It was a strange, deflating kind of day. I was a 24-year-old seminary student, eager to share my knowledge about the New Testament. I walked into the small church classroom well prepared with notes and PowerPoint slides. I plugged in my computer and eagerly awaited people to show up for my class at church. Hoping for over 10, I had two people show up. Next week, zero. Tumbleweed blew across the floor, and dust blew. (Not really, but that’s how I remember it.)

Months prior, knowing I needed church experience, I had created for myself an internship at a church for young professionals in Denver, Colorado. I had essentially no guidance or oversight, but undeterred, I advertised a class I could teach, prepared it, and showed up. I essentially tried to recreate seminary in a church context, because this is what I knew. And it flopped. Like a balloon pricked by a pin, I left feeling defeated.

Years later, I found myself in my first job after seminary: associate pastor of a Spanish-speaking congregation in Brighton, Colorado. In less than a year, I knew I was in way over my head. Navigating cultural differences, handling church conflicts, and trying to raise my own young family, my anxiety levels were climbing. And though I knew theology, I didn’t know the craft of being a pastor. I didn’t know how to lead. And I didn’t know myself.

The Seminary-Church Challenge

It’s no secret that the American church is facing tremendous challenges. Church membership is declining, as are numbers of seminarians pursuing an MDiv (the degree traditionally designed for pastoral leadership). Anecdotally, nearly all of my friends in church or denominational leadership are looking for one thing: leaders. And they are finding that recruiting talented young people into church ministry has become much more difficult than it was only 10 years ago.

Now, there could be many reasons for this; indeed, there are many reasons. Rising student debt, more options open to young people, church scandals deterring future pastoral leaders, and extreme competition for online theological education all play a role. But I believe we have a large, systemic issue.

Here’s what I mean: Seminary students are trained by scholars who are professionally prepared to do research—and sometimes to teach in a classroom. And this is fitting for academia. But it doesn’t look much like the daily life of a pastor. And churches are designed to, well, do church. They’re not training or educational organizations; they’re shepherding, worshiping organizations. There’s a large, systemic gap between theological higher education and the local church. By and large, the people whom higher ed is producing are not what churches need. Churches don’t need just good theologians; they need spiritually mature, emotionally healthy leaders who can build healthy, vibrant organizations. Theological education is a necessary component of pastoral education, but not sufficient.

This gap, of course, is nothing new in other industries. For many years, philanthropic and industry leaders have noted in conversations about workforce development that they see the need to better align education with work. Whether it’s to train a new welder or a health care technician, leaders have called for a new effort to provide young leaders with work-based learning opportunities. I believe this is the future of pastoral education as well.

Designing 3 Streams Institute

How might a work-based learning experience look for those open to exploring pastoral leadership?

That was the question I faced last year when considering how to design what’s become 3 Streams Institute. I knew what I didn’t want it to be: a place where interns make copies and fill coffee cups but aren’t known, appreciated, or invested in. I also knew that it couldn’t just be “seminary in another location”—existing models trying to solve new problems. I knew it needed to provide a holistic experience for both professional and interior growth. But what should it look like?

To answer that, I started where all great businesses begin: talking to our “customers.” I spent months talking to not just Anglican pastors but also over 15 past interns, apprentices, and residents. I wanted to hear: “What’s your story? What are you looking for? What was great about your experience? What would you change? What gift might you give to future learners?”

Broken down into five categories, here’s what I heard:

“Give us a place to discern our future.” Nobody I talked to said, “I’m 100 percent committed to a lifetime of pastoral ministry.” What I did hear, however, was interest, curiosity, openness, and some hesitancy. The interns wanted a place to test the waters before diving in.
“Give us practical experience.” Interns wanted a chance to lead and take on real responsibility in a supportive environment.
“Give us mentors and feedback.” I also heard how important a community of trusted leaders was to the interns. They wanted people to process their life and calling with, as well as to give them professional feedback.
“Give us a community to process real life with.” Each intern I interviewed was kindly vulnerable with me. After I spent hours listening, they shared the desire for a healthy, early-career work environment and community of peers to process their own spiritual, emotional, and relational issues.
“Give us a career path.” Interns were looking for an income—like the rest of us! But more importantly, they wanted to take graduated steps toward a career in church ministry. They were looking for a way to learn that wouldn’t put them further in debt and could result in both long-term and short-time gainful employment.

So, that’s what I set out to build: a work-based learning experience that would offer a healthy context for career discernment; practical work experience in a local church; mentored professional development; a community of peers and leaders to help them grow emotionally, relationally, and spiritually; and a career pathway for future leadership in the Anglican church.

How It Works

Interns start with a nine-month role working 10 to 12 hours per week that includes rotating through different departments and learning with a cohort in six broad areas: emotional and relational health, spiritual formation, management and leadership, pastoral training, career discernment, and the Anglican tradition. The main goal of the first year is exposure to church leadership and genuine spiritual, relational, and emotional growth.

