Kingdom Calling

<P><B><I>Christianity Today</I> Book Award winner</B></P><P>Imagine the scenarios:</P><ul><li>a CEO successfully negotiates a corporate merger avoiding hundreds of layoffs in the process</li><li>an artist completes a mosaic for public display at a bank showcasing neighborhood heroes</li><li>a contractor creates a work-release program in cooperation with a local prison growing the business and seeing countless former inmates turn their lives around</li><li>a high-school principal graduates 20 percent more students than the previous year and the school's average scores go up by a similar percentage</li></ul><P>Now imagine a parade in the streets for each event. That's the vision of Proverbs 11:10 in which the <I>tsaddiqim</I>-the people who see everything they have as gifts from God to be stewarded for his purposes-pursue their vocation with an eye to the greater good.</P><P>Amy Sherman director of the Center on Faith in Communities and scholar of vocational stewardship uses the <I>tsaddiqim</I> as a springboard to explore how through our faith-formed calling we announce the kingdom of God to our everyday world. But cultural trends toward privatism and materialism threaten to dis-integrate our faith and our work. And the church in ways large and small has itself capitulated to those trends while simultaneously elevating the special calling of professional ministry and neglecting the vocational formation of laypeople. In the process we have in ways large and small subverted our kingdom mandate. </P><P>God is on the move and he calls each of us from our various halls of power and privilege to follow him. Here is your chance keeping this kingdom calling in view to steward your faith and work toward righteousness. In so doing you will bless the world and as you flourish the world will celebrate.</P>