Work must be indivisible from prayer, prayer indivisible from work. Our work is thus a form of worship, since our faith and daily life are inseparable, forming a single whole. Even the most mundane task, if done as for Christ in a spirit of love and dedication, can be consecrated to God as an act of prayer. To pray in words but not in deeds is hypocrisy.

Work is a command of God and has intrinsic worth. He gave the earth to humankind to enjoy, cultivate, and care for in reverence as good stewards in his stead. Therefore, we honor work on the land. We honor physical work – the exertion of muscle and hand – and the craftsman’s creativity and precision. We honor the activity of the mind and soul too: the inspired work of the artist, the scholar’s exploration of nature and history, the enterprise of the inventor, the skill of the professional. Whatever form our work takes, we are called to do it to the best of our ability in service to the kingdom of God.

Work within the church community is not primarily an economic activity valued on the basis of profit or productivity. No kind of work brings either privilege or stigma: work in the community laundry is valued as highly as the work of an expert technician or doctor. We are all brothers and sisters, none higher and none lower. Thus there can be no place in our common life for contractual obligations or relationships based on control, as between a master and servant. We are called to give witness to a different social and economic order based on faith, love, and mutual trust.

Because our work is integral to our calling, we cannot accept payment for it from the church community or from one another. Care in the form of food, housing, medical care, and other personal subsistence expenses is received not as a right or in proportion to services rendered, but according to need. Consistent with members’ vow of poverty and the faith and practice of our common life, all members, novices, and guests and their dependents who participate in the church community do so on a voluntary basis without expectation of wages, salary, vacation, or compensation of any kind.

To work in the service of love is our joy. We contribute our talents and energies in whatever ways we are able until the end of our lives. Our vocation is not a trade or profession, but rather the common life itself; none of us has a career. We agree to work wherever we are needed, regardless of our preferences or prior training and experience, ready to change at any time from one task to another.

Each Bruderhof appoints work distributors to coordinate the common work. They must attend to the welfare of all who work and ensure that those unable to work are cared for.

Income from the church community businesses is used to fulfill our mission: spreading the gospel, building up and sustaining community life, carrying on educational work, offering hospitality to visitors, and giving aid to the needy.

Of necessity, these businesses engage with an economic system whose values can be at variance with those that guide our life within the church community. All the more, every enterprise of the church community must reflect and yield to our mission and witness, even at the expense of efficiency or profitability:

Solidarity:  Christ’s Golden Rule – to do to others as we would have done to ourselves – requires solidarity with all people and respect for their dignity as fellow human beings made in the image of God. To treat others merely as the means to an economic end is a sin.

Ethical practice:  Scripture requires that we act honestly, respecting the law of the land and having regard for the rights and needs of others. The way we conduct business ought to be a testimony to this.

Workmanship:  We strive to work industriously and to maintain a high quality of workmanship in all we do, as an expression of the love we put into our work.

Stewardship of creation:  Nature is a work of God that reveals his love and glory; he entrusted it to our care. Reverence for his creation ought to guide us in relation to our use of the earth and its resources.

We recognize that any income earned by church community businesses is ultimately not our own achievement, but a provision from God to be used for his service.

* This online version of Foundations is for reference only. For the authoritative version, see the print edition.