Year two features a 15- to 20-hour-per-week apprenticeship focused on working in a particular department in the church, getting real-life pastoral experience, and deepening discernment about pursuing full-time occupational ministry. Years three and four feature our full-time residency program (launching spring 2026), which focuses on the ordination process and provides holistic professional, spiritual, emotional, and ecclesiastical formation for future senior leaders.

We’re just getting started, and we have lots to learn from those we’re privileged to serve, but here’s what we’re excited about for 3 Streams.

It benefits our learners. The program provides both work experience and contextualized learning experiences that grow students’ interior lives and relationships—with God and others. It provides a scholarship (or a taxable stipend) to offset the cost of seminary education—which means that rather than getting interns into debt, we pay them to learn and grow. And it does so in a peer environment so interns have a place to process their careers, lives, and faith.

It benefits churches. This program creates a leadership pipeline for future church leaders, which nearly all churches are looking for. Now, it does cost the church. But it provides them a way to get to know future leaders before hiring them to lead and fills the seminary-church gap that is often a barrier to developing strong church leadership.

It’s holistic. We remain big fans of seminary education. But 3 Streams provides practical, mentored, hands-on experience and formation in six areas that are often overlooked: emotional and relational health, spiritual formation, management and leadership, pastoral training, career discernment, and the Anglican tradition.

It’s true to our mission. 3 Streams is “rooted in the gospel, alive in the Spirit, and formed by the liturgy.” We provide a context for learning that is theologically orthodox, connected to the historic church, and alive with the life of God.

It’s designed for adult learners. Rather than offering only a classroom setting or online class, we provide for our learners with environments that help them take charge of their own learning. For example, we’ve identified seven learning environments (thanks to my previous work with the brilliant people at Denver Institute for Faith & Work) that facilitate holistic learning: “come and see” experiences with leaders, reading and discussion in cohorts, practiced spiritual disciplines, relational processing with mentors, new professional experiences, formal teaching, and self-directed learning activities.

It provides on-ramps to pastoral ministry for any stage of life. We’ve designed the internship for either students or early-career professionals who are considering pastoral leadership. Starting in the spring of 2026, we’ll also have a residency program that will provide an on-ramp for mid- or later-career professionals considering an industry change. (More details are to come.)

It’s scalable. We’re just starting at Wellspring Church this fall, but we believe we could explore models to help other churches recruit, train, form, and send their own leaders.

If what we’ve designed feels like a mix of many worlds, well, it is! Just as corporations invest in research and development and venture capital firms take big bets on startups, we’re innovating new ways to think about pastoral education. And like design thinking teaches, we’ll continue to empathize, define, ideate, design prototypes, and test our curriculum, experiences, and program.

This launch is just the beginning. But we’re hopeful that, through prayer, generosity, and hard work, this could be a good, beautiful beginning.

The Early Career Arc

Leaving school can be hard. It means losing the predictability of a syllabus and the well-worn pathway of learning, writing, taking tests, and getting grades. This was the wilderness that I confronted in my 20s and that so many people face today. What did I need? Well, what 3 Streams is offering. A community. A deeper understanding of myself. Practice in the professional world. Patient mentors. The freedom to try things out, fail, and start again—albeit a bit wiser.

D. Michael Lindsay, the president of Taylor University, once studied over 500 “platinum leaders”—very senior leaders in the marketplace, government, higher education, and media—to understand what most formed them and helped them get into positions of influence. Interestingly enough, the main factor wasn’t what college they attended. It wasn’t what family they grew up in or their cultural background. It was what happened to them in their 20s that shaped their career trajectories.

I suppose that’s why I’ve spent much of my career designing holistic, formative experiences for young people in their 20s. Here’s where we can make an impact. Here’s how we can serve. And here’s how we can come alongside idealistic young people with PowerPoint slides, notes, and world-changing plans in hand and help them grow into the wise, seasoned leaders the Church truly needs today.

This is the second post in a series of articles about the newly created 3 Streams Institute. To learn more about 3 Streams or support its mission, visit 3StreamsInstitute.com.

church Culture Theology

Welcome to 3 Streams Institute

September 15, 2024

Today’s a good day.

Today, we launch 3 Streams Institute, a new initiative dedicated to recruiting, training, forming, and sending a new generation of leaders into the church in North America.

As with any founding story, what started as just an idea, even just a feeling, has now become something alive, new, and real. Here’s the story.

Billy Waters, the lead pastor at Wellspring Church in Englewood, Colorado, reached out to a handful of leaders in the winter of 2022 to discuss starting a new training organization that would build on—and expand—Wellspring’s internship program. We met for about five months with Chris Binkley, Tim Donohue, Katie Gayle, Jill Gilley, Tim Hascall, Linda Hearn, Steven Loomis, Amy Williams, and Mark Young to eat lunch after church, pray, and discuss. Passion and interest in the project were beginning to grow.

