In the Beginning God Designed and Built
It sometimes seems like the Bible must have begun “In the beginning God preached a sermon” or maybe “In the beginning God became a pastor.” I hate to say it but after going to church (several different churches) every week for over seventy years—the message is consistently implied, if not overtly expressed: church turf and church work are what REALLY matter to God. No real surprise here: most pastors have little or no experience in the workplaces their people occupy during the week. And the vast majority of seminary study-time, reading and writing assignments, and practical training internships for future pastors, have next to nothing to do with any workplace other than church. My own experience as a seminary professor is that I was loved and appreciated for my “workplace theology and ethics”—but as a sort of luxury “silo” outside the “really important stuff” my colleagues taught. Same with the churches I have been part of.
But Jesus and Scripture will have none of that distorted, anemic theology. “In the beginning God created.” God designed and built a beautiful, well-functioning, amazing planet and population. That’s what engineers do. That’s what techies do. They are on a mission from God, a mission in the image and likeness of God. If we ranged out a little wider, we would see that “Christian ministry” also includes farming, cooking, wine-making, raising children, teaching, health care, legal representation, music, plumbing, janitorial work, landscaping and hundreds of other work specialties. Pastors and church workers are commissioned by God not just to lead our gathered worship but to prepare us to carry out God’s mission in the workplace and the world—not just serve on a church committee.
None of our workplace discipleship is automatically on target, of course. Our world and we ourselves are “fallen,” mistake-ridden, sometimes deceived, creatures. Our short-hand word for the problem is “sin”—"falling short” or “missing the mark” of God’s plan. But that is where turning to Jesus and Scripture can give us the necessary guidance our usual vocational study programs and books cannot.
In the case of engineering—designing and building—the Genesis chapters all by themselves already teach us that what God designs and builds, he does (1) in a collaborative, team (not individualistic) way (“Let us make man in our image”—not “I think I’ll make a man in my image”; “It’s not good for one to dwell alone, I will make a helper”). All of God’s engineering works are also (2) useful, effective (“good for”), (3) beautiful or aesthetic (“pleasing to the eye”), (4) set free (“having the seed in them”—not forever dependent on their creator), and (5) ethical and good in the eyes of the God of all (not just some tribal god’s opinion). Good work in those first two chapters of Genesis respects (6) a spatial boundary (there is a tree that could be harvested but should not be) and (7) a temporal boundary (there is a time, a day, when work could be done but should not be).
With these seven guidelines, engineering (and technology and, for that matter, all work) can be (and often has been) a spectacular gift to people and planet. Without these guidelines, an engineering that operates by “if it can be done it will be done”—or as a “gun for hire” available to whoever will purchase—or as a simplistic, reductionist formula for addressing all of life’s challenges and problems—such an engineering become a threat. And these seven are only the beginning of an unbelievably rich biblical theology of engineering. We need more and more faithful Christian engineers and techies to enter the profession and bring in some creative, redemptive salt and light.
—David W. Gill www.davidwgill.org