The Restoration of True Humanity: Created to Work and the Application of Business as Mission to ESL Education

N. T. Wright, in the beginning of his book, After You Believe, asks one of the most important questions human beings, and especially Christians, ask at least once in lifetime: "What am I here for?" Wright poses that question by telling a story of a man named, James, who had recently "met Jesus" so that all the old clichés of becoming a born-again Christian suddenly came true. James asks the question this way:

God loves me; yes. He's transformed my life so that I find I want to pray, to worship, to read the Bible, to abandon the old self-destructive ways in used to behave. That's great. Clearly (people at church kept saying this, too) God wants me to tell other people about this good news, so that they can find it for themselves. Fine. It feels a bit strange, and I'm not sure I'm very good at it, but I'm doing the best I can. And obviously, all this comes with the great promise that one day I'll be with God forever. I know I'll die one day, but Jesus has guaranteed that everybody who trusts him will live with him in heaven. That's great too. But what am I here for now? What happens after you believe?¹

This is a question not only James has. It is a question that is shared by all Christians. In fact, soon after I first had a deep conversion experience, I had the exact same question that James had, and I literally prayed that God would simply take me "home" now because I could not find any meaningful reasons for me to stay here in this world other than telling others about God's love and that to me it seemed much more exciting to be with God in heaven rather than be here on earth waiting for God to take me home. This paper aims to answer the question, "What are we here for?" by adjusting the starting point for our theology from the fall to the creation and putting our work in the context of God's mission of restoring all creation. The principles found in the answer is then applied to a specific example of English as a Second Language education ministry in the form of business as mission.

The Sunday-Monday Disconnect

So, what are we here for now after we become Christians? Many Christians do not have good answers to that question. How do I know that? One of the evidence that shows our confusion on the purpose of our life here on earth is the disconnection between our Sunday and Monday lives. We might love singing our favorite worship songs passionately at Sunday worship services, saying heartfelt 'amen' to the preacher's words, and even serving and volunteering as various roles in our church ministry, but it is a whole different world when it comes to our work and even family life that resume on Monday. Few of us know how to connect what we sing and preach on Sunday at our church to what we do and say and think on Monday at our workplaces and other areas of life. It is as if we became schizophrenic and developed a split personality; one personality for Sunday and another for Monday through Saturday. And Sunday is only one day out of seven days in a week. The other six days of every week that we live, our idea of how to live as Christians in the world is often vague. God has called us, though not to be of the world, surely into the world. Yet, we have successfully dichotomized our world into the sacred and the secular and insist on staying within the boundaries of the sacred that we have falsely created. And the way we deal with the secular is either hostile criticism or disinterest and disengagement.

We all want to live an integrated and whole life as Christians, yet the problem is that the realities of our Monday seem too challenging. Tom Nelson describes the challenging nature of work:

It doesn't matter if our workplace is at home, in a classroom, on a factory floor, or in an office cubicle, work can be a source of great frustration in our lives. Facing an urgent deadline and having a computer crash is a big pain. Dealing with difficult customers or serving a demanding boss is a big pain. Having to let an employee go or downsize a labor force is a big pain. Facing a family's mountain of dirty laundry is a big pain. Lingering unemployment or underemployment is a big pain. Work can make us want to curse. But why is this? Why is work so often such a pain?²

Nelson finds the answer to his own question in the Bible, from the fall of humanity, and from the rebellion of Adam and Eve against God that resulted in the loss of paradise and the broken world where work itself was profoundly impacted.³ He finds the clue in Genesis 3:17-19:

And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Gen. 3:17–19)

The changes regarding work is far-reaching and long-lasting, and "this curse means that the very nature and context of human work has fundamentally changed ... Work is now toilsome and difficult. Thorns and thistles will bring the sweat of exertion to the human brow."⁴ So, that is why work is so challenging.

The Wrong Starting Point

Yet, is that the only reason for which Christians are ineffective and disengaged at work? Work is difficult and challenging due to the fall of humanity into sin; now, is there anything we can do about it? In other words, what are we here for regarding our work? Now that we are saved from sin by believing in Jesus Christ and are waiting for God to take us to heaven, our true home, are we to just get by as much as possible until we're taken by God into heaven? An additional and perhaps even more serious problem that contributes to the confusion of Christians about the relationship between our Sunday and Monday lives is our theology of salvation; the kind of theology that can be described as 'Just Get 'Em Saved' theology. It basically says that 1) we are sinners deserving God's just judgement, 2) we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ who atoned for our sin on the cross, and 3) those who believe in this gospel will go to heaven when God calls them home. Such theology is almost useless in terms of equipping and preparing the believers for their lives here on earth in their work. According to this kind of theology, the only legitimate motivation for our presence in the workplace is to get our coworkers saved so that they can also escape this sin-drenched world out of which we cannot wait to be taken away. The problem of this kind of theology is that it starts in the wrong place; sin and the fall. We have to start from the beginning.

