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About the Book
"Faith That Will Work For You" by Charles Capps explores the power of faith and how it can positively impact one's life. The book delves into practical steps for developing and strengthening faith, offering insight and guidance on how to apply faith in everyday situations to achieve success and overcome challenges. Through personal anecdotes and biblical teachings, Capps emphasizes the importance of believing in the power of faith to create the life you desire.
William Still
I recently read Dying to Live (Christian Focus, 1991), the autobiography of Scottish pastor William Still. I became interested in Still after reading his book The Work of the Pastor earlier this year.
The first half of Dying to Live tells about Still’s early years into young adulthood and his beginning in pastoral ministry. Still had an unsettled childhood. His parents were separated in his early years, and his father was an alcoholic. He was a sickly child who took refuge in music and became an accomplished pianist. He was part of the Salvation Army as a young man but then entered ministry in the Church of Scotland and served at the Gilcomston Church in his hometown of Aberdeen from 1945-1997.
The second half of the book deals with various aspects of Still’s pastoral ministry. Still was an evangelical. In his early ministry he worked with Billy Graham, Alan Redpath, and others in evangelistic events. With time, however, he moved away from what he came to call “evangelisticism” to develop a solid expositional ministry.
Still faced his fair share of hardships during the course of his ministry. When he moved away from pragmatic evangelistic methods, for example, more than two hundred people stopped attending his church almost overnight. In the preface, he references Martin Luther’s observation that there are three things which make a minister: study, prayer, and afflictions. He observes, “He who is not prepared to make enemies for Christ’s sake by the faithful preaching of the Word will never make lasting friends for Christ, either” (p. 93).
He describes one particularly difficult controversy early in his ministry when he confronted a group of disgruntled elders. At the end of one Sunday service, he read a statement confronting these men, which ended, “There you sit, with your heads down, guilty men. What would you say if I named you before the whole congregation? You stand condemned before God for your contempt of the Word and of his folk.” He adds, “The moment I had finished, I walked out of the pulpit. There was no last hymn—no benediction. I went right home. It was the hardest and most shocking thing I ever had to do in Gilcomston” (p. 124). That same week seven of his elders resigned and Still was called twice before his Presbytery to answer for the controversy. Yet, he endured.
Still maintains that in light of the unpleasantness one will face in the ministry that the minister of the Word must possess one quality in particular: “…I would say that this quality is courage: guts, sheer lion-hearted bravery, clarity of mind and purpose, grit. Weaklings are no use here. They have a place in the economy of God if they are not deliberate weaklings and stunted adults as Paul writes of both to the Romans and to the Corinthians. But weaklings are no use to go out and speak prophetically to men from God and declare with all compassion, as well as with faithfulness, the truth: the divine Word that cuts across all men’s worldly plans for their lives” (p. 140).
Still was a pioneer in several areas. First, he developed a pattern of preaching and teaching systematically through books of the Bible at a time when this was rarely done. He began a ministry of “consecutive Bible teaching” starting with the book of Galatians in 1947, calling this transition from “evangelisticism to systematic exposition … probably the most significant decision in my life” (p. 191).
He was also a pioneer in simplifying and integrating the ministry of the church. After noting how youth in the church were drifting away, even after extensive involvement in the church’s children’s ministry, Still writes, “I conceived the idea of ceasing all Sunday School after beginners and Primary age (seven years) and invited parents to have their children sit with them in the family pew from the age of eight” (p. 171). He laments “the disastrous dispersion of congregations by the common practice of segregating the church family into every conceivable category of division of ages, sexes, etc.” (p. 173).
Dying to Live is a helpful and encouraging work about the life and work of the minister and is to be commended to all engaged in the call of gospel ministry. As the title indicates, Still’s essential thesis is that in order to be effective in ministry the minister must suffer a series of deaths to himself (cf. John 12:24). On this he writes:
The deaths one dies before ministry can be of long duration—it can be hours and days before we minister, before the resurrection experience of anointed preaching. And then there is another death afterwards, sometimes worse than the death before. From the moment that you stand there dead in Christ and dead to everything you are and have and ever shall be and have, every breath you breathe thereafter, every thought you think, every word you say and deed you do, must be done over the top of your own corpse or reaching over it in your preaching to others. Then it can only be Jesus that comes over and no one else. And I believe that every preacher must bear the mark of that death. Your life must be signed by the Cross, not just Christ’s cross (and there is really no other) but your cross in his Cross, your particular and unique cross that no one ever died—the cross that no one ever could die but you and you alone: your death in Christ’s death (p. 136).
