"Probably the best place to start is Genesis because as Eugene Peterson has pointed out Genesis 1 is actually a journal of work. The Bible begins with the announcement 'In the beginning God created . . . ' - not 'sat majestic in the heavens'. He created. He did something. He made something. He fashioned heaven and earth. The week of creation was a week of work. Furthermore we see from the rest of Scripture and from history that God continues to work. It is an ongoing activity. Part of God's work was to create man and woman. They were made in God's image - like God. God then gave them a task to do a responsibility to carry. They were expected to care for and tend the garden. In fact the mandate God gave Adam and Eve was to share in God's work. From the beginning God was prepared to entrust the garden to humans. The intention was for us to become God's co-workers. But the fall dramatically disturbed the relationship between God and humans and has had a huge impact on our role as God's co-workers. The work of humans is intended to be totally connected to the work of God. By rebelling against God the fulfilment and purpose of our work is seriously eroded. However we need to be careful that we don't assume that work has become a bad thing. Even though work has been affected by the fall the invitation to work with God still remains."

"We simply must deal with the dualism that dominates our view of the Christian life - it's not biblical and is so counter-productive to seeing all of life as part of God's domain. In fact a good beginning to a more biblical view would be to ban the word 'secular' - it doesn't serve any useful purpose in our fight to discover a more wholistic view of life."

"Eugene Peterson is instructive: 'Any work done faithfully and well is difficult. It is no harder for me to do my job than for any other person and no less. There are no easy tasks in the Christian way; there are only tasks which can be done faithfully or erratically with joy or resentment. And there is no need for any of us pastors or builders accountants or care-givers typists or gardeners doctors or labourers to speak in tones of self-pity of the terrible burdens of our work.' [Eugene Peterson A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (Downers Grove: IVP 1980) p70]"