I had been attending Wellspring for only a couple years, but something had started to change in me, well before those early task force gatherings.

Remembering Why

I remember in the summer of 2020, when we were holding church on the lawn, I was struggling through a laundry list of anxieties and wounds in the midst of COVID. Reading our pre-communion liturgy, I came upon a single phrase asserting that “we,” the Church, “are the redeemed.” My first thought was, “That’s ridiculous. That’s not who I am at all. I’m a dang mess. And so is everybody around me.” And then, as I considered that phrase, “We are the redeemed,” tears began to well up. As I awaited the Lord’s Supper, I allowed that identity to be spoken over me, feeling undeserving but joyfully grateful.

I remember the time at worship when my extended family was going through a painful season, and my world felt dark, sad, and aimless. I remember the smile of Tara Malouf, a deacon at Wellspring, reading from the Book of Common Prayer, and I remember David Norris, the worship pastor, and Sara Kidd, the assistant worship director, singing a new song by Rita Springer called “Amen!” As we sang, “Amen, from an empty cup; Amen, when there’s not enough. God, hear me say it again! Amen!” I again felt a new freedom. That day, I came to believe that even when it’s dark, I can fully trust God, and he will provide everything I need. Everything.

I also remember during that summer of 2022, five months into our 3 Streams task force at Wellspring, thinking to myself, “This place, these people—there is something unique here. Something alive. Something the world needs. Something in me is now living that was once dead. If I can do anything to extend the vibrancy of this place and these people into the world, that’s what I want to do.”

Starting to Build

So I told Billy Waters that I had some experience building “institutes” and could potentially help turn a dream into reality. That summer, I put together a slide deck presenting an organizational plan of what 3 Streams could be. That fall, we discussed the plan with Wellspring’s board and senior staff. Early in winter 2023, Billy worked with a handful of generous donors to share the vision and realigned staff roles so 3 Streams could launch with a full leadership team. The plan resonated with donors who shared our concern about declining church membership, declining numbers of seminarians pursuing an MDiv (the degree traditionally designed for pastoral leadership), and the desperate need to recruit talented men and women into pastoral leadership.

The plan also resonated with prospective interns, who told me personally that they were curious about church leadership but unsure whether it was right for them. They wanted real-life experience, not just head knowledge; were looking for mentors and guides to help them discern their career; felt the emotional and spiritual weight of our culture and wanted a healthy context to work through emotional, relational, and spiritual issues; and were looking for not just a job but a career path.

In late February 2023, we got the go-ahead from the Wellspring’s board and leadership—including a budget, team, and early goals—to start building 3 Streams Institute. Partnering with Billy Waters, Tara Malouf, Amy Carr, Katie Gayle, and David Norris, we did just that. We built a curriculum and work-based learning experience that provides interns with:

A healthy context for career discernment;
Practical work experience in a church;
Mentored professional development;
A community of peers and leaders that helps them grow emotionally, relationally, and spiritually; and
A clear job pathway for future leadership in the Anglican Church.

Today is just a beginning, but it’s a joyful one.

Now, we build on the good work of those who’ve gone before us by humbly coming alongside interns, apprentices, and pastoral residents as they work, learn, discern, and grow together in community.

Today we welcome eight new interns—Ethan Metz, Madison Bishop, Olivia Wilson, Joe Morarez, Paige Lier, Maya Goodyear, Ellie Hires, and Martha Haller—as they begin a journey of exploration.

And we commit to being 3 Streams people: rooted in the gospel, alive in the Spirit, and formed by the liturgy.

Today we begin simply—but with great hope.

Join us.

Nonprofit Theology Work

My Two Cents on Not Losing Our Hearts on the Job [Audio]

May 7, 2024

Since Working from the Inside Out has released, I’ve been honored to speak on numerous podcasts with hosts way smarter than me.

Here are a few of my favorite, where I share about everything from how to handle conflict with co-workers to spiritual rhythms that can infuse life into the workday.

Enjoy.

Women Scholar’s and Professionals – Intervarsity

Faith in the Workplace with Jeff Haanen on Christianity Today_Being Human Podcast with Steve Cuss

Live Faith First Podcast with Eliot Sands_Work Can Be a Good Thing with Jeff Haanen

Unhurried Living: 289: Working from the Inside Out (Alan w/ Jeff Haanen) on Apple Podcasts

E 354 How Inner Work Transforms Your Outer World with Saddleback Church on YouTube

A Brief Guide to Inner Work that Transforms Our Outer World with Apollos Watered on YouTube

Episode 274 – Working from the Inside Out with Jeff Haanen with Faith Driven Entrepreneur

Working from the Inside Out with Eric Most and Laurie Bossert on Generosity Now

God’s Story Podcast – Working from the Inside Out with Jeff Haanen

Episode 58 Manly with Andy – Working from the Inside Out with Jeff Haanen

Denver Institute for Faith & Work _ Working from the Inside Out featuring Jeff Haanen

Here’s the Full Audiobook on Audible: Working from the Inside Out: A Brief Guide to Inner Work That Transforms Our Outer World

Free Study Guide: Study Guide_Working from the Inside Out

Spiritual Formation Theology Work

How to Change

February 26, 2024

An Excerpt from Working from the Inside Out

It had been a hard week.

