God at Work Launch Event

Publishers Continuum and Alpha International celebrated the launch of God at Work by Ken Costa on Thursday 15th March at The Law Society, London.

Robin Baird-Smith of Continuum paid tribute to Ken Costa for writing an honest account about the difficulties of applying the Christian faith in the cut-throat world of the City.

Nicky Gumbel, Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton and pioneer of the Alpha Course, said that there was ‘no one more qualified than Ken’ to write about the Christian faith in the workplace. A friend of Ken Costa since their days at Cambridge, he recalled the time when Ken was considering his future career.

‘Ken was praying about what he should be doing. Full time Christian service or whether it was banking or the City? He turned to the book of Luke and right at the end of the gospel, where Jesus told his disciples that they would receive power from on high. Ken got to this verse and got stuck on the first four words of that verse where it said ‘stay in the city’ and here we are over 30 years later and Ken has stayed in the city all those years! That is what has enabled him to write this book - he has stayed in the city and has combined that with this strong faith in Jesus Christ. It is what makes this book such an important book.’

Following his Vicar, Ken Costa gave a brief talk:

“Why write this book? Why does one want to do it? There was a moment when I asked honestly, ‘do I really want to do this to write something of this kind – some kind of practical help to others who struggle like I struggle?’

Well, the stakes are high, they really are and I think that unless we find the church is relevant to the workplace where people are spending all their time, then we should not be surprised if the churches are empty if we have got nothing to say to people doing their day to day work. This is a tiny little piece that might help in trying to work it out. I think that’s the first thing.

The second is much more exciting, I think society has just run out of energy. It really has. It hasn’t begun to understand the power of the resurrection, the newness of life, the throbbing excitement of living a life with God in a difficult and struggling place - the harshness of commercial compromise - that we all have to do every day in our workplace. And yet, this is where it is now.

We know the stakes are as high as they are. What are we going to do about? Well, we are going to live a life and we have got a life. I remember our wedding sermon which was preached on the text, ‘I came that you might have life in all its fullness.’ Sure it’s tough and sure its stressful but there is a fullness that I don’t know anyone else has. I look around at the bankruptcy of the ideas and the lack of oxygen and the lack of sense of hope for the future and I wonder to myself ‘if we don’t take a grip on this, then who is?’”

Ken ended by thanking the congregation of HTB and paid tribute to those who had helped to bring the book to publication and also to his family.

“They have been an amazing support as have you. I really want you to buy as many copies as possible! Check out the website. Buy the book! I want to thank you very much for being here.”