Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the Daily Challenge. Today is Thursday, we’ve been exploring a topic all week and today, we are going to try to apply it to our lives. This week we’ve been talking about how Jesus resets every area of our lives including how we see work. We’ve talked a few times this week about how work can take on a life of it’s own. Work can consume us. Work can drive us. Work can become our idol. It can become something we worship, something we elevate above all other things and that drives all other things in our lives. Work can become our god. Whenever we take something good in this world, we make it our ultimate good. It becomes our ultimately bad for us. That’s a definition of sin.
Back in our series that we did this past summer on work and rest, we explored what it looks like to work well as a follower of Jesus and we saw four ways to approach work as a follower of Jesus today. Way to apply what we learned from Colossians on Tuesday about work and working continuously, working for God, working well and try to apply that in the early practical way of life today.
Sometimes our work can be redeemed. Sometimes we have been doing work maybe for ourselves, maybe just for the money but you know what, it’s good work consistent with God’s kingdom and we can continue to do it well and now we can offer it up to God. I told the story in that series about an animator who had been animating for work and now she had the opportunity to animate scripture for a church I had started. That was the way for her to offer her work to God. That was great.
Sometimes our work needs to be challenged. Sometimes we have been engaged in work selfishly that simply cannot be done by somebody in God’s kingdom. Say you have been working in the porn industry. You become a follower of Jesus, that needs to get reset. You can’t continue working in that industry, but you can challenge it. Your role in God’s kingdom maybe to challenge that industry. To speak out against it. To let people know what it’s really like the dangers of it -how it’s actually a form of modern slavery. I could go on but you can see how some kinds of work can’t be offered or redeemed for God, they have to be challenged.
Finally some work can be subverted. There are times when our work is something that we have been doing for all the wrong reasons. It’s not directly supporting God’s kingdom to do that work but it’s also not something that needs to be completely confronted and challenged and what we can do is we can be there as a follower of Jesus and subvert what’s happening there that is selfish, that is sinful, that is broken. We can undermine people’s belief in the idol of work and money and power and show them a different way by being there.
Followers of Jesus can’t withdraw from every industry. We can’t withdraw from finance and art and culture. We can’t withdraw from transportation, from supply chain management. We can’t withdraw from consumer products. We can’t withdraw from construction. I could go on and list all these industries. We can’t withdraw completely from the world. Christians need to be there and sometimes that looks like challenging and sometimes it looks like redeeming and offering it and sometimes it looks like subverting it and I highlight this one because that’s really what Colossians was talking about.
Paul was talking to slaves who happen to have become followers of Jesus. They are stuck in a system of slavery. It is the status quo where they live and what he wants them to do is undermine it. He wants them to subvert. He wants them to continue working for their owners but he wants them to know they are not truly owned by them. He wants them to be free, even though the world thinks they are slaves.
Now most of us have more freedom than the slaves that Paul is talking to but sometimes circumstances or responsibilities give us no choice. Sometimes we find ourselves in the kind of work where our only choice is to subvert. We have to stay there. We have no other choice to leave that work, we have to stay and subvert it. To undermine work’s ability to control us, to own us.
Really no matter what work we do, we can find ourselves feeling owned by that work. We can’t find ourselves handing over the entirety of our lives, our entire identity, our entire sense of security and confidence in life to our jobs. We can use our job titles to describe all of who we are. When we are doing that, we are selling out to work, we are selling ourselves to slavery, willingly. That is the system in our world. That is the system of slavery in our Western world. We willingly sell ourselves to work and if that’s happening in your life, then please subvert it. Undermine its power over you and continue to show others while you work alongside them, what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus in your industry.
Keep working. Work well at it. Show them what it’s really like to be an artist who does art for the Kingdom of God. Show them what is like to build for the Kingdom of God, to create for the Kingdom of God. To organize for the Kingdom of God. To lead for the Kingdom of God. Whatever kind of work you do, show people what that work looks like when it is done well and done for God and so doing it will subvert works power over yourself and over others.
Work may think it owns you, it may act like it owns you. The world may think that your work owns you, but you can undermine its power over you. Break yourself free from the chains of slavery and the only way you can do that is by turning to Jesus Christ as your soul source of self worth, of security and identity in this world. When you turn to him, as that soul ultimate source of meaning in life, you will find that things like work and money and so on, all comeback to the place they were always meant to hold in your life. Not the center or ultimate place, but on the periphery.
