Servir a Dios, El

by Ben Patterson

Why are we talking about work and worship on the same book? Both, Ben Patterson says, include our service to God. It is in our worship that we grow in our relationship with God and we become the people that he wants us to be at work.

186 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Ben Patterson is campus pastor at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He has served churches in New Jersey and California and was dean of the chapel at Hope College in Michigan before going to Westmont College. He is the author of Deepening Your Conversation with God and is a back-page columnist for Leadership Journal and a contributor to Christianity Today.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

an enjoyable read and followed the advice at the beginning of the book and took along for a kid-free weekend getaway vacation at the beach with my husband and friends. my work is at home with two small children and having been in the corporate world before having kids, it was useful and refreshing to read the perspectives of Patterson on the topic of work and worship, everyday and the Sabbath, rest and recreation...all in the light of Jesus. there were some parts that seemed overly repetitive within a chapter, but each chapter provided a unique element to his greater presentation of the thing we are all doing called work and life here on this Earth.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patterson returns us to God's real definition of work as He intended before the fall. In this context he discusses the relationship between work and worship and reminds us of the hope and freedom we have in our work as we begin to understand how to worship God in all we do.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have the greatest feelings of affection for this book. I "discovered it" one day while browsing the bookshelves of a Christian Book store in Mission Viejo, CA. The sense of excitement I felt when I found the book was greatly connected to the fact that I had been a member of the congregation where Ben Patterson had been serving as Sr. Pastor before he went on to serve as dean of the chapel at Hope College.

The fly page before the title page contains a great summary quote by Balzac for why anyone should want to read this book. "An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence."

This book also had great influence on my sense of vocation to equipping and empowering laity to see the great diversity of ways God prepares everyone of us for ministry, and informed my work as a "volunteer recruiter" while serving as chair for the human resource committee of Habitat for Humanity in Orange County, CA.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book written by former Hope College Dean of the Chapel is relevant to our attitude toward work and worship. I enjoyed it at this time in my life, having now worked for about 15 years. " It is the invisible life that gives vitality to the visible " -pg 70 He also says "There ought to be a kind of playfulness about our work...the earnest fun of children imitating their heavenly Father" -pg 121