Our VISION:
What would it look like for you to engage your daily work with a greater sense of purpose in light of the gospel?
The Nashville Institute for Faith and Work (NIFW) is dedicated to helping Christians in Nashville discover how their daily work is integral to Jesus’ mission of loving people, places, and things to life.
Although the average American spends over 90,000 hours in the workplace during his or her lifetime, most Christians feel that their work is separate from or even at odds with their faith.
At NIFW, we aim to bridge the apparent gap between faith and work by providing opportunities for Nashvillians to learn about God’s vision for work and apply it to their vocations.
We hope to help individuals understand and embrace that all good work—not just ministerial, missionary, medical, or non-profit work—matters to God and is fundamental to joining Him in His redemptive plan for this world.
Through the Institute, we hope to:
Equip individuals and organizations to understand how their work brings about renewal within their spheres of influence
Connect Nashvillians across industries and companies to develop a larger picture of what it means to work faithfully
Mobilize Nashville’s workers to act as agents of redemption for the flourishing of Nashville and beyond
Theology of WORK
In the beginning, God worked.
As creator and sustainer, God has always been at work. In fact, work is His good gift to us, as he invites us to work alongside Him to care for and develop his creation. In our daily vocational lives, we are invited to join God in His work of redeeming the world and bring about flourishing around us as a response to God’s call to love people, places, and things to life.
Because of sin, work is broken.
The presence of sin has distorted what God originally made good. We see this brokenness within our industries and feel it in our vocational lives. We may ask ourselves, Does God really care about the day-to-day frustrations of my workplace? How do I, as a Christian, respond to the brokenness in my industry or company? When we have an understanding of how work has been distorted by sin, we can shine light into broken places in our industries and workplaces.
Christ is coming back. Your Work Matters.
By the grace of God, brokenness is not the end of the story. As Christ renews all things, He invites each of us to act as agents of His redemption in our spheres of influence. All good work—from teaching to technology, medicine to motherhood, food service to farming—matters to God and is fundamental to the restoration of His Kingdom here on earth.
