Book Reviews: Called: The Crisis and Promise of Following Jesus Today by Mark Labberton, and Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work by Timothy Keller
A Comparative Book Review
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Mark Labberton, Called: The Crisis and |
Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavor: |
Every preacher and all pastors pray and desire that what is proclaimed at the pulpit makes a difference in how the congregation lives Sunday through Saturday. To be sure, it is a daunting challenge to preach a new, interesting angle on the Christmas story or the resurrection. But, no matter what season it is in the liturgical calendar, there is the alarm clock Monday morning, there are emails and deadlines that wait, mergers and acquisitions to attend to, children to be chauffeured to sporting events, a house to tend to, marriages to be nurtured; in other words, when the charge and benediction are uttered and the gathered Church become the sent Church, life begins. But what life is that, and what kind of life is it? What kind of life should it be?
How does the Gospel’s vision shape, inform, and impact every facet of our life and our network of relationships?
Fuller Theological Seminary president Mark Labberton and Redeemer Presbyterian Church pastor Timothy Keller each provide the Church at-large with a clear articulation of how the Gospel influences our walk with Jesus Christ in the public square. What is at stake for all Christians is living faithfully and credibly with the hope that is in us.
Labberton’s volume, which was widely disseminated throughout the vast community and alumni network of Fuller Seminary shortly after his installation as president, signaled a curricular and ministry emphasis of the Seminary on vocational formation-equipping present-future Christian leaders for kingdom callings, whether the Lord calls folks to parish settings, the business world, non-profit organizations, or in whatever place. Labberton follows the nature and character of God’s own vocation toward the world as revealed in Jesus Christ. He poetically asserted what wise Biblical leaders are about: the truth and character of God/lived/in context (p. 95). The Church sees her calling not from a position of privilege, nor in a response of retreat when confronted with cultural challenges. Rather, the Church as an exilic community is to work and pray for the flourishing and prosperity of the community/world where the Church is at (think of the prophet Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles in Babylon, or the prophet Daniel’s own disposition in captivity). In sum, the Church is fully and deeply the “called” when it lives into the dual demands of the Gospel: to love the Lord our God, and to love our neighbor. We need to be about attending to “first things”—to the love the Lord, first, and then to love our neighbor. We then attend to the “next things”—those particular places and specific people with whom the Lord brings us into contact (our families, workplaces, communities, etc.). How we live in the “next things” sphere is predicated on how we are living out the “first things” sphere. To be the “called” is to live into Christ’s own calling, which is to love the world for which He died and rose again. For that to happen requires the reorientating, refocusing work of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Labberton’s volume is truly a theological gift to us, calling us to faithfulness, and doing so in a gracious and confident way. Each chapter ends with summary points, questions for further reflection, and practical suggestions on how to begin to reorient the heart and mind to lessons of that chapter.
Keller writes from the context of New York City and his ministry at the Redeemer Presbyterian Church, where many thirty-somethings discover the Christian faith, who themselves are business executives, artists and professionals in their particular industries. His volume is incisively truthful, analyzing the sin aspects of how human beings approach work, how we idolize work to find our self-worth and significance, or regard work to be fruitless or pointless. Keller brings us the Gospel from the origin of work in God’s creative design in Genesis, to how work is redeemed in Jesus Christ, in whom the proper rhythm of work and Sabbath rest are recovered.
When we are quick to replace our commitment to the Lord God with idolizing our careers, putting ourselves on a pedestal, or giving in to demands of culture and the workplace, Keller directs our attention to what God desires from us and from our work. How do we regard work as a gift? And, with the doctrine of common grace, how do we dignify all people—regardless of faith commitment or no faith at all—to regard all people as ones who show excellence in their work, and through whom God is showing an aspect of His character and beauty. Keller offers anecdotal narratives of professionals in his congregation who have had to grapple with how to live out the Christian faith in their workplaces, such as waiving a salary bonus out of protest for a business venture that did not benefit the common good. As with Labberton, Keller sounds the clarion call to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor in our work. The reader will want to carefully read the rich endnotes and the plethora of resources for further reading. In sum, Keller invites us to see our life as part of God’s own work of renewing heaven and earth; we have been called to a sacred vocation.
I am deeply grateful for Mark Labberton and Tim Keller, who they are as Christian leaders and faithful preachers of the Gospel, and what they offer to us in these two books. All pastors and preachers will benefit in reading and taking to heart what they assert in these volumes. They show us the comprehensiveness of Gospel vision, and how that vision recalibrates the Church as we live out faith Sunday through Saturday.
