Every year, Gallup runs studies on job satisfaction — and every year, the results are worse. People feel stuck, unfulfilled, and disconnected from any deeper purpose in their work. But what if the problem isn't the job? What if it's the paradigm?

In this episode of FaithWorks Lancaster: Conversations on Calling, we sit down with Pastor John Pletcher — lead pastor of Manor Church in Lancaster, PA, author of Henry's Glory, and a longtime voice in the faith and work movement — to talk about what it actually looks like to find lasting significance in your daily work.

John shares the personal story that sparked his passion for this topic: a father who loved Jesus deeply and was gifted at working on cars, but who could never see those two things as connected. That painful compartmentalization — what John calls "pie life" — is at the heart of why so many believers feel a nagging sense that their work doesn't really matter.

We dig into the Hebrew roots of the word for "work" in Genesis, what it means that Jesus spent years as a tektone before his public ministry, the difference between satisfaction (something you seek) and significance (something you uncover), and why Eugene Peterson called the workplace "the primary realm for spiritual formation." Whether you're turning wrenches, teaching students, or managing spreadsheets — this conversation is for you.