On The Office there is a character named Angela – it’s apparent she’s a Christian. It’s not apparent through her sharing her faith or attending church, rather it’s because she’s so judgemental about certain things, the producers have drawn a caricature of a real phenomenon where many Christians don’t know how to reconcile work and their beliefs.
At its worst, this confusion can come out as prejudice, anger or manipulation. Or it can be inappropriate and insensitive attempts to convert everyone they work with.
Instead, sometimes Christians will withdraw. They can either quit working in their industry, feeling the only way to be true to their faith is to work at a Christian ministry. Or they might find a company where all their co-workers are Christian. Or, Christians might compartmentalize their lives and give up their beliefs Monday-Friday, and only live out their faith on Sundays.
Neither extreme is good. In one Christians withdraw from the world that God created. In the other, they see their contribution only as moral police and evangelists.
What if God is calling us to do good work in his world? What if God is calling us to be serving others and creating – not just in Christian ministries, but in industry, education, art, media, business, civil service and more?
How could you tell the difference between a Christian doing God’s work, then, and anyone else? What difference does being a Christian make? Clue in this short little bit of a Psalm, a kind of musical poetry in the Bible:
Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Psalm 127:1-1 ESV
We come back to foundations…something we looked at in last series. The image is of two subcontractors – say two carpenters, perhaps even working for the same general contractor. Or the second image: two soldiers guarding a base. They could both be in the same country, same regiment, same platoon. The difference is one works for God, and the other works for something else. You can imagine the possibilities, they could simply work for the company, dad, greed, comfort and security in life, ego, etc.
That kind of work, the Psalm says, is in vain. It’s an exercise in frustration.
When we think the world revolves around us, we can’t stop. Can’t rest. Up early, go go go, late to bed. Not because there’s something to be done, but something to be proven.
But the one who works for God first, and humans and himself second, does work with purpose – it’s not in vain. Most tellingly, it leads to the kind of satisfied rest in knowing you’ve done your part, and the world doesn’t revolve around you. “God gives his beloved sleep.”
We’ll explore tomorrow how work, of various kinds, can be “for God”.
Question: What kind of work have you done that felt like it was “in vain”? How did it feel useless?
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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.