As I got out of the shower, my mind was spinning with the minor defeats of a middle-aged man. The time I lost my temper with my daughters at the dinner table. The day I felt about four inches tall when I was talked down to by somebody with more money and power than me. The crouching sloth I was silently battling when overwhelmed by too much to do and too little motivation. And then that Saturday afternoon on my back patio when I felt a wave of depression sweep over me.

That morning I looked at myself in the foggy mirror. Crow’s feet had set in around my eyes. Gray hairs were sprouting from my sideburns. Alone in the bathroom, I said out loud, “God, when do I really change?”

I had been a Christian for twenty-two years, attended thousands of church services, and led a Christian organization, yet that day the promise of being conformed to the image of Christ had never felt so remote. Change, I’ve found the hard way, is elusive. Real, interior transformation—or what the New Testament simply calls abundant life—is the promise of the Christian gospel (John 10:10). And yet we struggle through addiction, broken relationships, and moral failures time and time again.

And it’s not just a problem for Christian leaders blazing back to earth after a fall from grace. It’s all of us. “Trying harder next time” seems to make it even worse.

To become good—actually, thoroughly good—feels like grasping smoke on a windy day.
As I pass my fortieth birthday, one question sits behind every other question in my life: Who am I becoming? That is often followed by another: Can I really change?”

HOW WE CHANGE

“To be honest, I’ve become adept at finding new ways to say I’ll change but then remaining stuck. The habits of sin—or even just the habits of our culture—have a way of reemerging like an unwanted trick birthday candle.

So, how do we change? Unfortunately, reading a book alone won’t do it. This is sad news for an author. But I’ve come to believe that reading alone won’t lead to real interior transformation. Think about your experience reading this book. Likely, it’s before bed, after a hard day, or consumed in snippets on vacation or between sittings. Once you close the book—even if it’s a self-help bestseller—you’re still surrounded by anxieties, responsibilities, media, family, coworkers, and a thousand other noisy influences. It’s not that books can’t change you. I believe they can, but they rarely do so in isolation from the rest of life.

How about getting more schooling? I’m a big believer in education, but many of our educational systems have largely adopted a narrow, heady version of change. Read a book, write a paper, take a quiz, then you’ll change. And yet, in higher education or in high school, the curriculum that really changes people are the unwritten values and norms of a school—not just what the syllabus says.

Most churches—at least word-centered Protestant churches—are similar. Though rarely stated, the unwritten message tends to be that the right combination of church attendance, music, and preaching will finally bring about the wholeness we desire. And yet, at least in my family, the van ride home from church often looks more like Chernobyl than the Garden of Eden. Some mysterious pattern of emotion, experience, and habit short-circuits even the most powerful experiences of God from creating real moral formation. I believe church is central to change, but we need to rethink what experiences actually lead to genuine Christian formation.

After researching the topic for years, I’ve discovered that trying to understand the way people change can leave you drowning in a quicksand of information: psychology, history, literature, sociology, andragogy, educational studies, history, theology, neuroscience, economics, current events, anthropology, sociology, philosophy—the author of Ecclesiastes wasn’t wrong when he wrote, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body” (Ecclesiastes 12:12).

And yet, here we are, limping along. We’re ever hoping things will get better, looking for salvation in every job offer, relationship, or vacation, yet feeling the subtle weight of encrusted sin, unhealthy habits, fractured relationships, and unmet dreams. If we really want to live a life that is truly healthy from the inside out, what kind of experiences might lead to real growth?

Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question fully. I, too, am just learning. But I have a working theory I want to explore with you in this chapter:

  Formation begins when an individual self-identifies a problem, need, or point of suffering and then joins a high-commitment community. The community is formed by an emotional and relational context of genuine vulnerability, bound together by a common story or universal history, and defined by a set of shared habits and practices.

  Over time, change is solidified by a deeper engagement of ideas and concepts discussed in community that affirm the story; a broader relational network that exposes learners to new emotions, stories, ideas, habits, and practices; significant work, which the learner is called to perform using new skills and knowledge; and public recognition for accomplishment, which shapes the learner’s identity.

   Long-term change happens when the learner chooses to grow in self-awareness and cultivate new spiritual disciplines, which open the soul to the transformative power of the Holy Spirit.

