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How do journalists navigate the tensions of faith and work? And how can we share more stories of God at work in the midst of a fractured and broken media landscape? Jeff Haanen talks with Sarah Zylstra and Collin Hansen of The Gospel Coalition about their work and writers and the stories they tell.
On journalism as a calling:
"I didn't find many people [during college] who went into journalism because they just wanted to be able to state the facts, they just wanted to be able to tell people the straight story on something. They usually had a sense of purpose, a sense of mission. They wanted to change things. They saw journalism as a way of being able to bring social and ethical transformation in our culture." Collin Hansen
On TGC's integration of faith and work:
"Work is something that predates the fall and it's something that will continue into eternity in some form...Work is a chief aspect of our discipleship, individually, but also our testimony and our witness to the world. Our workplace is not only a place where we have an opportunity to testify explicitly to Christ, but it's also an essential way where we love our neighbors." Collin Hansen
On choosing stories of faith and work:
"The stories that I write aren't necessarily a response to or have anything to do with the headlines of the day. We're looking for places where God is at work. We don't see a lot of other people spending a lot of time and effort telling those stories of where's God is doing something [in the workplace] and it seems to us that if that's the over-arching narrative, then to plug into where God is at work is a really important journalistic story to tell." Sarah Zylstra
On being open to God's role in our work:
"I think a lot about holding things loosely, holding stories loosely. They're not my story to tell and, ultimately, it's not even my source's story to tell. It's God's story to tell...There are always so many more stories of God at work than we can tell, so to be sensitive to his leading and to hold things loosely, to know they're not ours, is something that is really helpful for me." Sarah Zylstra
Learn more about Collin and Sarah's work at The Gospel Coalition.Read Jeff's cover story for Christianity Today, Saving Retirement.Get to know Made to Flourish and their work with pastors.Read TGC's latest story about Frank Reich, Former Seminary President to NLF Head Coach.Download the episode transcript.
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