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The typical American spends 80,000 to 100,000 of his or her best hours at work. For many, those hours are spent without a sense of purpose, meaning, or passion. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

For followers of Jesus, work is not just something we have to do. It’s an opportunity to enter into deep participation in the life and work of the living God--a vital, unique, and powerful dimension of an abundant life in Christ. But many followers of Christ are uninformed or misinformed when it comes to what the Bible teaches about work.

Through extensive research, consulting, mentoring, and interviewing, co-authors Thomas Addington and Stephen Graves have found that few followers of Jesus realize how much the Bible has to say about all the decisions, dilemmas, deals, and duties inherent in everyday work. From handling change to handling trauma, from creating a strategic plan to managing a staff dispute, from establishing travel policies to dealing with a dishonest supervisor, biblical truth is relevant, applicable, and discernable in workplace issues.

The Fourth Frontier is for you if you’re longing to:

Understand God’s personal calling for your life.Experience a sense of satisfaction and a God-connection to your job.Use your God-given skills for His kingdom while you’re at work.Feel passion, peace, and purpose about your time between 8 and 5.Avoid the fears and anxieties that strangle joy for most employees.Create a supportive synergy between your family and your work life.Feel balance in all areas of your life.

Followers of Jesus need not live fragmented, imbalanced, frenetic lives of conflicting demands and polarized priorities. Embark on a journey into The Fourth Frontier and embark on a journey of learning what it means to live a Christ-centered life of devotion, integrity, stewardship, and rest—and learning to be salt and light in the workplace and the world.

James Montgomery Boice
"Carol Ruvolo has written a new set of Bible lessons for women that are deeply God-centered, theologically profound, and extremely practical."

George Grant
"Just the kind of covenantal provocation we need in these difficult days in which we live."

John MacArthur
"Rich in content, easy to use, and practical, all in one package."

Book Description
Faith at Work combines James on Trials, James on Works, and James on Wisdom into a single volume to provide a comprehensive study on James's epistle.

About the Author
Carol Ruvolo Lives in Albuquerque,NM with her husband, Frank. She has written 10 women's Bible studies and she teaches and speaks at women's retreats and conferences throughout the United States.

Publishers Weekly
Pierce speaks from the Christian tradition with a Zen-like appreciation of the spirituality that can be made manifest in daily activities.

Al Gini, coeditor, Business Ethics Quarterly
For anyone who works, this book offers a unique and provocative action guide for developing our spirituality on the job.

Libby Dorsey, president, FundWell.com
Pierce has enabled me to merge the secular with the spiritual. This is NOT a how-to-become-a-saint book; it is a practical guide to a better life.

David Neff, editor, Christianity Today
Traditional pieties just don't harmonize with today's workplace, but what should we put in their place? . . . Pierce's analysis is deeply rewarding.

Patrick T. Reardon, feature writer, The Chicago Tribune
This book examines the spirituality of work in the context of such thorny issues as competition, compensation, and social justice.

Book Description
Inviting us to pause, reflect, and act with the God who is already present, Gregory F. A. Pierce boldy confronts and honestly evaluates our struggle to find meaning in the workplace. Unlike books that try to impose religion on the world of work, spirituality@work promotes an authentic spirituality that is rooted in the nitty-gritty of the workplace. Pierce shows how each of us can successfully balance our work with other aspects of life.

From the Publisher
Ideally suited for people struggling with a difficult job; leadership training courses; courses in business ethics; managers; everyone who works.

From the Inside Flap
From the day Laborer to the CEO, everyone who works grapples with imperfection, seeks to hone interpersonal skills, and strives to deal with competition in effective ways. Developing these and other real-life issues, Pierce updates and expands the traditional categories of spirituality and work. He shows how each of us can successfully balance our work with other aspects of life.

About the Author
Publisher, businessman, community organizer, husband, and father, Gregory Pierce knows how difficult it can be to schedule a time for holiness in our daily work. Pierce is copublisher of ACTA Publications, a former president of the National Center for the Laity, one of the founders of Business Executives for Economic Justice, and a recipient of the Hillenbrand Award for Social Justice from the Archdiocese of Chicago. His ideas, examples, and suggestions form the basis for a spirituality of work that can be every bit as satisfying as any traditional spiritual path.

Book Description
Shows readers how to extend the spiritual life begun on Sunday into the Monday-morning world of the office or factory.

Ingram
Applying four decades of experience in business and industry, Diehl illuminates five ways through which ethics and competence at work can bring a true Christian ministry into one's daily life. "Addresses a vital yet troublesome issue."--Bookstore Journal.

