The Challenge of Translating Faith into a Secular Workplace

“These ideas are fine,” I’ve heard many people say during my tenure at Denver Institute, “but
I work in a very secular company. How am I supposed to share my faith in a context where
it’s not invited—or is even condemned as inappropriate or offensive?” It’s a fair response to the ideas in this book. Home health care or software development, construction or biotech, driving trucks and driving profit margin are worlds far removed from church or faith-based nonprofits.

For most, the objection is two-fold. First, the church has a language that isn’t easily
understood by the larger culture. Singing, Bible reading, sermons and liturgies contain
worlds like sin, salvation, redemption, sanctification, and eucharist, words mostly unheard of
in company policy manuals, Slack feeds, or break rooms. To make it worse, Christians often
unthinkingly adopt insider language – “How’s your heart, man?” “It was a total God thing,”
“Want to join my D group?” [iii] – that makes it even tougher to communicate faith to non-
Christian coworkers or neighbors.

Second, Christians often fear the consequences of speaking about their faith in the
workplace. One investor I know, who held a prestigious job at a large asset management
company, was quietly let go after sharing about his faith at a Christian conference. His boss
saw it as unprofessional and not in line with corporate culture. It’s no different in, say, a
hospital. Alyson Breisch, a scholar at Duke University who trains and teaches nurses, says
that one of the concerns for faith-motivated nurses is that bringing up faith will cross
professional boundaries, and that may even be inappropriate in a physician-patient
relationship.[iv]

The task is to take up not just the vocation of one’s work, but also the vocation of translation.
John Inazu, a legal scholar at Washington University in St. Louis and a Christian, knows this
well: “My vocation of translation means translating the university to some of my church
friends and translating the church to some of my university friends,” says Inazu. “Living
between these two worlds makes me a kind of bilingual translator.”

This work, he writes, often requires personal risk. One of Inazu’s faculty colleagues said, “I
don’t get you; you’re religious, but you care about poor people.” And those in his church
have said they can’t trust a “liberal law professor” like him. [v] Yet Inazu feels at home at the
university and in church. And he’s committed to helping to stand in the gap between two
disparate worlds as an interpreter between church and his workplace. John believes we are
“ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us,” (2 Cor. 5:20).

So how do we do it? How do people of faith translate their convictions about the biblical
story into the secular workplace? Here’s a place to start.

Discern what kind of environment you’re in.

Before you share the gospel at work, you must first discern what kind of work environment
you’re in.

David Miller, who leads Princeton University’s Faith at Work Initiative and is the author of
God at Work: The History and Promise of the Faith at Work Movement, has proposed four
postures companies usually take toward faith in the workplace.[vi]

Faith-Avoiding. In a faith-avoidant company, leadership has actively decided to avoid
topics related to faith or religion. “That’s not appropriate here,” is the message, either
explicitly or implicitly. On the more extreme side, religious employees fear being fired for
expressing their beliefs, whether a Muslim wearing a headscarf or an evangelical Christian
asking a co-worker to accept Jesus as Lord.
Faith-Tolerant. More common in companies, schools, hospitals and government agencies
that faith is tolerated, yet not embraced. Often, faith-tolerant organizations will provide
religious accommodation to employees through the HR department, under the banner of
diversity and inclusion. In larger companies, religious expression is often tolerated in
“employee resource groups,” yet it is rarely invited into the work or company culture itself.
Faith-Based. The third option, which is most often cited among Christian networks of
business leaders, is faith-based. In this model, the faith of company founders is woven into
day-to-day operations of the company. This can mean the CEO is overt about his or her own
faith in corporate communication, adopts religious symbolism in corporate culture, and
groups, Bible studies, or evangelistic meetings take place at the workplace. This is most
common in smaller businesses or organizations led exclusively by Christians.
Faith-Friendly. Miller advocates for a fourth option: faith-friendly. In a faith-friendly context,
everybody’s ultimate beliefs are welcome, whether those be Christian, Buddhist, or secular.

In these organizations, leadership neither avoids or tolerates faith, yet neither do they
assume employees share their convictions. Instead, it actively welcomes conversations
about beliefs, backgrounds, and faith that shape employee’s motivations.

In addition to Miller’s four postures, I’d add the category faith-persecuting. In closed
countries, such as Iran, or ideologically-closed cities, like Boulder or Berkeley, being outward
about your faith can have severe personal or professional consequences.

This four-part model can be helpful in starting to understand how faith can translate into your
workplace. For instance, if you work in a dentist’s office where all your co-workers are
Christian, it will feel very different from working at a secular foundation that supports
progressive causes. In one context you’ll want to make space for others to speak who don’t
share your faith; in the other, you’ll need to be covert about how your faith is expressed lest
you become a pariah to your co-workers. Generally-speaking, the larger the company you’re
in, the more it will slide toward the faith-tolerant or faith-avoiding side of the scale.

Should you find yourself in a context like this, you need to recognize two things: your
company is not actually secular, but it is actually a very “religious” place (Acts 17:22).
Theologian Lesslie Newbigin believes, as do I, that companies not under the lordship of
Christ are controlled not only by people, but by what the New Testament calls “the powers and principalities.” These powers, though created by Christ and for Christ, become corrupted
and become dark when they become absolute (Col 1:16; Eph 6). When Jesus disarmed the
powers and principalities at the cross, he didn’t destroy them but he did rob them of the
claim to ultimate authority (Col 2:15). Though some see these verses as a hierarchy of
demons and angels, language of power in the New Testament could also be applied to
organizations, institutions, markets or governments. This truth can help us see that when we
go to work, various “gods” and ultimate purposes are already there, and we are ultimately in
a missionary context.

Second, we need wisdom to be Christians inside broken systems. Again, Newbigin uses the
language of subversion to understand the Christian’s role in a company, industry or system.
For instance, when Paul deals with the runaway slave Onesimus, he does not call for an
overthrow of the system of slavery, but instead reorients Philemon’s relationship to
Onesimus in light of now being his brother in Christ. The gospel doesn’t destroy systems,
but it sets them aright. “But undercover agents need a great deal of skill,” Newbigin says. It’s
a real challenge to know what it means to be in consulting, psychiatry, or financial services
as a Christian, who recognizes that her industry or company is distorted by the fall.[vii]

So, first, determine what kind of posture your workplace has toward faith, and begin the work
of seeing what the ultimate faith or worldview of your organization truly is.

Reimagine your workplace culture in light of the gospel.

The next step requires a work of the imagination.

Ask yourself: What’s good about my workplace or industry? What is distorted or fallen? What
might it look like if it was healed? And what is God calling me to do about it right now?

These four questions mirror the four movements of the biblical story: creation, fall,
redemption, and consummation. And they’re worth asking regularly as you begin to consider
what’s good, broken, and possible about your company, school, firm, or clinic. (See Chapter
4, Think Theologically.)

