Lester DeKoster
The Art of Bookmaking and the Glory of Craftsmanship
By Joseph Sunde
The American economy has undergone a range of transitions, from agrarian to industrial to information-driven. Given our new-found status, manual labor is increasingly cast down in the popular imagination, replaced by romanticized dreams about white-collar jobs, bachelor’s degrees, and ladder-climbing of a similar sort.
The Fruit of Our Labor Is Fellowship
By Joseph Sunde
“The fruit of our labor is fellowship. It’s community. It’s relationship.”
Work Weaves the Fabric of Civilization
The fabric of civilization, like all fabrics, is made up of countless tiny threads—each thread the work of someone. Superficially, any given thread might be readily spared or replaced—that could be my job or yours.
Thinking this, we go to work on the margin, so to speak, of culture: Who needs me?
Creative Service and the Mirage of Disability
By Joseph Sunde
Annette Gabbedy is a business owner and an expert designer and goldsmith. She was also born without fingers, a trait many would consider to be a “disability,” particularly in her line of work.
Yet, as she explains in the following video, having created and traded her wares for over 20 years, Gabbedy sees no reason for that to inhibit her creativity and contribution to society. Quite to the contrary:
8 Lessons on Creative Service from Disney’s ‘Silly Symphonies’
By Joseph Sunde
Teaching our children about the value and virtues of hard work and sound stewardship is an important part of parenting, and in a privileged age where opportunity and prosperity sometimes come rather easily, such lessons can be hard to come by.
Christian Conscience: The Watchful Monitor of Stewardship
By Lester DeKoster and Gerard Berghoef
Stewardship has a watchful monitor in the conscience.
God Is With You in the Workplace (Whether You Know It or Not)
By Joseph Sunde
We’ve seen a renewed focus among Christians on the deeper value, meaning, and significance of our daily work, leading to lots of reflection on how we might “find God in the workplace.” As a result, Christians are becoming ever more attentive to things like vocation and calling, looking for transcendent purpose and value in the world of work, beyond simply funding missionaries or evangelizing co-workers.
Apprenticeship Christianity: Where Doing Precedes Understanding
By Lester DeKoster and Gerard Berghoef
Have you ever wondered why the Lord puts this order—way, truth, life—on his answer to Thomas’ question?
The Lord had said to his disciples that he was going away. In John 14:5, Thomas speaks for them all in asking: “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”