The Kingdom of God in Working Clothes
The Marketplace and the Reign of God
Foreword by Tom Nelson
Imprint: Cascade Books
Work occupies most of our waking time, whether it is in a factory, office, school, or at home. But unfortunately most people of faith separate their working life from their worshipping life. Dualism is a pernicious heresy that has infected believers worldwide, namely, that church work and missionary service are holy and our everyday work is secular. In this timely volume Stevens explores the connection of the kingdom of God--the master thought of Jesus--with the marketplace. Traditionally people have either related the kingdom of God--God's new world coming--either exclusively for the present or only for the distant future. But it is both, now and coming. This gives meaning, hope, and endurance to our work in the world. So daily labor in the marketplace gets reoriented through salty values and ingrained virtues. We become double agent spies exploring the new world coming in everyday life. We can also grapple helpfully with the resistance we face daily in the workplace. There are many books on the kingdom of God and many on work. Few have brought these two vital arenas of everyday service together. It is indeed part of the good news.
R. Paul Stevens is Professor Emeritus of Marketplace Theology at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Chairman of the Institute for Marketplace Transformation. He has authored many books including Seven Days of Faith, Work Matters, Doing God’s Business, and The Other Six Days. He has worked as a pastor, a student counsellor, a businessperson, a carpenter, and a professor. He lives in Vancouver, BC with his wife, Gail, their three married children, eight grandchildren, and two great grandsons.
“If the alarmingly challenged church in the Western world would imbibe the wisdom of this book, with its deeply biblical and engagingly practical articulation of the kingdom or reign of God, a renewed church could be birthed. This could well be Paul Stevens’s most foundational and challenging book. It may well become a manifesto for a new Reformation.”
—Charles Ringma, Regent College, emeritus
“This book is the result of a lifelong reflection and faithful journey to serve God ‘full-time’ in his kingdom. . . . Paul offers a kingdom perspective for the flourishing of the church, businesses, and Christian organizations. The church is the outcropping of the kingdom, business is a mission field, and the teachings of the Beatitudes are as relevant for the church as they are for business.”
—Clive Lim, Regent College
“A kingdom view is essential for all Christians who strive to live faithfully in Christ. The Kingdom in Working Clothes gives a rich perspective of the scope of the reign of God and the place of the marketplace Christian within. It challenges us not only to live out kingdom values but to properly see the church missionally as a community of kingdom people. A must-read for all.”
—Jean Lee, China Graduate School of Theology
“Paul is no doubt a pioneer in faith and work. This book has integrated the various dimensions of faith and work with the kingdom perspective, articulating the very presence of our King in the work, worker, and workplace. A must-read for everyone who wants to make sense of everyday work and how that may advance the kingdom.”
—Natalie Chan, Bethel Bible Seminary
“The kingdom of God is the grand story from the beginning to the end. This book is leading us to reconnect our stories in the current marketplace to the grand story by integrating our faith and work. We, in all parts of the business and industries, realize that we have been already working in the kingdom, should be inspired to be working for the kingdom investment, and are supposed to be working as the embodied kingdom.”
—Andre Chen, global CEO, Denham Jeans
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