Seven of us from various parts of the city and various occupations met for an informal lunch high atop one of the city’s skyscrapers. We were there, however, not to take in the view—which was impressive—or to enjoy the meal—which was good. Rather, we were there—laypeople and church professionals alike—to share our concerns about the need for churches to help their members live their faith where they spend so much of their lives: work.

One by one, people shared their pilgrimage of faith and seemed glad and a little surprised to find that they were not journeying alone as they had felt they were. Rather, at least six others, and many more whom each of us knew about, had struggled with the same concern: how churches could do a better job helping their members live their faith at work.

Now the time had come to think about what we wanted to happen. If church members actually lived their faith at work and churches actually did an effective job in preparing them to do so, what would all of this look like? If the video camera were filming what went on at work, what would people of faith be doing as they lived their faith where they worked? What actions would they be taking to demonstrate their faith? Furthermore, what would the churches be doing to prepare them to do so?

I suggest some things I believe churches would look like if they were doing the most effective job of preparing their people for living their faith in the world of work. Here are eleven ways churches can take action to help their members—women as well as men, don’t forget—live their faith in the world of work. These eleven ways offer sketches of possibilities, some of which some churches already have put into practice. If churches were preparing their people for living their faith in the world of work, churches would...

 Here is a list of some possibilities:

1)  Acknowledge the Problem and Its Seriousness

When researchers undertook a study of how Christians related to the world of work, they looked at the programs and materials, including religious education materials, of many church groups. What they found was a great scarcity of materials and a lack of concern in this area. My personal acquaintance with church programs and with religious curriculum materials as a pastor, writer, editor, curriculum planner, and participant supports this conclusion.

Another leader in this area tells of having met with a group on the topic of linking faith and work. He asked them to suggest one way their pastor had helped them in this area. He gave them two weeks to think about it. Only one out of twenty-seven could name even one way! He broadened it to include fellow church members. Only two out of the twenty-seven could name anyone. They did not blame their pas­tor or their church. They rather simply came to realize that they themselves had focused very little on the matter of living faith in the world of work.

An advertisement for a multivolume set of sermons just crossed my desk. Each volume deals with a different subject, with almost twenty volumes listed. All sorts of subjects of sermons are included—prayer, worship, suffering, hope, family, and many others. Guess what’s missing? A clue: it’s where people spend a third of their lives. One reason there’s not a volume of sermons on the subject of work is that there wouldn’t be enough of them to fill a pamphlet, much less a book, up to now.

In study sessions I have led, I have found people grateful and enthusiastic about the opportunity to deal with this area, however. One woman, a nurse, said she could not remember a time when she had had an opportunity in the church setting to talk about her Christian min­istry at work as well as the frustrations of living faith at work.

In general, laypeople tend to have that attitude, while professional church leadership tend not to quite understand what all the fuss is about and why the matter is of such importance. A professional church leader said to me, not critically but with concern, when he participated in my seminar and heard what must have seemed to him like a dooms­day message, “lf it’s as bad as all that, I’m troubled about what we’ve been doing in the church.” I wanted to say in response: “Hooray!”

The first step toward fixing the problem is to admit that it exists and is more serious than professional church leaders imagine. Professional ministers tend to be, understandably but erroneously, most concerned about keeping the programs of the institutional church going, however much they may talk about the “ministry of the laity.” They would do well to keep track of how often and how pointedly their words and actions, including the programs they promote, speak with directness to life in the working world, and encourage laypeople to live out their faith there rather than on the church’s property.

Laypeople involved in the world of work who cannot see the seriousness of the problem might well consider themselves fortunate indeed. They might also do well to consider undertaking a little investigation of their own to determine whether they have an especially helpful church and a great place to work, or simply have developed a set of blinders that keeps them from seeing the difficulties.

