• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About Me
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer, Legal and Media Kit
  • Blog
  • Contact me

A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

  • Art
  • Blogging Helps
  • Faith
  • Homeschooling
  • Poetry
  • Recipes
  • Reviews
  • Writing
You are here: Home / Reviews / Every Job a Parable

Every Job a Parable

July 19, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Click here to go to my disclosure policy.

Pastor Van Sloten asks us this important question “Do you know how much your work matters to God?”  In the book Every Job a Parable, he works to show us how every job can showcase who God is. He shows us how every type of job matters to God and helps us to fulfillment in our careers regardless of what they are.  

every job a parable

Who is the Author and What is his purpose?

John Van Sloten pastors a church in Calgary, Alberta, who has also written The Day Metallica Came to Church.  He teaches preaching at Ambrose Seminary.  John tells that through the pages of this book “you’ll encounter God’s revelation through various vocational parables, as shared with me by the people I interviewed. You’ll learn how a firefighter’s passion is like God’s, how the nature of automotive restoration uniquely reflects the renewing mind of God, how the cultural product of the culinary arts reveals something of the hospitable heart of God, and how a geophysicist’s search for subterranean truth informs humanity’s collective search for God’s truth.”

In Every Job A Parable, Pastor Van Sloten uses one through five jobs as examples in his illustrations, showing us how Janitorial jobs show us God at work keeping creation clean, how Wal-Mart greeters showcase the hospitality we are to show to each other, and how doctors help us see how God brings all that he has into saving us.    We are shown jobs from across the spectrum: medical personnel, lawyers, flyer delivery people, hairstylists, parents, and more.   Every job that a person can do showcased the image of God in some way.  

Pastor Van Sloten does not spend the same amount of time with each position that he discusses, some are mentioned only in passing, others more in-depth.  There doesn’t seem to be any rhythm to those he spends more time with, again, his time crosses spectrums of “job importance”. Interwoven throughout the stories of people and their jobs he intersperses scripture passages. 

every job a parable

What do you get?

Four sections, divided up as follows.

What does it mean to Image God?

  • all work matters
  • imaging God with your whole being
  • learning into God’s signature moves

What is a Parable, and how is work a parable?

  • noticing God’s unnoticed presence
  • the iconic nature of vocational parables

What Does God reveal to about himself through our work?

  • God made all things
  • Sin distorts all things
  • God is saving all things
  • God will make all things new

How can we more effectively and consistently image God Through our work?

  • Stepping into the Story that is your job
  • employing the gift of gratitude
  • slowing down, opening your eyes and seeing
  • becoming a vocational mystic
  • trusting that God will use your work

Each chapter opens with a couple of quotes and ends with a series of discussion questions, along with distinctive section headers.

every job a parable

My thoughts:

I found this to be an interesting book to read, I didn’t always make the same connections in positions as the pastor did, but I found it fascinating how he pointed out what he did for each position and how it showed us God all the more.  This read is great to help people look deeper into their own jobs.  To find the God-given responsibilities and gifts from each. God finds a way to be showcased regardless of what job we hold. We should take pride in the fact that we are part of that, finding ways to be the people he has called us to be in the jobs given to us. Pastor Van Sloten’s goal is to help us see how we can better use our jobs to show God to the world around us.  Whether it’s in providing good service, helping people make connections, encouraging people to be the best they can be, how can you use the job that you are in to help people see Christ?  How can you live out Christ to the world?

every job a parable

Every Job a Parable: What Walmart greeters, nurses & astronauts tell us about God
John Van Sloten
NavPress
220 pages, softcover,
Christian living, Christianity,
Reviewed for Nuts about Books.

disclosure

Survivor Diaries: Lost!
Review: Code for Teens

Related Posts:

  • A Declarative StatementA Declarative Statement
  • Do You Love Jesus More?Do You Love Jesus More?
  • How Will You Believe In My Words?How Will You Believe In My Words?
  • Believe the Works if not the WordsBelieve the Works if not the Words
  • Pilate Questions JesusPilate Questions Jesus
  • Pilate Sought To Release HimPilate Sought To Release Him

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
Spread the love

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, Books for Adults, Christian living, christianity

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

ABOUT ME

I am centered by the love of God and family. Smiles are brought about being a Writer, Poet, Hiker and reader. Growth occurs as I educate my son, raise him up in the fear of the Lord, love up on my critters and live as a pastor’s wife.

Want to Stay Informed?

Subscribe and I’ll shoot you an email once a week.


Thank you!

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.



Recent Posts

  • Me and The World
  • Children’s Craft Books
  • Rejoice Ye Pure In Heart
  • Just Like That
  • Fix What is Not Broken

Recent Comments

  • Annette1 on Just Like That
  • Annette1 on Rejoice Ye Pure In Heart
  • Annette1 on Fix What is Not Broken
  • Lori on Rejoice Ye Pure In Heart
  • Homeschool Memes on Fix What is Not Broken

Archives

Categories

  • Art
  • Art Books
  • Blogging Helps
  • Faith
  • Homeschooling
  • Poetry
  • Recipes
  • Reviews
  • Uncategorized
  • Writing

Footer

Amazon Affiliate information

A Net in Time is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Tinker Crate Affiliate

Copyright © 2021 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time · Lifestyle Pro - Child Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in