Faithful Is Successful: Notes to the Driven Pilgrim

What does it mean to be a Christian in your work? In this book authors working in fields from the arts to finance and the academy offer practical advice to Christians about what it means to live a life of robust faith and work. Authors address a number of key questions: How do they understand what it means to be a Christian in their profession? What difference does it make? What kinds problems have they encountered? Their answers are surprising in their creativity and insight. They are also honest, based upon the authors' imperfect and tentative attempts to follow Christ in professions were there are few Christians. Those who want to learn how to integrate Christ fully into their careers or who are looking for evidence of God's redemptive work in the academy, culture, business, and government will be greatly encouraged and challenged by this book. One overarching theme emerged holds the book together: Being faithful is being successful. This theme has a double meaning. First, it means that what ultimate success means is to faithfully follow Christ. Many authors detail how the drive for professional success can supplant our ultimate goal. The second meaning of the theme is that our fullness as persons and workers is only realized in faithfulness. What we are intended to be and what we can be at our best can only be realized when Christ is at work in us. The chapters are grouped according to three themes. The three key themes are: dealing with the mysteries of calling (The Mystery of Calling), faith and ambition (Success and Ambition), and how God influences the substance of our work (God in the Work). The first portion of the book includes chapters that wrestle with the difficulties of discerning one's calling. The chapters address the following questions: What is calling? Called to what? How can we know it? Does it change? How important is it? The second portion of the book addresses the difficult relationship between faith in Jesus and ambition. The chapters