There is a rising interest around the topic of spirituality in the workplace. This contribution to the topic provides a basic primer for one who is a beginner on this spiritual journey and a helpful summary for those farther along. The author provides a solid basic framework for understanding one's spiritual life in the context of their work and the pitfalls that one encounters along the way.

Work shapes nearly everyone's life. Wood, director of Good News Ministries and Counseling, leads Christian workers through such workplace pitfalls as control, anger, fear, troublesome people and romantic or sexual complications. Part one deals with the possibilities of ministry within the workplace. Wood contends that we must understand that God doesn't stay at home while we are engaged in our occupations; we must take God to work with us. She outlines several steps in this process, beginning with inviting God to join us at work, centering ourselves through Scripture and engaging in an ongoing, internal conversation with Jesus throughout the day. Part two deals with the stumbling blocks inherent in being a Christian in the workplace. According to the author, control is one such problem. She argues that work often becomes a controlling force because we allow it to define our worth. She asserts that we must trust God and give over control of our lives. Part three explains the power of God's presence in the workplace. Wood notes that gratefulness, forgiveness, prayerfulness and having a servant's heart provide sacramental moments in which God's presence is real to us, touches us and blesses us--and our co-workers. She provides discussion questions at the end of each chapter to enhance the use of the book by study groups. The book's useful moments are hampered only by Wood's provincial approach, which limits its audience.

Now readers can approach the new millennium by incorporating Burkett's tried and true advice into their business world with this updated edition of the best-selling classic containing some of the actual study material used in Burkett's worldwide seminars.

Through stories, real-life business situations, and artfully chosen spiritual texts, The Business Bible reminds us that principles don’t have to be sacrificed for profits, that value means more than net worth, and that spiritual ethics can lead to business excellence.

Rabbi Wayne Dosick, Ph.D.—who grew up waiting on customers in his father’s grocery stores—is a widely recognized teacher, author, and lecturer who has brought ethical guidance and spiritual inspiration for daily living to countless modern readers. He frequently lectures and conducts seminars on ethics in the workplace. Dosick is spiritual guide of the Elijah Minyan in San Diego, California, and an adjunct professor of Jewish studies at the University of San Diego. His books include Soul Judaism: Dancing with God into a New Era (Jewish Lights), Golden Rules: The Ten Ethical Values Parents Need to Teach Their Children (HarperCollins), and Living Judaism (HarperSanFrancisco). Dosick lives in La Costa, California.

Jones has made a name for herself adapting biblical scriptures to the workplace and the world of business. Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership (1995) was a best-seller that exhorted managers to emulate the leadership style of Jesus. Jesus in Blue Jeans (1997) held Christ up as an everyday role model. Now Jones reasserts her conviction that it is possible to earn a comfortable living and still promote one's spiritual and personal beliefs. Increasing dissatisfaction with the workplace, growing numbers of "downsized" workers hoping to start their own enterprises, the Internet, and an apparent rising newfound desire by many to contribute something meaningful to society have all helped create a new kind of businessperson Jones has dubbed the "spiritreneur." It is potential "spiritreneurs" she hopes to inspire with this collection of sermonettes that are based on biblical passages and that Jones uses to illustrate basic business principles.

Book Description
He didn't work for money.
He was willing to walk away.
He invested His emotions wisely.
He did sweat the small stuff.

Beyond work, beyond entrepreneurism, there is "spiritreneurism" -- work that allows you to do well by doing right. In Jesus, Inc., Laurie Beth Jones, bestselling author of Jesus, CEO, shows you how to find soul satisfaction in your work.

In Jesus, CEO, Laurie Beth Jones offered an irresistible motivational proposition: If Jesus could change the world with a team of just twelve men, shouldn't he have something to teach us all about managing our teams? The answer was a resounding yes, and it made the book a bestseller.

Now, in Jesus, Inc., Jones shows that there is no contradiction between earning a comfortable living even as you use your job to promote your deepest spiritual and personal beliefs. How exactly is this possible? Using timeless wisdom from the Bible and anecdotes from her own life and consulting career, as well as tales from the best and worst work situations in today's rapidly changing business environment, she reveals how you can inspire yourself and your coworkers to use your highest gifts to benefit the bottom line.

Never before have so many individuals been willing to launch new businesses, and never before have so many of them been looking for a new business model. Here, in Jesus, Inc., entrepreneurs and "spiritreneurs" will find timeless wisdom and biblical principles that will help create a new world of joyful and satisfying work.