Matthew Kaemingk, a scholar at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California, calls questions
like these taking an “industry audit.” We recognize that just like individuals, organizations are
often both a mix of good and evil, and it takes wisdom to discern what you can get behind
and where you must draw the line. Kaemingk believes asking these types of questions can
also help you discern how your industry is both forming you and deforming you. [viii]

For example, Trish Hopkins works as a real estate agent. “I’m astounded by whom God puts
in my path. From a young sailor and his bride purchasing their first home to a World War II
veteran selling his home after his wife’s passing, daily I get to participate in history-making
stories.” Trish sees the goodness of her industry in helping people buy and sell homes, for
many the largest and most significant purchase of their life. She also sees inflating home
prices, stress-filled house-hunting, and other agents who care little for their clients. She
imagines a world where people would “build houses and dwell in them, they will plant
vineyards and eat their fruit,” (Isaiah 65:21). Her calling in this larger vision of “home” is simply to be a thoughtful, Spirit-filled relational presence, patiently helping home buyers and
sellers navigate the process, and embrace an ethic of service, trust and compassion.

In the book of Genesis, Joseph knew the power of Egypt and Pharaoh to unjustly imprison
and persecute a religious and ethnic minority. But Joseph also believed that God could use
Egypt for good, including saving thousands of lives by providing food during a famine
(Genesis 50:20). He took a position of leadership in a corrupt government because he saw
that God can, and does, use broken systems as mysterious part of his redemptive plan.

Like Joseph, ask yourself: what role could even my broken, imperfect organization play in
healing a small part of God’s world? Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” It is also central to seeing how faith may transfigure not just your own work, but your whole industry. [ix]

Decide what practices you’ll engage in and which you need to abstain from.

What are the distinctive activities or beliefs you want to champion at your organization as a
Christian? And what are the practices or policies you must refuse as one ultimately
committed to God’s kingdom? [x]

For example, the prophet Daniel said yes to government leadership, serving in two different
pagan empires. He believed his leadership as a Jew could be of service to God and witness
to nonbelievers. He was willing to learn the language and literature of the Babylonians, and
even take a foreign name. He also engaged in the regular practice of praying toward
Jerusalem on company time. Yet Daniel and his fellow Jews Hananiah, Mishael, and
Azariah also famously refused to follow the dietary practices of his peers, and he also
refused to worship the CEO (Daniel 1-2). Ultimately, he was so valuable to his employer,
Daniel’s religious views were broadcast throughout the corporation (Daniel 3:29). This came
through pursuing excellence in his work, and carefully thinking through practices of
engagements and abstention.

The wise do the same thing today. Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra, a journalist trained at
Northwestern University, has covered everything from local politics for the Daily Southtown
in Chicago to human interest stories for Christianity Today. Zylstra has seen journalism
transform in the digital age and social media turn up the noise and heat around political and
cultural issues. “The stories I write don’t necessarily…have anything to do with the headlines
of the day. We’re looking for where God is at work,” says Zylstra about what she chooses to
write. She believes the gospel changes “how we see our sources.” Because all people are
image-bearers, “We treat them very carefully. We want to have a lot of open communication
with them. We come alongside them to tell their story, so my sources see my stories before
they go up. It doesn’t get sprung on them when the rest of the public sees.” What she shares
with her secular peers is a commitment to getting accurate information and double-checking
facts. But in contrast to the never-ending anxiety-driven news cycle, she believes she can do
journalism in a counter-cultural way by focusing on local stories, where people tend to be
more hopeful about their communities and lives. [xi]

Deciding what practices to engage in and which to abstain from requires discernment. You
may see your co-workers in a tech company disengaging from their work and embracing an
“age of anti-ambition,” as one NY Times Magazine writer put it. Yet your response might be
instead to embrace a deep practice of sabbath rather than slack off in your work. Your
school may have strict, unspoken rules about sharing your faith with co-workers, but you
might instead choose to embrace intentionality with nonbelievers one month out of the year
as a spiritual discipline. Your financial services firm may be driven by greed or fear of
missing out on maximal returns, but you might instead practice contentment, or simply letting
your yes be yes or your no be no, resisting the temptation to twist language to close deals
for maximal personal benefit (Matthew 5:37).

To be a Christian in a secular age requires a form of civil disobedience, a refusal to comply
with the patterns of this world (Romans 12:2). It also requires Christians to offer alternatives,
finding practices that “give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the
hope you have, but always doing so with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15)

Embrace the power of language.

“What’s our motto? Practically, it’s profit, profit, and more profit,” Scott shares his story with
me over breakfast at Gracefull Café in Littleton, Colorado. Scott works at a large private
equity firm, a company that buys and sells other businesses.

As Scott finishes a breakfast burrito, his expression changes, and his countenance becomes
lighter. “But here’s what I do. On my white board in my office, I write my values which guide
how I work and serve in business: integrity, humility, excellence, grace and joy. I start
conversations about them with employees, CEOs I mentor, even partners at the firm.” For
Scott, the language he uses about his work is a bridge to conversations about faith. [xii]

Most of us aren’t CEOs who can just rewrite a company’s values. But we can intentionally
choose which values the company we work for we can get behind, and then we can carefully
“lead up” and challenge the company to live up to its own best version of itself. Language
can be a powerful way to do this.

For example, David Bailey leads a nonprofit in Richmond, Virginia called Arrabon, which
focuses on racial reconciliation. Rather than using language of diversity, equity and inclusion
to describe his work, which has become a source of tension in many communities, he
believes God calls us to form reconciling communities that lead to “proximity, empathy and
then unity.” He believes that the work of racial justice must first have a foundation in spiritual
formation.

Another exemplary leader using language to build value-oriented work is Steve, who started
Orbit, a fintech company in the mortgage industry. [xiii] He counsels other business owners to
look at the overlap between your “cultural why,” your “company why,” and your “kingdom
why.”

For Steve, he saw that in 2016, the net worth of a typical white family was nearly ten times
greater than that of a Black family, and home ownership was the difference between this
huge asset differential. Steve saw a cultural need, and his “kingdom why” was based on a desire to see shalom and justice in his community. So, he created a company that helps
small and medium size lenders efficiently process mortgages, offering both a competitive
advantage for local lenders as well as designing a product that can ultimately help get more
people, including people of color, into homes. The intersection of his three “whys” formed a
company built on the values of rigor, ownership, curiosity, kindness, and transparency.

Distinctive language in a secular culture focuses on the individual. Self-esteem, personal
empowerment, and various shades of self-aggrandizement dominate. Yet Christian
language is uniquely grounded in grace. Words like faith, hope and love – the three
theological virtues – draw listeners into a gospel-centered world. Language of thriving,
human flourishing, or the common good can become common ground that draw coworkers
into deeper conversation about the very purpose of work.

I personally tried this exercise. I wanted to see if I could translate our principles – think
theologically, seek deep spiritual health, create good work, embrace relationships, and serve
others sacrificially – for a broader audience. I wrote an article entitled “Designing
Workplaces to Be More Human,” (not more “Christian”) and encouraged readers to ask
these questions that could be transferred to any secular context:

Do we invest in deep emotional and spiritual health?
Do we encourage real friendship and relational wholeness?
Do we create conditions for people to do their best work?
Do we stimulate broad thinking about the key issues of our day?
Do we really care about our city, especially the vulnerable? [xiv]

Language is powerful. Think about the words you’ll repeat, the words you write, and the
words you speak as ways to create bridges into the biblical story.

