gospel, church and culture
October 23, 2006
i interviewed for a job today. it's like the dream job for me. great people, great location, great work, great potential to grow as an individual and within the company, great work culture, great pay.
i've been really praying and hoping that this whole job process would come to an end soon. it's been really time consuming and i simply don't have that much time. taking four classes at tyndale is really heavy. there's a lot of assignments and a lot of readings to complete each week. on top of that, i've got committments at church. though i've stepped out of worship, i'm still heading up the creative team and in september, i became one of the high school counsellors. in addition to church stuff, i've also been looking for jobs every day, applying to appropriate jobs and interviewing. i must say that looking for work has been a slow, frustrating, sometimes disheartening and depressing process. but i know God will provide at the end. i know He's called me back into the industry and that He will complete what He began. and i also thank Him for allowing me to go through this process too. i've never known how difficult it was to find work. i guess i thought it was pretty easy. i've never known what people went through to find work. and i'm thankful that have a picture of what that's like now. i'm thankful that i am able to even have interviews at places, even if i get the job or not.
the company i'm considering produces three specialty tv channels. two of them are really great, but the last one i have issues with. and this is what i've been struggling with. the last channel is a dance channel. now, before anybody gets all up tight and twisted about Christians and dancing, know that i do not have an issue with dancing. dance is an art form that God created. dance is within the pages of Scripture. my issue with the dance channel is how it's marketed. they have some questionable images on their website and some of their programming is questionable too. there is no way that i would ever compromise my beliefs, my values, my morals for anything. i would not and could not support anything that violated what i stand for. yes, that means i would give up this really sweet job opportunity.
i don't know if i'll get another opportunity like this. i really doubt it. i really doubt that i'd be paid so well by other companies. the lady that interviewed me asked me, if all new grads expected the salary range that i asked for. i told her that while i don't have a lot of experience in a paid-work environment, i still do have a lot of experience. i told her about my work with synergy. i told her about my jobs as a freelance graphic designer. i told her that i bring a lot to the table.
i'm not really interested in making a ton of money, but i do believe in being paid fairly. i believe God has given me a lot of skills and gifts in design. i've been told by numerous professionals in the industry about the quality of my work.
this semester, i've been taking this course called gospel, church and culture. it's one of my favourite classes. we've been talking about issues like what i was confronted with today. as a Christian, how do i interact with the culture that i live in? this issue is not new. it's been brought up in the life of the church many times. in the enlightment period, the church withdrew itself from the public and retreated into the private life. it's easy to criticize their decision, but the decision wasn't entirely theirs either. so here i am, faced with how i deal with something that potentially conflicts with me. do i withdraw, like the church did? or do i engage it, confront it, speak up against it? the world will never know any better unless someone speaks up. as Christians, we believe that the Word of God is the ultimate authority on all things. and unless someone upholds that, the world will not know better. i don't know if i've reached a conclusion about how Christians are to engage culture, but i'm glad that this job has gotten me thinking about it. if this was the only reason why i interviewed there, i'm thankful. i'm thankful that God's allowed me to struggle with this and think about it. i think it's a great discussion topic for Christians. how are we to engage the world?
Posted by Leo Chan at October 23, 2006 11:44 PM
Hey bro, glad you are getting opportunities for interviews. I totally know how you feel in terms of getting a job. It took me forever to get one here in HK and I felt quite useless as I was waiting for one. But God reminded me to find my idenity in Him and wait on Him.
Good to hear that you are thinking of using the design artistic gift Father God has blessed you with. There is so much good for the Kingdom of God you can do with it.
I recently heard a message by this dude called Tim Keller called "Being the church in our culture" on www.djchuang.com/keller (beside his picture). He talks about how in some countries, the government tries everything they can to conform the people to the way they want them to behave. They restrict their language, customs, schools, etc. However, once the youth had access to TV, particularly MTV, it was over. The culture MTV has produced has caused much damage not only in North America, but around the world. So yea, with multimedia stuff, we can use it to redeem a culture that reflects God and His Kingdom.
Also, this dude has so much good things to say on reaching the poor and oppressed (check sermon "Doing Justice"). His church in NY actually does a lot for the needy.