With regularity, churches recognize the skills of laypeople only when churches need to “use” these “worldly” skills in the church’s institutional service. For example, the schoolteacher is needed to teach church school; the banker or accountant is entrusted as the church trea­surer. This use of members’ skills is not necessarily bad; it’s just not enough. At the same time as these churches seek out and use their members’ skills for the church’s institutional life, these churches rarely affirm these same people for using their skills as people of faith in the workplace. Further, churches seldom prepare these same people to live out their faith as they exercise their skills on the job.

So what happens? Church members see the institutional church as having less and less relevance for their lives. A tragic byproduct of the churches’ neglect to help people connect their work with their faith is that many workers then reason that work and faith have no connection. Indeed, workers may see a contradiction between what goes on at church and what goes on at work. The result is, while work must go on, church need not go on, not for them at any rate.

Even if people continue to participate in church activities, even on a fairly regular basis, the church’s calls for actions—whether these actions involve traditionally “liberal” or traditionally “conservative” tasks—tend to be ignored. Why bother to get very excited about some­body else’s goals when the church is not very concerned about my own needs where I spend a third of my life—at work? People may be reluc­tant to voice these concerns. After all, who’s listening? But they act on them weekly, demonstrating by their uninvolvement or passive involvement their feelings about a church that is uninvolved with them.

 2)  Find the True Center of the Church’s Universe

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) was a Polish astronomer who came up with an unusual theory for his day. Everybody in the Western world except Copernicus followed the theory of a man named Ptolemy, who had lived 1400 years earlier. Ptolemy said that the earth was the center of the universe and that the earth did not move. Rather, all the heavenly bodies revolved around the earth. That’s what it looked like to Copernicus’s contemporaries when they looked at the sky.

Copernicus doubted this theory, however. He said instead that the earth was not the center of the universe and that the earth did move. A hundred or so years later, Galileo demonstrated the truth of Coperni­cus’s ideas. Copernicus was deceased by the time Galileo got into serious trouble, which resulted in Copernicus’s book being banned for 200 years.(Maybe the controversy caused sales to shoot up after that - I’m not sure). If an author’s work is going to get him into trouble, most authors would prefer it to happen 200 years after they’ve passed from the scene, of course! The down side is the royalties are delayed past the time they’re of much use!

The point is, this same kind of refocusing of the church’s view of the center of the universe needs to take place today. Churches—mainly professional ministers of the church—tend to think the center of the church’s universe is the church’s property and the church’s activities. Such thinking is natural, understandable, inaccurate, and deadening.

As we saw in an earlier chapter, the place to which people of faith have been sent to minister is the world, not merely the church. Elton Trueblood’s words are as true now as when he wrote them nearly forty-five years ago: “The message is that the world is one, secular and sacred, and that the chief way to serve the Lord is in our daily work.”

Do you know how the course of a large oceangoing vessel is changed? Of course, it’s changed by turning the wheel that turns the rudder. But the wheel doesn’t actually, directly, turn the rudder itself. What does? It’s one little part of the rudder called the trim tab. The trim tab actually turns the rudder, and the rudder turns the ship.

This particular step, focusing the life of the church on what happens beyond the church walls rather than on what happens within them, functions as the trim tab for changing how the church helps peo­ple relate to the world of work. The new, true center of the church’s universe must be the world, not the church, the church building, or church activities. And a large part of that world is the world of work.

 3)  Recognize Members’ Ministry in the World of Work

A woman studied at a fine seminary and then served in several positions that many people would readily call “ministry.” She then began to work, however, for the federal government as a crisis negotiator in civil rights problems. She also served faithfully and well in leadership posi­tions in her church. Which would you and your church refer to as ministry—her former fulltime positions with the church, her current volunteer positions with the church, or her work with the federal government? My friend referred to her work with the federal government as the greatest opportunity for ministry she had ever had.

A young doctor became concerned about the difference in the kind of medical care that inner-city residents on welfare received and that which paying customers in nicer hospitals received. He became concerned enough, out of Christian motivations, to decide to work in the inner-city hospital, although the pay was considerably less than what he might have expected to receive. Making ends meet financially was not easy, especially with a family of college-bound children.