A genius at making the powerful familiar, Jones offers a commandingly fresh and compelling case for Jesus as a role model for modern times. Rich with humor, exercises, meditations, and case histories, Jesus, Inc. is essential reading for those seeking to put their spirituality to practical use.

From the Back Cover
Praise for Laurie Beth Jones

"Laurie Beth Jones gives you many practical ideas on how to add love, inspiration, and goodwill into your organization."
-- Ken Blanchard, author of The One-Minute Manager

"Jones presents Jesus not as a religious messiah but as an executive leader. . . . a kind of how-to manual for succeeding as corporate officers internally, externally, and for eternity."
-- San Diego Union Tribune

"[Jones's] style is engaging and breezy with enough personal details and humor that make it easy to be swept along. While loosely hitting biblical touchstones, she makes an embracing case for Jesus as a modern role model."
-- Tom DePoto, Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.)

"Practical, useful help for Christians and nonbelievers alike. Jones has made her mark, and her books are here to stay."

About the Author
Laurie Beth Jones is the author of the national bestsellers Jesus, CEO; Jesus in Blue Jeans; and The Path, as well as The Power of Positive Prophecy and Grow Something Besides Old. A highly acclaimed speaker and consultant who conducts seminars worldwide, she is the founder of the Jesus, CEO Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a mission to "recognize, promote and inspire the divine connection in all of us." She lives in El Paso, Texas.

This book may surprise many readers, who, from the title, might expect one more contribution to the genre of religious handbooks for corporate success (meaning, how Jesus can make you wealthy). But the book delivers an often insightful series of meditations on Jesus' interpersonal style, focusing on what set him apart as a leader. In a nonacademic way, Jones has contributed to an academic tradition of leadership studies that focus on characters from the so-called great books. To my knowledge, Jesus has not been a popular subject for such studies, but the success of the movement with which he is associated makes him a plausible candidate. This book's strength lies in its ability to surprise two very different groups of readers: those put off by a title slanted toward corporate success and those attracted by the title's promise of a step-by-step guide to such success. To the extent that Jones comes from left field to surprise both groups, she practices what she preaches. Along the way, she dispenses practical and pithy advice for anyone (whether CEO or not) who works with other people to get things done

Will money or morality emerge victorious in the war zone of work skirmishes? Julian, with seasoned experience as a leadership management consultant for companies such as 3M, Honeywell, AT&T and General Mills, provides solid answers for this troubling dilemma. He discusses 10 key principles that he deems essential for transforming workplace problems into both spiritual and bottom-line success stories. Each chapter poses an issue (such as developing patience, cultivating leadership by example, yielding control, making tough decisions and maintaining right priorities) followed by a solution. In a chapter on "integration," for example, Julian poses the bottom-line question: "How do I balance employee needs with profit obligations?" To explain his approach (to "integrate people and profits into win-win solutions"), Julian details the experiences of two business executives who have creatively solved this problem, and shares the underlying principles they implemented. Indeed, the personal stories of business leaders form the core of the book, tied together by Julian's practical steps and discussion questions at the close of each chapter. Readers will be especially intrigued by the trials and triumphs of such well-regarded business executives as S. Truett Cathy (Chick-Fil-A), Bob O. Naegele Jr. (Rollerblade), C. William Pollard (The ServiceMaster Company) and Marilyn Carlson Nelson (Carlson Companies). Many leaders, whether newly indoctrinated to the world of business or veteran executives, will find tools for the trade in this excellent guidebook to living out one's faith in a ruthless "bottom-line" world.

Business professor Alexander Hill explores the foundational Christian concepts of holiness, justice, and love. These keys to God's character, he argues, are also the keys to Christian business etchics.
To those faced with the many questions and quandaries of doing business with integrity, Alexander Hill offers a place to begin. Hill carefully explores the foundational Christian concepts of holiness, justice and love. These keys to God's character, he argues, are also the keys to Christian business ethics. Hill then shows how some common responses to business ethics fall short of a fully Christian response. Finally he turns to penetrating case studies on such pressing topics as employer-employee relations, discrimination and affirmative action, and environmental damage. Just Business is an excellent introduction to business ethics for students and a bracing refresher for men and women already in the marketplace.

Why Manage By Proverbs?

