THIS FEELING'S GOT ME LIKE | "The Practice of Receiving"

“I’m not doing enough.”

These days we're all about optimization, self-hacking, and efficiency. We feel enslaved to our to-do lists. How do we resist some of these values?

In this sermon, Sarah Ngu examines the value of productivity in our workaholic society. It all began with industrial capitalism, which led to the “machinization” of the human body. But the Christian tradition starts from a very different place. Our faith begins from the premise that human beings are not machines created for labor, but that we are created to receive.

This is the first sermon in our Lenten series: “This Feeling's Got Me Like...".

Sarah NguForefront ChurchFebruary 21, 2021capitalism, productivity, work, to-do lists

WORK & CAPITALISM | "Work"

Christ disrupts everything we know about work, money, and merit.

In this third sermon in our Work & Capitalism Series, we welcome guest pastor, Candace Simpson, associate minister at Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, New York. In her message we are reminded that we do not have to work for pay to be worthy of life. Christ goes out to find the people who need a day’s wage. Because everyone has to eat. Christ disrupts everything we know about work, money, and merit.

Candace SimpsonGuest UserAugust 30, 2020workplace, labor, capitalism, work, bills, Daily bread, Daily wages

WORK & CAPITALISM | "Overdoing"

Humanity wasn't destined to toil

We welcome Sami Main this week as our guest preacher. Sami's an accomplished life coach, media specialist and published author. In this sermon, Sami explains why our fixation on busyness, work and profession can be harmful to our spiritual health and that taking a step back to rest and to reflect on the glory of existence is not only healthy, but, perhaps even, the most important activity we can do.

Sarah NguGuest UserAugust 23, 2020workplace, boss, psalms, labor, exploitation, work

WORK & CAPITALISM | "Bosses"

Dealing with tyranny in the workplace

Sarah Ngu starts off our "Work and Capitalism" Series with a deep dive into the power of "bosses" in organizations.

The workplace in general is structurally set up as a tyranny where one person has the power to greatly determine the economic livelihood of another, and if you have a good boss, that’s nice but you’re lucky because that’s basically the equivalent of a benevolent dictatorship. The only leverage that workers have is that we have power in numbers, and so we can organize collectively together for fair wages, fair hours, otherwise known as a union.

Sarah NguGuest UserAugust 16, 2020workplace, boss, psalms, labor, exploitation, work