Starting with Creation

The proper starting point of our theology of salvation and of work is creation. "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31). God's original intention for his creation is that it is good. The Greek philosophies found in Platonism and Gnosticism have a dualistic view of the spiritual and the physical. They regard the spiritual, or the soul in case of human beings, as good and eternal, and the physical, or the flesh, as bad and even a prison from which one must escape.⁵This is contrary to the biblical view of creation. God created the universe and everything in it including human bodies to be good. Moreover, God created human beings with work in mind.⁶ "First, humans are designed by God to exercise proper dominion over creation, which is a divinely delegated stewardship role. Second, humans are designed by God to be his image-bearers, to uniquely reflect who God is to his good world."⁷

Min-Dong Paul Lee echoes by providing two answers to why we work.⁸ First, we work because God has modeled work for us. The first reference of work in the Bible is not Genesis 3:17, "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life" (emphasis added), but Genesis 2:2, "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work" (emphasis added). Just as Jesus said that "my Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working" (Jn. 5:17), we also work because we are image-bearers of God who works. Second, we work because God created us to work. Genesis 1:26-28 speak of God creating human beings and letting them "have dominion" over the creation. The Hebrew word for "to have dominion" is radah which does not mean to rule with severity and harshness but rather means to manage by promoting prosperity, justice, peace, care, abundance and human flourishing, and worship according to Psalm 72. God created us to work and manage for these goals. Therefore, we work because God works and because God created us to work.

Lee continues on to explain how we work by looking at Genesis 2:15, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it." The Hebrew word for "to work" is abad which means to worship and to serve (God), and the Hebrew word for "to keep" is shamar which means to guard, to care for, and to serve (others). Connecting them to the New Testament, Abad also corresponds to the command to love God (Matt. 33:37), and shamar corresponds to the command to love neighbours (Matt. 33:39). So, we are to work by worshipping and loving God and by serving and loving our neighbours.

The Impact of the Fall

The unfortunate reality of our world is that our work here on earth does not quite reflect those principles of work designed by God from creation. Humanity has fallen by rebellion against God, and the world and our work in this earth has been distorted and marred by the result of sin. We have largely forgotten that we are image-bearers of God the Creator, created to work and manage the world by promoting prosperity, justice, peace, care, abundance and human flourishing, and worship. Work is difficult, disillusioning with its seeming emptiness and meaninglessness, and distorted by workaholism on the one end and slothfulness on the other and dualism of the sacred and secular in the middle.⁹ Due to these difficulty, disillusion, and distortion, there is not much space for worshiping and loving God and serving and loving our neighbours in and through our work. Since the fall, we are left unable to take up our calling to work and manage this world as image-bearers of God, and the creation is groaning together with us and waiting with eager longing for freedom from its bondage to corruption and redemption (Rom. 8:19-23).

Restoration Through Christ

That is why Jesus came to redeem the world and us. The atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross paid once and for all the debt of humanity and set the course of history on reverse into restoration. What the first Adam has failed to do, the second Adam, the Incarnate Son, has succeeded. Irenaeus called this recapitulation by which "the second Adam repeats the whole natural development of man at the higher level of divine reality."¹⁰ "When He became incarnate and was made man, He recapitulated in Himself the long history of mankind and, in that summing up, procured for us the salvation we lost in Adam."¹¹ So, Paul proclaims, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Cor. 5:17). In Christ, we are new creation. And through the last Adam who exemplified the true Adam that God had intended, we are restored back to the true "Adam," the true humanity, the image-bearers of God called to work and manage this world as coworkers of God. This is the mission (sending) of God, the missio dei, and we get to participate in it. God the Father sent Jesus the Son, and the Son with the Father sent the Holy Spirit. And Jesus now sends the church through the Holy Spirit, saying "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" (Jn. 20:21) so that we would join in God's continuing work of restoring all creation. Hence, the identity of the church is the missionary people of God. The church participates in God's mission by becoming the "royal priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:9), "a kingly mediation of the creational-redemptional purposes of God on earth by the church as the new humanity of the last Adam."¹²

What We Are Here For

Now, we are in a better position to answer the question, "What are we here for?" Now that we are saved through Jesus' atoning sacrifice on the cross, we are on the mission of God in restoring all creation, united with Christ through the Holy Spirit. In other words, there is work for us to do in this world here and now. In fact, Paul exhorts us for "good works" in his letters to fellow Christians, saying, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10) and also, "I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works" (Tt. 3:8). We have work to do in this world. We are not simply waiting to be taken up into heaven, rather, heaven has come down on earth with Jesus Christ. The heaven is not somewhere far away that we arrive by escaping this earth, but it is the complete coming together of heaven and earth, the new heaven and the new earth, not only for which we are waiting but also into which we are actively involved in transforming this earth. N. T. Wright echoes the continuity of the new heaven with the present world, saying, "The transition from the present world to the new one would be a matter not of destruction of the present space-time universe but of its radical healing."¹³ God's new creation is "not unmaking but remaking" of the currently reality. Our work here matters eternally.

