FaithWorks Lancaster | Conversations on Calling

FaithWorks Lancaster
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Semiweekly

Many Christians experience a sacred-secular divide—where faith and work feel disconnected. Faith communities have often reinforced this gap by treating work primarily as a platform for evangelism rather than as sacred calling. FaithWorks Lancaster exists to equip Christians in Lancaster County for faithful work that fosters flourishing communities. We believe all work—when done in response to God's calling—can be worship and a way we serve our neighbors. This limited series is a listening tour: We're discovering how people are already pursuing this integration in their daily vocations.

Episodes

  1. Sep 23

    011 | Can You Defend Your Faith at Work? ft. Mark Farnham

    Can you share—and defend—your faith at work without being pushy, preachy, or landing in HR?Josh and Eric sit down with Dr. Mark Farnham, professor of apologetics at Lancaster Bible College, founder of Apologetics for the Church and author of Every Believer Confident. Together, they explore why doing your job well is your first line of witness, how simple worldview questions can open meaningful spiritual conversations, and why you don’t need to “close the deal” for an interaction to count.Whether you’re a manager, a machinist, or simply trying to be faithful in your next meeting, this conversation offers practical guidance for representing Christ with confidence, wisdom, and genuine care.

  2. Sep 9

    010 | Not Just a Job: Bringing Faith Into Everyday Work ft. Jess Gehman

    What does it look like to live out your faith in a professional environment without being awkward, forced, or performative?Commercial banker and community leader Jess Gehman joins Josh and Eric to discuss how faith shapes the way she builds relationships, serves clients, navigates difficult conversations, and approaches her work in banking. Jess shares how the example of faithful coworkers influenced her, why our everyday jobs can be part of our calling, and how churches and Christian communities can better prepare people to connect Sunday worship with Monday work.Along the way, the conversation explores purpose, stewardship, community, small-business banking—and why sharing your faith might be a little like sharing a really good cake.Whether you work in banking, education, business, ministry, or somewhere else entirely, this conversation is an encouragement to see your work as more than just a job.--Subscribe for weekly episodes on leadership, purpose, and professional growth.Join the Community: faithworkslanc.orgFollow on Socials: @faithworksLanc ​

  3. Aug 26

    009 | AI, Work, and the Fight to Stay Human

    In this episode of FaithWorks Lancaster: Conversations on Calling, Josh and Eric explore what it means to stay human — and Christian — at work in the age of artificial intelligence.Using David Brooks’ essay on three types of AI users as a starting point, they discuss the “productive passenger,” the “reluctant optimizer,” and the “mental marathoner.” Along the way, they ask what may be lost when AI makes work easier, why effort and attention still matter, and how Christian vocation reframes the conversation around productivity.The episode lands on a deeper question: if AI can produce, summarize, and assist, what can it not do? Brooks suggests that AI cannot hunger — it has no structure of cares, no order of loves, and no vocation. Josh and Eric connect that insight to worship, Sabbath, work as an offering, and the ordinary choices that shape our loves at the desk on Monday morning.If you are trying to use AI wisely without outsourcing your attention, your calling, or your humanity, this conversation is for you.

  4. Aug 12

    008 | Why Work? ft. Dorothy Sayers

    In 1942, with bombs still falling on London, a bestselling detective novelist stood up and told the Church it had gotten work almost entirely wrong.Her name was Dorothy Sayers. She wasn't a theologian — she paid the bills writing murder mysteries and translated Dante for fun. But in her essay "Why Work?" she made a claim that still stings: most of us, and most of our churches, treat our jobs as the part of life where God isn't paying attention.This week on FaithWorks Lancaster, Josh and Eric do something different. Instead of a living guest, they invite a guest from the past into the room and put four honest questions to her essay — then let an 80-year-old argument talk back to the way we work now.--Subscribe for weekly episodes on leadership, purpose, and professional growth.Join the Community: faithworkslanc.orgFollow on Socials: @faithworksLanc ​

  5. Jul 29

    007 | A Software Company Accidentally Wrote a Theology of Work

    A software company sat down to figure out how to ship better products — and accidentally wrote a theology of work. In this episode, Josh and Eric step away from interviews for an unscripted experiment: bringing a biblical imagination to bear on *Shape Up*, the product-development methodology from 37signals that quietly reshaped how they lead teams and do their daily work.Using the story of Daniel in Babylon as a frame — accept, resist, infuse — they dig into why "how much time is this worth?" beats "how long will this take?", how appetite and the circuit breaker confront our arrogance and covetousness, why cool-downs look a lot like Sabbath, and what honest project tracking has to do with not bearing false witness. It's common grace, finitude, and getting real work done — all in one conversation.--Subscribe for weekly episodes on leadership, purpose, and professional growth.Join the Community: faithworkslanc.orgFollow on Socials: @faithworksLanc ​

  6. Jul 15

    006 | Faith and Work: Creating a Culture that Sticks ft. Chris McNamara

    What does it actually look like to live out your faith at work — not just "be nice" or drop a Bible verse at the water cooler, but genuinely shape the culture around you?In this episode of FaithWorks Lancaster: Conversations on Calling, Josh and Eric sit down with Chris McNamara, Director of People & Culture at Lancaster Bible College. Chris's path to HR wound through an ice cream parlor, real estate, motherhood, ministry, and nonprofit leadership — and along the way she learned that faith and work were never meant to be two separate compartments.Whether you're in HR or just trying to reflect Christ in the next meeting, email, or spreadsheet you open, this conversation is a practical, encouraging reminder that your ordinary labor is extraordinary participation in God's redemptive work.--Subscribe for weekly episodes on leadership, purpose, and professional growth.Join the Community: faithworkslanc.orgFollow on Socials: @faithworksLanc ​

