of insights and collaboration.
Labor Day is seen by most Angelinos as the last gasp of summer; a three-day weekend serving as summer’s conclusion—the bookend to Memorial Day’s launch of summer. It is well known that Memorial Day honors those who died in the armed forces defending our country, but less is known about the significance of Labor Day. Is it a secular holiday—a materialist nod to the role workers play in building the economic prosperity of the United States? Or should we include Labor Day among holidays Christians take note of?
Read on to hear more as Robert Covolo explores why Christians have good reason to enter Labor Day with celebration.
The Center for Faith + Work Los Angeles is excited to welcome 8 new participants into our 2024-25 class of the Framework Fellows Program.
Please take a few moments to learn a little about this wonderful group of fellows and the unique offerings they will each bring to the cohort this year.
Part of working under Christ’s Lordship in every area of our lives includes being willing to seek to love our neighbors as ourselves and steward the positions we occupy for God’s glory. Dan Price is thoughtfully bringing this to bear in his own work. A recent story from BBC highlighted Dan’s desire to disadvantage himself for the sake of those he leads as the CEO of Gravity Payments.
In the inaugural episode of the CFWLA Podcast, Executive Director Steve Lindsey and Communications Director Gage Arnold sit down for a conversation on the hopes for this podcast, the theology that undergirds the conversations, and their own reflections on how this framework shapes all they do in their own work.
Doug McKelvey chooses his words carefully. This is true in more ways than one. In fact, thoughtfulness is a good way to surmise McKelvey’s posture; if you’ve spent more than 30 seconds with one of his liturgies in his 2017-release Every Moment Holy, you know this to be true. Every phrase and punctuation mark feels intentional, as if molded on a potter’s wheel.
Indeed, every good endeavor presents an opportunity to live into who you were created to be. If you’re able to trust that the Lord’s power is made perfect in weakness and lean into the callings he asks of his people through his Word, you are inhabiting his will for your life. And if you’re trying to find a job where you feel awesome, remember that Jesus has already been awesome for you. Your job is simply to be faithful and free.
Wise leaders, using biblical wisdom, know that it is critical to first remove the notion that the workplace is a sphere isolated from one’s spiritual life. The tough daily decisions we make at work are never just business. Many biblical principles directly apply to our workplace interactions, such as the Golden Rule (Matt. 7:12), in treating others as we wish to be treated, loving those who behave badly toward us (Matt. 5:44), or dealing justly and fairly to those under us (Col. 4:1).
I find some sense of comfort in the reality that a highly successful individual such as Tolkien was battered by Christmastime work stress. Perhaps yuletide fatigue is not such a new-to-our-generation phenomenon after all. Tolkien was well versed in discovering joy—yes, with great intentionality—especially in times of stress and turmoil. He knew that the very best stories, including the grand Christian stories like Christmas and Easter were punctuated with genuine joy, even amidst serious stress.
We will probably never be able to fully explain why the world seems like it’s always getting better and worse at the same time. One thing I do know is that God wants us to fully long and to fully hope at the same time, whether it’s through Christian traditions like Advent, Hollywood films like Interstellar, or all the horrible and glorious things happening around us and to us each and every day.
What is the longest you have had to wait for something? When I ponder this in my own life, it becomes clear to me as a believer that I’m called to wait upon the Lord and that waiting will often be difficult. I also know that we all are to make known to God the desires of our hearts. We can only do this because the Lord is our strength and our hope.
What comes to mind when you think about salt? Salt, at its core, serves two primary purposes: it is both a seasoning agent used to enhance and draw out the best in certain foods and also a preservation tool that hedges against mold and decay. But have you ever considered the way in which your vocation, the work you do each day, might fit into these categories of seasoning or preservation?
How might our attitudes change towards our vocations if we saw them not as a means of self-fulfillment but of God-glorification? Instead of falling into the plight that Dorothy Sayers highlights of using our work to serve ourselves, what if we sought to serve the work the Lord has graciously invited us into?
At the heart of loving our neighbor well is an emphasis on humans being made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Taking it a step further, we honor God when we honor and help draw out the image of God in others. We do this by helping others see who they were created to be, creating means for the flourishing of others, and even redeeming and pushing back on the ways darkness infringes upon the inherent dignity of others.
