The certainty, longevity, and predictability workers once felt no longer exist as technological advances, the economy, and shifting social and economic realities contribute to an unsettling and unpredictable experience. How might Christians engage these changing dynamics? In what ways do gender, race, social location, and the American work ethic affect our career path and development? This pathway discusses ways Christians might engage the changing landscape of work with greater compassion, curiosity, and imagination.

Hosted by Ben Ries and Vic McCracken, this pathway took place in ACU’s Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building on Tuesday, September 17, 2019.

Sessions

When Your Job Harms Your Soul: The Broken Spiritual Promise of the American Work Ethic (Jonathan Malesic)

In pursuing our calling through work, we often overwork, leading to exhaustion and despair. This session discusses the ways that a spirituality of labor and leisure can help us put work in its place.

“Having It All” and Other Lies: Competing Narratives of Work, Identity, and Motherhood (Courtney Hernandez)

Articulating our vocational calling is a vital step in aligning our work, relationships, and faith with God’s purpose. But often we may feel the many hats we wear – as student, parent, or leader – are in competition for our vocational calling. Explore how reframing our vocational narratives adds richness and diversity to our lives.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Walking and Working the Path for Which We Were Fashioned (Jarie Bradley)

Explore the assurance Psalm 139 provides us in finding our purpose and the “WorkPath” God created for us, juxtaposed with systemic barriers. We also examine the intersectionality of race, gender, class and religion.

Treasures Hidden in the Workplace: Experiencing God's Kingdom from the Boardroom to the Broom Closet (Ben Ries)

Few things take up more time, energy, and emotional resources than our work. It provides income, a sense of fulfillment, and can contribute to human flourishing. However, it also can be mundane and, at times, a soul-wrenching grind. God longs for us to flourish in our workplace.

Reflections on Faith and the Future of Work (Pathway Presenters)

This panel discussion was not recorded.

Speakers

JARIE BRADLEY

A proud Dallasite, Jarie Bradley began fighting poverty with CitySquare in 2009. Jarie is an advocate for racial equity who believes that HR leaders play a critical role in the fight for social justice. Jarie was also recognized as a 2010 Exxon Mobil Community Champion for her service to the community and the non-profit sector. Jarie is an adjunct professor at El Centro College’s Conflict Management Center, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and an active mentor for young girls and women.

COURTNEY HERNANDEZ

Courtney Hernandez is a doctoral student in ACU’s Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership program and a member of the Center for Vocational Development Fellows program. She has nearly a decade’s worth experience in educational advising, working with students of all ages in a variety of public, private, and parochial schools. Courtney current resides in Dallas, where she enjoys trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to keep her house plants alive, watching baseball with her husband Ben, and singing “Baby Shark” with her daughter Isla.

JONATHAN MALESIC

Jonathan Malesic is a writer, teacher, and public intellectual who focuses on the intersections of work, religion, and education. His writing on work has appeared in The New Republic, Washington Post, Chronicle of Higher Education, Hedgehog Review, America, Commonweal, and elsewhere. Jonathan teaches first-year writing at Southern Methodist University, and he is currently writing a book on burnout. He and his wife live in Dallas.

VIC McCRACKEN

Vic McCracken is associate professor of ethics and theology at Abilene Christian University, where has served on faculty since 2008. When Vic is not teaching ACU undergraduates how to think about ethics he is probably working with local students in the afterschool scholastic chess program he has run for 10 years. He and his wife Tara have three children, Theo (age 20), Naomi (age 17), and Gabriel (age 15).

BEN RIES

Ben Ries is the associate dean for vocational formation and director of the Center for Vocational Formation at Abilene Christian University’s Dallas campus. With over 18 years of ministry experience in the Pacific Northwest, Ben’s work focuses on helping working professionals experience their work as meaningful and connected to the life and mission of God. He and his wife Jen live in Dallas with their three children, Emma, Aiden and Izzy.