15 / 36
GoodNewsFL.org
July 2017 15
CHURCH UNITED
Worship. Work. Minist
ry.
Service. Craftsmanship. In our
time and culture, we’ve defined
each of those concepts differ-
ently, so that each needs its own
distinct word in the English lan-
guage. It’s become common, then,
to think of worship as something
you do on Sunday; work is what
occupies your time Monday
through Friday during business
hours; ministry is something
clergy does; service is a Saturday
spent volunteering with Habitat
for Humanity; and craftsmanship
is an artist’s trade.
In ancient Hebrew, however,
there was one word to describe
all of these concepts, and that
word was avodah.
It’s used by God first in Gen-
esis 2:15: “The Lord God took the
man and put him in the Garden
of Eden to work (avodah) it and
take care of it.
It is used in Psalm 104:23
to
describe
manual
labor:
“Then man goes out to his work
(avodah), to his labor until eve-
ning.”
It is used in Exodus 8:1 to de-
scribe worship: “This is what the
LORD says: Let my people go, so
that they may worship (avodah)
me.”
It appears in Joshua 24:15 as
the word for service: “But as for
me and my household, we will
serve (avodah) the Lord.”
The ancients knew the
seamlessness. Your work is your
ministry, and it’s also a primary
way you worship God. Crafts-
manship is to be done in service
to others. It’s all one. This is how
God made the world. And I sub-
mit that it’s the church’s role to
help people uncover the seam-
lessness, or the continuity, that
we are made for avodah.
Going into Ministry
Recently, I heard a pastor tell
the story of a financial advisor
who came to him and said, “Pas-
tor, I’m leaving my job and going
into the ministry!” The pastor de-
cided to mess with him, and said,
“Oh, you mean the financial min-
istry? That’s wonderful!” Sure, he
probably confused and frustrat-
ed that parishioner, but he was
trying to drive home the idea of
avodah and the seamlessness of
work and worship.
Avodah means it’s not just
a financial industry; it’s a finan-
cial ministry. In this case, what
if more people in the financial
industry asked, “How can I lever-
age my calling to see more justice
and equity in my community?
How can I do my work with ex-
cellence (which is craftsmanship)
so that it honors God (which is
worship) and those who have
entrusted me to steward their fi-
nances (which is service)?”
Avodah breaks down the
walls between faith and work,
sacred and secular. It reminds us
that work was instituted before
the Fall, before there was ever the
need for redemption or a church.
God put humans in a garden and
said, “Get to avodah.”
Why Work?
I love how Dorothy Say-
ers stated it in her classic essay,
“Why Work?”
“The Church’s approach to
an intelligent carpenter is usu-
ally confined to exhorting him
not to be drunk on Saturdays,
and to come to church on Sun-
days. What the Church should
be telling him is this: that the
very first demand that his Chris-
tianity makes upon him is that he
should make good tables. Sure,
go to church by all means — but
what use is all that if in the very
center of his life and occupation
he is insulting God with bad car-
pentry? What is Christian work?
The only Christian work is good
work well done. As we are so we
make. It is the business of religion
to make us Christian people, and
then our work will naturally be
turned to Christian ends, be-
cause our work is the expression
of ourselves.”
Made to Flourish
As pastors, how do we un-
cover this kind of work for our
people? Through Church Unit-
ed’s continual resourcing of pas-
tors, I’m excited to join Made
to Flourish, a new resource for
pastors launching in this com-
munity. Made to Flourish exists
to help pastors learn how to con-
nect faith, work and economics
so they can disciple their people
better to live for Christ in all ar-
eas of life and advance the com-
mon good. They do this through
online resources, learning com-
munities and access to thought
leaders. The network offers tools
to infuse the concept of avodah
into corporate worship, disciple-
ship practices, pastoral practices
and sermons.
The church faces an enor-
mous challenge ahead as we
watch more and more people
in our culture drift away from
organized religion, viewing the
church as more irrelevant and
disconnected from everyday life.
But what if the church was part
of the seamlessness? What if
church was connecting Sunday
faith to Monday work? I know
many churches are working to-
wards that already, and I hope to
join them in this endeavor, learn
from them, and collaborate with
them.
Seamlessly Defining Worship,Work,
Ministry, Service and Craftsmanship
- Brad Schmidt -
Lead Pastor of City-
Church Fort Lauderdale