The five-act biblical drama provides a framework for understanding work and calling: 1) Act One depicts creation, where humans were made in God's image to steward creation through meaningful work. 2) Act Two involves God's covenant with Israel, though humanity continues in sinful rebellion. 3) Act Three's crisis is Jesus' incarnation, fulfilling the covenant and transforming humanity's relationship to God. 4) Act Four describes the Church, empowered by the Spirit to serve as a sign of God's redemptive purposes through faithful response and obedience. 5) Act Five is the consummation, where God brings the story to its proper end, turning all things to communion

1. Introduction to a Pilot
Program
Dr. Mark Husbands
Vice President for Academic Affairs
Northwestern College
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8. Whythis Pilot Program?
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9. Flourish - Make Work Matter
is being launched in order ...
To prepare students to successfully transition from college to
career (or graduate school), and live with purpose.
It is a joint project of Academic Affairs and the
Franken Leadership Center, and will run throughout the
2018-2019 academic year.
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10. What is the
Goal
of Flourish? 10

11. What is the Goal of Flourish!
The Flourish—Make Work Matter pilot has been developed with the goal of
enhancing the student-employee experience. We aim to do so by providing
them with:
• skills, often termed “soft skills,” that will transfer into the workplace;
• an ability to tell a compelling story about how the acquisition of these
skills has better prepared them to make a meaningful contribution in the
workplace; and
• an understanding of how the focus on calling helps them to locate their
lives, gifts, and aspirations within the larger context of God’s story of
redemption and renewal.
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12. The Biblical Witness
as a Five Act Play
Dr. Mark Husbands, VPAA

13. Aristotle was one of the first figures
to map out the structure of drama.
The German playright, Gustav
Freytag provides us with the
following five-act dramatic
structure...
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16. But what is the
Contemporary
Dilemma?16

17. Imagine that your life is a one act play with many
different scenes!
• Now imagine that the play is largely improvised...you don't have an
existing script.
• Finally, imagine, that this one act play has to traverse the entire journey
of Prologue, Conflict, Rising Action/Climax, Falling Action, and
Denouement.
• Q. What if this is how the majority of people in the West try to live life?
• Q. Where in this improvised one-act play is there room for God, for risk,
discovery, sacrifice, "wrong turns", or even for "failure"?
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18. How does the
Biblical Story
help us to understand
Work?
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19. The Biblical
Witness as a
Five Act Play
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20. The Biblical Witness as a Five Act
Play
Dramatic Structure Leading Subject Matter
Act One Creation
Act Two Covenant
Act Three Christ
Act Four Church
Act Five Consummation
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21. ACT ONE — CREATION
• The inexhaustibly rich and superabundant love of the Triune
God overflows in the creation of the world.
• The created world is an expression of God’s love, creativity,
grace, and freedom – Christ is the Center (cf. Colossians
1:15-19). Consequently, the world is not the center of the story!
• God’s creatures do not exist for themselves; instead, they have a
divinely-ordered purpose within God’s drama.
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22. Human creatures were
created to bear God’s
image
• We are called to respond to God in the faithful exercise
of creativity, compassion, imagination, co-operation,
and cross-disciplinary thought, and, in so doing, serve
as good stewards (rather than despots) of creation.
• God created a completely good, but not yet complete,
world — he allowed space and time for nurture, growth,
and maturity (He plants a garden and waters it (Gen.
2:6,8). He gives food to all He has made, giving help to
all who suffer, and extends care for the needs of every
living thing (Ps 145:14-16)).
• Created to bear the image and likeness of God, our
work must adequately reflect God's good purposes
for the world.
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23. The Consequence of Self-Assertion
Rather than exercising faithful obedience to God, our first parents sought to be like God by pursuing a “false-freedom”. As a result, they fell into sin and
they, and their progeny suffer under divine judgment.
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24. ACT TWO: COVENANT
• God’s elects Israel to be his partner: in return, Israel is called
to live a life of holiness and joyful obedience.
• God maintains his covenant promise – in spite of our sinful
rebellion: our sin did not eradicate God’s love for, and
commitment to, creation.
• The plot is marked by episodes of worship/sacrifice,
enslavement, exodus/liberation, promise, discipline,
faithfulness, exile, and partial restoration.
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25. ACT THREE: CHRIST
• The Crisis and Center of the drama is Christ
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The Word became flesh and made his dwelling
among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the
one and only ⌈Son⌉, who came from the Father, full
of grace and truth. (John 1:14, TNIV)
• Christ fulfills the covenant (and in Him, creation begins
anew) — the incarnate Lord is elect for punishment and
resurrection.
• In his very being, Jesus reconciles humanity and divinity
— and thus transforms the human condition — in
Christ, we are truly united to the image of God, our
Prophet, Priest, and King.
• The risen Lord prays to the Father to send the Holy
Spirit: to judge, convict, guide, and sanctify God’s
people for lives of faithful response to the glory of
God.
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26. ACT FOUR: CHURCH
• The Church is the creature of God’s Word.
• We encounter, and are sustained by, this living Word in the
transformative ministry of Word and Sacrament such that
there is no life with God apart from the Church and her
ministry.
• All Christians are born into Act Four. In order to faithfully
carry out our appointed roles, we need to internalize the plot
of God’s drama (Acts 1-3, 5).
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27. How then shall we live?
ACT FOUR (the biblical mission of the Church) can
be summed up in this way:
“While awaiting the end of the story, the Church,
empowered by the Holy Spirit, is called to reenact
the loving obedience of Jesus Christ, and thus to
serve as a sign of God’s redemptive purposes for the
World.”
— Richard Hays, Duke Divinity
• Empowered by the Spirit to “reenact the loving
obedience of Christ” and thus “serve as a sign…”
invites extended reflection about meaningful/
flourishing work as the fulfillment of calling (cf.
Micah 6:8; Jer. 29:7)
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28. ACT FIVE:
CONSUMMATION
God draws the story to its proper and full end (cf. Rev 21) —
turning fallenness, strife, and pain into communion, worship,
gladness, and joyful work.
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After this I looked, and there before me was a great
multitude that no one could count, from every nation,
tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and
in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and
were holding palm branches in their hands; 16
‘Never again
will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will
not beat down on them,’ nor any scorching heat. 17
For the
Lamb at the center before the throne will be their
shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’
‘And God will wipe away every tear from their
eyes.’” (Revelation 7:9; 16-17)
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29. Karl Barth on Calling
"There are no areas of which we can
say: God has nothing to do here or this
is none of God’s business. It is not true
that there is a religious sphere in which
we are willing to listen and, at the same
time, another sphere where life has its
own laws, where we may not allow the
light of God to enter in. But just as the
whole is met by mercy, in the same
way the whole is also put under the
discipline of grace. God wants and
needs nothing less than everything!"
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