Kingdom Calling

Imagine the scenarios:a CEO successfully negotiates a corporate merger, avoiding hundreds of layoffs in the processan artist completes a mosaic for public display at a bank, showcasing neighborhood heroesa contractor creates a work-release program in cooperation with a local prison, growing the business and seeing countless former inmates turn their lives arounda high-school principal graduates 20 percent more students than the previous year, and the school's average scores go up by a similar percentageNow imagine a parade in the streets for each event. That's the vision of Proverbs 11:10, in which thetsaddiqim--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.Amy Sherman, director of the Center on Faith in Communities and scholar of vocational stewardship, uses thetsaddiqimas 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.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.

Dr. Amy L. Sherman is a senior fellow at the Sagamore Institute, where she directs the Center on Faith in Communities. She also serves as a senior fellow with International Justice Mission.