The Road To Revival

Greetings, everyone connected with At Work On Purpose! 2012 is here, and it’s going to be quite a trip!

Speaking of trips, many of you traveled during Christmas and New Year’s. I pray everyone is back safely, with wonderful and heart-felt stories. Traveling is unique, because it takes into account time and distance. It’s a journey. As we travel, we also have great opportunities to grow spiritually. So, you can see, our path through this life has different elements.

This is no ordinary ROAD

It takes into account different scenery, fellowship with different passengers, and different obstacles along our way. So many Christians yearn for ANY kind of revival. And each month, we will experience travels through time, space, and spiritual growth. These will challenge us, encourage us, and direct us to the God who has laid out our spiritual maps for maximum spiritual and kingdom impact!

What can I do?

While traveling along our individual paths through life, we can broadcast Christ through our speech, our actions, and our very lives. People will see the love of our Lord through business dealings, contract negotiations, supplier / vendor relationships, and through our dealings with fellow workers, family and friends.

When our own roads become rough or filled with obstacles, what will our friends see? Impatience? Attitudes that don’t reflect Biblical principles? Complaining? Or patience and endurance? If we are blessed by over-abundance, will we get frustrated by all the “stuff” that now doesn’t get done?

Lord, YOU are THE authority, so prayer is the mandatory first step

He will bring you business, or steer business to others. He will be with you through ANY change in direction, taking you down a different road. In all cases, prayerful requests and submission to God mark the beginning of great achievement.

“Lord, we pray that Your hand would be upon us through 2012. The ‘Doomsday’ predictors have NO authority over what happens or what doesn’t happen this year. YOU are THE authority. Please align us with Your Holy Hand, and guide us in our daily lives to prepare and be part of a great harvest of souls. Whether we are praying on the streets for Harvest Evangelism, piloting Biznistries® down the runways of compassion in serving, joining forces in Open Door Academy on the electronic highways of trusted academia, actively promoting Christ every day in the halls and corridors of our work places, behind the scenes along the paths in worthwhile projects in other countries or within our own cities, we place our trust and our faith in YOU. It doesn’t matter what direction the road takes or how many happen to be with us. As long as we are following Your lead, Lord, we win. And we pray we all do in 2012. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

- Lee Kresser

Coming of Age

Do you remember when you were transitioning from teenager to a young adult? When you were, as we like to say, “coming of age”? In those earlier years, we found ourselves half child and half adult, trying to secure our identity and seize our future at the same time.

I believe that work matures us spiritually in a similar fashion. The ministry side of work is typically unfamiliar to us, and we make halting progress – much like a child. Meanwhile, the “weekend church goer” in us is more seasoned and adept with the non-work aspects of spiritual life – much like an adult.

Taking Work Spiritually in Stride
Celebrate the discomfort you may feel as you grow in your capacity to be a minister in the marketplace. Just like a good weight lifting session, where we grow stronger through tiny tears in our muscles, we also grow more mature in Christ as we begin to take work ministry more “spiritually in stride”.

You’ll know you’re maturing spiritually at work when you begin to see God working through others to effect change, even when you had no direct contribution. It means you’ve developed the spiritual capacity to see work life ministry “on the move” through God’s ongoing initiative in the people around you.

Background Battles

I believe one of Satan’s greatest strategies has been to lead the local church to a mindset where the marketplace is viewed a venue to fund ministry, but not a venue for ministry. Where work is seen spiritually as nothing more than an “economic engine” generating financial resources for ministry, work becomes only marginally significant to ministry.

So many of us have fallen into this trap. We go to work and earn a paycheck. Then we go to church and give a portion of that paycheck to God as a tithe or offering, believing this has fulfilled our spiritual obligations and opportunities as working Christians.

In reality, marketplace funding for ministry is just the “tip of the iceberg” for ministry in the marketplace. Not only are there abundant ministry service opportunities at work, there is also the spiritual warfare that can come with it.

Satan is not happy when we awaken to the idea that we can pray for our colleagues at work; spend time encouraging them; meeting felt needs at work and home; and even witnessing to fellow workers when God creates a pathway.

Embrace the spiritual realities that work is filled with ministry service, and that service will sometimes spark spiritual warfare in which Satan will try to distract, discourage or even derail our progress. Like in Hebrews 10:23, which says to “hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering”, the phrase “holding fast” means to embrace with force as if someone is trying to take something from you.