This article is an excerpt from my latest book Working from the Inside Out: A Brief Guide to Inner Work that Transforms Our Outer World. It’s also available as an audio book. Click here for a free study guide.

[iii] If you’re reading these footnotes and just want to enjoy a good laugh, watch “Shoot Christians Say” on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dxo0Yjno3I&t=50s.

[iv] Alyson Breisch, “Reimagining Medicine: Breakout Session_04.6.16,” Denver Institute for Faith & Work, 4 April 2016,https://vimeo.com/172969773.

[v] John Inazu, “The Translator” in Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2021), 119, 125.

[vi] For more on these four models, including examples and what I believe to be challenges with each model, see: Jeff Haanen, “Faith in the Workplace: The Four Postures,” Denver Institute for Faith & Work, 17 November 2017,https://denverinstitute.org/the-four-postures-toward-faith-in-the-workplace/.

[vii] Lesslie Newbigin, Truth to Tell (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 83-84.

[viii] Two excellent resources to do this work are on Workplace Deformation and Workplace Reformation, by Dr. Matthew Kaemingk. They can be accessed online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RDvCESUSEg&authuser=0 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grgoMJF_Jyo&authuser=0.

[ix] For another perspective on how to understand your city’s (or company’s) culture, see Stephen Um and Justin Buzzard’s book Why Cities Matter, or my book review for Christianity Today: Jeff Haanen, “How to Change Your Company’s Culture,” Jeff Haanen, 13 May 2013, https://jeffhaanen.com/2013/05/13/how-to-change-your-companys-culture/.

[x] On this language of practices of engagement and abstention, see: Justin Whitmel Earley, The Common Rule (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2019).

[xi] From “Faith and Work in Journalism with TGC,” Denver Institute for Faith & Work, https://denverinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/S2E3_Faith-at-Work-in-Journalism-with-TGC.pdf.

[xii] Scott requested I not use his last name or the name of his company.

[xiii] At the request of “Steve,” I changed his name and the name of his company to protect his identity as a Christian in a secular industry.

[xiv] Jeff Haanen, “Designing Workplaces to Be More Human,” Denver Institute for Faith & Work, 17 March 2020, https://denverinstitute.org/designing-workplaces-to-be-more-human/.

Culture Economy Faith and Work Movement Politics

Can Faith Make the Market More Moral? (American Enterprise Institute, November 2023)

November 28, 2023

Retirement Work

“The days are long, but the years are short.” How should I use my time in retirement?

March 7, 2020

“Teach us to number our days that we might gain a heart of wisdom.”

Psalm 90:12

“The first thing you have to know about retirement,” says Allan Spies, a 68-year-old retired US West executive, “is that you could live another 40 years.”

Spies recalled a conversation he had with his pastor when he was on the cusp of an early retirement in his 50s. The pastor reminded Spies of all the time he had ahead of him As Spies started to spend his newfound time, he was also jarred by how much his schedule changed. “The other thing you’ve got to know,” he says, “is that suddenly your clock changes.”

Many enter retirement busied and harried from the last few months of work. Then, like jumping off a moving train, the forward momentum comes to an abrupt halt. Weekdays melt into weekends. Long breakfasts can become early lunches. The time that was lacking in the pressure of raising a family and pursuing a career now floods into a quiet home.

After an initial honeymoon period, many early retirees find themselves quickly looking for structure to their days and weeks. “I had to do something,” says Lynn Haanen, about her early retirement. “My days lacked a schedule and a sense of purpose.” Initially relieved to leave the “grind” of teaching third graders, Lynn (my mom) gloried in finally having time to herself. But eventually, she realized her weeks were amorphous and needing structure.

Her life in retirement had traded the stopwatch for the lava lamp, with hours and days slowly blobbing into each other without direction.

For millions of Americans, early retirement can feel like entering Dr. Seuss’s “The Waiting Place.” In his classic Oh, the Places You’ll Go!, Seuss warns about “a most useless place” for “people just waiting”:

Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Fear of being caught in a useless cycle of waiting leads many to backfill their days with activities, errands, and “busy work” to avoid the anxiety of purposelessness. Time becomes a burden, something to be used up, like too much corn overflowing a silo after harvest. “Oh, I stay busy,” becomes the anxious response to “How’s retirement?”

New research shows that human longevity is giving people a newfound abundance of years – a change few have planned for.

Time, Time, and More Time

In 1900, the average male could expect to live to age 46, and the average female age, 48.[1] Today, “if you are now 20 you have a 50 per cent chance of living to more than 100; if you are 40 you have an even chance of reaching 95; if you are 60, then a 50 per cent chance of making 90 or more.” Over the last 200 years, life expectancy has increased at a rate of more than two years every decade.[2]

If you retire at age 65, this means that you will have an evens chance of living 25 years beyond retirement. (Studies show that half of Americans retire from ages 61-65, and a full two-thirds of Americans are out of the full-time workforce by age 66.[3]) If you exercise, eat healthy, minimize alcohol consumption and have generally healthy relationships, plan on at least three more decades of life.

In Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott’s fascinating book The 100 Year-Life, they see drastic changes coming to the world in the next 50 years as it ages – and lives longer than ever before.

Out of necessity, people will work into their 70s and 80s. Gratton and Scott ask their MBA students at the London Business School, “If you live you 100 years, save around 10 percent of your income and want to retire on 50 percent of your final salary, at what age will you be able to retire?” The answer: in your 80s. Human longevity is changing the equation of financial planners and government pensions.
There will be new jobs, skills, and a new need for life-long education. If you live to 100 and work into your 70s and 80s, the economy will likely have been completely transformed since your high school, undergraduate, or graduate education. The need to learn new job skills – and to take time to re-invest in your education – will rise in importance.
Family and home relationships will be transformed. Four generations living at the same time will become a norm, and as Baby Boomer budgets are stressed, intergenerational living will become commonplace.
People will be younger for longer. With advances in medical technology, many reporters and social observers have said “60 is the new 50.” Though we should carry a healthy skepticism of the “forever young” narrative of our culture (as we’ll explore in the next chapter), we also shouldn’t ignore the fact that people are now living longer, healthier lives than ever before.

One of the most fascinating changes already happening due to human longevity is that the three-stage life is starting to lose its meaning. For generations, it was assumed that you lived in three stages: first education, then employment, and finally retirement. (Many Christian books have adopted this paradigm and called retirement a “third third,” or a “third calling.” Other books have assumed that “aging” and “retirement” are the same topic, which is no longer true. “Old age” is something that – for most – will happen decades later.) But today, the seasons of life dedicated to work, family, education and rest will become more fluid. You might start a new career at 50, become an undergraduate at 60, and a great grandparent at 70.

