The Handcrafted Gospel

Jeff Haanen, Chris Horst

Recently I bought a small, red cabinet for my wife and kid’s homeschool books. It was from IKEA, so how hard could assembly really be? Yet in only 20 minutes, I had managed to drill three holes in the wrong side of the red cabinet door. My wife took the project away from me, and  assembled it for herself. I have concluded that I not only lack a manual and spacial intelligence, but that I've significantly undervalued those who build just about everything I see.  My respect for our culture’s craftsmen has grown - especially since Christ Horst and myself recently did an article for Christianity Today entitled “The Handcrafted Gospel.” The editor chose the subtitle “Meet the craftsmen reclaiming the honor of manual labor.” In our culture, “honor” and “manual labor” don’t often go hand in hand. We steer our students away from ‘tech schools’, believe thinking is for the office, not the shop, and have precious few “faith and work” events for electricians, contractors, carpenters or plumbers. Yet there is a huge skills gap and labor shortage for skilled manual labor in the US.  We have a problem.  Here’s a sneak preview of our theology for the craftsmen. Enjoy. "I've always enjoyed building and fixing things," says Brandon Yates. After high school, Yates became an electrician. A fast study, he advanced quickly through the first two electrical certifications, apprentice and journeyman. Finally, when he became a master electrician in 1999, Yates founded KC One, an electrical contracting services company based in Kansas City, Missouri. "Craftsman is a lost word in our day," says Yates, now 37, who aims to change that by recruiting hardworking high-school graduates with an aptitude for making things. KC One's apprenticeship program provides on-the-job training and certifications for one or two young electricians each year. "Society teaches these kids that they'll become losers if they become electricians. My job is to unteach them." The perception that the trades offer less status and money, and demand less intelligence, is one likely reason young people have turned away from careers in the trades for several generations. In Yates's school district, officials recently shuttered the entire shop class program. In our "cultural iconography," notes scholar Mike Rose, the craftsman is a "muscled arm, sleeve rolled tight against biceps, but no thought bright behind the eye, no image that links hands and brain." Thinking, it's assumed, is for the office, not the shop. But considering that Scripture identifies Jesus himself as a tektōn (Mark 6:3, literally "craftsman" or "one who works with his hands"), we think it's high time to challenge the tradesman stereotype, and to rethink the modern divide between white collar and blue collar, office and shop, in light of the Divine Craftsman who will one day make all things new. Apprentices and disciples Craftspeople (harashim)—masons, barbers, weavers, goldsmiths, stonecutters, carpenters, potters—are replete in the Bible. The first person Scripture says was filled with the Spirit of God was Bezalel, who was given "ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze" (Ex. 31:1–5, ESV). Passages like these suggest God cares about craftsmanship, above all in his most holy places. From the tabernacle to the temple, what was built was meant to reflect and reveal God's character. The temple was not just a majestic building; it spoke powerfully of his holiness. Likewise, some of the most important New Testament figures worked with their hands…more

Share

Chris Horst

Chris Horst is the chief advancement officer at HOPE International, an international microfinance organization that helps people escape poverty. His development staff raise $16 million annually to support HOPE’s mission. He loves to write, having been published in The Denver Post and Christianity Today and co-authored Mission DriftEntrepreneurship for Human Flourishing, and Rooting for Rivals with Peter Greer. In addition to his role at HOPE, he serves on the board of the Mile High WorkShop.

Jeff Haanen

Jeff Haanen is a writer and entrepreneur. He founded Denver Institute for Faith & Work, a community of conveners, teachers and learners offering experiences and educational resources on the gospel, work, and community renewal. He is the author of An Uncommon Guide to Retirement: Finding God’s Purpose for the Next Season of Life and an upcoming two-book series on spiritual formation, vocation, and the working class for Intervarsity Press. He lives with his wife and four daughters in Denver and attends Wellspring Church in Englewood, Colorado.