Work Well; Live Well

Nine 'til five

Work Well: Live Well - Rediscovering a Biblical View of Work
By David Westcott
Marshall Pickering. 251 pages. £8.99
ISBN 0 551 02971 4

For the evangelical Christian the daily experience of working life, whether in a factory, hospital, shop or office complex, generates a wide mixture of responsibilities, pressures, opportunities and dilemmas.
Given the scope of this challenge, and the fact that most Christians aged 18 to 60 spend much of their prime time in a workplace, it is remarkable that the working world seems to warrant a low priority in contemporary evangelical thinking, seldom featuring in our conversations and our prayer meetings. And yet the working lives of Christians constitute an unrivalled point of contact with the very world of people we are seeking to reach.
David Westcott's comprehensive and thorough book is a welcome reminder that fresh attention needs to be given to the world of work. The author is Head of Personnel at KPMG, and a qualified pastoral counsellor. His knowledge of how large companies must operate is balanced by compassion for the individual. Seeing working life as a potential source of stress, the book offers help and guidance to those providing pastoral care - full-time pastors and all Christians with a pastoral heart - for fellow Christians affected by work-related problems.
The majority of the book consists of a case-study approach to seven major issues: the motivation to work, job choice and vocation, stress, self-esteem, loss of work, women and work, and pastoral care. Each subject concludes with suggested strategies for pastoral care.
Work Well: Live Well also includes a biblical framework; historical background to the present structure of the UK working world; an analysis of evangelical attitudes to work at different periods of history; and an assessment of some modern management theories. The book will stimulate thinking as it constantly confronts readers with issues probably not previously considered.

Rod Badams
General Secretary, Christians at Work

© Evangelicals Now - December 1996
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Main Articles

• Finding faith today
  How the local fellowship is the most effective aid in people coming to faith in Christ
• Repairing the moral fabric
  How Christians can work against moral decay in society
• What is Scripture?
  Concerning the growing debate about the nature and authority of Scripture
• Widows in Luoland
  The plight of women and children in Western Kenya

Other articles

• Animal Rights and Wrongs - Extract from the book Animal Rights and Wrongs on Christianity and animal welfare
• Men, Women and Authority
• Seminal Baptists
• The Celtic Way
• Celtic Christian Spirituality
• Exploring Celtic Spirituality
• Restoring the Woven Chord - Strands of Celtic Christianity for the Church Today
• Zinger
• Blood In, Blood Out
• Complete Surrender
• The Beatitudes for Today
• How Shall They Hear?
• Work Well; Live Well
• The Message of Proverbs
• The Church - Subtly Deceived?
• Adorning the Doctrine - Westminster Conference Papers 1995