Christianity can, and should, dump a bucket of cold water on much of a secular culture’s near-worship of the medical technology that has elongated our lives. “From dust we came,” we say on Ash Wednesday, “and to dust we shall return.”

But Christian thinkers, pastors, and leaders also need to lead the way in communicating that retirement is quite simply no longer a life stage “preparing for the end,” but instead a contemporary social construct that allows men and women to prepare for a new season of life.

This is an excerpt from my book An Uncommon Guide to Retirement: Finding God’s Purpose for the Next Season of Life.

[1] Lynda Gratton & Andrew Scott, The 100 Year-Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity (London: Bloomsbury, 2016), 2.

[2] Emily Brandon, “The Ideal Retirement Age – and Why You Won’t Retire Then,” US News & World Report, 12 May 2014, Accessed on June 15, 2018: https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/articles/2014/05/12/the-ideal-retirement-age-and-why-you-wont-retire-then.

[3] Dan Kadlec, “The Ages When Most People Retire (Hint: Probably Too Young),” Time, 1 December 2016, Accessed on August 12, 2018: http://time.com/money/4584900/ages-people-retire-probably-too-young-early-retirement/.

Health Care Vocation Work

Making All Things New – Jeanne Oh Kim, Pediatrician

July 16, 2019

In the last of several posts, here I’m highlighting the first-hand experiences of four professionals in Denver. Each of them shared at our annual fundraiser and celebration of vocation, entitle “Making All Things New: Finding Our Place in God’s Mission.” We asked them what they sense is broken in their industries, and how they sense God was using them in his plan to ultimately “make all things new.” Jeanne is a physician living in Denver

As a physician, I work in the confines of a broken medical system with sometimes few answers in relation to the infinitely complex human body. There is always new evidence to challenge previous practices. There is also pressure to see over 20 patients a day, which can pose a challenge to meet the true needs of my patients and families at times, especially, since we are in the middle of a mental health crisis, with patients experiencing anxiety, depression, and suicide at an all-time high. Families are also broken. Parents are extremely anxious and look to “the University of Google” and certain blood tests to provide answers, while often just feeding this anxiety.

I believe we are created with a mind, body, and spirit. Sometimes an illness just attacks the body like with an infection. However, disease or illness may be from brokenness in our mind or spirit, and it is challenging when families do not know that Jesus is the only way to true healing.

Each day, I pray for wisdom in how to bring the power and reality of the Kingdom into my exam rooms and that my patients and their families can experience Jesus through me. I pray that I can see them as He does, beautiful and loved by Him. By partnering with the Holy Spirit, I may pray in my head over a person, and when I feel led, I will ask patients if they would like me to pray with them and allow God to come and heal supernaturally, as only He can.

It is challenging work, but I feel honored to be able to serve God through my ministry to my patients and their families.

Through my work as a pediatrician, Christ is making all things new.

Will you join us? become a monthly donor today.

Business Economy Finance Retirement Work

A Manifesto for Financial Advisors

May 22, 2019

Financial advisors play a critical role in the future of America.

They are stewards of a sacred trust, helping clients to save money for when they can no longer work, live a life of generosity, invest in businesses that align with God’s purposes for the world, spend wisely, and re-discover their calling to work and serve their neighbors over a lifetime.

If you’re a financial advisor, or you know one, what might it look like integrate Christian truth into this entire field, a $27 trillion-dollar industry that is shaping the destinies of millions?[i] (Click here to access a free downloadable pdf of this “Manifesto for Financial Advisors.”)

Here’s a place to begin.

1.Christian financial advisors help clients save money for when they can no longer work.

Saving is wise (Proverbs 21:20). Financial advisors have the privilege of encouraging people to prepare for the day when they cannot work due to old age or health. They also have the honor of helping clients still have enough to share with others (Proverbs 13:22; 1 Timothy 6:17-19).

But Christian financial advisors resolutely resist the narrative about saving for retirement built on utopian dreams of travel, never-ending vacation, and a care-free lifestyle. They recognize that sin and the Fall have affected all people, both wealthy and poor, and that there is no such dream of heaven on earth until Christ comes again. They also boldly call into question fear-based motives for saving in retirement, pointing people to trust God alone for their daily bread.

Also, since retirement (the cessation of work for a lifetime) is essentially a foreign concept to the Bible, Christian financial advisors work diligently to help people save for the day when they can no longer work due to health concerns, not for the day when they don’t want to work.

To work is to be human.

Financials advisors help their clients save money for retirement in order to provide for themselves in old age or illness, their family, and their community.

2. Christian financial advisors encourage clients to live a life of generosity.

God’s call to generous giving could not be clearer (Matthew 6:19-21; 10:42; Luke 21:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8:12-15; 1 John 3:16-18; Proverbs 11:24-25). Generous living most closely reflects God’s grace toward his people (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Christian financial advisors counsel clients toward sacrificial giving toward the mission of the church, the well-being of the poor, and the critical social, economic, and cultural needs of our day. They explore creative ways to facilitate their clients giving their cash, assets, time, skills, relationships, and influence. They lead by example.

Even though Christian financial advisors often don’t have a financial incentive to encourage generosity amongst their clients, they do so anyway because God first gave generously to them (John 3:16).

3. Christian financial advisors counsel their clients to invest in businesses that align with God’s purposes for the world.

Christian financial advisors believe that God owns everything (Psalm 24:1), including both their client’s money and also the money that is invested in companies through stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

They are leaders in the space of socially responsible investing (some Christians also call this values-based investing, or biblically responsible investing). They believe God’s purpose for business is to provide for the needs of world by serving customers and creating meaningful work, while giving glory to God.[ii] Profit, therefore, is a means to an end, not the end of business. They believe investments are intended to help businesses grow and bless their communities. Christian financial advisors also believe business has been tainted by the Fall, and today corporations, like individuals, are bent toward greed and injustice (Micah 6:8-10). There are no “neutral” investments.

Inasmuch as they are able, Christian financial advisors seek out investments for their clients that align with their client’s values and God’s good purposes for business. They take leadership in providing ample returns for their clients and multiplied societal blessing through their client’s investments.[iii]

4. Christian financial advisors counsel their clients to spend wisely.

God has given us money to be enjoyed and spent wisely. But Christian financial advisors also recognize that “godliness with contentment is great gain,” and Christian history is filled with vows of poverty and commitment to simple living for the sake of more deeply enjoying the riches of Christ (1 Timothy 6:6, 17-19). Frugality is not a curse but a means to experiencing the abundance of God’s love, care, and heavenly riches.

Christian financial advisors are uniquely able to speak to our cultural moment and the current “retirement crisis” because they believe God himself, not the pleasures of this world, is our greatest joy. They believe in a deeper wealth than what money can offer.[iv]

Christian financial advisors counsel their clients to avoid debt, live within their means, defer gratification, and discover non-consumeristic ways to enjoy life and God’s good world.

