To Make the World Rejoice

With Dr. Amy Sherman

Dr. Amy Sherman delivered a talk to Q Ideas in New York City on the themes of her book, Kingdom Calling. Amy explains how we should all use our vocational power to make the world rejoice.

Dr. Amy Sherman

Dr. Amy L. Sherman is a Senior Fellow at the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research, where she directs the Center on Faith in Communities. She likes to describe the work of the Center as “a minister to ministries.” She provides training and consulting to churches and nonprofits seeking to transform their communities for the common good.

Dr. Sherman is the author of six books and 75+ published articles in such diverse periodicals as Christianity Today, First Things, The Public Interest, Policy Review, Prism, The Christian Century, and Books & Culture. She serves as the Editorial Director for FASTEN, a capacity building project for faith-based organizations that offers a robust website of practical resources for ministry practitioners.

Sherman is the founder and former Executive Director of Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries, an Evangelical nonprofit assisting low-income, inner-city families. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Christian Community Development Association for several years.

A passionate participant in the fight against violent injustice around the world, Sherman serves as a Senior Fellow at the International Justice Mission’s IJM Institute. IJM is the leading Christian human rights agency engaged in the fight against modern-day slavery and human trafficking.

Her undergraduate degree is from Messiah College and her graduate degrees are from the University of Virginia. Sherman is a long-time member of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, VA. Her life verse is Micah 6:8 (“He has shown you, O Man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”)

Watch the Q Ideas Talk

Click here to learn how one of the nation’s leading investment firms used Amy’s teaching to build their company’s thesis: investments that make the world rejoice.

Kingdom Calling

Amy Sherman unpacks the vision of Proverbs 11:10, “When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices,” in which the tsaddiqim—the people who see everything they have as gifts from God to be stewarded for his purposes—pursue their vocation with an eye to the greater good. She uses the tsaddiqim as a springboard to explore how, through our faith-formed calling, we announce the kingdom of God to our everyday world. But cultural trends toward privatism and materialism threaten to dis-integrate our faith and our work. And the church, in ways large and small, has itself capitulated to those trends, while simultaneously elevating the “special calling” of professional ministry and neglecting the vocational formation of laypeople. In the process, we have, in ways large and small, subverted our kingdom mandate. God is on the move, and he calls each of us, from our various halls of power and privilege, to follow him. Here is your chance, keeping this kingdom calling in view, to steward your faith and work toward righteousness. In so doing, you will bless the world, and as you flourish, the world will celebrate.

Click here to purchase a hard copy of Kingdom Calling, or to download a free audiobook version.