Lesson 1: Why This Course?

For the people of God to have a significant, transformative impact on culture, they must function intentionally from a biblical worldview. They must live out the implications of biblical truth through their work Monday through Saturday, in every sector of society. But far too often, Christians separate their faith world from their work world. Why is this so, and what can be done about it? This is the main question the Monday Church course will address.

Lesson 2: A Faulty Paradigm

Why do so many Christians operate according to the unbiblical norms and practices of their surrounding culture when it comes to how they do their work? It wasn’t always this way. In this lesson, Darrow Miller looks back to a time when it was common for the Church to fully integrate a biblical worldview and work. Darrow will go on to review what happened to lead us to where we are today, where Christians often operate according to a faulty sacred-secular paradigm which views work as “secular” and largely disconnected from God and the Bible.

Lesson 3: Recovering a Biblical View of Work and Vocation

The urgent need for the Church today is to recover a comprehensive, biblical worldview that applies to all areas of life, including work and vocation. In this lesson, we’ll begin that recovery starting with our understanding of God and his purposes for mankind.

Work existed before the fall. In fact, God himself works. And because we are made in His image, we too are made to work. We were not placed by God in creation merely to consume it,  but to make something with it. We are to use our God-given abilities to make a better, more prosperous world. God has a special assignment, a calling or vocation, for each of us within His grand purpose for creation.

Lesson 4: Three Relationships - Before and After the Fall

A biblical understanding of work and vocation requires us to understand the truth that things are not as they should be. Man’s rebellion against God at the Fall impacted everything negatively, including our work. In this lesson, Scott Allen lays out the three basic relationships of man that existed before the Fall and describes how these vital relationships were broken as a result of the Fall. These broken relationships help explain why we often experience work as toil and drudgery, as a necessary evil often accompanied by interpersonal conflict. 

Lesson 5: God's Big Agenda

Thankfully, man’s rebellion against God is not the final word. “For God so loved the world” that He launched a history-encompassing plan—His big agenda—to bring comprehensive healing and restoration to everything broken though the Fall. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus are the center of this plan. The salvation He brings leads to a progressive restoration of our humanity, including our original purpose in creation—that is, to work and to use the redeemed talents and creativity He gives us to glorify God and make the world a better place. 

Lesson 6: Filling the Earth with the Knowledge of God's Glory

In this lesson, we’ll continue to explore God’s big redemptive agenda for creation by examining the important relationship between the “Cultural Commission” given by God in Genesis 1 with the Great Commission given by Jesus to His followers before His ascension. God’s plan from the very beginning was that “the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the seas” (Hab. 2:14). This purpose was thwarted though the Fall but restored though Christ. God intends that each of us steward the capital with which He has blessed us—our talents and gifts­—and to “occupy” this fallen world for God’s kingdom through our work, until He returns.

Lesson 7: Consummation

In this lesson, we turn our attention to the future, exploring how God’s grand redemptive agenda consummates. Will everything be destroyed in the coming judgment? If so, is there any real significance to the work we do today? Scott Allen will examine these questions by looking at Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds. Darrow Miller will then explore the magnificent images offered in Isaiah and Revelation to show how the best of our work on this side of Christ’s return will be refined as gifts and offerings to the King of kings. Our work here and now indeed has eternal significance! 

Lesson 8: Integrating Faith and Work

In this lesson, we’ll look at several ways the biblical worldview brings meaning and purpose to our work. We are to be ambassadors for Christ and His kingdom in our places of work. We are to study the Scriptures to develop a biblical theology that shapes our understanding of what it means to be a parent, an architect, a business person, a mechanic, or whatever vocation God has called us to.  

Lesson 9: The Gates of the City

Darrow Miller challenges us to be people who disciple our nations by “occupying the gates of the city.” We should aspire to positions of leadership and influence in order to bring biblical truth to bear on every aspect of society. All Christians are called to disciple nations through the work they do in every sphere of society. Yet, as Scott Allen points out, in a fallen world, such work is never easy or without cost. Satan will oppose us at each step. We have to be willing to count the cost, take up our cross, and persevere in the face of opposition if we want to truly be salt and light and make a transformational impact for Christ and His kingdom.

Lesson 10: Application

CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the main lessons in the Monday Church course.

In this section you will apply the teaching to your own work and have the opportunity to take a Certification Exam and study further with Vocation-Specific Lessons.

For Parents - Our Work in the Home

The most basic work most of us will do in our lifetimes is the vital work we do in the home as mothers and fathers. How does a biblical worldview shape how we think about these important roles? How does it shape our thinking about marriage, children, procreation and the rearing of children?  The health and flourishing of our nations requires strong, flourishing families. These, in turn, are a fruit of a biblical worldview applied to our work in the home

For Pastors - Equipping the Saints for Monday

Local churches are to be centers where the saints are equipped for the work of ministry. When we discard the faulty sacred-secular paradigm, we understand ministry to be the work that believers do Monday through Friday in their various vocations. In this session, Pastor Jim Mullins of Redemption Church in Tempe, Arizona provides very practical suggestions for pastors on how they can train, prepare and equip their members for the ministries to which God has called them in every sphere of society.

For Educators - Education within a Biblical Framework

Dr. Christian Overman of Worldview Matters, an expert on the intersection of education and a biblical worldview, is our guide for this session. Christian leads us on an exploration of what it means to think and function as educators within the framework of a biblical worldview, whether in the home, in public or private schools, or in the university. 

For Business People - Applying a Biblical Worldview in the Marketplace

Tim Weinhold, Director of Eventide Asset Management’s Faith and Business Initiative, provides powerful insights for what a biblically informed approach to business and commerce looks like. In this lesson, you’ll not only receive teaching on developing a biblical theology for business but ideas for practical application as well. 

Application - Explore How Your Daily Work Advances God's Kingdom

This simple yet powerful application exercise, developed by Dwight Vogt, will enable you to critically reflect on how your specific vocation connects to God’s “big agenda” of blessing, healing and restoring this broken world.

Application - Develop a Biblical Theology for Your Vocation

It has been said that the greatest single statement most people will make in their life for the cause of Christ is how they do their work. Discipling the nations require the followers of Jesus to think and act biblically in their vocational life. LifeWork: Developing a Biblical Theology of Vocation by Darrow Miller is an application resource designed to help you begin to systematically study the Scriptures for insights and principles related to your specific area of work.

Application - Discover Your Unique Calling and Design

My Place in HIStory: Discovering Your Calling by Darrow Miller is a downloadable resource that contains a set of readings and exercises designed to guide you through a thoughtful inventory of your calling, and help you discover the unique purpose for which the God of the universe has made you.