The young doctor believed he made the right choice. His church, however, did not recognize that the work setting he had chosen was in any way related to ministry. If he had gone to a hospital in Africa to perform the same kind of service, his church likely would have recog­nized him and supported him in many ways, perhaps even including financial support. Instead, his church seemed a bit concerned that it could not get the doctor to minister in his church—meaning, in his church building in institutional organizations.

Was the young doctor’s work rightly called ministry? How should the church have responded to him and his actions?

Or consider a church member who is highly respected at his place of work. In fact, he is known as the catalyst who makes things happen for good in his division. Interestingly, few people at his metropolitan church even know where and how he spends his days, much less the good he does there, even though many of his coworkers would not hesitate to apply the word “ministry” to what he does.

Similar stories of people who see their work as ministry could be multiplied. What interest does the church have in knowing about them and recognizing the ministry that occurs? Much. If the church is truly to focus on the true center of its universe, then it must identify and recognize people who model ministry in the world of work already.

A saying in business is that only what is inspected—and rewarded—gets done. Today, the church’s rhetoric may encourage defining min­istry as taking place beyond the church’s walls—in the office, the factory, the community, the home. In reality, however, the church tends to recognize and praise participation in church activities.

People of faith who already have found opportunity for ministry in their work are not doing so to be thanked or recognized, of course. Still, a little recognition and encouragement would help, and it would heighten the visibility of such actions so that others would follow the example. But how? Here are some possibilities for churches:

·  Members could be given opportunity to share with their church, or a small group within their church, what they do for a living, how it helps people, and how they see their occupation as an opportunity for ministry.

·  This sharing could take place orally as well as in the church bulletins.

·  The ministry opportunities members have could be recognized in worship settings, through litanies and prayers.

·  Whenever “ministry” is mentioned by church leaders, the language used should include the ministry that takes place beyond the church walls, including ministry at work.

 4)  Provide Study Opportunities on Relating Faith and Work

Study opportunities on relating faith and work can aid church members in thinking about and clarifying how their faith applies to their work. Appropriate ways of providing such study opportunities include elective study sessions on this topic, special studies in retreat settings, and emphasis on this topic in the ongoing religious education program of the church. Such study opportunities should involve not merely the presentation of intellectual content about the subject but, more important, time for hearing the stories of how the people in the study group struggle with living out their faith in the world of work.

 5)  Develop Vocational Support Groups

One research project in the area of work and faith has identified support groups meeting regularly as an important vehicle for helping laypeople relate their work to their faith. Churches might consider for a special event gathering people in groups of five to ten simply to talk about and learn about how to live the Christian faith in the world of work. These groups could be formed by vocations, so as to facilitate conversation specifically about applying faith to that particu­lar line of work. These vocational groups could be formed so as to continue on an ongoing basis. Another possibility is for the church to structure its existing groups so that the matter of living faith in one’s vocation is addressed regularly and group members receive the support they need.

However the groups are formed, they are needed. William E. Diehl states:

"I firmly believe that if business people can be brought into Christian support groups much will happen in their faith lives. The small group will be their linkage between Sunday faith and weekday life. I know from experience that it is true."

 6)  Provide Worship Experiences on Relating Faith to Daily Work

Mention of the challenges people face in the world of work should occur regularly in worship services. Prayers, sermons, and litanies would provide appropriate settings.

Clergy worship leaders will have to be careful that they do not make pronouncements about things they know little or nothing about, however. Many clergy will need to do a great deal more listening to the experiences of people in the world of work before they can offer more than surface help.

One way of enabling the worship leader to stay in touch authenti­cally with these experiences is to talk with—and, more important, listen to—a representative of a given vocation during the week. The worship leader could explore the following areas with the person: (1) What are your joys in your work? (2) What are your frustrations? (3) What would you like to include in a prayer for you and others in your particular area of work? A prayer or litany could then be constructed on the basis of the concerns discovered.

