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Cory Willson is no stranger to conversations about integrating worship and work. As professor of missiology, world Christianity, and public theology at Calvin Theological Seminary, Willson teaches, researches, and spearheads grant-funded programs and workshops all focusing on this very topic. His book Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy (Baker, 2020) is meant to help churches seeking to integrate the daily work and vocational callings of believers into Sunday worship.

As young adults, Willson and his co-author, Matthew Kaemingk, found themselves working in ministry to young professionals often wrestling with questions about work, vocation, and calling. Over time, they noticed a disconnect between the questions Christians in the marketplace were asking and the discipleship programs or materials typically offered in the church. This disconnect between weekly work and Sunday worship led them into further conversations and research.

As they researched, story upon story came in by email and in conversation about the importance of engaging with workers’ everyday struggles and experiences during worship. Willson gives the example of a speech therapist he interviewed who worked with stroke recovery patients. This therapist said the benediction is one of the most important parts of worship for her. Recalling it throughout the week prompts her to pray for her patients, both for their healing and her wisdom as she considers treatment plans. Stories like this became the foundation of Work and Worship.

So how can pastors, worship coordinators, and ministry leaders integrate the work of their congregants into Sunday worship? Willson offers four ideas as a starting point:

• The sanctuary as formation: Philosopher James K.A. Smith wrote, “If all of life is going to be worship, then the sanctuary is the place where we learn how.” Sunday worship services should not be just isolated rituals, but formation for how we live our lives during the week and directly connect to how we engage our work and vocation the other six days of the week. As with the speech therapist whose patients came to mind during the benediction, the various aspects of worship should help workers connect their faith to the work they do and the people they serve.
• Workers as priests: Work and Worship introduces one of Willson’s primary metaphors: “priest and parish.” All Christians are called to be priests in their daily work, home life, and relationships. One practical way churches can equip believers to be priests is to invite worshipers to pray on behalf of their co-workers, lifting up their joys, struggles, and petitions to God during Sunday worship. This connects their daily experience of work to their Sunday worship. If the sanctuary is to be formative, the workweek must be brought to worship.
• Spiritual practices and disciplines: In addition to prayer, Scripture reading, and other devotional practices, Willson recommends taking what’s learned in corporate worship and carrying it throughout the week. This could involve reflecting on a line from a song or sermon each morning during one’s commute, arriving early to engage in a prayer walk at one’s workplace, physically lifting the day’s to-do list to dedicate it to God, or saying short breath prayers before walking into meetings or hitting “send” on emails. This practice of ongoing spiritual reflection helps believers carry Sunday worship into their daily life.
• Incorporating lament into worship: Willson contends that lament is often missing or underappreciated in many churches’ worship services. Drawing on the work of Nicholas Wolterstorff, Willson explains, “God’s sovereignty doesn’t mitigate, but is the foundation of our lament. In lament, we are taking God’s character and promises seriously.” When believers lament, they affirm God’s character, sovereignty, and promises in the face of suffering and confusion. When we integrate lament with praise, we bring the full range of human emotions before God. This can take place in a special lament service, a small group, or as part of the Sunday morning service.

In addition to authoring Work and Worship, Willson leads Calvin Seminary’s Institute for Mission, Church, and Culture, through which he aims to answer three questions:

• What is God’s mission in the world?
• How can the church participate in that mission?
• How can seminaries equip the church to fulfill this mission?

Seminaries, Willson contends, exist to serve the church to equip and empower Christians to live into their priestly identity and mission in the world. When the priesthood of all believers is emphasized for the entire congregation, not just for the pastoral staff, all are encouraged to be active participants in God’s mission in the world.

Yet Willson recognizes the challenges many churches face. For some, even four years after the COVID pandemic’s onset, it’s difficult to convince people to come back to in-person worship when online worship is so convenient. But instead of focusing on making church “attractive,” Willson recommends, churches should think about how their practices and discipleship habits equip believers in their priestly role. If Christ is Lord over all parts of life—work, relationships, civic life—then believers must be encouraged to live out their faith in public spheres as well as in private and in worship.

Through books like Work and Worship, churches can find ways to help every believer integrate their primary vocation—agents of God’s redemptive work in the world—into their everyday work. And by God’s grace, the sanctuary is the place where they learn how.