Marketplace Ministry & Vocation for Chinese Bible Church of Greater Boston by Andrew Sears

transcript

Marketplace Ministry

andrew@techmission.org

Esther 4:12-14“When Esther’s words were reported to

Mordecai, he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

Human Vocation:

Co-Creators

Human, Christian & Personal Vocation

- Frederick Buechner

Four Questions of Personal Vocation

Calling

What are you good at?

Does the world need?What do you enjoy?

Will the world pay?

Internal Motivation(deep gladness)

External Motivation(world’s deep hunger)

Status

Meaning

Status without Meaning• Empty success• Corporate drone

Meaning without Status• Financially unsustainable• Starving volunteer

Internal • Underemployed• Starving artist

External Motivation• Burnout• Joyless worker

Dimensions of Christian Vocation

From The Other Six Days. R. Paul Stevens

Barriers to True Vocation1. Debt vs. Frugal Freedom2. Mother Theresa vs. You3. Fallacy of ministry vs. secular career4. Respectibility vs. Following Jesus5. Too Busy vs. Leveraged Service6. Passive Guilt vs. Active Priority

Steps to Increase Meaning in Vocation

1. Expose yourself to the world’s deep need2. Get in touch with your heart’s passion3. Make your top priority finding your

calling (aligning your life with God’s will)4. Sacrifice

We are all royalty like Esther and were made for “such a time as this.”

1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

Growth of Productivity: 1 person in 1800 does the work of 2.67 people from 1300

Today: 1 person today does work of 80 people from 1300

Genius in the Information Economy

“A great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average lathe operator, but a great writer of software code is worth 10,000 times the price of an average software writer." – Bill Gates

X 10,000 = 800,000

Does Technology Hurt or Help the Poor?

95% of economic growth since 2009 went to the top 1%

Education CrisisOnly 50.2% of Black high schoolers

graduate compared to 73.4% nationally◦ 72% Black men not graduating high school

are unemployed◦ 60% of black men not graduating high school

spend time in prison by their mid-30’sOnly 30% of low-income Black and

Latino students go on to college compared to 78% of high-income White students.

Only 6.7% of people globally have college degrees compared to 40% in the USA

Our Mission

Our Values are Jesus, Justice and Technology.

Our Mission is to empower others to transform at-risk communities in Jesus’ name through technology

Technology

Under Resourced Communiti

es(Justice)

ChristianSocial

Services(Jesus)

Jesus the First Techie: Tektōn

Questions for Discussion1. Do you think there’s a difference between sacred work

and secular work? Do you view your work as ministry? What might cause you to not view your work as ministry that is sacred?

2. Have you integrated your personal faith with the occupation your career? What would you do differently if you viewed ministry as a 24 hour/7 days a week activity?

3. Which of the imbalances of calling have you most experienced in your vocation? What ideas do you have for restoring balance in your vocation?

4. What are the barriers to achieving more balance in your vocation? What steps do you think you need to take?

Marketplace Ministry & Vocation for Chinese Bible Church of Greater Boston by Andrew Sears

Spiritual