A church might also consider asking people to attend a worship service dressed as when they go to work. This would also be a test of whether the church truly shows no partiality as James 2 com­mands, or is maintaining a social caste system based on work status. Americans are heavily influenced by social class, with the kind of work one does being a major determinant of social class. This worship service would also provide an excellent opportunity for commissioning these members to ministry in their vocational settings.

According to a recent study, work is among the subjects that ser­mons are least likely to address. Yet most members of congregations wish that sermons would address the subject more often. Moreover, the members’ satisfaction with their congregation was greater when sermons addressed workplace issues.

 7)  Teach Diligently the Basics of the Faith

Good news! One study found that people who were more strongly grounded in the teachings of their faith tended to be more effective in relating their faith to their work. This finding reaffirms the importance of the church’s teaching task.

 8)  Provide Career Counseling and Employment Assistance

Many churches need to be more proactive in showing a concern for members’ welfare. They thus need to demonstrate more concern for their members’ work life as well as their family life and their individ­ual spiritual life. Career counseling and employment assistance are services that would offer significant help to members in these days of job uncertainty. Professionals in these areas could provide this service as a portion of their ministry.

 9)  Plan and Schedule Church Programs Sensitively

Most church participants face a myriad of demands on their time. Commuting to and from work in metropolitan areas can easily run to two hours per day. Companies are calling for extensions of work time for many salaried workers and overtime for nonsalaried ones.

Harriett, wife of Ozzie, isn’t at home anymore; Harriett has a job, too. Further, the “Bill Cosby Show;” depicting an upper middle class, two-career family with endless amounts of time at home, is available only in reruns. Families and individuals are harried and hurried.

Every demand has to prove its worth these days, and that includes the demands of church programs. If churches are to attract participants to church programs and activities, church leaders must make certain of the following:

·  Every church program is carefully planned and presented.

·  Activities are carefully prioritized and made to justify their existence.

·  Activities are scheduled at times when people are available to attend them—especially activities for women, since between 55 and 60 percent of them now work outside the home.

·  Guilt is not heaped on people for not attending activities that are not truly designed for them.

·  Trust is extended to members as they make choices and set priorities for their participation.

 10)  Advocate a Humanized Workplace

A survey by Barciauskas and Hull revealed basically two attitudes about how dual-career or single-parent families should approach the adjustments needed in the world of work. Some suggested that making the needed adjustments was up to the individual, while others sug­gested that workplaces themselves should adjust. The truth is, it probably is both-and, not either-or. If churches do not advocate changes, they should at least raise the issue so that decision makers in their congregations will be challenged to think about it.

One ministry that CEOs, managers, and business owners in the church could perform is to bring their faith into policy matters at their companies by advocating company policies that would humanize the workplace. Many business leaders believe that humanizing the workplace is not merely good faith but good business, in fact.

Also, people need information about how government can affect the welfare of families negatively and positively. Churches can provide this information and encourage consideration of it without engaging in partisan politics.

Some may wonder, where is the justification for the church’s using this approach of advocacy? Read the little book of Philemon in the New Testament where Paul advocates freedom for a runaway slave named Onesimus.

 11)  Develop Approaches for Listening

A researcher on the effects of technology on the world of work said she learned through her research that people have a lot to say about their work, but that few people are willing to listen. That unwilling­ness to listen extends to the church, too. The church, however, might have a more ready audience for its message if it were more willing to show that it cared about the audience by first listening to them.

There is some indication, too, that allowing people to tell their stories about something they are doing, some skill they have, some technique they use, enables them to get better at it. Living faith in the world of work fits in this category. People will get better at it when they have a chance to talk about it with fellow pilgrims on the journey.

In fact, providing opportunities to listen to people of faith tell their stories may well be the most important thing churches can do to help them. Listening is the beginning point for whatever other approaches the church decides to employ. And now it’s time to get to work, with our faith.

Excerpted from Go to Work and Take Your Faith Too!  Publisher: Peake Road  Copyright 1997 written by  Ross West.  Ross is a writer, speaker, seminar leader, and consultant for businesses and churches on the topic of faith in the workplace.  Content distributed by WorkLife.org > used for non-profit  teaching purposes only.