May 2017 Event Recap – Sebastian Mathews

“Life in the Garden: Work as a Walk with our Heavenly Father”

Sebastian Mathews is a Senior Director at World Vision’s headquarters in Federal Way, WA, where he engages with US foundations around economic innovations that empower communities around the world.

As a strategy consultant, he has led transformation teams for corporate, government, and non-profit clients. As an entrepreneur in New York City, he co-founded three startups. He has been a program director at a United Nations initiative in Atlanta. As a corporate advisor in Johannesburg, South Africa, he worked on strategic transactions in the airports, energy, mining, oil & gas, telecoms, technology, tourism, and utility sectors in emerging markets. He has been active with non-profits, chaired a community foundation in South Africa, and piloted various community projects. Sebastian holds a Masters degree in International Business from Georgia State University, an MBA from Heriot-Watt University, a Bachelor of Commerce Honors in Finance and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Sebastian was born in India and grew up in Zambia and South Africa. He is married to Natasha, and they have two daughters Olivia (10) and Anna (3), who according to him are (probably) the only American-Indian-Persian-French Canadian children in the world. He has been active in short term missions in Africa, chaired the South African branch of the International Miners Ministry, and was a bible school dean in South Africa. Sebastian currently serves with Cedar Park Church in Bothell, WA on the GodWork360 business ministry team.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Eph 2:10 [NASB]

We all go through seasons. Increasingly many of us transition through several careers over the course of our life and certainly all of us balance multiple roles at any given time. During this journey, how we view God profoundly shapes our life work and how we understand significance and success. The “world view” or lens by which we see Jesus can either conceal or reveal our presuppositions, distort or sharpen our perspectives, diminish or enhance our passions, and ultimately confuse or clarify our purpose. Sebastian Mathews explored how a biblical worldview can seed our work and cause us to flourish, and shared some lessons gleaned from a life, like many believers, that intertwines corporate, non-profit, ministry, family, and academic fields. Sebastian is passionate about knowing God and gaining a more spirit-filled understanding of what it means to walk with our Father in the cool of the day and get a grace-filled glimpse of what He values. Our perspective on who God is and how we see ourselves affects our world view and how we live. When we get a better understanding of God, as a father who loves us and delights in our love and devotion to Him, our world view changes, along with the work we have been called to do. It is a liberating theology of God at work, delighting in and through us.

Questions:
What is your worldview about your father?
What are some presuppositions in your life?
What is your Father telling you today about Him, you, and others?