Bahnsen Discusses Why Work Matters and Christians in The Marketplace During Talks at NGU
Posted on: February 27, 2024
“Work matters because God made us to be workers and producers.”
Those thoughts from financial advisor David L. Bahnsen are the premise of his new book, “Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life,” and were at the core of his messages to North Greenville University (NGU) students, faculty, staff and friends on February 22-23.
“David Bahnsen is one of the most interesting thinkers on faith and work in the United States,” said NGU Provost Dr. Hunter Baker. “I am amazed at his level of energy and his ability to remain fully plugged into markets and fully intellectually engaged as a Christian at the same time. His visit was tremendously stimulating for NGU.”
Bahnsen took part in three speaking engagements on NGU’s Tigerville campus, fielding questions and articulating a biblical theology for Christians in the workplace.
“Our work ultimately does help us provide for our families, donate to churches, and give us status amongst men, but those are not the fundamental reasons why work matters,” he said.
“God created us in his image,” Bahnsen continued. “God, as the creator of the world, who made all things from nothing, has asked us to create things from what he gave us. Work is not merely a means. It is an end.”
Bahnsen is the founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of The Bahnsen Group, a national private wealth management firm managing more than $5 billion in client assets.
He is a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox News, and Fox Business and is a regular contributor to National Review.
Prior to launching The Bahnsen Group, he spent eight years as a managing director at Morgan Stanley and six years as a vice president at UBS.
Bahnsen is consistently named one of the top financial advisors in America by Barron’s, Forbes, and the Financial Times. He is a regular lecturer for the Acton Institute and the Center for Cultural Leadership.
“I desperately pray that some part of my legacy will be making the case for Christians to be the hardest working, least mediocre, and most superlative in their chosen field,” he said, addressing students, faculty and staff in Turner Chapel on Friday morning. “When I think of all the areas where we can have an impact on our culture right now, I can think of nothing that contains more embedded power, leverage, capability and opportunity than Christians engaging their work with this grand vision—that work is the very reason we are here.”
Bahnsen elaborated on these ideas and fielded dozens of questions throughout his appearances at NGU.
“The embedded leverage, impact, and influence that we can have in the marketplace is exponentially greater than in the political sphere,” he said. “That doesn’t make the political sphere irrelevant, but we are missing opportunities as Christians if we do not engage the marketplace.
“We do not work merely digging a hole in the ground for no reason,” he added. “God cares about the subject of the work, and he cares about the object of the work. The subject and the object are always and forever personified. They are human beings. They are image bearers.”
Bahnsen is the author of several best-selling books, including “Crisis of Responsibility: Our Cultural Addiction to Blame and How You Can Cure It,” “The Case for Dividend Growth: Investing in a Post-Crisis World,” and “There’s No Free Lunch: 250 Economic Truths.”