Righteousness and Justice

The Bible speaks of not only the necessity of work after we believe but also the content of the work that we are to engage in this world. In Genesis, God speaks of his calling Abraham, "For I have chosen [Abraham], that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him" (Gen. 18:19). The life that God called Israel into is the life that keeps the way of Yahweh by doing righteousness and justice. The Hebrew word for righteousness in this verse is tzedakah, and it essentially means right relationship; with God and with neighbours. It involves our right relationship with God by our trust and faith in Him, our right relationship with neighbours through kindness, mercy, and empathy, and God's mercy and grace toward us in his salvation.¹⁴ It can be summarized as empathy, having the same heart and mind, and being in another's shoes deeply and genuinely. On the other hand, the Hebrew word for justice in Gen. 18:19 is mishpat meaning judgment (as in court). It also means decision, punishment, dispute, and law. The ground of judgment is law, and the legal decision executed according to the law is punishment for the wicked and vindication and salvation for the oppressed. Mishpat can be summarized as the right societal order enforced by the basis of God's law. This is the content of work God calls us into. Borrowing Paul Steven's words, it is the kind of "business" that God is in. "God the Redeemer invites humankind to join him in fixing, mending, and transforming,"¹⁵ and God's calling is not only into pastoral ministry or missionary work, but it "involves belonging to God (a relationship), being (a way of life), and doing (serving God and God's purposes),"¹⁶ three full-time jobs given to humanity by God: to live in communion with God, community-building, and to be co-creators.¹⁷"God is interested in saving not only souls but also bodies, systems, and even the entire creation."¹⁸ This way of thinking immensely broadens our concept of God's work and calling and our work life. There is nothing that does not have the potential to be God's work in this world.

Business as Mission

That means doing business can also be God's work and mission. There are different models that represent different understandings of the relationship between business and mission. In the model of business and mission, the two are isolated activities. Business for mission is using the proceeds of business as a way of financing mission. Business as a platform for mission refers to work and professional life as means of channeling mission throughout the world. Mission in business is hiring non- believers and offering chaplaincy services with a view to leading them to Christ. Business as mission is business as part of the mission of God in the world.¹⁹ Business as mission also corresponds to the principles of why (image-bearers of The Worker, created to work), how (abad and shamar), and what (tzedakah and mishpat) of our work discussed above. And it is now we imagine and explore some of the possibilities of an English as a Second Language education as a business as mission participating in God's work of restoring all creation.

Application to ESL Education

When I went to the United States to study abroad from South Korea, I was fifteen years old, and my English skill was minimal. Throughout my high school and college years, I struggled tremendously due to my lack of English ability and suffered severe depression from the sense of isolation in the society and loneliness I had. Going through a Teaching English as a Second Language course at University of British Columbia opened my eyes as to why I struggled so much in life in the States. According to the prism model developed by W. P. Thomas and V. P. Collier, second language acquisition is a social and cultural process.²⁰ Cummins agrees by saying, "Sociocultural determinants of minority students' school failure are more fundamental than linguistic factors."²¹ In order for students to learn a second language efficiently, recognizing the connection and interdependence between L1 (the first language) and L2 (the second language) is crucial. According to Cummins, L1 proficiency transfers to L2 learning due to the "Common Underlying Proficiency" which lies beneath the apparent differences between the languages like an iceberg with two tips, and "what distinguishes effective from ineffective programs is the extent to which the school is making a serious attempt to promote students' L1 literacy."²² Also, whereas Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) takes two years to catch up, Cognitive and Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) takes five to seven years.²³ Had I learned proper amount CALP education with the help of bilingual education, my English class experiences in the US would have been radically different.

Moreover, ELLs (English Language Learners) need sufficient amount of comprehensible input,²⁴interaction, and comprehensible output²⁵ in order to improve their English skills properly. Also it is critical to realize that the proper and more realistic goal of ELLs is to become a successful L2 user and not to become like native speakers. An unrealistic goal can act as a barrier and hindrance in learning adding a considerable burden and stress to ELLs. Consideration of culture would be paramount. The classroom needs to be space of empowerment to students of the visible minority in the wider society. It can utilize students' first languages through translation activities and value their home languages and cultures by learning together about their home country. Activities or assignments that involve participating in the community events or engage the neighbourhood that students live in can help them open their eyes to the tangible lives of the local people and build personal connections with them.