That’s a mouthful. Let’s take each of these movements one by one.

This is an excerpt from chapter 8 in Working from the Inside Out: A Brief Guide to Inner Work That Transforms Our Outer World. You can buy the paperback or audiobook wherever books are sold.

Theology Vocation Work

Audio Book Release and a Free Gift: Working from the Inside Out

December 27, 2023

Hey Friends,

Today we launch the audio book, narrated by yours truly, of Working from the Inside Out. As a big thank you for your support (and patience with my erratic posting on this blog), I’d like to offer the first four people who read this post a FREE copy of the audio book on Audible.

THE AUDIOBOOK IS:

Working from the Inside Out: A Brief Guide to Inner Work That Transforms Our Outer World

YOUR DOWNLOAD CODE(S):

6MXTKU7GNWL3
PLB3C1RHEJW4
UXC0EFVYWAR3
XPSNZU30Q158

Note: Each code is one-time-use.

HOW TO REDEEM:

Your free audiobook(s) can be enjoyed via Audiobooks.com. Existing Audiobooks.com account holders can visit their My Account page to redeem, while new listeners can follow the below instructions.

1	Visit www.audiobooks.com/promo
2	Input your promo code and hit “apply”
3	Continue creating your FREE account and then hit “Start Listening”
4	Download the free Audiobooks.com app for Apple or Android devices (see below for links), or listen on your desktop through Audiobooks.com
5	Login and start listening! Your free audiobook(s) will be waiting for you in the My Books section

Thanks again to you all! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the audio book! If you think of it, leave a review on audible!

Jeff

PS. I’ll update this blog post as soon as I hear from you that all four free audible books are claimed.

Theology Vocation Work

Launch Day! “Working from the Inside Out: A Brief Guide to Inner Work That Transforms Our Outer World” (IVP, 2023)

December 12, 2023

God is working, I believe, “from the inside out.”

Big day! Today InterVarsity Press is publishing my second book: Working from the Inside Out: A Brief Guide to Inner Work That Transforms Our Outer World.

The book comes from my 10 years of experience leading Denver Institute for Faith & Work and the deepening conviction that “faith and work” is not first about impact, success, or even a way to advance the Gospel in the world—it’s about who we’re becoming in the process of our working lives.

The idea of the book is to give us a place to start this journey of living in a relationship with God in all areas of life. First, I believe we need to focus not on the world’s problems but on our own hearts and minds, seeking deep spiritual and emotional health and theological truth. Second, inner transformation impacts our core relationships and work. And finally, I believe we’re called to engage culture not as conquerors, but as sacrificial servants. God is healing the world first through our interior life, second through our exterior life, and third through our civic life.

What’s the book’s unique value?

● It’s a great intro on faith and work. Not sure where to start on all things faith, work, and culture? Here’s a good starting point.

● It’s blessedly brief. We’re all busy! This book has 10 brief chapters you could get through in a sitting or two.

● It offers a simple model for integrating faith and work. The book simplifies an otherwise esoteric and complex subject through five principles.

● It’s written for any believer. The book isn’t targeted exclusively to business leaders or professionals. It’s for any believer, from maintenance technicians to journalists to teachers to recent graduates to managers.

● It has 50+ stories and examples. The book is chock-full of examples, from working in restaurants and manufacturing to selling used cars and caring for patients.

● It’s holistic. The gospel changes all of our lives—our hearts, the way we think, our relationships, the work we do, and how we engage with the needs of the world. This book is a simple, brief introduction to whole-life discipleship.

Also, a couple bonus points: I’m personally narrating the audio version so readers can hear directly from me—about all the mistakes I’m hoping others can learn from! And all future royalties will be donated to Denver Institute, so sales will help to spur on the faith and work movement.

You can grab a copy today: https://rb.gy/smc90x

And I narrated the audio book(myself!), which will be available on December 19. https://lnkd.in/guqWrGZA

Not ready to buy yet? Here’s an excerpt: https://lnkd.in/gZm8BtzQ

For a 20% discount (from Oct 1 through February), put in the code IVPHAANEN at check out at Intervarsity Press.

What are people saying about Working from the Inside Out?

“Jeff Haanen is one of the foremost thought leaders of this generation on the topic of faith and work. In Working from the Inside Out, Jeff provides anecdotal and prescriptive insights that will inspire and move you to action. Jeff’s wisdom and perception are profound in helping readers bridge the sacred/secular divide. This book helps you understand how your work can serve as the most valuable tool Christians have to make a difference in the world. However, we must change internally before we can change the external world.”