When we work for the Kingdom of God, living in the Kingdom of God, even well for the Kingdom of this world surrounds us, what we are doing is we are showing, to react to some of the things I said yesterday, that work could go wrong. We are showing people that we are not our own saviors but we are saved by God’s grace.
Our self worth and our self identity are not found in our work but they are found in Jesus Christ and that’s where we see ourselves as workers in God’s creation, advancing God’s kingdom and not as the creator ourselves. We see ourselves for who we truly are, we see other for who they truly are. That’s what Paul is telling bond servants and masters to do it in his letter to the Colossians we explored on Tuesday and that is what we can do in our working lives today.
And my challenge for you today is to think what concrete tools can I use to help me do the three things we’ve really talked about this week. What tools can I use in my workplace to keep working. To keep working there I can be a presence for God, I can either challenge it or subvert it or redeem it. What can I do to work well there? How can I show that this is work for God’s kingdom, for the sake of work being good and finally how can I work for God and doing you are going to bring other people along for the ride too. Map that out today. Think of what concrete tools you can use to actually make this happen. To keep working, work for God and work well.
Well have a great time discussing with your group what that looks like to put that into practice. I’ll see you tomorrow as we take time to pray and reflect. Don’t forget to read the Bible in sync as well. Bye for now.
Read the Bible in Sync Today
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Hi. Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan, your host to the daily challenges. Normally we follow a weekly rhythm that helps us explore a different topic and how following Jesus impacts that topic.
This week is going to be a little different. We're going to be taking an opportunity to just kind of see where we are as a community. Now you probably know us as a mobile app and website for busy commuters but we're also trying to become a church community as we explore what it means to follow Jesus. As individual people engaged in a busy lifestyle, we want to make sure that we're not completely disconnected from one another and that even though we're usually quite scattered as a community, we want to take time to gather as well.
As a gathered community, we want to make sure that we are committed to some of the same things in common and so that's why through this week, this week alone, it's going to be kind of a special week. We're going to be looking at each of the things our community is committed to one by one and see how we're doing as a community by hearing the stories of individuals who are part of our growing on-line community or our in-person courses who are seeing their lives changed. We hope they'll inspire you to see some transformation in your own life as well.
The five things that we're committed to as a community. I'll start with being committed to growth in discipleship. We have some common content to learn together. We also want to be committed to God in worship, committed to generosity in our resources, committed to grace in our lifestyles and witness and finally, committed to groups in community. We're going to be look at each of those points one by one this week and today, being Monday, we're going to start by looking at growth in discipleship.
Today in our series, just a bit of status update for Redeem the Commute and how we're progressing to becoming a church community called Redeemer Church, we wanted to talk about the importance of a place in our community on generosity of resources. A few months ago we shared a story with you from a woman named Carol who had chosen to use some of her financial resources to support the work of Redeem the Commute and it becoming Redeemer Church.
We shot a great video of her telling her story of why she has chosen to give to support God's work in various forms but particularly Redeem the Commute. We'll show you a couple of clips from that now and I think the real highlights are how she felt that this was an important way to respond to God's relationship with her. There was no decision made on a whim here but rather she felt God's distinct calling to support this ministry because she had been a commuter herself who found she needed resources to help her follow Jesus while she was going about that busy part of her life and now wants to share that opportunity with others.
Generosity of resources is all about taking what God has given us and returning some of it in thanksgiving. To say thanks to God for the great gifts he gives us, we give him a small portion in return.
I know that I found ... I spent seventeen years commuting and I'd commute sometimes anywhere between an hour and two and a half hours one way. I used to try and spend quality time with God in my car. I think that the whole idea of Redeeming the Commute is an excellent way to use time that's otherwise wasted.
My husband and I sensed that we should give a particular amount of money as a one-time gift to Redeem the Commute. I'd seen Ryan actually at a conference and when I saw him, I thought, I think we're supposed to support his ministry in Redeem the Commute. We didn't have the money at the time and that was okay because we've learned that God does provide. Income tax refund came in, check was written and Redeem the Commute came part of our financial ledger at home.
And then just got the sense that God wanted us to start supporting Ryan monthly. One day I was praying and Redeem the Commute came to mind and I knew that the timing was the timing that day and so that evening I went on to the website and accessed the giving form and set it up so that we now are monthly supporters.
