PA Pastors’ Network: When Worldviews Matter

PHILADELPHIA – According to Sam Rohrer, President of the Pennsylvania Pastor’s Network (PPN, www.papastors.net), Labor Day offers pastors a unique opportunity to help their congregations understand the fundamental value of a Biblical worldview, even – and perhaps especially – when looking at something as ordinary to all of us as our jobs.

President Grover Cleveland originally instituted Labor Day as a reluctant election-year compromise to appease American workers, but especially railroad laborers who were being unfairly taken advantage of by railroad tycoons.  While the abuses by those with money and power were exactly that – abuses – the labor unions that began to form in the mid-to-late 1800’s were a socialistic attempt to level the playing field for all American workers, which many saw as a direct threat to American capitalism and a free enterprise.

Rohrer urges pastors to use opportunities such as this to illustrate contrasting worldviews.  Rohrer gives an example: “In years past, and throughout history, the labors of man were often belittled and looked down upon by those with wealth and power.  In a secularist society, those with money and power often use them to avoid labor whenever possible, hiring others to do tasks they prefer to avoid, and then often heaping abuses on those workers.”  Rohrer adds, “However, famed revolutionary Martin Luther began to change all that when he began to preach that under a truly Biblical worldview, any labor – whether ‘preaching or scrubbing floors,’ is valuable, if done to the glory of God.  Luther taught that according to the book of Genesis, man was created to work, and therefore, that man’s labors are a means to partner with God in completing His purposes for mankind.  Under Luther’s Protestant teaching, a new understanding of the dignity of man’s labors began to emerge, giving new life and fervor to the services rendered by those tasked with even the most menial types of labor.”

A secularist worldview, on the other hand, such as that espoused in France, perhaps the most left-leaning country in Europe, reveals a complete opposite attitude about work – that it is a curse of sorts, and something to be avoided whenever possible and that business leaders and owners make their fortunes “on the backs of their workers,” instead of viewing work as an opportunity for citizens to have dignity, provide for their families and acquire their own wealth and experience.  Rohrer states, “A secularist worldview teaches that man is entitled to get all he can get, but with the least amount of effort possible.  Work is seen as a drudgery that interferes with man’s pursuit for pleasure and leisure.”  According to Rohrer and others, that worldview is the prevailing attitude of the French, and with an increasing number of Americans, as a socialistic and entitlement-based attitude continues to take root within the United States.

Rohrer concludes, “The right to work is a valuable right and one to be cherished, just as is the right to live unmolested by government intrusions into one’s religious beliefs and privacy.  The right to work is undeniably linked with the right to pursue happiness.  The ‘pursuit of happiness,’ as understood by our founding fathers, was the right to pursue one’s dreams of occupation and of education, without being dictated to by a governing class of people who saw it as their duty to maintain distinct and separate classes of people within a society.  The right to work toward one’s goals and dreams is a right no one should take lightly, especially if those labors are seen as an opportunity to assist God in serving mankind.”

The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is a group of biblically faithful clergy and church liaisons whose objective is to build a permanent infrastructure of like-minded clergy who affirm the authority of Scripture, take seriously Jesus’ command to be the “salt and light” to the culture, encourage informed Christian thinking about contemporary social issues; examine public policy issues without politicizing their pulpits and engage their congregations in taking part in our political process on a non-partisan basis.

The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network website continues to offer a wealth of resources to pastors to help them equip their congregations to live a Christian life, from sermon notes to corporate prayers for our nation, to resources for laypeople, covering everything from preparation to finances.

The Pennsylvania Pastors’ Network is a state chapter affiliate of the American Pastors’ Network.  The American Pastors’ Network is a Ministry Program Affiliate of Capstone Legacy Foundation (a 501 C3 non-profit organization). To contact them visit www.papastors.net or call 610-584.1225.

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To schedule interviews with Sam Rohrer, President of the Pa. Pastors’ Network, contact Deborah Hamilton at dhamilton@hamiltonstrategies.com, 215-815-7716 or 610-584-1096.