It’s been another encouraging year on the IFWE blog! We’re grateful for our subscribers and those who share our blogs with friends, colleagues, and family. After 153 blogs, 130,000+ words of content on faith, work, and economics and more than 1.4 million pageviews of the IFWE website...

Christmas music is the best thing about the Advent season next to baby Jesus, in my opinion. Every year, I anticipate the moment after Thanksgiving dinner when I finally allow myself to begin the Christmas music indulgence.

Though I prefer listening to classic carols and hymns, Sufjan Steven’s...

Would you guess that “Joy to the World,” a Christmas hymn so familiar to us it’s often in danger of becoming wallpaper for the season, was once revolutionary?

It’s true. Isaac Watts wrote his greatest hit in response to other hymns becoming aural wallpaper in the ears and...

As we close out the first decade of the 21^st century, it is good to stop and think about where we are in God’s redemptive plan. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Jonathan Sacks writes:

Science, technology, the free market and the liberal democratic state have enabled us to reach...

While visiting Oslo, Norway, I was pensively approached by a man wearing a University of Ohio t-shirt. He asked me in a broken voice, “Do you speak English”? Admittedly, being a tall Norse man made all the tourists, of which I was one, think I was a local. I responded in a quiet Midwest...

Many Christians this last week attended an Advent service. What does the Advent Season have to do with our work? Everything. This connection is part of the forgotten message of Advent.

The Forgotten Message of Advent May Be the Most Important

The Advent season reminds us of two things:

• To celebrate...

Fighting for joy in the midst of a busy schedule is sometimes difficult even for strong, mature Christians. As a young professional in Washington, D.C., I have experienced and struggled with some of the pitfalls surrounding busyness. In a city and society that views busyness as a badge of honor,...

Editor’s note: In Andrew Peterson’s latest book,Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making, Peterson, a singer-songwriter and author, makes the case that we’re all called to be creative, not just artists. The following is an excerpt from his book...

I’ve walked alongside families over the past ten years, helping them on their journey to managing their wealth. Some of the first questions I ask when I engage with families are, “What is your goal? What are you trying to accomplish?”

Many times the answer is, “I want to be...

How do we fight both the material and spiritual causes behind poverty? Finding such a holistic approach is the topic of this IFWE podcast featuring economist and author Anne Bradley.

Using the biblical and economic principles laid out in For the Least of These: A Biblical Answer to Poverty,...

Almost everyone knows the story of the first Thanksgiving. They know of the terrible winter of 1621, in which almost half of the Plymouth Bay Colony died.

They’ve heard about how, with the help of the Native Americans, the colonists planted crops the following spring. By fall they harvested a...

Today’s mission field is the workplace, an arena where most of us spend 60 percent of our waking hours. Business people impact culture. Redeemed business people can and should change culture.

I’ve seen this in my own life through through redemption in Jesus Christ, and God’s...

Money is often seen as intrinsically bad or perhaps a necessary evil in the world. However, we must not forget the important role money plays in wealth creation and in facilitating the efficient exchange of goods and services.

Money and the trade it makes possible further the common good and greatly...

About this time last year, my wife and I had to return a couple of sweaters. One had a hole in it and the other was too small. It was relatively painless to exchange them for something better.

However, when we find ourselves in a job that seems defective or is not a good fit for us, it is not nearly...

As I sat in my office, I asked myself, “How can I serve two masters?” This was the question that rang through my head constantly during my time on Wall Street.

The past century has been filled with a huge boom of wealth, innovation, and technology. U.S. nominal GDP has tripled in the...

What is it about comic book villains? They love evil. They love carnage. They love to make others suffer.

Recently there has been a resurgence in movies based on comic book characters. Each one has an evil villain like The Joker or Lex Luthor. There are online discussion groups asking, “Which...

News developments over the past weeks have put religious freedom back on the front page. It’s been a great reminder to us why IFWE’s new book, Set Free: Restoring Religious Freedom for All is so timely and needed.

First the bad news. This past week, a federal judge threw out a new...

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62)

On September 9th, 2013 my father had a massive stroke. Seven days later, he went to be with the Lord.

My father’s passing has given me reason to spend time...

“But if you confess that the world was once beautiful, but by the curse has become undone, and by a final catastrophe is to pass to its full state of glory, excelling even the beauty of paradise, then art has the mystical task of reminding us in its production of the beauty that was lost and...

Is it possible to make assertions about truth, justice, politics or theology without being arrogant?

It is often assumed that any assertion of a belief in religious or moral absolutes implies arrogance. As we will see, the absolute denial of absolutes is arrogant. Relativism arrogantly maintains...

Disturbing. Disgraceful. Discouraging.

Amid accusations and fuming vitriol from all political sides, we hear these three words used to describe the current landscape of US politics and public sentiment.

In the wake of our turmoil, there is a real danger that good, God-fearing people will pull back...

When you have a master’s degree in economics, you get excited when you find economic concepts in unexpected places.

Not everyone shares your enthusiasm.

Case in point: the other day, I heard a sermon about leadership in the church, focusing on Acts 6. Hearing it I thought, “Look at that!...

Editor’s note: As we observe the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church on Sunday, Nov. 3^rd, please pray for persecuted believers around the world and for religious freedom for everyone. Read about the persecution of the early church and the beginnings of religious freedom in...

If you feel disillusioned by current state of politics, you’re not alone. The battle of ideas occurring in our country is often bankrupt because we are fooled by truths of the world instead of committing to the truths of scripture.

But we don’t live in a theocracy, and I’m not...