5. Christian financial advisors counsel their clients to consider the different seasons of work over a lifetime.

Christian financial advisors see God’s pattern of six days of work and one day of rest as a blessing that lasts for a lifetime.

Rather than preparing clients to completely cease from work at retirement, they encourage sabbaticals and seasons of rest to renew a sense of calling for the next phase of life.

Therefore, they are instigators of a deeply counter-cultural movement. They begin to help clients save money for both sabbaticals and for when their clients can no longer work. They ask pointed questions to help their clients see a deeper purpose to life than entertainment or pleasure. Christian financial advisors, then, become sages, mentors, theologians, and philosophers who help their clients prepare for the next season of work, whether they are 60, 70, or 80 years old.[v]

Christian financial advisors are the innovators who call for a new movement of work, sabbatical, and re-engagement based on God’s design for work over a lifetime (Leviticus 25).[vi] They openly challenge the Let’s vacation paradigm of retirement, and honor the men and women who work later in life as the dignified elders of our churches, communities, and society.

They are the first to point out the valuable, brilliant, and creative work of men and women stewarding their skills, knowledge, and abilities into the sunset of their lives.

For a free downloadable version of this manifesto, visit https://www.uncommonretirement.com/financial-advisors.

[i] Nick Thornton, “Here’s What the $27 Trillion US Retirement Industry Looks Like,” Think Advisor, 2 January 2018, Accessed on August 10, 2018: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2018/01/02/heres-what-the-27-trillion-us-retirement-industry/?slreturn=20180714204623.

[ii] Jeff Haanen, “Theology for Business (Video),” Denver Institute for Faith & Work, Accessed on August 1, 2018: https://denverinstitute.org/video-the-purpose-of-business-today/.

[iii] Organizations like the Christian Investment Forum and faith-friendly mutual funds like Eventide Funds actively explore how to pursue competitive returns for their shareholders while upholding Christian values. For examples of philosophies of Christian faith and investing, watch the video “Investing 360 – The Story of Eventide Funds”: https://vimeo.com/223488058 or read “Integrating Faith Into the Way We Invest,” by Tim Macready, CIO of Christian Super, an Australian Pension Fund: https://denverinstitute.org/integrating-faith-way-invest/.

[iv] For an excellent treatment on faith, money, and retirement, see: Chad S. Hamilton, Deep Wealth (Denver: PFI Publishing, 2015).

[v] I recognize this is almost unheard of today. But my thesis in this book is that this rhythm of work and rest is more biblical than the contemporary idea of retirement and it more closely aligns with God’s intent for us to work, in different capacities, over a lifetime.

[vi] Rob West, the CEO of Kingdom Advisors, a Christian ministry to financial professionals, says, “One of the roles of the advisor is to not only help the client to answer the question, ‘How much is enough financially?’ – in terms of our financial finish line so we can maximize giving – but also, ‘What are you going to do in the retirement season?’ Even if we stop our vocation, what are we going to do to be of service to the Lord full-time for God’s glory?” Both Rob West and Ron Blue, the founder of Ron Blue Co. believe both wise financial decisions and a lifetime of work, which changes in different seasons, are biblical.

Retirement Vocation Work

Today is Launch Day! An Uncommon Guide to Retirement: Finding God’s Purpose for the Next Season of Life

May 7, 2019

Dear Friends,

Today is the official launch day for my first trade book An Uncommon Guide to Retirement: Finding God’s Purpose for the Next Season of Life.

We have an opportunity in this moment to push on our culture’s view of retirement, and give our friends, parents, family members, neighbors, and co-workers a more beautiful vision of work, rest, eldership, and a life a sacrificial love based in the hope of the gospel.

In the coming weeks, I’ll post on this blog excerpts from the book. Can I ask you a big favor? Would you consider taking about 3 minutes and posting a review of the book on Amazon.com today?

Here are a few themes you might consider mentioning. An Uncommon Guide for Retirement helps readers:

Discern God’s call for their retirement years;
Challenge cultural assumptions about retirement;
Adopt a healthy vision for Sabbath rest, work and meaningful contribution for a lifetime;
Embrace a biblical view of time and a deeper understanding of what human longevity means for the retirement years;
Live out practical insight for retirement living on topics like learning, family systems, mentoring, and health.

Thanks for allowing me to to learn from you. If you’d like more information on the book, group discounts or the free study guide, make sure to visit UncommonRetirement.com. And feel free to leave comments on this blog!

Thanks again,
Jeff

Culture Work

Why We Should Redeem Retirement (ERLC)

April 3, 2019

“What am I going to do with my retirement?”

The anxious question came from Anne Bell, a recently retired researcher at the University of Northern Colorado. As a staff volunteer for the 5280 Fellowship, a young leaders program in Denver, Anne decided to give her first year of retirement to young professionals struggling with questions about calling. Bright and soft-spoken, wearing dark-rimmed glasses and carrying her teacher’s bag, today Anne came to the office with her own questions about calling.

As our staff team discussed our weekly reading, Anne looked out on the snow-capped mountains from our seventh-story office. “What do you think, Anne?” I asked. She paused. Her voice began to quiver. “I just don’t know what I’m called to,” she confessed. “I need to know what’s next.”

The world is undergoing a massive demographic shift. Nearly 80 million Baby Boomers will retire in the next 20 years, at a rateof nearly 10,000 per day. By 2035, Americans of retirement age will exceed the number of people under age 18 for the first time in U.S. history. Globally, the number of people age 60 and over is projected to double to more than two billion by 2050.

But today a growing number of Baby Boomers like Anne Bell – both Christians and their neighbors – are discontent with current cultural assumptions about retirement, and are asking better questions about work, calling, and purpose later in life.

Today, the dominant paradigm of retirement is about vacation – how to afford it, and then how to make the most of it. A Google search for the word “retirement” shows articles, ads, and tips on how to save enough money for it, and a host of books on how to enjoy it. Retirement gifts follow suit: a coffee mug that reads “Goodbye Tension, Hello Pension.” A kitchen wall-hanging with the acronym R.E.T.I.R.E says Relax, Entertain, Travel, Indulge, Read, Enjoy. The wine glass that reads, “I can wine all I want. I’m retired.”

Yet cracks are showing in the hull of the never-ending vacation view of retirement. More Boomers are questioning whether living in a Corona commercial can satisfy the heart’s longing for purpose over a lifetime – even if they could afford it. Mitch Anthony, author of The New Retirementality writes, “Retirement is an illusion because those who can afford the illusion are disillusioned by it, and those who cannot afford the illusion are haunted by it.

Some church leaders have responded by saying retirement isn’t “biblical,” (which is of course true, since retirement is a modern construct. The closest the Bible comes is Number 8:25.) “Lord, spare me the curse of retirement!” says John Piper, the former pastor of Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis and best-selling author. The late Ralph Winter, founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission, said, “Most men don’t die of old age, they die of retirement…Where in the Bible do they see [retirement]? Did Moses retire? Did Paul retire? Peter? John? Do military officers retire in the middle of a war?”