David Stidham, Vice President of Business Affairs and General Counsel for The Chosen

“I can’t wait to give this book to some important people in my life! As the title suggests, Jeff Haanen’s most valuable contribution is his focus on our inner spiritual life and the promise that a life attuned to the hope, love, and grace of the gospel changes us. Work is a crucible; it forms and shapes us—for better or for worse. Jeff’s five guiding principles (seek deep spiritual health, think theologically, embrace relationships, create good work, and serve others), developed and tested during his decade with Denver Institute for Faith & Work, offer a way toward work forming us ‘for better.’ Read with friends; take this journey together.”

Katherine Leary Alsdorf, Founding Director of Redeemer Presbyterian Church’s Center for Faith & Work

“You don’t need this book—if you love your job, live a balanced life, can’t wait to get up in the morning, and feel content in your relationships with people and God. If not, consider this collection of deep wisdom from an expert in the crucial, but often ignored, intersection of faith and work.” Philip Yancey, Coauthor of Fearfully and Wonderfully: The Marvel of Bearing God’s Image and Where the Light Fell: A Memoir

“I cannot tell you what a blessing this book is. I cannot wait to be able to share this with others. The wisdom and guidance in this book is what I wish I would have had when I was graduating college and starting my career and starting out as a young professional. It is also the book that I, as a more seasoned business leader and fledgling entrepreneur, need to cut through the hardened layers that can calcify the soul. With every turn of the page, another piece was chiseled off, providing a fresh reminder for me of the calling I have as a Christian in the work God entrusted to me. I’ve been challenged, convicted, and blessed.”

– Josh Rogers, Head of Operations, Leif

Free Study Guide

Considering reading the book with a group? Here’s a free study guide anybody can download, thanks to our friends at Denver Institute: DenverInstitute.org/Working-From-the-Inside-Out. The guide is a great resource for church small groups discussing the book.

Faith and Work Movement Theology Uncategorized Work

The Uncertain Future of the Faith and Work Movement (Christianity Today, December 2023)

November 24, 2023

Can it broaden its appeal beyond evangelicals in high-status professions?

Say it’s Thursday evening, and you sit down on your couch after dinner. Just before flipping on the TV, you pause, breathe, close your eyes, and reflect for a moment about your workday.

What do you feel? Do you have a sense of being anxious and overwhelmed? Of satisfaction and accomplish- ment? Of exhaustion or frustration from interacting with a coworker? Or does your mind blank out, avoiding thoughts of work altogether?

For some, perhaps, the wheel of ambition is still turning, and instead of watching Netflix you decide to flip open your laptop and keep working until bed. If that description fits, you might be what Andrew Lynn calls a “creative class evangelical.”

Lynn, a University of Virginia sociologist, is the author of Saving the Protestant Ethic: Creative Class Evangelicalism and the Crisis of Work. In the book, he surveys both this history and the current state of what some call the faith and work movement, which he describes as a “highly organized and well-resourced effort to renegotiate creative-class evangelicalism’s place and relation to power within the institutions and social structures that make up American society today.”

Lynn argues that the contemporary faith and work movement arose principally to meet the needs of a narrow niche of Christians: highly educated evangelicals seeking meaning in their work and a place within an increasingly secular culture. Beginning in the 1980s, as evangelicals attained college degrees and entered the knowledge economy in greater numbers than ever before, there was increasing talk of closing the “Sunday to Monday gap.” Rejecting the notion that work is merely a moneymaking necessity, a rising cohort of evangelical professionals wanted to make theological sense of their newfound success.

HOW WE GOT HERE IS ITS OWN INTERESTing tale, which begins with fundamentalism after the Civil War. When John Nelson Darby published the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909, a frantic concern for eschatology and saving souls took hold. Funding soul-saving ministries became a top priority, and work was simply a way to supply these funds, which, in the words of one writer, needed to be “exchanged” into the “current coin of heaven.”

Later evangelical leaders like Billy Graham abandoned many elements of this earlier funda- mentalism. But the remaining network of Bible institutes, summer camps, media outlets, and para- church ministries still focused on spiritual rather than earthly labors. Echoes of this mindset can be heard in Rick Warren’s 2002 book The Purpose Driven Life, which states, “The consequences of your mission will last forever. The consequences of your job will not.”

Along the way, however, several prominent Christian business leaders began wondering whether their actual work mattered to God, not just the money they made from it. As the inventor and engineer R. G. LeTourneau said at a Chris- tian Laymen’s Crusade in 1941, “We are going to sell laymen the idea that they are going to work for Jesus Christ seven days a week or not callthemselves Christians.” Subsequent decades saw the advent of organizations like the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International (1952), Laity Lodge (1961) and Fellowship of Companies for Christ International (1977). By the 1980s and 1990s, dozens more had been founded.

And from the mid-1980s to the mid-2010s, an explosion of books, conferences, and funders fueled a wave of Christians claiming that work itself—not just soul-saving—was import- ant to God. Out of this movement arose four frameworks for understanding how Christianity ought to influence our work. As Lynn describes them, each was embodied in a dis- tinct group.

