Listen: Kara Martin talks ‘Workship’ with Katrina Roe.
Do you devote all your time to your career, or is your work just a means to an end? How does your work fit into your spiritual beliefs?
They’re questions worth thinking about, considering work consumes the majority of our daily lives.
In a new book titled Workship: How to Use your Work to Worship God, Kara Martin proposes a holistic way of viewing work as a form of worship.
A former TV reporter and now a lecturer at Mary Andrews College, Kara draws from her own experience working in her dream job in the TV industry.
“Here I was, being a Christian on Sunday, then I would go to work, and the Kara on Mondays was being tested. I felt that I should find ways to better express my faith; I just wasn’t sure how to do that,” Kara said.
Kara has coined the word ‘workship’, to describe the integration of work and worship. She chatted with Katrina on Hope 103.2 Mornings about why she wrote the book.
“I wanted to try and signal another way of looking at work – that actually your work could be a means of expressing your worship of God. I think that’s a much healthier way to see it,” she said.
Kara refers to work as something more than just paid employment; she looks at it from God’s perspective and includes any form of occupation, from housework or schoolwork or study to caring for children or parents, to paid work or voluntary work.
Five Ways to Make Your Work a Form of Worship
If every person’s work is important in God’s eyes, then you can turn it into worship, no matter what you do. Here are five ways.
1. Don’t Make Work Your Identity
Sometimes we can get too caught up with work, to the point where other things in life such as church, relationships or health are neglected. Making work our identity also becomes a problem when we lose our jobs or are unable to work.
Think of work as a means of worship rather than idolising it and making it the centre of your identity.
“It takes the pressure off work [having] to be everything for us – I think that’s very dangerous,” Kara says.
Whether you’re a running a business, working an office or doing the limitless tasks of a parent; consider your work through a bigger and deeper view of your unchanging identity in God.
“The beautiful thing about having our identity established in God is that it does not change,” says Kara. “It is not affected by what we do, where we work, whether we are paid, or whether we even have a job or not.”
Above: Kara Martin being interviewed by Andrew Laird of City Bible Forum and Dean of the Marketplace Institute, Ridley College, Melbourne
2. Accept That Work is Not Perfect
The work we do, at times, will bring frustration and disappointment. It helps to come to grips that our jobs, voluntary roles, occupations or vocations will never be perfect – because we live in an imperfect world.
Do you see the effect of sin impacting our work, workplaces and working relationships?
Accepting that this is part of life, will help you to remain grateful in tougher times. This doesn’t mean we ignore injustice or remain in suffering when other options are available, but it helps to bring perspective on days when we simply need to soldier on.
3. Consider Your Work a Gift
Work, in all its forms, is a gift for us to take care of and to offer to God.
Keeping this in mind will help you keep your eyes on the things that matter, to work for the greater good, to look for creative ways to resolve problems, and to approach your tougher moments with a sense of gratitude.
4. Remember, Work is a Good Thing
Kara points out that work is one of the first things God asks human beings to do.
“He puts them in the garden and tells them to work,” she says. “It’s actually to dig the earth and to look after the garden that has been created – it’s just everyday work, that’s what God asks us to do and we are supposed to work with him.
“God is trying to make everything right and everything whole again. The work that we do, whatever that is, is a much bigger expression of the gospel, and that’s incredibly meaningful and gives us a sense of purpose.”
Work actually is a good thing. It makes the world a better place and extends good to our community and society.
5. Drop the Stereotypes: All Work is Eternal Work
The other challenge Christians may fall into is viewing worship as anything church-related, and considering secular occupations as less important. This was the message Kara was being taught at church.
“The work I was doing from Monday to Friday was [seen as] not as important as gospel work,” she said. “I felt that God called me to be a journalist, to communicate. But I didn’t I know what ministry in that context looked like, other than tell people about an event that was coming up at church.”
In Kara’s view, there is no distinction between ‘Christian’ and ‘non-Christian’, or ‘church’ and ‘non-church’ work. One form of work is not better than another.
No matter what you do, you can view your work as bringing a glimpse of the New Creation into the world.