Yet the problem here is that most people can’t imagine working 30, 40, or even 50 years without more than two weeks off. Work is often painful. Mind-numbing tasks, humiliating bosses, a lack of autonomy, crammed schedules, co-worker conflict, new technology, oppressive hours. The author of Ecclesiastes writes: “So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind,” (2:17). Work can be creative service. It can also be toilsome pain.

Might the gospel lead the world’s aging population to a new way forward, which both questions the “dream vacation” view of retirement and a life of unbroken work?

Becoming elders, not elderly

A new generation of older Americans are seeing retirement as a chance to take a season of sabbatical rest in order to listen to God’s voice, rethink work, and commit to serving their families, neighbors, co-workers and communities as elders.

Bradford Hewitt retired in November 2018 from his role leading Thrivent Financial, a Fortune 500 not-for-profit financial services organization with a faith-based mission. “After being in an executive leadership role for 25 years, I’m planning for the next stage of service,” says Hewitt. “Before I start, I decided to do a sabbatical. The pace of being in leadership is intense. My idea of a sabbatical is just the opposite. I know I need to slow down and listen to God’s voice before I jump into something else.”

More Christians like Hewitt are spending early retirement in an intentional 3, 6, or 12 months of worship, feasting, silence, service, reflection, and learning in order recalibrate their hearts to hear the voice of the Caller.

Rather than buy into a culture that sees old age as a problem to be solved (think of “anti-aging cream”), a new generation of older Americans is also embracing aging as a “crown of dignity,” wrinkles and all (Proverbs 16:31).

Far from being an insult, the term “elder”was once associated with wisdom, character, and leadership ability, the assumed fruit of experience and age. “Stand up in the presence of the aged,” says Leviticus (19:32). The term elder (zaqen) is used in the Old Testament as an indication of one’s nobility. The elder taught wisdom at the city gate, the ancient place for public dialogue (Job 32:6–10).

Gordon Smith, president of Ambrose University in Calgary, believes two ideas – wisdom and blessing – are the biblical model for fruitful living in retirement. “To bless is simply to affirm the other, to take particular delight and joy in the other in a nonjudgmental manner,” he writes.

Smith tells the story of speaking at a family camp for Christian doctors and dentists. “These men seemed to have no other agenda than to enjoy the teens at the camp. And they had an immeasurable influence on my two [teenage] sons,” Smith remembers. “It seemed like they never used the word should, which all teens hate, and had no other plan than to bless my sons and the teens at the camp.”

The psalmist writes, “The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,”(92:12-14). Retirement may not be biblical. But becoming an elder filled with life, hope, memory, and wisdom for a coming generation certainly is.

This is an adapted excerpt from my book An Uncommon Guide to Retirement: Finding God’s Purpose for the Next Season of Life (Moody Publishers, May 2019) and was recently posted by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Economy Work

Saving Retirement (Christianity Today, March 2019)

March 4, 2019

Growing old is not what it used to be. For millions of retirees, that may actually be good news.

Pat Poole felt a mix of relief and uncertainty once he decided to retire from his sales management job at Halliburton at the end of March. An Oklahoma Sooners football fan and an avid golfer, Poole looked forward to more leisure time after leaving the Houston-based global oil service company. But he also had questions. One morning, he put down the TV remote and asked his wife with complete sincerity, “What am I going to do?”

The world is undergoing a massive demographic shift. More than 70 million Baby Boomers will retire in the next 20 years in the United States alone. By 2035, Americans of retirement age will exceed the number of people under age 18 for the first time in US history. Globally, the number of people age 60 and over is projected to double to more than 2 billion by 2050.

But as retirement looms for Baby Boomers, a growing number of them—both Christians and their neighbors—are discontented with current cultural assumptions about it. They’re asking new questions about money, work, time, family, leisure, and a life of purpose.

As Americans live longer, “we do not know what we will be doing with all that time,” Joseph Coughlin, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AgeLab, told The Atlantic. Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, authors of 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, point out that for that people are living longer than ever before, and the average retiree can expect to live another 20-30 years.

What retirees consistently say they want to do with their time in retirement is spend it with family. But what happens when the realities of caring for needy adult children, looking after aging parents, and spending newfound hours every day with a spouse conflict with desires for rest and leisure? And how much leisure is too much? One study found that inactivity in retirement can increase chances of clinical depression by 40 percent.

Anne Bell, a recently retired researcher at the University of Northern Colorado, spent a year early in her retirement volunteering with the 5280 Fellowship, a leadership development program in Denver. Bright and soft spoken, Bell was speaking one day to a group of early-career professionals when she found herself wiping away a tear. “I’m really searching for what I’m called to,” she confessed. “I just want to know what’s next.”

Bell is one of millions of Baby Boomers, the majority of whom are Christians, who are asking new questions about a new society. Yet considering retirement is one of the most widespread experiences of an aging world, the Church has been almost silent on the topic.

Leaving Paradise

The idea of retirement as a never-ending vacation was popularized in the 1950s by developers and the financial services industry. Indeed, the financial services industry—with an estimated total value of $27 trillion—is deeply dependent on the idea. A Google search for the word “retirement” returns a host of retirement calculators and articles on 401ks and IRAs—and images of gray-haired couples blissfully holding hands, walking white-sanded beaches. The message: Save enough, and you too can have paradise.

It’s an ironic picture, given that at its founding in 1958 even the AARP—the world’s largest nonprofit devoted to advocating for seniors—was encouraging retirees “to serve, not to be served.”

But the vacation ideal of retirement has led to a number of unsatisfying options for older Christians across the developed world. First, the dream itself is showing cracks in the hull. “At first, I kind of enjoyed the novelty of it. I felt like I was playing hooky,” says Ben Whittaker, the 70-year-old widower in the 2015 film The Intern, written by fellow Boomer Nancy Meyers. “I used all the miles I’d saved and traveled the globe. The problem was, no matter where I went, the ‘nowhere-to-be’ thing hit me like a ton of bricks. … I know there’s a hole in my life, and I need to fill it. Soon.”

Margaret Mark, former head of research at the advertising agency Young & Rubicam, interviewed retired Americans (age 55 to 70) across socioeconomic spectrums. They reported a love for their newfound freedom and lauded the glories of no longer having a commute. Yet when asked about their overall happiness in retirement, doubts crept in. They reported a powerful sense of loneliness. Even though they had more time for family and friends, they missed the bonds they experienced at work, or “relationships with a purpose.”

In short, retirement as a never-ending vacation is, for many, much more appealing before they actually try it.

Millions more Americans are realizing they could not afford that vacation even if they wanted it, and are instead worried they may not be able to afford basic necessities. The average retirement assets of those aged 50-59 in 2013 were just $110,000, yet they would need $250,000 just to sustain $10,000 a year in retirement income. According to The Wall Street Journal, more than 40 percent of households headed by people ages 55-70 (about 15 million people) lack sufficient resources to maintain their standard of living in retirement. And as traditional pensions disappear for younger workers, one-third of American adults have no retirement savings at all.

