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Working from the Inside Out: A Brief Guide to Inner Work That Transforms Our Outer World
Many today are experiencing social isolation, deep anxieties about the future, and various difficulties in the workplace. For too many of us, work seems tedious, painful, or meaningless. And we don't know what to do about it.
Working from the Inside Out pulls back the veil on the deep emotional and vocational challenges faced by the majority of workers and shows how work can become a way to love God, serve our neighbors, and demonstrate the gospel to the world. Bringing together emotional, relational, vocational, intellectual, and civic health through the seamless thread of vocation, Jeff Haanen offers a way out of the disintegration of our culture and toward a reintegrated life lived in response to God's voice.
The inner work of transformation leads to external transformation of our relationships and our work, and that good work influences our cities and the culture around us. Living from the inside out can change our work and heal our world.
Working from the Inside Out pulls back the veil on the deep emotional and vocational challenges faced by the majority of workers and shows how work can become a way to love God, serve our neighbors, and demonstrate the gospel to the world. Bringing together emotional, relational, vocational, intellectual, and civic health through the seamless thread of vocation, Jeff Haanen offers a way out of the disintegration of our culture and toward a reintegrated life lived in response to God's voice.
The inner work of transformation leads to external transformation of our relationships and our work, and that good work influences our cities and the culture around us. Living from the inside out can change our work and heal our world.
152 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 12, 2023
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14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 16, 2023
Summary: In a disintegrating world, outlines how five dimensions of inner transfornation can, in turn, transform our outer world of work and our life in society.
It is hard to read a book in recent year that doesn’t speak to personal struggles with despair, the divisions of our public lives, and the fragmentation and disintegration so many of us feel. Work often feels that way. We are urged to “bring our best selves” to our work. But how is that even possible? Jeff Haanan, who founded the Denver Institute for Faith and Work believes that a faith that transforms us from the inside out offers hope for the reintegration of our work life and life in society.
He believes transformation is grounded in five principles:
1. Seek deep spiritual health: Haanan invites us to become self-aware, to understand the desires that motivate us, and to cultivate consistently the spiritual practices that nourish our delight in God.
2. Think theologically: He treats theology as the story that frames our lives and appeals for a commitment to taking time to think well and clearly, no matter what job we are in.
3. Embrace relationships: Healthy relationships involve the ability to differentiate while staying connected. We can grow relationally through feedback like 360 reviews. In our Zoom age, Haanan stresses the importance of face to face meetings and paying attention to each other.
4. Create good work: Good work recognizes that we long to create as those in the image of the Creator, stewards gifts well, including workplace conflict, and practices sabbath, setting limits on our work.
5. Serve others sacrificially: Reconciling all things including redemption with God, our lives, our relationships, our systems and structures, and our created world.
Haanan devotes a chapter of the book to each principle, illustrating each with workplace stories.
The final chapters develop how this plays out in work and life. Haanan explores how change happens and how the various factors of suffering, community, feedback, and our spiritual disciplines all work together. He tackles the subject of translating faith into the workplace, and how the life of love weaves through and requires the five principles.
One of the things I like the most of the book is the sidebars on professional versus working class perspective. So often, this is lacking in faith-at-work discussions. For example, early in the book he contrasts the workplace identity that is so important in the professional class with the communal identity focusing on family among working class, who view a focus on workplace identity as narcissism. He also draws on the work of Tracy Matthews who founded Attune with its focus on both self-understanding and spiritually attuned workteams. Having gone through Attune training this spring with Matthews, I would affirm the value of this work in pursuing shared spiritual health in teams. Even good teams can get better.
The subtitle of this book, “a brief guide to inner work that transforms our outer world” is so accurate in summarizing this book. Haanan offers a brief and memorable rubric that business leaders can use in their personal contexts. The numerous stories show the connection of inner and outer in practice and how the life that integrates faith and one’s daily work is possible, even in our fragmented, divisive world.