Now Carol just didn't make a one-time gift to Redeem the Commute. She chose to actually make an ongoing gift. She recognized that Redeem the Commute was a weekly enterprise. We are producing videos every week and putting them out there for people to learn what it means to follow Jesus. That happens every week whether you're watching or not. She wanted to make sure she made a regular, ongoing monthly gift to the work of Redeem the Commute. That kind of commitment is what allows us to do our work, knowing that every week, every month we have a portion of our needs covered.
Unfortunately it is not all. We're supported by grants from our denomination, the Diocese of Toronto, and those grants decline over time. We're hoping that those who are part of our community, on-line and in person, will start to give to cover the cost of this ministry. Start to give thanks for how you've been touched by giving so that others can be touched as well.
Think about how it works. You're able to watch this video today because of the kind of gift that Carol made. Her regular ongoing gift supports our ministry and has enabled it to reach you. How many more people could we reach if each of you watching were to make a regular gift to Redeem the Commute as well?
We could grow our ministry by leaps and bounds to reach not just people in Ajax and Durham, but across the GTA. We could see more lives transformed, more marriages saved, more parenting skills improved, more families brought back together through the work of Redeem the Commute supported by people like you. As Redeem the Commute becomes a church community called Redeemer Church, generosity is going to be an important part of who we are and, yes, that comes across in supporting the ministry itself of Redeem the Commute becoming Redeemer Church but also in our general attitude of generosity as we go about our daily lives.
We want to be a community of people who are known for our generosity, generosity of our financial resources, generosity of our time, generosity of our compassion as we encounter others in this world.
I am encouraging you to make Redeem the Commute a regular part of your giving, of your charitable giving. You give through our website at redeemthecommute.com. You look for the give back link. You'll be able to get a tax receipt from the Diocese of Toronto, our denomination, when you do give a gift of over ten dollars.
I'd encourage you to make us a regular part of your giving but also to include other charities, other Christian ministries, other things in our world that are consistent with God's kingdom and finally, save some money so you can give generously to those you know who are in need. That's the big picture of generosity. We've explored that before in other challenges. I'd encourage you to go back to our series to becoming like family to see a bit of that or some of our earlier segments as well.
Your challenge for today is to find a way to support the ministry of Redeem the Commute, whether that looks like you may be giving your time to help us start our worshiping community or maybe giving some of your talents if you have particular gifts and skills that you think would be useful as we do that, or it can be giving financially to support this ministry and there are a few ways to do that.
One is to go to our website as I mentioned earlier, and look for the give back link right at the top of the page. You'll be led to a page where you can give through our giving page at the Diocese of Toronto. Your tax receipt will come from them but it will still have been directed to Redeemer Church. As long as it says Redeemer Church on the form, you know you're in the right place and you're giving specifically to this ministry which is part of a much larger ministry called the Anglican Diocese of Toronto.
When you give on-line to Redeem the Commute you've got a few options. You can just make it a one-time gift but if you are able to, I'd encourage you to set it up as a regular, ongoing gift through your credit card. If you prefer not to use a credit card and you'd prefer to maybe use debit, I'd encourage you to set up a preauthorized withdrawal. You can set up a regular monthly gift, again through the Diocese of Toronto. I can put you in touch with the right people if you'd like to make that kind of a gift.
The same thing if you'd like to give through cash or by check. I can give you some instructions on how to give that way and make sure your gift is directed to Redeemer Church as well. These are all great ways to give to support the ministry of Redeem the Commute but I hope it's touched you and it's a way to help make sure we can touch other people's lives as well.
We're meant to become a self-funding church community over time. Although we started with grants, very generous grants from the Diocese of Toronto, we want to become self funding. I'd love to hear from you this week in how you plan to support the ministry of Redeem the Commute so we can keep this touching lives like it's touched yours.
That's it for today's topic. Hope you're working with a group and can discuss with them maybe what your plans are for giving of your time, your talents or your treasure to support the work of Redeem the Commute. I'd encourage you not to delay but to take some steps today to do that because you might forget if you don't do it today.
Please consider making a regular gift to Redeem the Commute. This is a project of Redeemer Church, a new Anglican church forming in Ajax that wants to help busy, commuting people. We are so new, our denomination handles our donations using the form below or at this direct link. Your charitable receipt will come from The Anglican Diocese of Toronto.