  7. Jul 1

    005 | Does Your Work the Other Six Days Matter to God? ft Terry Timm

    Does your work actually matter to God? In this episode of FaithWorks: Conversations on Calling, hosts Eric Brandt and Josh Swartz sit down with pastor, author, and leadership coach Terry Timm to tear down the false divide between Sunday worship and Monday work.We dig into a theology of everyday work, what "pastoring for Monday" really looks like, how to lead faithfully in pluralistic workplaces, the surprising link between liturgy and your 9-to-5, and the one shift that can change how you see your job for good.Terry Timm is the author of *A Movable Feast: Worship for the Other Six Days*, lead pastor of Christ Community Church of the South Hills in Pittsburgh, and a vocational coach who helps people live out their calling in every sphere of life. Learn more at terrytimm.com.--Subscribe for weekly episodes on leadership, purpose, and professional growth.Join the Community: faithworkslanc.orgFollow on Socials: @faithworksLanc ​

  8. Jun 17

    004 | Faith That Shows Up at Work

    What would it look like if your faith actually showed up at work — not just on Sunday, but every single day?In this episode of FaithWorks Lancaster: Conversations on Calling, Josh and Eric sit down with theologian and author Dr. James Spencer to explore why so many sincere Christians live with a faith that's fully engaged on Sunday and effectively absent by Monday morning. James brings his Thinking Christian framework to the conversation — a four-part approach to recognizing God's reality, developing a theological disposition, committing to theologic, and engaging in disciplined inquiry — and shows how it hits the ground in ordinary work life.--Subscribe for weekly episodes on leadership, purpose, and professional growth.Join the Community: faithworkslanc.orgFollow on Socials: @faithworksLanc ​

  9. Jun 3

    003 | Finding Significance at Work

    Every year, Gallup runs studies on job satisfaction — and every year, the results are worse. People feel stuck, unfulfilled, and disconnected from any deeper purpose in their work. But what if the problem isn't the job? What if it's the paradigm? In this episode of FaithWorks Lancaster: Conversations on Calling, we sit down with Pastor John Pletcher — lead pastor of Manor Church in Lancaster, PA, author of Henry's Glory, and a longtime voice in the faith and work movement — to talk about what it actually looks like to find lasting significance in your daily work. John shares the personal story that sparked his passion for this topic: a father who loved Jesus deeply and was gifted at working on cars, but who could never see those two things as connected. That painful compartmentalization — what John calls "pie life" — is at the heart of why so many believers feel a nagging sense that their work doesn't really matter. We dig into the Hebrew roots of the word for "work" in Genesis, what it means that Jesus spent 30 years as a tektone before his public ministry, the difference between satisfaction (something you seek) and significance (something you uncover), and why Eugene Peterson called the workplace "the primary realm for spiritual formation." Whether you're turning wrenches, teaching students, or managing spreadsheets — this conversation is for you. Subscribe for weekly episodes on leadership, purpose, and professional growth.Join the Community: faithworkslanc.orgFollow on Socials: @faithworksLanc ​

  10. May 20

    002 | Two Journeys, One Question — Does Faith Change Your Work?

    What got two guys who think way too much about faith and work to actually start a podcast about it? In Episode 2, Josh and Eric pull back the curtain on their own journeys — how they got here, why they care, and what they're still figuring out.Josh shares how his path through pastoral ministry, a "gas station sabbatical," and landing in educational technology at Lancaster Bible College shaped the way he sees his work as an act of creation — "bringing order out of the chaos." Eric traces his own journey from Dorothy Sayers and Tim Challies to Matt Perman, and how stepping into leadership made faith and work integration feel urgent and personal. Together, they dig into the Sunday-to-Monday gap, what it really means to work as image bearers, and why "doing the right things" is only half the equation — the how matters just as much as the what.--Subscribe for weekly episodes on leadership, purpose, and professional growth.Join the Community: faithworkslanc.orgFollow on Socials: @faithworksLanc ​

  11. May 5

    001 | Why FaithWorks Lancaster Exists

    Is your work just a means to an end, or is it something more? Most people spend 40+ hours a week waiting for the weekend, feeling like their professional labor has no connection to their deeper purpose. It’s time to close that gap.In this inaugural episode of FaithWorks, we go beyond the surface level of "career advice" to explore the theology and philosophy of work. We tackle the "sacred-secular divide" that leaves so many professionals feeling unfulfilled and explain why the work you do with your hands and mind is a vital form of worship to God-- Subscribe for weekly episodes on leadership, purpose, and professional growth.oin the Community: faithworkslanc.orgFollow on Socials:  ⁨@faithworksLanc⁩

  • 11 Episodes

About

Many Christians experience a sacred-secular divide—where faith and work feel disconnected. Faith communities have often reinforced this gap by treating work primarily as a platform for evangelism rather than as sacred calling. FaithWorks Lancaster exists to equip Christians in Lancaster County for faithful work that fosters flourishing communities. We believe all work—when done in response to God's calling—can be worship and a way we serve our neighbors. This limited series is a listening tour: We're discovering how people are already pursuing this integration in their daily vocations.

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