Whether we live in San Diego, New York City, or Reidsville, GA, every church leader I know yearns to influence our community-at-large for Jesus Christ. Our minds race during moments of inspiration (often at 2:00 A.M.), as we attempt to develop increasingly effective ministry models. We long for men, women, and children to experience a life-saving, life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ, and to share in the authentic Christ-centered community found within our church small groups. We train and challenge our church members to seek opportunities to discuss eternal issues, and we offer strategic events for them to attract their friends to the abundant life found within our church community.

Yet even in the best of times, most of us wrestle with a sense that while we're experiencing numerical and/or spiritual growth within our church, the community-at-large is racing by us as if we're in the bleachers rather than on the playing field. The fact that the world bears little indication of our efforts gnaws at us. Perhaps that's because we're focusing most of our time on pulling people out of the world to be ministered to, rather than intentionally equipping them to minister in the world.

The workplace is the world's playing field. Most Americans spend seventy percent or more of their waking hours in the workplace. It's where life, or at least most of it, is invested and spent. It's where character is forged or compromised. It's where Christians most often rub elbows with non-Christians. It's where values like achievement and productivity can push aside relationships and honesty. It's where Jesus invested most of his ministry, among everyday working people in everyday working environments.

Yet most of us look upon the workplace and see closed doors. In a culture where time is the only irreplaceable commodity, and everything is measured by the almighty dollar, the workplace seems least likely to value God's message of love, truth, and sacrifice.

But looks can be deceiving. Just as God told Samuel that, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart"  (1 Samuel 7 NIV), we must not make the mistake of making assumptions based on outward appearances. Instead, we should equip Christians to gauge and grasp the ministry opportunities within their workplaces. Our culture has taught people to gain their value from their work. Predictably, most people are struggling to find meaning and purpose in life. Unfortunately, many people will spend most, if not all of their lives, continuing to search the workplace for fulfillment, before hopelessly giving up, without ever giving the church a serious consideration. This searching has evolved into a growing openness to spirituality in the workplace as reported in sources such as Forbes and Fortune magazines, The Wall Street Journal, and a wealth of new workplace ministry books. Yet local churches have largely missed the opportunities at hand.

I'm guessing that most readers will agree that two of the most significant church movements of the last 25 years are the renewed emphasis on the "priesthood of all believers" (raising the value of every Christian while helping them identify how God has created them for ministry), and the resurgence of the small group or cell church models (seeking to share life much like the community of believers in Acts 2). Imagine the impact we could make if local churches combined the "priesthood of all believers" truth with the small group movement, and took them to the places where most Christians spend the vast majority of their waking hours, and where pre-Christians are searching for meaning in life. By identifying, equipping, mobilizing, and resourcing Christians within our churches to minister within their sphere of influence at work, we could unleash the most effective indigenous evangelism and discipleship forces in the world within the world's largest and most fertile mission field, AND grow our churches at unprecedented rates of numerical and spiritual growth.

To successfully bring this vision to fruition, most of us will need to adjust our boundaries a bit. It's time we stop clipping our own wings by acknowledging the gifts and uniqueness of each church member, only to squeeze them into a role within our predefined church ministries. Richard Halverson, chaplain of the United States Senate for fifteen years, put it this way:

There is a difference between church work and the work of the church. When church work is being done, the church is gathered and visible, as on Sunday morning. When the work of the church is being done, the church is scattered and invisible, like Monday morning... The work of the church is what the members of the church do between Sundays - business, industry, homemaking, education, sales, agriculture. Like salt, the church is doing its work when scattered, when penetrating...

We must acknowledge that the work of the church is as important as church work. We must also be careful that we do not overly define what is or is not a church small group. If we are going to charge and deploy Christians to minister in each of their own unique workplaces, we must give them as much flexibility as possible to develop the ministry according to their own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. With this flexibility, there comes a much greater need to employ workplace or work-life resources dedicated to helping Christ-followers effectively minister within their arena of work-life influence.

The opportunity before us is huge. What's keeping you from influencing the world from the inside out?   

Written by Doug Spada and John Crosby, copyright WorkLife - Content distributed by WorkLife.org>used for non-profit teaching purposes only.