As Mitch Anthony, author of The New Retirementality, put it:“Retirement is an illusion because those who can afford the illusion are disillusioned by it, and those who cannot afford the illusion are haunted by it.”

Quickly establishing itself as an alternative to the “let’s vacation” paradigm is a widespread movement toward “encore careers.” Promoted by leaders like Marc Freedman, president and CEO of Encore.org, the story is that retirement isn’t about leisure as much as social entrepreneurship and civic engagement. “Our enormous and rapidly growing older population—commonly portrayed as a burden to the nation and a drain on future generations—is a vast, untapped social resource,” writes Freedman in his book, Prime Time. “If we can engage these individuals in ways that fill urgent gaps in our society, the result would be a windfall for American civic life in the twenty-first century.”

In the past generation, many Christians have bought into the view of retirement as a time to change the world. Two decades ago, Nelson Malwitz was a 50-year-old corporate director at Sealed Air Corporation, the company that invented Bubble Wrap. Stuck in a mid-life crisis, he helped to start the finishing well movement, a gathering of early retirees in the late 1990s hoping to find significance in second-career overseas missions. Drawing from Bob Buford’s popular book Halftime, many older Americans hoped to go “from success to significance” after they retired from “secular work.”

There’s a lot to praise about the encore movement. It swaps a vision of consumption for service, acquiring for giving, and points out the obvious: Today we tell productive, bright, able citizens in their 60s to stop working and start collecting a pension—often during the prime of their career.

Yet some Christians are wary of promises of overabundant “significance” through encore careers. I asked Fred Smith, the recently-retired president of The Gathering, an annual conference for Christian philanthropists, what he thought about the idea of significance. “It’s like drinking salt water,” he said. “Looking for significance from external things is still competing for somebody else’s ‘OK.’ It just leaves you thirsty.” Ironically, the same exhausting treadmill of a career can follow the recently retired into more “meaningful work.”

The most prominent Christian voices on retirement today point out that retirement isn’t “biblical”—which is, of course, true, since retirement is a modern construct. “Lord, spare me the curse of retirement!” says John Piper, the former pastor of Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis and bestselling author. The late Ralph Winter, founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission, echoed Piper’s sentiment: “Most men don’t die of old age, they die of retirement. … Where in the Bible do they see [retirement]? Did Moses retire? Did Paul retire? Peter? John? Do military officers retire in the middle of a war?”

The closest the Bible comes to retirement is Numbers 8:25: “And from the age of fifty years they [the Levites] shall withdraw from the duty of the service and serve no more.” Hauling around the furniture of the tabernacle was hard physical labor. However, later in life, Levites were commanded to “minister to their brothers in the tent of the meeting”—a hint that God didn’t intend for our work to stop completely, but to morph and mature with age.

Yet the main problem with the “resist retirement” view is that most people cannot imagine working nonstop for 40, 50 or even 60 years. In Habits of the Heart, sociologistRobert Bellah interviewed executives, government employees, school teachers, and small-businesspeople on how they felt about retirement. He found they were “sick of working,” hated “the pressure,” had “paid their dues,” and “wanted to get out of the rat race.” The appeal of the vacation paradigm for aging Americans is an under-recognized spiritual (and often physical) exhaustion and pain that can accompany a lifetime of work (Ecclesiastes 2:17; Genesis 3:17-19).

So overwhelmingly, those who can retire, do.

Redeeming Retirement

Yet many Christians today are choosing a contrarian path, eschewing both the never-ending vacation and the life of unbroken work. In an age where structures for older Americans lag behind their aspirations for a meaningful life, the church is beginning to experiment with new paradigms for living a fully human life in retirement.

From Vacation to Sabbatical

“Linda and I decided to take a purposeful pause to listen for God’s voice, ” says Barry Rowan. In 2006, Rowan was the CFO of Nextel Partners, a wireless phone company. After years of high-pressure positions, he decided to take a sabbatical rather than to completely retire and cease from all work.

The word vacation derives from the Latine vacare, from which we get “to vacate, make empty, make void.” Many see retirement as a chance to “vacate” their lives, whether on the beaches of Mexico or the mountains of Colorado. But Rowan says, “I left my time off with a deeper level of surrender and a deeper appreciation that I had become less, and God had become more in me.”

Some are now seeing retirement as a social construct that allows them to take an intentional three, six, or 12 months of sabbatical rest to prepare the heart for a new season of fruitfulness (Leviticus 25). Rhythms of preparation, worship, feasting, learning, simplicity, remembrance, and service, are chosen over consumption, travel, or a premature jump into a new field.

Bradford Hewitt retired in November 2018 from his role leading Thrivent Financial, a faith-based Fortune 500 financial services organization. “After being in an executive leadership role for 25 years, I’m planning for the next stage of service,” Hewitt says. But before jumping into whatever may be next, Hewitt is pausing for discernment and taking a six-month sabbatical of prayer, solitude, rebuilding friendships and eating healthier. “The pace of being a CEO is intense. My idea of a sabbatical is just the opposite. I know I need to slow down and listen to God’s voice.”

From Success to Surrender

“I am convinced that part of the essence of vocational identity during this period of our lives [the senior years] is that we let go of power and control,” says Gordon Smith, author and president of Ambrose University in Calgary. “People listen to us because we are wise and because we bless, not because of our office or any formal structure of power.”

Releasing power allows older adults to freely give to the next generation, without the need to capture titles or wealth. “This season of life is like fly fishing,” said Fred Smith. “When I catch fish, I now don’t need to keep them. I delight in releasing them. Catch and release—this is what retirement means for me.” Ed Wekesser, a 67-year-old coach for Christian CEOs, also sees a deeper freedom in relinquishing power. I asked him what has changed about his developing sense of vocation in his 60s. “Ah, that’s simple,” he said. “It’s not about me anymore.” He says he’s now content to simply work for the success of others.

From “Old” to Eldership

Rather than buy into a culture that sees old age as a problem to be solved (think of “anti-aging cream”), a new generation of older Americans is embracing aging as a “crown of dignity,” wrinkles and all (Proverbs 16:31).

Far from being an insult, the term “elder”was once associated with wisdom, character, and leadership ability, the assumed fruit of experience and age. “Stand up in the presence of the aged,” says Leviticus (19:32). The term elder (zaqen) is used in the Old Testament as an indication of one’s nobility. The elder taught wisdom at the city gate, the ancient place for public dialogue (Job 32:6–10). Cicero, the great Roman statesman, once wrote, “The crowning grace of old age is influence.”

In that spirit, rather than retreat to retirement communities, more Boomers are seeing that retirement can be a season of unique influence. After a full career as a boutique hotelier, Chip Conley was tapped by the young founders of Airbnb to help grow the company into a hospitality giant. Though he didn’t know how to code and he was reporting to a CEO his son’s age, he embraced his role as a modern elder and blended curiosity with intergenerational friendship to shepherd the young company toward global growth.