The first was the evangelists, for whom faith at work prin- cipally meant workplace evangelism. Second were the achiev- ers. Prominent business figures like J. C. Penney and Henry Parsons Crowell, the owner of Quaker Oats, popularized the idea that business itself was endowed with spiritual value. Notions of “stewardship” and God’s “ownership” reframed work as an arena of holy influence.

The third group, which represents the most common framework within evangelicalism today, consisted of the inte- grators of faith and work. Thinkers like Dorothy Sayers and lesser-known figures like Marquette University professor David Moberg reminded evangelicals that being made in God’s image means being made in the image of a Maker. Work is valu- able simply because God works—and calls us to do likewise.

Lynn also identifies a final group of activists, who called for Christians to pursue the common good through their jobs. Their ranks were smaller than those of the integrators, in part because some evangelicals were skeptical of calls to view work as an engine of advocacy or social change.

But the integrators mainly benefited from larger trends in demographics. As more evangelicals earned college degrees and entered the knowledge economy during the 1970s and early 1980s, they were receptive to messages that affirmed their work as a form of service to God and neighbor.

And yet, whose work were we talking about?

Lynn notes that two groups were often over- looked in faith-and-work conversations: women and blue-collar laborers. It was business leaders, on the whole, who were credited with breaking down the sacred-secular divide, and attendees at faith and work conferences tended to be male, white, and college educated. Over time, the lan- guage of “calling ” and “vocation” became attached to entrepreneurs, lawyers, and other “creative” or high-status professionals.

Lynn also faults the faith and work movement for being too susceptible to influence from the polit- ical Right. He argues that organizations like the Acton Institute, the Kern Foundation, and the Insti- tute for Faith, Work & Economics baptized laissez faire capitalism, channeled evangelicals away from progressive causes, and even “lowered the ethical floor” of what qualifies as “dignified labor.”

But the movement largely succeeded in shifting evangelicals from postures of cultural separatism and embattlement toward a spirit of stewardship and production. Buttressed by Dutch theologian and statesmen Abraham Kuyper’s theology of public engagement, leaders like the late Tim Keller and his ministry’s Center for Faith & Work promoted this shift. D. Michael Lindsay’s 2007 book Faith in the Halls of Power highlighted evangelical involvement in the upper reaches of media, business, government, entertainment, and higher education.

LYNN ACKNOWLEDGES THAT FAITH-AND-work conversations face an uphill climb in an era of growing distrust for institutions. In such a climate, he writes, “inner-worldly asceticism mobilizing zealous participation in secular institutions appears to be a tough sell.” The problem is especially acute for Christians who work at the lower levels of these institutions and have little power to change them.

Alongside the risks of resistance or indifference goes perhaps an even greater risk: the lure of cultural accommodation. Lynn wonders whether the faith and work movement might serve as its own “gravedigger” as it “shuttles evangelicals from subcultural institutions centered on evangelical distinctives into full admission within mainstream societal institutions.” There’s a historical warning here: In the latter half of the 20th century, mainline churches were full of educated elites who enjoyed leadership roles across society, but this didn’t spur revival within those churches. It would be a shame to watch the faith and work movement launch believers into positions of leadership, only to see them changed by the world rather than changing it for Christ.

Despite these warnings, however, I remain hopeful for the faith and work movement. Chris- tians will keep working, and they’ll keep asking what their faith means for their work. And yet, as someone deeply involved in this movement, I have three suggestions.

First, knowledge-class evangelicals should commit to using their power for the vulnerable, not only in society at large but also within their own workplaces. And they should give greater weight to the concerns of organized labor. Evangelicals could work to rediscover Catholic social teaching on this topic, or at least remember the days when Wesleyans, Free Methodists, and Salvation Army groups championed the rights of workers.

Second, continuing to affirm that work matters to God, we should recognize the extent to which workers are feeling anxious, stressed, and bur- dened. The faith and work movement has been geared toward power and cultural influence, but the future of the movement, I believe, will be rooted in spiritual formation. Work is not only about suc- cess, influence, or even gospel impact—it’s about who we’re becoming as followers of Christ. Indeed, Puritans like John Cotton, who helped shape the Protestant work ethic, warned that making one’s labor “the chiefest good” would only lead to selfish materialism. Lynn (and others) are right to regard a spiritual vibrancy as the foundation not just for work but for all of life.

Finally, the future of the faith and work move- ment depends on deeper rootedness in local church communities. Lynn helpfully points out that non-Anglo churches have excelled at creating communal bonds and “collective identities that resist some of the excessive pulls of capitalism and careerism.” Indeed, one historic distinctive of the Protestant ethic is congregations that provide ref- uge and solidarity to workers facing dangerous con- ditions, punishing demands, or economic volatility. At its best, Lynn remarks, the church draws people “toward forms of social relations not determined by status, wealth, or achievement.” What would it look like to center our identities on our local congrega- tions rather than our professional titles?