Therefore, having an informed perspective on ESL education and utilizing proper classroom instruction strategies can help ELLs not only in their English learning but also in being empowered in their lives as international students living in a foreign country. It serves as a way of promoting human flourishing and managing this world according to the calling that God has given us by serving and loving our neighbours who are marginalized in our society (shamar) and by empathizing with them and providing them with necessary help they need (tzedakah).

Addressing Injustice

Another aspect of how ESL school business can be a participation in God's mission is through addressing the issues of injustice in the society that is related to ESL education. Stevens calls it, "grappling with the powers."²⁶ "We serve God by calling the marketplace to accountability for injustice, rapacious competition, for idolatrous demands made on workers, for unjust and unfair remuneration patterns, and for participation in global inequities. In this way we engage not only individual but systemic evil, what Paul called "the principalities and powers.""²⁷ McKay addresses the inequality concerning ESL education, "In many cases English is spreading primarily among those with greater economic resources, thus contributing to social inequalities."²⁸ A good ESL education is often available only to the elite, the powerful, and the wealthy, and it perpetuates and reinforces the inequality. Providing a quality ESL education service at an affordable cost and making it accessible to those in the marginalized is therefore an important way to break the cycle of inequality thereby engaging in the life of mishpat and promoting prosperity, justice, peace, care, abundance and human flourishing in our society (radah).

Building Community

Finally, business as mission is about community. John Paul II says, "The purpose of a business firm is not simply to make a profit, but it is found in its very existence as a community of persons who in various ways are endeavoring to satisfy their basic needs and who form a particular group at the service of the whole of society."²⁹ Not only that, when business becomes missional, it also serves as a means of community-building. Stevens refers to it as the koinonic (fellowship and partnership) role of business: "We build community by caring for our neighbor in the workplace and creating corporate and professional cultures that reflect in some measure the presence of the kingdom: people-affirming, interdependent communities that give people significance, that release talents and help people learn to love."³⁰ When a group of people who care about teaching ESL well and serving and empowering international students come together in the context of an ESL education business, a community that reflects the presence of God's kingdom is birthed. The students are also a part of the community as well. It can become a safe place for international students to belong. It can also serve and bless the students by connecting them to various other church and local communities, events, and gatherings. The ESL school can partner with churches, government organizations, schools, and local businesses and services, and offer the students various opportunities and experiences making local resources available and accessible to international students who are often isolated and cut off from the society. Then, in turn, it would help international students be more rooted in the society and contribute to the society with all the unique talents and resources they bring from all over the world. That kind of business community is inevitably attractive to the wider society and the world around it. It would be a tangible example of God's kingdom people being light and salt in this world. Such an ESL school "seeks the welfare of the city" (Jer. 29:7).

The Importance of Discipleship

However, such communities do not happen automatically. Working together with other people is not an easy endeavor. There are always at least a few difficult people whom we just want to avoid and wish were not there in our workplace. Communication is hard. Dealing with people of different cultural background is scary. Sometimes the organizational culture or system works against the community and the work that people are engaged in. Moreover, apart from the communal perspective, work itself has many challenges to individuals. There are temptations that fight against personal integrity of people. Some people experience work overload and burnout or have unhealthy work patterns. That is where discipleship comes in. God does not only work through us but also in and among us. One of the major contents of God's work in this world is ourselves. And one of the major context in which God works in and among us is our workplace. Nelson also repeats that, "One of God's primary places where he desires your mind to be renewed is your workplace—for your thoughts, words, and behavior to be changed while you work. Your workplace is to be a place of spiritual formation."³¹ In the face of each challenge at work, we are to follow Jesus in denying ourselves and taking up our crosses and let Him shape us and mold us to become more like Himself. It is in how we come out of these challenges that the world will notice the real power of the gospel that is work in us; or not.

Conclusion

In summary, an ESL school can be an effective business which participates in God's mission of restoring all creation by teaching international students English with perspectives and instruction methods that empower them, by addressing inequalities between the elite and the marginalized through providing affordable service, by building communities that seek the welfare of the society, and by exemplifying true humanity characterized by love through spiritual formation in the workplace. These are the kinds of good works that Christians are called to do in this world: the life of doing tzedakah and mishpat, keeping (shamar) the world by serving others, and having dominion (radah) over the creation by promoting prosperity, justice, peace, care, abundance and human flourishing. It is the work that God created us for. Though marred and distorted by our sin and rebellion against God, through Jesus Christ the second Adam, we are restored as the image-bearers of God who models work for us. When we live out this calling of true humanity, united with Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, the world cannot help but to notice. Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Mt. 5:14-16). That effectively fulfills the call to worship and love God (abad), and to have dominion over the creation by promoting worship (radah). N. T. Wright answers his own question in his book, "What are we here for?" in four words; the transformation of character.³² The ultimate test of our work is love; our love with God demonstrated by our love with each other. "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn. 13:35). That is the best and the most holistic strategy for evangelism. That is God's mission.