why have a workplace ministry
#1 – There’s a huge mission opportunity in the workplace that is largely being ignored.
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The workplace is full of people who don’t know Christ and don’t go to church. The vast majority of church members go to a workplace physically or connect virtually with co-workers 5 days a week.
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Christians need to obtain a biblical understanding of work and how work is meant to be conducted based on God’s principles. Christians should strive to reflect Christ in how they do their job. Christians should see their position at work as a place God has them for a time and reason that may not be known yet and not just a way to make money or gain power. Christians should see their co-workers and bosses as God’s children who in a time of need may be open to hearing the good news of salvation. But who will they reach out to at that time? Have they reflected Christ in their work interactions? Do they know you are a Christian? Do you know how to talk about your faith in the workplace?
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Additionally, most working adults will spend 50% of their waking hours in the workplace. That is a significant portion of our life. We should be actively seeking to learn and understand why we've been called to the workplace and how we should be doing work from a biblical perspective.
#2 – Over the last 150 years the world has taken God out of the foundational principles of the workplace and replaced it with greed, ego and the desire for power.
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Author Larry Burkett author of Business by the Book wrote:
If you were to review a business school textbook from the nineteenth century, you would find that most companies were privately owned sole proprietorships. Businesses expanded through equity funding or selling an interest in the business, and taxes were so inconsequential as to be an incidental entry on year-end reports.
Business principles differed then too. Honesty, ethics, and moral values were taught in the classrooms of all major business schools. Professors placed strong emphasis on a company’s responsibility toward its employees, customers, and creditors.
Why? Because prior to the twentieth century, business courses, and indeed business schools themselves, were based on biblical principles. In fact, it would be erroneous to label then “business schools”. In reality, they were biblical schools that were training future business leaders.
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Business schools now teach their own set of business standards based on man’s interpretation of how business should be conducted which changes over time as the culture changes. Moving further and further away from God’s standards. There needs to be an effort to instruct church members that are business owners or plan to be proper business ethics based on biblical principles.
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#3 – Work life balance: Provide education on helping members find the proper work life balance.
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Burnout, Absentee parent issues, improper life focus, …need to add more
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#4 – Find your calling: Christians, especially high school students need spiritual vocational assistance to find their calling and how they can live out their passion in the workplace.
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Barna Group:
The pastors who take vocational discipleship seriously, through their church programs as well as their personal connections, play a vital role in preparing Christians to faithfully engage with their daily lives and workplaces, as well as shaping those called to a future in ministry themselves.
Nearly two-fifths of pastors (38%) view faith communities as “essential” in helping Christians identify their own strengths and capabilities. They say this should be prioritized through sermons (86%), classes and tests (85%) or small groups (83%).
…there could be some missed opportunities to reach the churchgoers most likely to be in the midst of career development; few pastors report providing designated ministries or programs for singles or college students, and mentorship programs aren’t very common church offerings (20%).
The Great Commission calls us to make disciples, and this is possible whether they are pastors, missionaries or working in the marketplace.
#5 – Funding God’s Work on Earth
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How can we use business as a tool to help the poor rise up to a better life? Not by providing hand outs but by giving a hand up towards self-sufficiency. To help them stand on their own and make a better way for them and the next generation.
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#6 - God Create Us to Work
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Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
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Genesis 2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
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From the very beginning of the bible, even before the fall of man, work has been shown as an expected part of life. From work comes positive and beneficial things.
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Genesis 3:22-23 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
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[add more positive examples of work from the bible]
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Work itself was not punishment for the original sin. But work is harder now as a result. And the types of work have changed over time. But the concept of work itself hasn’t changed. Christians are meant to work. They are meant to be in the workplace. As a result, we as God's church should be actively educating and mentoring members to plant seeds in the mission field of the workplace.
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Business by its simplest definition is creating and delivering a product or service that someone is willing to pay for to fulfill a particular need or desire. Who knows more about the process of creating than the creator? And the majority of products and services people consume are provided by businesses. So why shouldn’t we be learning God’s way of creating as it relates to business?