How One Gotham Alum Confronted Culture's Expectations Surrounding Work

What do you expect from your work?

Do you see work as a curse to be endured? A way to make ends meet? A path to self-fulfillment?

It was 2018, and Roscoe Mayberry had just completed a move to Nashville earlier that spring. In the midst of learning the ropes of a new, unfamiliar role at the manufacturing company he’s been at for the last twenty years, Mayberry joined Gotham, NIFW’s faith and work leadership program, at the encouragement of a mentor. Prior to joining the program, Mayberry had been wrestling with the above questions surrounding work, faith, and his own sense of vocational futility. It was then, in Gotham, where he dove deeper into these questions that had been burdening him.

work and stewardship

Mayberry entered Gotham with a sense that his work “wasn’t needed.” In his eyes, if there was a vocational hierarchy, his corporate job at a Fortune 500 company was near the bottom. In conflict with culture’s expectations of work as the path to lasting joy, Mayberry was experiencing more frustration than fulfillment.

As a part of the Gotham curriculum, participants develop a holistic theology of work to apply to their own industry and role. “Threaded through Gotham,” says Mayberry, “was the idea that we’re still called to be stewards of our work and faithfully engage it even if it doesn’t bring this deep satisfaction that culture tells us work should bring.”

Reflecting on the expectations so many of us place upon our work, Mayberry remarks, “I think that’s a deep cultural issue that we currently have: this false notion that our work should make us happy.” For Mayberry, Gotham provided a setting for him to work through his personal questions surrounding his own vocational expectations. “My biggest paradigm shift in Gotham,” he explains, “was learning that thorns and thistles exist in every job. Ultimately, that shifted my mindset to where the discontentment I experienced in my work led me into deeper prayer with the Lord.”

“I think that’s a deep cultural issue that we currently have: this false notion that our work should make us happy.”

Over time, Mayberry explains that he learned how even difficulties at work have a redemptive purpose. As he says, “I think frustration around our work takes us deeper into prayer and into deeper reliance on God’s sovereign providence. There’s a lot that can be gained in your relationship with God through the frustrations of your work.”

While work is by no means all doom and gloom for Mayberry, he explains that the Gotham curriculum and community helped him make sense of his own experience at work. Frustration at work isn’t the mark of a second-rate worker, but a natural by-product of the fall. Holding the tension of not expecting work to be one’s ultimate fulfillment, while also seeking fulfilling work is a lifelong struggle for any Christian.

the cadence of community

Mayberry describes his work background as “blue-collar” and questioned whether his work experience would fit within the Gotham program. However, as he explains, “My cohort had more diversity in the industries represented than I expected. I found that my work experience was a good fit within the program, even as I transitioned to a more “white-collar” role.”

Corresponding with his move to Nashville, Mayberry entered Gotham in search of meaningful community. As he shares, one of the most impactful aspects of the program was the cadence of the community itself—meeting on a weekly basis with other people who were pursuing Jesus in the workplace. Says Mayberry, “Gotham really provided a good foundational bedrock as I moved to Nashville as far as establishing friendships and community.”

This accountability and consistency provided Mayberry a space to engage with important questions surrounding his spiritual and professional life. Grounded in this shared purpose, Mayberry found it was the diversity of the group that proved to be its greatest strength and the factor that impacted him the most.

“My Gotham cohort,” explains Mayberry, “had people from different backgrounds, working in different industries, from different church denominations, with different perspectives on work.” Considering the relative homogeneity of his background, Mayberry found that Gotham provided him a community of people who thought very differently from him on issues spanning from religion to politics.

“Frustration at work isn’t the mark of a second-rate worker, but a natural by-product of the fall.”

This engagement in an ideologically-diverse community allowed him to develop meaningful friendships with people who shared different beliefs. As Mayberry explains, “The community of Gotham helped me to love others across ideological and theological differences, while at the same time sharpening and refining my own worldview.”

In addition to the weekly meetings, Mayberry also references the City Saturdays around Nashville as formative experiences, learning about the criminal justice system, healthcare system, music industry, and the history of the Civil Rights movement in Nashville. As a result, pushing back against the dangers of “ideological tribalism,” as Mayberry describes it, became an even deeper passion for him within his place of work.

a daily faithfulness

Currently still employed at the same company, and working part-time at Chick-Fil-A, Mayberry is excited for what lies ahead. He is discerning next steps towards a call to clinical counseling or vocational ministry, with seminary as a possibility. “My fellow Gothamites and teachers,” Mayberry explains, “helped affirm this calling I’ve long felt since Christ captured my heart some ten years ago in the most unusual of circumstances.”

Steady faithfulness is often overlooked in a culture that prizes some work at the expense of others. In God’s economy, however, all work is a way of participating in the renewal of creation and restoring a fractured world to God’s original design. As Mayberry seeks to faithfully steward the role he’s been given, he knows that each day is a chance to do just that.

Learn more about Gotham, NIFW’s faith + work leadership program designed for Christians seeking to steward their role for God’s glory & the common good.

Learn More about Gotham