My MBA students have long tired of chasing the management "flavor of the month." This is especially true of the more seasoned veterans who populate my employee management course. Truth be told, they've got a point. There's always been a lot of flash-in-the-pan advice out there from the board room and from academia on the "new path" to competitive advantage, but little of it is transcendent. It may work today, but what about tomorrow? Isn't there any managerial theory that is time-honored? Isn't there anything available that will add value this year, next year, and every year thereafter? There is. And it's found in the timeless wisdom of God's word. The practical Book of Proverbs, from the Old Testament canon, affords us insights into human relations that apply in any generation, in any industry, in any economy. I have attempted to tap these scriptures in an effort to construct that elusive managerial theory -- God's supernatural theory of how to be a Godly and effective manager. The book is written in user-friendly prose and filled with stories of large and small companies that have implemented Proverbs' wisdom. It also, on occasion, uses the academic literature to demonstrate that Proverbs' business directives have indeed been empirically tested three millennia after Solomon's ink dried.

The Management Methods of Jesus is loaded with insights on real-life situations managers and business people face every day. This comprehensive book covers topics such as planning and preparation, recruitment and hiring, commuication and conflict resolution, public relations and business ethics, employee satisfaction and family friendliness. All this, and more, based on principles of management practiced by the greatest manager the world has ever known.

Insight on tough business topics from the man whose organization is over two thousand years old and still expanding. The teachings of Jesus of Nazareth offer some of the wisest, most compelling advice on making a business successful and lucrative. Includes information on public relations, recruiting and hiring, communication, ethics, and more.

A book for business professionals that helps them learn how to establish and manage a successful organization through a comparison by showing how Christ dealt with everyday problems businesses face.

Crisis management with ethics
I believe that the ethical standards taught by Jesus Christ can and should permeate all areas of our lives, including our work. This book is not for the "religious." Don't be put off by the title (my original was The Business Strategies of Jesus Christ.) It is intended to help managers deal with issues quickly (which is why the chapters are arranged alphabetically - something I insisted the publishers do in all languages the book is in) because business people simply don't have the time to read 650 pages of theory to get to a point. I crammed as much help as I could into a minimum number of pages, including practical helps as well as a biblical frame of reference to guide them.

It is not a biblical exegesis on the subject of business. Others have already done that. It is geared to help those who want to treat their people right and want to make right decisions when theories won't do. If one word can describe this book, I believe it to be "practical."

In addition to English, the book is now translated into Spanish, Portuguese and in Indonesian. It has reprinted several times since its release in October 96. In my travels I'm finding that people are quietly buying it, marking it up and referring to it again and again. If it helps people, then it has accomplished its duty.
 

Melding spirituality and business seamlessly, Manz finds Jesus the best example for commercial success. He suggests that humility, serving others and unconditional love produce prosperous companies and organizations. Almost miraculously, people live up to the high expectations we have of them. As audiobook aficionados know, author readings can be anything from very professional sounding to disappointingly amateurish. This one is definitely closer to the latter. Manz, obviously reading from a script, is often hesitant as well as stilted. But it's still a heartfelt reading, unaccompanied by music or other effects.

Like the best-selling Jesus: CEO, this powerful book draws on the teachings of Christ to inspire business leaders. Unlike that book, however, The Leadership Wisdom of Jesus focuses on practical, interpersonal management skills rather than visionary leadership. Charles Manz shows managers how to motivate and empower employees every day using the wisdom of Jesus.

Book Description
BUSINESS AS A CALLING Why do we work so hard at our jobs, day after day? Why is a job well done important to us? We know there is more to a career than money and prestige, but what exactly do we mean by "fulfillment"? These are old but important questions. They belong with some newly discovered ones: Why are people in business more religious than the population as a whole? What do people of business know, and what do they do, that anchors their faith? In this ground-breaking and inspiring book, Michael Novak ties together these crucial questions by explaining the meaning of work as a vocation. Work should be more than just a job -- it should be a calling.

This book explains an important part of our lives in a new way, and readers will instantly recognize themselves in its pages. A larger proportion than ever before of the world's Christians, Jews, and other peoples of faith are spending their working lives in business. Business is a profession worthy of a person's highest ideals and aspirations, fraught with moral possibilities both of great good and of great evil. Novak takes on agonizing problems, such as downsizing, the tradeoffs that must sometimes be faced between profits and human rights, and the pitfalls of philanthropy. He also examines the daily questions of how an honest day's work contributes to the good of many people, both close at hand and far away. Our work connects us with one another. It also makes possible the universal advance out of poverty, and it is an essential prerequisite of democracy and the institutions of civil society.

This book is a spiritual feast, for everyone who wants to examine how to make a life through making a living.

