Faith and Work
He leads me …
Gallup did a survey a few years ago called ‘What the Whole Wide World is Thinking’. They found what they consider to be the single largest finding in the history of Gallup—that people care more about their work than anything else. The CEO of Gallup said, ‘Humans used to desire love, money, food, shelter, safety, peace, and freedom more than anything else. The last 30 years have changed us. Now what they want is a good job.’
City to City Director of Global Strategic Services Missy Wallace encourages churches to equip every believer to be ‘Christ’ wherever they have influence – especially in their workplace. The following is a summary of how Missy sees modern day evangelism and discipleship working.
For any pastor, if they are trying to impact their city, they should point out to those in their church that the most important place they are spending their time according to Gallup, is in their work place. If the pastor can then help the believers understand how their faith impacts in bringing change to their city, some momentum should then develop in encouraging people with an active faith the workplace.
The congregants will be encouraged to see the brokenness where they work, and how can they join God in His liberating plan for the world by pushing against that brokenness. In this way churches will equip people to go into their place of work with a clear vision and be effective.
The church will need to know how to help and disciple their followers to help them consider what being a Christian in their place of work actually means. Missy says that this is the role of the church if they really want to have a biblical mission.
Faith and work is the view that the gospel changes everything about our work. First, our faith should enable us to be in touch with the Spirit. As well as this vertical relationship between us and Christ, it is also a place with a horizontal relationship with our community, where thankfulness, gratitude and love of what Christ has done, enables us to love the people around us.
Then, we can consider that our workplace has some goodness. We can identify those areas which can be built on, and then identify the broken systems and how to oppose them in a positive way. It is important to think about faith and work with these aspects in mind.
This is natural evangelism. It is how we impact our community. It is how we impact our world. It is how God uses our workplace to develop us as well. Our response should be using our job to bless others and to push against the darkness.
Even if we do not work, we have an area of influence, and the principles covered here apply just as much to Christians who do not have a work place to go to.
If we are a CEO, we can make a lot of decisions about how things are going to work. But if we work on the factory floor making widgets, we obviously do not have the same impact. However, we all have some ability to impact and love the community around us.[1]
Most of us learn using the Greek system which focuses on reasoning, logic and oratory skills. The same applies in the church which is why it is generally limited in its effectiveness. The early Christians learned obedience primarily through obeying the Holy Spirit, not so much by reason and analysis. They were taught by modelling, not by teaching information. The Greek method of learning reduces the supernatural because it depends on logic and reasoning in every situation rather than by living by the power of the Holy Spirit which is being led by God.
What the church can do is use those who know how we can interact with the Holy Spirit to show how it is done. If this is not possible, other people’s experiences can be used to indicate how this relationship works. The following two stories are examples of this.
Doug sat in his assigned seat in the economy class of the aircraft. As the doors shut, he heard his name being called. He was then informed that he was being upgraded to first class. He had never flown with this airline before so he wondered how he got upgraded. However, not to miss the opportunity, he gladly accepted.
Doug’s seat was next to an executive who seemed to be very irritated. He was well dressed and appeared to be very successful and wealthy. Doug wondered what God might do with this situation which seemed unusual but divinely appointed. He wanted to move supernaturally in his walk with God and be able to speak into other’s lives, so he prayed in his head, ‘Lord, tell me something about this man so that he knows that You know him’. Just then the words ‘finance’ and then ‘financial services’ popped into his mind. Now he had to decide whether this was God answering his prayer, it was just his own thoughts.
He decided to take a risk and go for it. Turning to the man Doug said, ‘I understand you are in financial services’. The irritated executive looked at him and said, ‘Yes I am, but how in the world would YOU know that?’ Doug was amazed at God’s work but asked, ‘Do you really want to know how I know that?’ ‘Yes, I would.’ Doug said ‘The Lord told me’ ‘What?’ the man replied. Doug continued, ‘Well, when I sat down I prayed for you and I asked God to tell me something about you. God told me specifically that you were in financial services.’
The man was not sure what to make of this but began to have a conversation with Doug. It turned out the man was the CEO of one of the largest financial services company in the US – a 32 billion dollar company with global influence. Doug then shared the rest of the flight with the man talking to him about the integration of faith with work and business. The man did not accept Christ, but he experienced a touch of the Kingdom of God in a very personal way that is hoped will help him to come into the Kingdom. It was a supernatural seed – planting encounter.[2]
R.G. LeTourneau, was a successful businessman from the United States, who in the early 1900s rose to prominence in the competitive world of manufacturing and construction. Through a lifetime of business ventures, this engineering genius put faith into action and reaped big rewards.
Initially he wrestled with the secular versus full-time Christian work idea. The turning point in his understanding of how God desires to use businesses for His glory occurred when his pastor one day said to him, ‘You know, brother LeTourneau, God needs businessmen as well as preachers and missionaries.’
‘Those were the words that guided my life ever since,’ LeTourneau said. ‘I repeat them in public at every opportunity because I have discovered that many men have the same mistaken idea I had of what it means to serve the Lord. My idea was if a man was going all out for God, he would have to be what we call a full-time Christian worker. I didn’t realize that a layman could serve the Lord as well as a preacher.’
LeTourneau left the parsonage in bit of a daze, but said, ‘All right, if that is what God wants me to be, I will try to be His businessman.’ LeTourneau later was known for giving 90% of his income to Christian causes.[3]
In our areas of influence we may occasionally get to share something of the gospel in conversation. But we should always share the gospel in what we say and do. If we live out fairness, integrity, love, forgiveness, grace, inclusiveness, and celebrate the good when we see it, we are well on track for the Holy Spirit to guide us in how to be really effective for Him.
Dear Reader – If you have found some value in this blog, please feel free to send a copy on to your family and friends. Kind regards, John
[1] A Holistic Understanding of Creative Goodness in the Workplace, Missy Wallace, Redeemer City to City
[2] Four Types of Christians in the Workplace, Os Hillman, Impactus | Promise Keepers;
https://www.impactus.org/articles/four-types-christians-workplace/
[3] R.G. LeTourneau, Mover of Men and Mountains (Chicago: Moody Press, 1967), 109-110.
