The chasm between work and worship has a devastating effect on the health, vibrancy, and effectiveness of both our labor and our liturgy.

Drawing on years of research, ministry, and leadership experience, Kaemingk and Willson explain why Sunday morning worship and Monday morning work desperately need to inform and impact one another. Together they engage in a rich biblical, theological, and historical exploration of the deep and life-giving connections between labor and liturgy. In so doing, they offer new ways in which Christian communities can live seamless lives of both work and worship.

Work and Worship will be a valuable resource for professors and students in courses on vocation, work, calling, worship, and practical theology. It will also appeal to pastors and worship leaders as well as marketplace ministry leaders who want to enact Christian practices in the workplace.

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Designing Worship Services That Speak to Our Daily Work Lives

People spend approximately one third of their lives at work. Whether paid or volunteer, blue collar or white collar, workers experience tremendous joys and significant challenges in their daily work. It should be no surprise that their spiritual questions, frustrations, and longings are often directly connected to their various careers and callings. But when they gather for corporate worship, services rarely acknowledge or mention their working lives.

In Leading Worship for Workers, two innovators in the global faith and work movement encourage church leaders to think critically about the congregations they serve.

This comprehensive resource offers pastors, worship leaders, and ministry teams an array of creative ideas and practical methods to help them craft worship services that speak directly to workers and the realities they face throughout the week.

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Here, finally, is the book that will take the ‘faith and work’ conversation to new depths of intentionality. With theological clarity and real-world accountability, Kaemingk and Willson mend what we have rent asunder. .. This should become a standard textbook, for the sake of the church and for the sake of the world.

James K. A. Smith / Calvin University; author of Desiring the Kingdom, You Are What You Love, and On the Road with Saint Augustine

Kaemingk and Willson make an inspired contribution to the underdeveloped connection between work and worship in Christian life… This book is well-reasoned and well-researched. It is a gift to the people of God.

Constance M. Cherry / Professor of Worship and Pastoral Ministry, Indiana Wesleyan University; author of The Worship Architect

We are disposed to dualism, and there is no place where this problem has more meaning than in the integral relationship of worship to work. This duality tragically affects the integrity of the church in every city and every culture…With unusually rich biblical and theological insight, Work and Worship is a gift to the church.

Steven Garber / Senior Dellow for Vocation and the Common Good, M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust; author of The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work

Matthew Kaemingk and Cory Willson argue quite persuasively and winsomely how work and worship were meant to be seamlessly coupled, with our work informing our worship and our worship informing our work…It is my earnest prayer that this book finally reunites and binds together—forever—these two vital segments of our lives.

Luke Bobo / Director of Strategic Partnerships, Made to Flourish

This book… is ideal for any believer who longs for deeper connections between worship and daily life, and for any pastor or worship leader who shapes public worship. It is a book that promises to spark generative ideas and to prompt deeper engagement with public prayer, preaching, and other central practices of worship.

John D. Witvliet / Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary

This book is for bridge builders who desire to put into practice what it can mean to live a fully integrated life. There is so much truth in this book that it made my heart ache for our current reality and, at the same time, soar with hope for what could be by simply understanding that the church can provide so much more for its community of laborers.

Julie Chung / Connections Minister, Saddleback Church

Work and Worship is a gift to the whole Christian community—drawing from diverse traditions for the faithful within each congregation who are aching to hear a good word about their work.

Laura Kelly Fanucci / Author of To Bless Our Callings: Prayers, Poems, and Hymns to Celebrate Vocation

This is a reconciliatory vision for Christian leaders and laypeople who wonder how worship on Sunday and work on Monday are interconnected. The range of materials here—both biblical and historical—lay deep foundations that I want to see my students engage as they move from their classrooms to worship to the table and then out into their wider vocations.

Bruce Benedict / Chaplain of Worship Arts, Hope College Campus Ministries

Nothing is more important for the local church today than to reconnect our Sunday services with our work on Monday so our whole lives can be an act of worship. This wise, accessible, and learned book is a magnificent gift to all who seek insight—theological and practical—on how to do that well. I’ll be recommending this book for years to come.

Greg Forster / Director, Oikonomia Network