________________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
It is hard to read a book in recent year that doesn’t speak to personal struggles with despair, the divisions of our public lives, and the fragmentation and disintegration so many of us feel. Work often feels that way. We are urged to “bring our best selves” to our work. But how is that even possible? Jeff Haanan, who founded the Denver Institute for Faith and Work believes that a faith that transforms us from the inside out offers hope for the reintegration of our work life and life in society.
He believes transformation is grounded in five principles:
1. Seek deep spiritual health: Haanan invites us to become self-aware, to understand the desires that motivate us, and to cultivate consistently the spiritual practices that nourish our delight in God.
2. Think theologically: He treats theology as the story that frames our lives and appeals for a commitment to taking time to think well and clearly, no matter what job we are in.
3. Embrace relationships: Healthy relationships involve the ability to differentiate while staying connected. We can grow relationally through feedback like 360 reviews. In our Zoom age, Haanan stresses the importance of face to face meetings and paying attention to each other.
4. Create good work: Good work recognizes that we long to create as those in the image of the Creator, stewards gifts well, including workplace conflict, and practices sabbath, setting limits on our work.
5. Serve others sacrificially: Reconciling all things including redemption with God, our lives, our relationships, our systems and structures, and our created world.
Haanan devotes a chapter of the book to each principle, illustrating each with workplace stories.
The final chapters develop how this plays out in work and life. Haanan explores how change happens and how the various factors of suffering, community, feedback, and our spiritual disciplines all work together. He tackles the subject of translating faith into the workplace, and how the life of love weaves through and requires the five principles.
One of the things I like the most of the book is the sidebars on professional versus working class perspective. So often, this is lacking in faith-at-work discussions. For example, early in the book he contrasts the workplace identity that is so important in the professional class with the communal identity focusing on family among working class, who view a focus on workplace identity as narcissism. He also draws on the work of Tracy Matthews who founded Attune with its focus on both self-understanding and spiritually attuned workteams. Having gone through Attune training this spring with Matthews, I would affirm the value of this work in pursuing shared spiritual health in teams. Even good teams can get better.
The subtitle of this book, “a brief guide to inner work that transforms our outer world” is so accurate in summarizing this book. Haanan offers a brief and memorable rubric that business leaders can use in their personal contexts. The numerous stories show the connection of inner and outer in practice and how the life that integrates faith and one’s daily work is possible, even in our fragmented, divisive world.
________________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.
October 8, 2023
I have started reading more books about work and vocation recently, and this one stands out as a particularly thoughtful and practical one. Jeff Haanen encourages Christians to recognize the importance of their secular jobs, rather than feeling that their work is second-class to vocational ministry, and he explores different struggles that people often experience with work. He includes current data and social reflections related to workers' changing expectations and attitudes after the pandemic, and he writes about different social issues that affect people's experiences with work, acknowledging that many people suffer under deeply broken and unjust working conditions.
After Haanen explores age-old and current frustrations and challenges with work, he then moves into exhortation, highlighting key ways that Christians can improve their working lives. He never suggests that an attitude shift is enough to fix the brokenness of modern life, but he shows how people can better engage with vocational work by digging into important inner work. Different chapters focus on pursuing true spiritual health, viewing work theologically, cultivating relationships inside and outside of work, creating good work, and using jobs as an opportunity to serve and bless others. The final part of the book shares additional ideas for how to implement these ideas in real life and pursue genuine, lasting change. There is also a thoughtful chapter about ways to navigate expressing your faith in different types of secular job environments.
Haanen also shares a variety of stories from people in all kinds of different jobs, showing how they have seen restoration and blessing in their vocational lives. In all of this, he emphasizes that good work serves others and makes the world a better place, regardless of how spiritual or glamorous a particular job appears. All throughout the book, Haanen shares insights and practical applications for people in a variety of different situations and job roles, from rank-and-file employees to people in leadership positions, and he strikes a good balance between warning against idolatry and despair. He encourages people who feel a sense of frustration and futility in their work without making light of their difficulties, and he also warns others against investing their entire identities in their jobs.
I sometimes felt that this book skimmed over a broad surface without going deep enough, since the author was covering so many topics and themes in a fairly short book, but I like how he kept things relatable to such a broad audience. He also includes occasional reflections on professional versus working class perspectives, and he mentions in the acknowledgements that his next book will focus on working class laborers. I appreciate this a lot, since most books about work only address office jobs.