Laura Nash and Scotty McLennan's guide to negotiating spiritual and economic priorities, can help corporations, churches, and seminaries tackle a difficult project. The authors' goal is to improve communication between the worlds of church and business. Much of their book, drawing on extensive research including case studies and interviews, defines the obstacles to such communication: liberal church leaders are dismissive of capitalism, conservative church leaders are overly indulgent of it, and business leaders are put off by both of these unsophisticated economic perspectives. Nash and McLennan offer questions for "Reflection" and "Action" at the end of each chapter, and they provide a few general suggestions, particularly for churches and seminaries, that might improve communication between the two worlds. The book devotes most of its energy to diagnosis, however. The prescription is yet to come. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly
According to McLennan (author of Finding Your Religion and inspiration for Doonesbury's Rev. Scott Sloan) and Nash, the church manages to support and nurture its people through birth, marriage and death; when it comes to helping Christians make sense of the day-to-day grind of the business world, however, churches are too often silent. It is vital for the future of the church, and for the well-being of Christian business-folk, that churches and parishioners find a way to talk meaningfully about the connections between faith and work. Clergy in particular will value this book, which is filled with tips to help them minister more effectively to the businesspeople in their midst. For example, the authors suggest that seminaries should offer more "exposure to the character of the businessperson," and that clergy should attend the occasional business seminar. This would have been a stronger book if the authors had restrained themselves from stuffing it with familiar but uninspired self-help suggestions for "reflection" and "action" at the end of each chapter, or cutesy mnemonics like "the four P's." It is hardly the final word on the subject; its riveting descriptions of the glaring gulch between church and business are more compelling than its attempts at bridging that gulch, making this more "wakeup call" than solution. Still, McLennan and Nash have made a valuable contribution to the growing conversation about church-life integration, and clergy especially shouldn't miss this book.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
Must business people leave their Christian values at church? While many business people have a strong and growing interest in the relationship between work and spirit, few find the church to be a resource in their explorations. How can business people live out their faith at work? And how can the church respond more effectively to business people's needs? Church on Sunday, Work on Monday takes the "spirituality at work" movement to the next level, offering practical advice on how business people can find and develop better resources within Christian communities. Nash and McLennan assess the distance between pew and pulpit, articulate how the church is turning off business and professional people, and make concrete recommendations on how church leaders and lay business people can work together in partnership to bridge the gap. They also offer practical help for business people who wish to nurture the soul, create harmony, connect with community, and perform ethically on the job. Laura Nash (Cambridge, MA) is Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Business School. Previously, she was visiting lecturer and program director on business and religion at the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at Harvard Divinity School. Scotty McLennan (Stanford, CA) is Dean for Religious Life at Stanford University. An ordained minister and a lawyer, he previously served as university chaplain at Tufts University for sixteen years and as senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School for ten years. He is also the inspiration for the freewheeling Reverend Scott Sloan, a character in Gary Trudeau's Doonesbury comic strip.

From the Publisher
"This is a very important discussion of the relation between business and religion in contemporary America. It should be required reading, especially for business people worried about the Church and Church people worried about business."--Peter L. Berger, Director, ISEC "Nash and McLennan unlock the door between Christian beliefs and the day-to-day realities of the business world. This book is must reading for Christians working in the private sector and the clergy struggling to effectively minister to them"--Sumuel Hayes, Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking-emeritus, Harvard "This book's particularly thoughtful analysis comes at a crucial time both when more business people are seeking deeper spiritual understandings and commitments and also when churches are seeking to engage the challenging problems of our communities that business people are well equipped to help resolve."--J. McDonald Williams, Chairman, Trammell Crow Company "Nash and McLennan's book is extremely useful in breaking down the walls between business and religion, and will be equally valuable to religious and business leaders alike."--Bowen H. "Buzz" McCoy, Author of award winning article "The Parable of the Sadhu" "Laura Nash and Scotty McLennan have written an outstanding book. For anyone interested in advancing spirituality in business and yet concerned that it might do more harm than good, this book is a "must read." It states the issues well and offers a way through that is a win-win for all concerned."--Oliver F. Williams, Academic Director, Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business University of Notre Dame "This book provides the reader with the logic and the tools for building a sound bridge connecting individual faith and workplace conduct"--Steven Reinemund, President & Chief Operating Officer, PepsiCo, Inc. "Manna from heaven! Nash & McLennan couple empirical evidence with personal anecdotes to articulate and analyze the nature of the divide that many people of faith find between their Sunday worship and their Monday work. This is a must-read for clergy who take their congregation's work seriously, and for lay people who take their worship seriously."--David W. Miller, President, The Avodah Institute. "This is a bold book with a clear wake-up call to businesspeople and the result is a heartening and indispensable guide for anyone making critical decisions in business today."--Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart (Wiley)