Church on Sunday, Work on Monday: The Challenge of Fusing Christian Values with Business Life

Must business people leave their Christian values at church?

While many business people have a strong and growing interest in the relationship between work and spirit, few find the church to be a resource in their explorations. How can business people live out their faith at work? And how can the church respond more effectively to business people s needs?

Church on Sunday, Work on Monday takes the "spirituality at work" movement to the next level, offering practical advice on how business people can find and develop better resources within Christian communities. Nash andMcLennan assess the distance between pew and pulpit, articulate how the church is turning off business and professional people, and make concrete recommendations on how church leaders and lay business people can work together in partnership to bridge the gap. They also offer practical help for business people who wish to nurture the soul, create harmony, connect with community, and perform ethically on the job.

Church on Sunday, Work on Monday, Laura Nash and Scotty McLennan's guide to negotiating spiritual and economic priorities, can help corporations, churches, and seminaries tackle a difficult project. The authors' goal is to improve communication between the worlds of church and business. Much of their book, drawing on extensive research including case studies and interviews, defines the obstacles to such communication: liberal church leaders are dismissive of capitalism, conservative church leaders are overly indulgent of it, and business leaders are put off by both of these unsophisticated economic perspectives. Nash and McLennan offer questions for "Reflection" and "Action" at the end of each chapter, and they provide a few general suggestions, particularly for churches and seminaries, that might improve communication between the two worlds. The book devotes most of its energy to diagnosis, however. The prescription is yet to come. --Michael Joseph Gross