Working from the Inside Out is a great book for Christians who want to think more deeply about their jobs, whether they are the CEO of a company or are working their first job out of college. This book is great for personal reflection and group processing, and it could be a great discipleship book for church groups, especially since it covers so many different experiences and themes. Even though this book sometimes sacrifices depth for breadth and brevity, it is a nuanced, practical, and encouraging guide to a variety of important issues.
I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
After Haanen explores age-old and current frustrations and challenges with work, he then moves into exhortation, highlighting key ways that Christians can improve their working lives. He never suggests that an attitude shift is enough to fix the brokenness of modern life, but he shows how people can better engage with vocational work by digging into important inner work. Different chapters focus on pursuing true spiritual health, viewing work theologically, cultivating relationships inside and outside of work, creating good work, and using jobs as an opportunity to serve and bless others. The final part of the book shares additional ideas for how to implement these ideas in real life and pursue genuine, lasting change. There is also a thoughtful chapter about ways to navigate expressing your faith in different types of secular job environments.
Haanen also shares a variety of stories from people in all kinds of different jobs, showing how they have seen restoration and blessing in their vocational lives. In all of this, he emphasizes that good work serves others and makes the world a better place, regardless of how spiritual or glamorous a particular job appears. All throughout the book, Haanen shares insights and practical applications for people in a variety of different situations and job roles, from rank-and-file employees to people in leadership positions, and he strikes a good balance between warning against idolatry and despair. He encourages people who feel a sense of frustration and futility in their work without making light of their difficulties, and he also warns others against investing their entire identities in their jobs.
I sometimes felt that this book skimmed over a broad surface without going deep enough, since the author was covering so many topics and themes in a fairly short book, but I like how he kept things relatable to such a broad audience. He also includes occasional reflections on professional versus working class perspectives, and he mentions in the acknowledgements that his next book will focus on working class laborers. I appreciate this a lot, since most books about work only address office jobs.
Working from the Inside Out is a great book for Christians who want to think more deeply about their jobs, whether they are the CEO of a company or are working their first job out of college. This book is great for personal reflection and group processing, and it could be a great discipleship book for church groups, especially since it covers so many different experiences and themes. Even though this book sometimes sacrifices depth for breadth and brevity, it is a nuanced, practical, and encouraging guide to a variety of important issues.
I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
December 22, 2024
Relationship with work is dirupted by the demands of employeers and our personal ideals of success leading people to feel “stress without knowing why” hoping to cover it with a “thin veil of entertainment and wealth” (9). Haanen think the most important thing that can come from work is not impact or success “or even a way to adavance the gospel in the world—it’s about who we’re becoming in the process of our working lives.” (13) The virtue ethics appraoch ultimately fulfills the Jesus’ Great Commandment to love God and others (14). Haanen recommends working on interior life via seeking deep spiritual health and thinking theologically, leading to an exterior life of embracing relationships and creating good work, which leads to serving others sacrifically in our civic life (133).
One of the greatest stregths of this book is Haanen’s reference to working and professional class lifestyles and values. While most Christian books are written for white-collar business men, emphasis on white and men, Haanen’s truely does feel like a book for everyone. He refuses to shame anyone for the work they participate in, even using a janitor as an icon for faithful excellence.
The book’s simplicity lies in the five values listed above, easily implemented in thought but maybe not in practice. I will be recomending this book to my graduting college students within my fellowship and anyone struggling to integrate their faith and field of work.
One of the greatest stregths of this book is Haanen’s reference to working and professional class lifestyles and values. While most Christian books are written for white-collar business men, emphasis on white and men, Haanen’s truely does feel like a book for everyone. He refuses to shame anyone for the work they participate in, even using a janitor as an icon for faithful excellence.
The book’s simplicity lies in the five values listed above, easily implemented in thought but maybe not in practice. I will be recomending this book to my graduting college students within my fellowship and anyone struggling to integrate their faith and field of work.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews