September 3, 2026

Dear Central Church,

Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of summer. Apparently, someone forgot to tell the meteorologist. Our neighborhood pool announced that it will remain open throughout September to help everyone beat the heat.

On this weekend when we commemorate the American worker, I will probably play a song by Alabama called “Forty Hour Week.” I feel like it was written specifically for me. Before you object and mumble something under your breath like, “Hmm, that’s rich coming from a guy who works one day a week,” allow me to explain.

The song specifically celebrates a Detroit autoworker, a West Virginia coal miner, a Pittsburgh steel mill worker, and a Kansas wheat farmer. My mom was born in Detroit to a father who provided insurance to assembly-line workers. I was born in West Virginia, just a few miles from an active coal mine. The last church my dad pastored was in western Pennsylvania. And I am now the proud resident of the Wheat State! I wasn’t born here, but I got here as quickly as I could.

I have yet to see any wheat fields in my suburban neighborhood, but these jobs are inescapably “baked in” to our communal ethos.

For this reason, I believe that at the core of our faith is a call to work—to co-create with the Creator and to partner with God for the flourishing of human life. Some of us go to work with a hammer in our belts, some with a stethoscope around our necks, some with a laptop under our arms, and others with grease beneath their fingernails. Our church is filled with followers of Jesus who wear steel-toed shoes to protect themselves from occupational hazards and others who don orthopedic sneakers to help withstand those twelve-hour night shifts.

My prayer is that you would know that the God who desires to meet with us on Sunday goes with us when we put on that uniform on Monday. The same God who called Adam and Eve to steward the Garden of Eden gives each of us a vocation—an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to our society and to point others to the Creator through the testimony of our lives.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, “Thank you for your time.”

What you do in your daily work matters. You are filled with the Holy Spirit, and God has placed you where you are so that your work can bring glory and honor to him.

I look forward to worshiping with you on Sunday. And Happy Labor Day!

On the Journey Together,
Pastor Mark