Paul Lim (Ph.D., Cambridge) wears several hats in life! The first hat he wears is as a husband and father; followed by one he wears at vanderbilt as a professor; then one at christ presbyterian church in nashville as scholar-in-residence; then as the interim director of the nashville institute for faith & WOrk. he thinks mondays 5:30-7:30 p.m. are best spent with gotham fellows, all of whom have shown him our collective and desperate need for redeeming grace. Learning about Jesus from a Syrian Glad and grateful that you are reading this brief Christmas reflection from me. Per usual, all th ..read more

Dr. Paul Lim serves as the interim Director of NIFW, and is an award-winning historian of Christianity. He also serves as a faculty member at Vanderbilt University. What do Jesus, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Martin Buber have in common? Two of them—Jesus and Buber—have lived in Israel, and two of them—Buber and Bonhoeffer—have written books! Many Christians have heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), thanks to the modern-day spiritual classics, The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together. However, not as many have heard of Martin Buber (1878-1965), a Jewish existentialist philosopher. And even ..read more

RUSS GEHRLEIN IS A LONGTIME FRIEND OF NIFW, AUTHOR, AND MULTI-TIME CONTRIBUTOR TO THE NIFW BLOG. As a young Christian in college, I heard a speaker mention that Luke begins the book of Acts with a unique statement about his Gospel: “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach” (Acts 1:1). The speaker pointed out that Luke is implying that Acts was his account of what Jesus continued to do and to teach through the church. I believe that it is the calling of every Christian to continue to do the work of Jesus in the world. I don’t know your background, bu ..read more

The Nashville Institute for Faith and Work is excited to announce the 2023-2024 class for The Gotham Fellowship! Please join us in praying for each of our Fellows as we kick off the year together with an Opening Retreat on August 25 & 26th. Meet the NIFW Gotham Fellowship Year 9 Cohort: Angela Bourn Patrick Bourn Wes Charlton Chris Coleman Courtney Miller Jon Mings Ruth Pavey Kathleen Rall Artem Smith Cohort Bios: Angela Bourn Angela Bourn moved to Nashville to attend Vanderbilt University. After graduating from Vanderbilt, she stayed in the Nashville area to serve in the health ..read more

FROM THE DESK OF JOSIAH LEUENBERGER Dear NIFW friends, As many of you would attest to, when we engage in conversations around what it looks like for each of us who know Jesus to serve him faithfully with our gifts and abilities, with a sense of openness to how God might lead us in new ways, we put ourselves in a position before the Lord that is both exciting, as well as uncertain. It has been my joy to have these kinds of conversations with many of you about your faith and work journey through the ministries of NIFW.   I write now to share that the Lord has used these conversations ..read more

Russ Gehrlein is a longtime friend of NIFW, author, and multi-time Contributor to the NIFW Blog. It was the spring of 1988. As a new sergeant in the U.S. Army, I had just been sent to Korea for a year, away from my young family. Like many Christians, I wondered if I was wasting my life stuck in a secular job. I thought I may have missed my calling. I doubted my job as a nuclear, biological, and chemical operations specialist had any eternal value. Did my work matter to God at all?  “I doubted my job as a nuclear, biological, and chemical operations specialist had any eternal value. Did my ..read more

On March 28th, I facilitated the NIFW women’s study to discuss the resource from Dr. Michaela O’Donnell, Make Work Matter. If you notice the date, it’s exactly 24 hours after the tragedy at Covenant School. I remember preparing for this class during commercials while I watched the news with tears in my eyes. I was waiting for updates on this unimaginable tragedy that directly impacted our friends, neighbors, and community.  I was grieving, working, and rehearsing hope.  I remember sitting at my kitchen table with the Zoom pulled up waiting for the class to start. I had my notes next ..read more

Without doubt, the greatest asset and attribute of the Nashville Institute for Faith and Work is the diversity of our community - a network of followers of Jesus from different Christian traditions and churches across our special city. In the wake of this week's tragic shooting, we stand together in love and grief with our brothers and sisters at Covenant Presbyterian Church and the Covenant School. Members of the NIFW community have been directly impacted by the evil that took place in deep and personal ways. We love you and we stand with you in your grief. No words can make sense of th ..read more

Colossians 1:17“And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” When I worked in higher education, I oversaw student leaders and before each big event, I would cast the vision for them and say – “we are working ‘for the good of our community and for the glory of God.’” It was something that we would repeat before events, in our team prayers, and eventually, they would say it without my prompting.  The simple phrase – “For the good of our community and for the glory of God” – became a way of refocusing and shifting my heart to do the work placed in front of me in a way ..read more

I remember a frigid winter morning when my wife, Brittany, and I were first married: I went out to the parking lot of our apartment complex to begin warming up the (sometimes) trusty Ford Escort we shared.  I turned the key in the ignition and was met with nothing but the cursed sound of silence. While I was hopeful that some jumper cables and quick battery replacement would get us up and running, to make a long story short, I soon found out that significant work was needed before my car would be ready to return to the road.  My wife caught a ride with a co-worker and I hung back in ..read more