"Every Job a Parable" (John Van Sloten)

TITLE: Every Job a Parable: What Walmart Greeters, Nurses, and Astronauts Tell Us about God
AUTHOR: John Van Sloten
PUBLISHER: Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2017, (220 pages).

Is God really interested in our jobs? What if our jobs are powerful windows into God's work in our lives? What is the relationship between our faith and our jobs? What does it mean to work joyfully as for the Lord? Can ordinary routine jobs be as significant as those mover-and-shaker jobs? These are everyday questions that would pique the interest of anyone out there working in the marketplace.

Your work matters to God because you matter to God. Every job is a story of this relationship. Through our jobs, we exercise our vocation to demonstrate God's grace in our work and the daily things we do. Through each vocation, author and preacher John Van Sloten has discovered a unique narrative in each of them. He calls it a "kind of parable," a unique story in which God manifests Himself in our work through us. He hopes that this book will spark in each reader a "renewed vocational imagination"to trust that because God is with them in their workplace, they would reveal God's glory in everything they do. In a secular age, it would seem impossible to even talk about things of faith in the marketplace. Yet, there is a way. Opportunities abound for the discerning. He shares about how a Walmart employee named Shirley puts customers before herself, just like Christ who put others before Himself. The forensic psychologist in searching for healing recognizes the powerful role of the Holy Spirit to heal and to make people whole. For Sam Kolias, one of Canada's largest residential landlords, it is a reminder that we are all God's tenants on earth. Through the many vocations, we learn about the different ways in which our gifts and talents are put to good use, all reflecting God's creative work in us.


Sloten begins with a general introduction by showing us what it means to image God. By recognizing that all work matters to God, we become aware of the significance of what we do. By imaging God with our whole being, we become attuned to His working within us. By leaning onto God's signature move, we become accustomed to His working outside us and through us. Through questions and the practice of the lectio vocatio, readers get a personal guide to deal with the questions of their work and God's work through them. In Part Two, Sloten shows us the meaning of a vocational parable and the reasons why we need to change our perspective of work merely as a way to make ends meet. Simply put, God is trying to make this world a better place and we can participate when we see our role in the larger scheme of things. The sanitation worker, the sweeper, the homemaker, and the cleaner are all part of the parable of cleaning, clean-up, and cleanliness, something we tend to take for granted far too often. Knowing God's joy in cleaning up the world helps us as we participate in this vocation. This also calls for a different perspective in how we see work. Sloten calls this as "reversing our perspectives." Key to understanding this perspective is to move away from our "center of the universe" mentality toward seeing God as center of everything we do. In other words, it is not about us but all about God. Part Three builds on this God-awareness by cultivating our consciousness of God's creativity and God as Creator. Through the vocation of the geophysicist, we marvel at the wonder and beauty of creation, how God holds all things together. As we take inventory of the stuff in our everyday lives, we begin to see that these things do not just happen. They are created with a purpose. At the same time, we recognize the impact of sin, that what God had made beautiful, sin has made it flawed and broken. From crooked lawyers to corrupted politicians, the traditional seven deadly sins had either prevented or smothered our appreciation of God's beauty. Through it all, God never gave up. He redeems this world and we can be part of the redemptive work. Part Four shows us the paths forward to sustain this narrative of making every job a parable. There is the practice of discernment to listen to what God is saying through someone else's job. Even films are windows into seeing God's hand at work, as a majority of them follow a general "creation-fall-redemption narrative."  In gratitude, we learn about appreciating the many things that are totally out of our control, such as being born, being given an opportunity, or simply being at the right place at the right time.

My Thoughts
First, this book covers a unique way of expressing our vocations. Most people would see their jobs simply as a means to an ends. I have read books that refer to faith in the marketplace either as ethics-based or how to be a witness at the workplace. The former deals with the rights and wrongs of workplace decisions while the former focuses on evangelism. Both are important but by themselves are inadequate. There are many mundane things happening each day at every work vocation. If all of our focus are on the highlights on our careers, then life would become one big bore. Unless we can weave a story, a narrative of how we fit into the environment and how through the interactions, tell a story of faith and dependence on God. Sloten helps us with many different examples, covering many different fields.

Second, there is always room for one more book about careers, work, and vocation. This is because of the richness and diversity of all possible work and environments. More specifically, Sloten gives us an insight about how our work not only matters to God, but how they reveal God.We learn about God as Creator. We learn about how God's perfect creation was marred by sin. We have hope because Christ has redeemed us. This three-part theological framework parallels the story of the gospel. By pushing us through the mundane things and routine duties, we appreciate both the good and ugly sides of the workplace. By pointing us to the redemptive narrative, we have hope that our work will be made new. I appreciate how Sloten ends the book with a chapter about rest, to slow down and to enjoy the fruits of our labour. Just like the creation narrative in the book of Genesis, God on the seventh day finished all His work and rested. True work has that sabbatical rhythm of working six days and resting one day. While modern workplaces nowadays are more complex, even when we cannot literally fulfill this 6 day workweek, we can still inculcate rhythms of work and rest creatively.

Third, there is a deep sense of the transcendence toward the end of the book. Earlier, I talked about rest and sabbatical rhythms. The lectio vocatio consistently points us to reflect on both the book's contents as well as our own work. I believe we need a "lectio vocatio" for everyone to use. In fact, each of us in the marketplace ought to write out a few paragraphs of personal reflection on our work. Sloten gave an example at the epilogue by writing about the parable of a pastor, using his own life story. His use of "vocational imagination" and "vocational joy" are some ways to stay in touch with the divine. That is why I believe that pulpits should have a regular preaching that connects our work with our faith. Sloten shows us one way to do just that. I hope more preachers would be inspired to do the same.

Author John Van Sloten is a pastor at New Hope Hillside Church at Calgary, Alberta. For the past few years, he has preached on a variety of workplace vocations such as astronauts, auto mechanics, engineers, carpenters, sportsmen, and many others. He also teaches preaching courses at Ambrose Seminary and has received several John Templeton Foundation grants for preaching science.

Rating: 4.25 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of NavPress and Graf-Martin Communications without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.