I’m up for the challenge. Are you?

Eyes to See

We Christians have been so conditioned to see ministry opportunities in the context of local church ministry, or outreach missionary efforts, that we miss ministry opportunities right in front of us at work. Ministry at work is typically not part of a coordinated “program,” because it is unique to the work environment where God has placed us.

This does NOT mean work place ministry opportunities are any less significant spiritually. It simply means they are usually less observed, appreciated and handled. We don’t have to go through special training to start seeing ministry needs at work. We just need to start seeing issues and challenges at work through spiritual eyes.

Spiritual Eyes at Work
Last week I received a voicemail from a client I’ve worked with for years. She had just learned the wife of one of her employees was suffering emotionally from years of chronic illness in their household. The employer wanted to help but didn’t know what to do. The employee was afraid he would be seen as a “liability” at work if it were widely known that his wife was depressed and needed attention. The wife was not expecting help from anywhere, but especially not from an employer who provides just a paycheck.

I was so excited to find the employer was eager to be helpful, and had called me to ask for advice. We discussed next steps, and she is now acting on them. Here’s the bottom line: she’s following through to serve the employee’s wife because she has God’s heart to help, even though she is a spiritual seeker and not a Christian!

What about you? Have you developed spiritual eyes to see ministry needs at work?

Marketplace Minefields

"Marketplace” and “ethics” can easily seem to be contradictory terms. Every week we read in the news about the latest marketplace scandal. Every month we hear of a colleague who was hurt by impropriety at work. Every year we watch someone famous fall from grace, and we think to ourselves, “how the mighty have fallen”.

A colleague recently sent me an article from the Christian press, advancing the view that capitalism and Christianity are fundamentally incompatible. In this line of thinking, the profit-making motive of the marketplace is irreconcilable with the views of Christianity.

Let me suggest that, as Christians in the marketplace, our challenge is not to walk away from the dark recesses of work. But, instead, bring the light of Christ to the darkness we find! I believe, as Jesus counseled, that we can and must be “in” the marketplace but not “of” the marketplace.

The temptations of the work world are real, but they are not overwhelming. If a working Christian simply lives out the principles of Proverbs in everyday work, this action alone will keep us out of trouble. Temptations are inevitable. If you find yourself in that vulnerable position, seek out another working Christian as an accountability partner.

The members of At Work on Purpose regularly encounter “minefields” in the marketplace, and we overcome them together as the body of Christ at work. If you need counsel, connect with us at info@atworkonpurpose.org .

Ready, Set, Serve!

As I write this, my family and I are preparing for an Easter weekend of poignant worship from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. In those short three days, we Christians celebrate the dramatic journey of Jesus Christ from death to resurrection. In our own lives, it is a time to remind ourselves that Jesus died for our sins so that we can live life to the fullest!

When it comes to work, this translates to servant leadership – taking the initiative to serve others at work to God’s standards – while joyfully embracing the inevitable “ups” and “downs” in the experience. We pray for God’s guidance at work and we do our best to discern His plans for us at work. Now it’s time to act.

Mobilizing Marketplace Ministers
In myriad ways, God calls us to mobilize as ministers to the marketplace. He calls us to play our part in advancing His kingdom at work. This can sound like an abstract concept, but it becomes simple when we understand the application at our work place.

For example, consider the high school teacher who recognizes that she is not just imparting knowledge to her students, but is also modeling the Christian walk at school. She internalizes the spirit of Colossians 3:23-24: she views God as her boss. And she brings her best integrity and efforts to her classroom teaching and relationships with students and faculty.

How can you act on God’s behalf through the work He has entrusted to you?

From Collision to Intersection

I have a number of Christian friends and colleagues who might describe themselves as “prayer warriors”. They take prayer very seriously, and their prayers encompass the working world. Many of them think planning in the marketplace is “unnecessary” or even “sacrilegious”. They expect that in answering their prayers, God will handle all the details.

I also have a number of Christian friends and colleagues who might describe themselves as “movers and shakers” in the marketplace. They are ambitious, and would say that “failing to plan is planning to fail”. They are intense pragmatists, typically omitting prayer from their process because they see it as impractical.

For many working Christians, combining prayer and planning seems to be a collision of beliefs. Let me encourage you to consider these two tools work best together, and that the intersection of prayer and planning is powerful. If you don’t believe me, re-read Nehemiah’s journey in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem!