Involve

Background

Several forces bring Solano Community Church to the point of starting a comprehensive Faith and Work ministry. Practically, we have grown large enough to support targeted ministries that go beyond Sunday worship and small group.

Missionally, we have come to see how integral a full-orbed theology and practice of work is to reaching the career-oriented city dwellers in our community. Being in the East Bay Area, with a world-class university in Cal Berkeley, a national laboratory in the Lawrence Berkeley Lab, several large biotech firms and a major movie production company in Pixar, we have highly educated congregants who are busy shaping many

aspects of the world in which we live. In these demanding fields, work becomes a significant part of a person’s identity so it is extremely important that we help them integrate this part of who they are with the life-giving gospel. A comprehensive Faith and Work ministry will help us do just that.

Spiritually, it seems our leadership has been prepared for this season through strong mentors and a series of serendipitous events. Our Sr. Pastor, Andrew Hoffman, has had the privilege of sitting under the instruction of Dr. David Gill for nearly 20 years in both formal and informal settings (he married David’s daughter!). A 2011 encounter

with Tom Nelson, pastor and author of Work Matters, gave Andrew a vision for what a Faith and Work ministry might look like in a local church. In 2013, one of our staff took the title Director of City Mission so that we might more strategically address the issues people face in our city, including work.

Pastorally, we recently began to probe matters of faith and work with our congregants through an initiative entitled, “Bring Your Pastor to Work.” Several fruitful meetings ensued with Pastor Andrew, congregants and their co-workers all spending time together in the work environment. These meetings served to underscore the need for a

ministry aimed at helping people bring the gospel to bear more fully on their vocational lives.

Lastly, Assistant Pastor and Kern Pastor Brent Kompelien was recently approved by the Kern foundation for a grant to support churches starting Faith and Work ministries. All told, we feel God is moving us strongly in this direction! What follows are the details of what we envision for a Faith and Work ministry at Solano Community Church.

These have been born amidst prayer and conversation within the church and in consultation with Dr. David Gill.

Theology

Creation and redemption are twin forces at the center of God’s work in the world. As people made in the image of God, it is our privilege to enter into, if only derivatively, both the creative and redemptive labor of God as we create new things and redeem broken things in the world. As Dr. Gill teaches, this is foundational to our understanding of work and reminds us that work is, in fact, a blessing. The Bible teaches that work is part of God’s perfect design for us and the created world we called to steward (Genesis 2:15).

Beyond providing the motivation to work, scripture is replete with wisdom pertaining to “how” we work. Industry, responsibility, dedication, enjoyment and skill are all values to which scripture calls us (Proverbs 6:6-11, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12, Colossians 3:21-24,

Ecclesiastes 3:22). When we embrace these values, we experience the blessedness of work as intended by God.

The environment of work also furnishes us with new relationships. Within these relationships we have opportunity to model Christ-likeness, call others to righteous work practices and even to establish work cultures that reflect the values of the kingdom of God. In our informal interactions with co-workers, we may find opportunity to explicitly share the gospel hope that is in us through Christ.

We hope to make a comprehensive approach to faith and work normative for all our congregants. It will take work to get there but we believe it is the role of the church to provide training, community, support and encouragement to help workers bring faith to bear on their vocational lives. To this end, we have identified eight objectives we feel will help make comprehensive integration of faith and work a reality in the lives of our congregants.

Eight Objectives

1. Commissioning of Vocations During Worship Services - once a month we will interview someone from a particular vocation (education, science, art, service, government, etc) during the worship service. They will give a testimony about how they are integrating faith and work. Then we will have all the people in the congregation who work in that same vocation stand up while we pray for them and commission them to be on mission in their work places. GOALS: Raise awareness of the need, support workers through corporate prayer.

2. Gospel Academy Elective - our adult education ministry is called “Gospel Academy.” We will offer an elective course, taught by Dr. David Gill, on the integration of faith and work. This elective will affirm the goodness of work, teach about vocational calling, and discuss the application of biblical truth to the workplace. This elective will be open to churches from around the Bay Area to attend. GOALS: In-depth study of biblical teaching on work and possible development of partnerships with other local churches.

3. Vocational Affinity Groups - we will form various vocational affinity groups where people from our congregation can meet together once a quarter to learn about integrative faith and work, tell stories about their experiences in the workplace, encourage each other, and pray for each other. These groups will be led by lay-leaders in consultation with Dr. Gill and our church staff. GOALS: Foster vocation-specific integration of faith and work, provide vocation specific relational support.

4. Gospel Academy IV - the fourth course in our Gospel Academy is called “Mission” and focuses on applying scriptural truth to the context of work, family, and service in the church. Part of this course focuses on integrating faith and work and has been developed in consultation with Dr. David Gill. GOALS: Instruction on how faith and work integrations serves the overall goals and mission of the church.

5. Faith and Work Conference - workplace and vocational challenges affect Christians and non-Christians alike. A one day conference addressing common workplace concerns could serve to catalyze the ministry, build momentum and reach the non-Christian with work concerns. GOALS: Momentum building, training, outreach to non-Christians and networking among Christians in similar fields.

6. Preaching - we believe that preaching must be an integral part of edifying the church is it pertains to faith and work. Preaching expository sermons that incorporate faith and work concerns will prepare the way for this ministry and sustain momentum. We will dedicate at least two sermons to the topic in the summer and fall and will continue to sprinkle issues of faith and work into our regular application of texts. GOALS: Edification as relates to faith and work, maintaining regular application of scripture to faith and work issues.

7. Financial Stewardship Course - we will offer a financial stewardship course to the congregation as part of our adult education. GOALS: Encouraging godly stewardship of resources derived from work.

8. Career Counselors - We will provide referrals for people who need more extensive career counseling than our pastoral staff can provide. At least one congregant is a trained career counselor and willing to assist in this area. GOALS: Help workers find work that aligns with giftedness and calling, addressing issues of imbalance and/or unhealthy work patterns.