Though flexible work arrangement for older Americans are often hard to come by, roles for mentoring are not. Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam, who has written eloquently about the growing opportunity gap in America, says, “If America’s religious communities were to become seized of the immorality of the opportunity gap, mentoring is one of the ways in which they could make an immediate impact.”

From Independence to Intergenerational Living

Greg Gast is the vice president of human resources at Hudson River HealthCare, Inc., in Peekskill, New York. Greg and his wife, Nancy, decided to make a bold move and experiment with sharing a house with their oldest daughter, her husband, and their three children. Greg and Nancy take the second floor of the 5,000-square-foot house, while their children and grandchildren take the basement, leaving the main floor as a common area.

Gast says there are distinct advantages to sharing a home: They share the same cable bill, lawnmower, and coffeepot. Sharing a mortgage also helps everyone’s budget. But there are also challenges: Privacy concerns and occasional interpersonal clashes rise to the surface. “We’ve gotten better at communication,” Gast says about their relationship with their daughter and son-in-law. “It’s greatly helped to define our boundaries.”

Intergenerational living is not always easy. But it presents an opportunity for the American church to express love and honor toward retiring parents, many of whom are facing unexpected financial challenges.

From World-Changers to Simple Servants

Susan Cole is a 56-year-old music educator who taught elementary students for more than two decades. But she suffered from fibromyalgia, and the long, high-energy days had taken their toll on her health. “It was a hard decision for me,” she said. “I felt like the job both tore me down and built me up.” She decided to continue working part-time as a piano teacher at a local music school.

Just after Cole’s retirement, her mother broke her femur and her son had a relapse with alcohol addiction. “My availability was totally a God thing,” she recalls. “He was calling me to both care for my students and my family in this season. I was needed here. But I don’t ever see myself giving up teaching.”

A new generation of Boomers are opting less for civic heroism or overseas mission assignments and instead choosing for a lifetime of humble service, in both paid and unpaid roles, right where they are.

A Scent of Resurrection

Dwight L. Moody once said, “Preparation for old age should not begin later than one’s teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly become filled on retirement.” Though that’s true, a new generation of older Americans see retirement as a contemporary social construct that affords them the opportunity to re-explore their God-given purpose for a new season of life.

Gary VanderArk is a not-so-retired physician living in south Denver. In his late 70s, he continues to teach medical students at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center, serve on nearly a dozen nonprofit boards, and bike almost 20 miles a day. VanderArk was also the founder of Doctors Care, a nonprofit that has helped thousands of Colorado’s medically underserved.

With his white hair, slender fingers, and frail voice, VanderArk may seem “old.” But when you speak with him, he seems almost carefree, like a child on Christmas morning. He acknowledges human frailty and death, yet keeps serving others as if death is of no concern to him. He keeps teaching and sitting on nonprofit boards not because of social duty, but instead out of sheer delight. He is quick to listen and slow to speak. His words hold genuine gravitas. He is like “the righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon . . . They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green” (Ps. 92:12–14).

Not all the questions about retirement have easy answers for the nearly 78 million Baby Boomers who are facing it. But many older Christians across the developed world are embracing not a vacation mentality, world-changer ethos, or grudging burden of working later in life. They are simply being ever renewed, and continue to serve God and neighbor as elders in their spheres of influence (2 Corinthians 4:16).

Retirement needs a new story. Or better yet, a very old story. J

This first appeared in the March 2019 issue of Christianity Today. It is an adapted excerpt from my forthcoming book An Uncommon Guide to Retirement: Finding God’s Purpose for the Next Season of Life (Moody, May 2019).

Architecture and Design Craftsmanship & Manual Labor

Buildings Shape Your Soul

August 28, 2017

That may be hard to believe, but I think Stratford Caldecott, in his excellent book Beauty for Truth’s Sake, has convincingly made the case that architecture is under girded by distinct understandings of the world. And in the modern world, due primarily to materialism and utilitarianism, beauty has been mostly lost in our buildings. And with this loss in beauty, “ugliness” has warped aspects of the human soul.

Again, that may seem extreme, but Caldecott is worth hearing on a few points. The first relationship that he explores is the vertical and the horizontal in architecture:

“One way of describing what happened to architecture is that the vertical dimension was devalued, or else that the link between the vertical and the horizontal had disintegrated…. These two dimensions are integrated in the human body, which, as the medievals rightly perceived forms a “microcosm,” a compact representation and sampler of the cosmos as a whole. We stand upright, and this very posture hints at our potential role as a mediator or high priest of creation.”

Human beings stand upright, and, unlike most animals that stand horizontal, the vertical dimension of humans makes us unique. Thus, because humans are taller than they are wide, tall buildings tend to strike us as beautiful. “Humane architecture” proportionally connects the vertical and the horizontal. Or as Caldecott puts it:

“In general, buildings that are flat tend to strike us as drab and ugly, awhile buildings with peaked roofs, with triangles and curves that connect the horizontal with the vertical, are felt to be more beautiful.”

This is fascinating to me. My first apartment was flat and had normal 8ft ceilings. In my last home, the ceilings are vaulted, and they came to a peak at more than 20ft in height. Immediately when people walked in, they commented that our home was “beautiful.” Caldecott argues that this is because it resembles a human body, the most beautiful of all created forms.

He goes on to describe which materials are perceived as the most beautiful:

“The materials of which we make our buildings are just as eloquent. Traditional materials such as wood, stone or clay speak an immediate connection with the earth. On the other hand, concrete and cement by their very nature represent the brutality of modernism—the reduction of the world to particles in order to force it into shapes of our own devising. The shaping of concrete is done from the outside, by the imposition of mechanical force, rather than from inside by growth or natural accretion.”

Again, I had never thought about this before. Materials that have a connection to the earth – stone, wood, clay – are always more “beautiful” than concrete and cement. They resemble the created order and not the harsh imposition of force by humanity on a building.

These changes in architecture have a deeply philosophical basis. At the Enlightenment, the influence of the divine on architecture (not only on churches, but on schools and public buildings as well) was diminished, and utilitarian and human ends became ultimate. Caldecott says:

“In modern times, with the rise of rationalism and materialism, the transcendent or vertical dimension was neglected as we concentrated on mastering the world around us…One these attitudes and assumptions had sufficiently penetrated the popular mentality, architects began to create buildings that reflected the modern understanding of man and the world; that is, machines for living in, spaces designed to facilitate efficient motion in a horizontal plane.”

“Spaces designed to facilitate efficient motion in a horizontal plane…” Does this not sound like nearly every school you’ve ever been in? Certainly all K-12 schools, and a good many colleges and businesses are seen as only spaced to put bodies for “getting things done.”

I think we’ve all had the experience of being in a majestic building and feeling in awe. Or we’ve been in a wood cabin and felt deeply “at home.” Whether consciously or unconsciously, we’ve all felt what it’s like to be molded by our surroundings.

Schools, churches and businesses should prioritize beautiful buildings. “But they cost so much!” Yes, they do. So save up, and build them when you have the resources. But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that space is neutral. It’s not. And neither are buildings.

The buildings we reside in form our souls.