The Secret to Job Satisfaction
Many Christians work in jobs we would not necessarily choose for ourselves. I have before — maybe you are now. We did choose it at some point along the way, but just for less inspiring reasons. I have to pay my rent. I have an engineering degree. I only received one offer. We start jobs for money and a hundred other reasons. After a few years (or months, or even weeks), the satisfying security of the paycheck wears off, and we’re left wondering if we settled too soon and missed “the one.” We start dreaming about something different — different, more comfortable pay; different, more empowering boss; different, more fulfilling responsibilities. Our Vocational Anthems Meanwhile, the culture’s choir sings beautiful harmony to our melancholy melody: Find a job where you get to do what you love to do most. Follow your heart. Don’t settle for any job you’re not passionate about. The songs and slogans are sold by the millions, but for those willing to be honest about our work, at least three realities set in over time: That dream job simply does not exist for many. If it does, it either does not pay enough to cover the rent, or we are not qualified for it. An awful lot of work has to be done that no one dreams about, which means an awful lot of the available jobs are not dream jobs. The hard reality is that we can’t glorify God in the job we want (at least not yet). But we can glorify God in the job we have. Modern Bondservants I wonder how the songs we Millennials hear most about our careers would have landed on Christian slaves in Ephesus? The apostle Paul writes, Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. (Ephesians 6:5–8) Paul writes to “bondservants” about their work, not to support the institution of slavery, but to strengthen faith and inspire joy among the enslaved. To be clear, such slavery was not the brutal and dehumanizing chattel slavery in American history, but these men and women were not as free as we are in America today, either (Ephesians 6:8). If Paul could write these self-denying, countercultural, other-worldly words to slaves about their livelihood, could he write them to us about our jobs? If so, here are three ways we can glorify God in our job, whether we are working the dream, or dreading our work. 1. The work is for God, regardless of who we report to. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling . . . as bondservants of Christ. (Ephesians 6:5–6) Your tax forms may say you work for the government, or a business, or even for yourself, but Paul says you work for God. You are always first and foremost an employee for Christ. Every task you complete comes underneath his lordship. You may never be paid to share or apply the gospel, but it still hangs high over everything else you are paid to do. Work as if Christ were your superior — with holy fear and trembling, and with sincerity. Why? Bosses can cheat us, mistreat us, even fire us, but Christ can do far worse — and far better. He not only sees our every move at work, but knows our every thought — nothing ever gets by him. And he can send us to hell. If your boss monitored you all day every day, would you work differently? Your almighty Savior and Judge sits even closer than that. If we go about our everyday work with greater seriousness and joy, people will ask about our boss. And if there’s nothing remarkable about our boss, they just might ask about our God. 2. The standard is not mere excellence, but heartfelt service. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters . . . with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but . . . doing the will of God from the heart. (Ephesians 6:5–6) Some will hear “doing the will of God from the heart” and hear “work as much and as hard as you possibly can.” But that is more American than Christian. Men and women chasing the American dream love to be told to work harder and achieve more. They work from the heart — it’s just a heart in love with money, or recognition, or control, or themselves. Christians dream about our jobs differently. When we work from the heart, we work from a passion for Jesus. We don’t spend time counting all the things we can have or achieve here on earth. No, we “count everything as loss” — paychecks, promotions, progress, retirement — “because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ” (Philippians 3:8). “For his sake [we suffer] the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that [we] may gain Christ and be found in him” (Philippians 3:8–9). We never have to fake joy in our jobs because our joy does not come from our jobs. We work from full hearts, not striving to fill our hearts. That kind of heart — not mere excellence — makes our work distinctly Christian. That does not mean Christians should not do their work excellently. We should, as if we were completing our work for Christ. But excellence can easily be mistaken for Christlikeness, when in and of itself, it says nothing about Christ. Lots of doctors, teachers, engineers, and mothers do their work excellently and hate Jesus. The quality of our work might punctuate what we believe, but no one is saved by commas or periods. Something else must set our excellence apart from every other kind of excellence, and that something else happens in our hearts before it ever reaches our hands. 3. The goal is not another paycheck here, but treasure in heaven. Bondservants, obey your earthly masters . . . knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. (Ephesians 6:5, 8) Do you think about your job primarily in terms of what it will reap in this life, or in the next? The work these slaves did each day may have led to many things — favor with their master, financial or circumstantial gain, maybe even precious freedom — but Paul says the most important outcome could not be had or achieved here on earth. No, the work they were doing was mainly about storing up treasure in heaven. As Jesus says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19–21) Another paycheck may feel like our most immediate need, but it is another grain of sand compared with all God will give us in eternity. Paychecks are so objective and predictable and tradable next to the overwhelming unknowns of “this he will receive back from the Lord.” But the adrenaline high and false security runs out so fast. And every one of those paychecks will bounce in paradise. Instead of settling for a few higher numbers on a tiny piece of paper (that we’ll probably spend before the month runs out), let’s work like those who are waiting and working for more than we could ever imagine for ourselves (1 Corinthians 2:9). Better Than Your Dream Job None of this means we should pass on a job opportunity that would employ more of our gifts, or a job that we would enjoy more, or one that would free us up to do more ministry. But it has everything to do with how we work when God does not open that door, maybe for months, maybe years, maybe decades. Do we know the secret of job satisfaction? Paul says elsewhere, I have learned in whatever [job I have] to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11–13) Paul knew the secret. He passed it along to the bondservants in Ephesus. And he wanted you to carry it with you to your job each day. Work for God, from your joy in him, for treasure far greater than money, recognition, or comfort. Bring those dreams to your day job, instead of looking for happiness in your dream job. Article by Marshall Segal
