Notice a gap between your work and church? Here’s why and how to bring them together

Transforming Vocation a little book that seeks to bring the work you do for a living, and the living you do as a Christian much closer together, slipped into the world without the big splash it deserved due to Cov id. But it takes on a great subject that most of us need help with.

Always ready to help out, The Other Cheek asked the three experts who wrote the book to explain how work and church can come together.

Transforming Vocation is written by
• David Benson who directs Culture and Discipleship at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (licc.org.uk). He taught practical theology at the Baptist’s Malyon Theological College in Brisbane.  
• Kara Martin the author of Workship: How to Use your Work to Worship God, and Workship 2: How to Flourish at Work, and who is a lecturer in leadership at Alphacrucis College in Sydney.
• Andrew Sloane who is Lecturer in Old Testament and Christian Thought at Morling College. He is author of At Home in a Strange Land: Using the Old Testament in Christian Ethics and On Being a Christian in the Academy: Nicholas Wolterstorff and the Practice of Christian Scholarship.

What transformation is required? 

Dave: The most basic transformation needed is to broaden and deepen what we mean by vocation itself. Typically, today, we simply mean paid work—a job, as in vocational training—whether sponsored by the church or a company. But at its root, vocation is about calling. And as Os Guinness put it, ‘First and foremost we are called to Someone (God), not something (such as motherhood, politics, or teaching) or somewhere (such as the inner-city or Mongolia).’ Whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you are, everything changes when we realise that Christ is Lord of all, and that every aspect of our life, especially our job, is ‘by God, to God, and for God’. Viewed through this lens, our various callings in family, church, community, and workplace are coordinated and channeled, integrated and synergising to serve the One Caller who animates all of life. As we explore, though, this has radical implications for our secondary vocations, such as our paid work.

Kara: Transformation is required of every vocation, just like transformation is a natural outflow of the gospel in every individual (2 Corinthians 5:17). We live in a sin-saturated world, and Jesus came to reconcile everything in heaven and on earth (Colossians 1:15–20). With the conference and the book, we set the challenge before people to think about how their vocations could be transformed and also how they could be transformative influences in their vocations.

Andrew: The transformation needed works both from the inside out and the outside in. What I mean by that is that our understanding of who we are as creatures, claimed by Christ, bound for glory, should shape every aspect of how we see the world, the things we value in it, the direction of our hearts, and our corresponding actions in the world. That radically transforms our everyday lives and how we live and work in the world. But the world we live in raises questions and challenges for us and our faith, and calls us to respond in particular ways in light of the relationships that shape us and the tasks and circumstances we find ourselves addressing—things that shape our call, our vocation. And that vocation helps us see things about God and God’s call, and how God addresses us in Scripture, that we otherwise might not see. Our theology needs to transform our vocation, even as our vocation transforms our theology and practice.

“Work is increasingly seen as the new frontier for Christian mission” What has led to the desire for workplace mission?

Kara: I think there was a great challenge set out at the Lausanne meeting for worldwide evangelisation in 2010, by Billy Graham and Mark Greene of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. Graham said that the next great movement of the Holy Spirit would be in the workplace. Greene pointed out that the vast majority of people sitting in the pews (98%) are not equipped for where they spend the majority of their lives (95% of their time), outside of the gathered church. That really set a marker for a much better focus on the need to turn outward from church programs, to see that ordinary work might be part of God’s mission, and the workplace as a fertile area for incarnating the gospel.

Andrew: I also think that both theology and experience have helped trigger this desire. The evangelical movement’s rediscovery in the late twentieth century of the wholistic understanding of mission that drove the Evangelical Awakening has played a significant part. Orienting mission around the Kingdom of God and Jesus’ work bringing shalom helped us realise that along with evangelism and discipleship, working towards the flourishing of people, their communities, and the world was integral to our Christian calling. The workplace is an obvious place for that to take place. Along with that, there has been a growing dissatisfaction with the Sunday-centric nature of ‘ministry’ and the way what we do in churches seems to relate to such a tiny slice of our lives. And, of course, the experience of many faithful Christians that the best conversations they have with people about Jesus happen at work and everyday life, and that work is where they can experience the satisfaction of making a contribution to people’s lives—or experience the frustration and pain of the opposite.  

Dave: The reality is that emerging adults—the group bleeding out of the church and most tricky to reach, largely allergic to institutional religious gatherings—make up half the work-force. If we’re called to go to people where they already are, then workplace mission is a no-brainer. In this secular age, our career easily becomes our ultimate concern, our functional religion shaping our imagination of the good life and setting the bounds for the way we live, move, and have our being. As the church has become more sensitive to contextualisation and place-based theology, it has naturally spilled over to considering the contours of the modern workplace. And it’s a precarious place in the gig-economy, facing a looming global recession. It’s a place of opportunity and disappointment, promise and pain—the perfect space to embody and make known God’s grace calling every person to a deeper identity than ‘worker’, which can’t be taken away with the next corporate restructure. 