In sum, building a faith and work movement that appeals to a broader swath of Christians means a renewed emphasis on justice, spiritual formation, and the church. Perhaps, then, we can sit on our couches after a long day, close our eyes, and breathe in the lasting peace of knowing we have spent a day simply working with God.

This book review was first published in the December 2023 print issue of Christianity Today.

Business Theology Work

The Emotional Journey of the Entrepreneur

July 6, 2023

At some point in our entrepreneurial journeys, we need to not only ask What am I accomplishing? but instead Who am I becoming?

I spent 10 years building an organization I truly loved, from the early founding days in an office by myself to an exit and transition to new executive leadership. After I was finished, I realized, however, that the journey took an emotional toll. The process of entrepreneurship had changed me emotionally and spiritually.

As I shared my story with friends and other founders – and listened to theirs – I found that entrepreneurs often experience four phases in our spiritual and emotional journeys.

The first phase is the launch. This is fun. Entrepreneurship at its inception is filled with casting vision, convening investors, building a product, growing a team, iterating a prototype, raising capital, and seeing your dream become a reality. Customers, employees, revenue all materialize, it feels, from an entrepreneur’s wild idea. The overriding emotion here is exhilaration.

The second phase is trial. This is much harder than I thought. Now the entrepreneur experiences real difficulty. The product line doesn’t fly; capital begins to dry up; employees quit; investors start pressing for outcomes. At this point, the entrepreneur doubles down and works twice as hard. Stress becomes as normal as breathing, and many times it’s here that entrepreneurs develop unhealthy habits to cope. The overriding emotion now is anxiety.

The third phase is divergence. Can I really keep this up? At this point, the organization has reached some kind of scale, and many entrepreneurs experience a divergence between their external and internal lives. Externally, they project confidence to investors, employees, and customers. “We can do it!” they say. We have to. Internally, however, they face real doubt. They’re not sure if the company will survive. And though their community has placed the entrepreneur on a social pedestal, they now seriously doubt their own gifting. They genuinely wonder if they can make the transition from Founder/Entrepreneur to CEO/Manager. And they feel trapped because they’ve made promises that they now must keep, though they don’t know if they can.

This phase is the most dangerous because here the entrepreneur gets used to being two different people: the confident, risk-taking, leader in the spotlight, and the chaotic, uncertain, stressed, frustrated, even fearful individual who wakes up at 4:00 a.m. solving problems. Sometimes entrepreneurs here start to believe their own legend and disconnect from reality. This is when friendships and family relationships begin to suffer. They also can be drawn into the face-paced speed of entrepreneurship, and find it difficult, if not impossible, to slow down, rest, and truly pay attention to others. The emotion in the divergence phase is doubt. Not far behind is often shame, knowing there’s now duplicity buried in their character.

The fourth phase is reckoning. Who am I becoming? is the question that quietly rumbles under the surface. Generally, before or during an exit (deciding to sell the business), the question of burnout arises. They look for a way out. After putting so much into their business, they often ask daunting questions. What have I sacrificed? What habits have I developed? What is worth it? Did I demand too much from others? Will they love me when I’m gone? Who have I become?

Externally, people wonder why the now-wealthy entrepreneurs who’ve sold their businesses aren’t ecstatic. They lived the entrepreneurial dream. But internally, they often feel lost. Am I now better off than when I started? What will I do next? Who am I if I’m not leading this business?

Our work forms us – and deforms us. Of course, not all entrepreneurs experience these four phases. But I’d argue most do. We might ask ourselves: How might a relationship with God influence the emotional and spiritual journeys of entrepreneurs? And secondly, What practices might help entrepreneurs lead more emotionally and spiritually healthy work lives?

But for now, we need to acknowledge that entrepreneurs don’t just change the world; they themselves are being changed by the world around them. This move toward self-awareness is the first step toward living healthier emotional and spiritual lives as entrepreneurs.

This post first appeared at the Center for Faithful Business at Seattle Pacific University.

Spiritual Formation Theology Vocation Work

“A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation” – A Sermon on Exodus 19-20

August 1, 2022

I recently had the chance to preach at my home church, Wellspring Anglican in Englewood, Colorado. I spoke on Exodus 19-20 and focused on God’s promise to the new nation of Israel in Exodus 19:5-6: “Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

In the sermon dive into what it would have meant to be a “kingdom of priests” and how Israel was called to be a “holy nation” in both their personal and public lives. I also ask some hard, personal questions about how – if it’s even possible – we might become holy.

I hope you enjoy listening. I’d be glad for your feedback below in the comments section.

“A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation” – A Sermon on Exodus 19-20

Nonprofit Theology Work

Meaning in Work

February 19, 2022