“Churches and theological colleges have failed to keep up”  Why has it proved difficult? What are the contributions churches and theological colleges should each be making?

Kara: I think churches and colleges have been impacted by the sacred–secular divide: the sense that God is present inside the church but not in the world; that the focus of Christians should be on activities such as prayer, worship, and evangelism, rather than on the activities outside the gathered church context. Theological colleges have been largely focused on teaching for the mind and spirit rather than the heart and hands. Theological lecturers have rarely had significant experience in the workplace, and are not skilled in preparing people for it. I have had three missions organisations approach me in the last three years lamenting the fact that theological colleges do not prepare people in areas such as business and entrepreneurialism, which are the frequently the only ways Christians can access other-faith majority countries.

Andrew: I would add that a particular theology has been a barrier to churches and colleges engaging meaningfully in transforming vocation. A theology that sees evangelism and discipleship as all that matter (forgetting that disciples are discipled for something) gives no incentive to think about work and everyday life as anything other than an evangelistic opportunity. Added to that inertia, getting with business as usual, and the illusion that things are chugging along OK have meant there’s been no felt need to change the ‘things that work’. Until they don’t. Churches and colleges need to recapture the wholistic vision of mission that lies at the heart of our tradition and shape worship, teaching, and values around that. Bringing people and their work into public worship, helping students see the way that Scripture speaks to our work (and a focus on how work illuminates aspects of Scripture), honouring people in the workplace in church and classroom would  go a long way towards changing this.

Dave: Faith–work integration is so important. But it sits within a larger need to make whole-life discipleship central in all we do. What does it mean to follow the way of Jesus in our particular time and place? If theological colleges existed to make whole-life disciplemakers, integrating wisdom from across every subject area—from systematic and historical theology, through biblical studies, to practical and public theology—then we would see church leaders pursue their primary task as equipping the whole people of God for the whole mission of God where they already are, especially in the workplace. And if the church recognised, celebrated, commissioned, and equipped every Christian to follow Jesus in their everyday lives, then our witness would be salt and light in all of society, connecting with the majority of Aussies who can’t imagine themselves darkening the door of a church building. 

Some Christians might be tempted to be less overtly Christian at work, given stories like the Essendon football saga. Any suggestions for being a workplace Christian? What are the key issues?

Kara: This is a huge question, but there are some helpful ideas in our book. The sacred–secular divide has impacted society at large as well, and churches have been complicit in this. We hear in church and it is accepted in society that faith is individual and personal and private, rather than that the gospel is social and holistic and public, and that is a significant part of the problem. We need to begin to be better at teaching and living out a much broader understanding of the significance of taking our whole self to work. In fact, I see opportunities over time, because Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu workers are much more holistic than Christians. With increased diversity, there will be increased interest in spirituality at work. Largely the reaction is against organised religion, but there is still a healthy curiosity about Jesus.

Andrew: Try and find other Christians in the workplace with whom you can pray. We can not only support each other, but pray together for our colleagues, our workplace and its management, even its fundamental goals and ethos. Modelling is also important. In Philippians 3:17, Paul reminds us of the importance of having good examples of faithful Christian living—and being an example to others. There might be someone in our workplace, or one like it, from whom we can learn-by-imitation (apprenticing ourselves Christianly to others in the workplace). And others whom we might shape. But perhaps we might also need to recognise that opposition and suffering may come our way. Of course, we need to make sure we’re not just being obnoxious! But even so, 1 Peter 3:15 comes in the context of encouraging people to faithfulness in the face of suffering for doing good. Worth remembering.  

Dave: Picking up on Andrew’s point out of 1 Peter, theologian Miroslav Volf calls us to be a ‘soft difference’ in our pluralistic society, radically different because of the kingdom ethos we follow, but radically identifying with our colleagues so Jesus’ way can be understood. We aren’t called to build or bring the kingdom by conquering our workplace in some kind of subversive or triumphalistic take-over. Rather, we’re called to seek the shalom—the wholistic flourishing through right relationship with God, neighbour, nature, and self—of our workplace, playing our part in God’s unfolding story of salvation as a preview or trailer for the main feature when Christ returns as king. So, we love our neighbours in word and deed, in a way and to the degree they are willing to receive. It must be contextualised for each sphere of work. As we explore in the book, it looks like a nurse modelling godly character through patience under pressure in the emergency ward, or a builder making good work through accurate estimation of materials and labour costs. It looks like a teacher ministering grace and love by consoling a bullied child, or a middle manager moulding culture as they encourage rest and only answering emails during work hours. It looks like an investment banker being a mouthpiece for truth and justice, rejecting and challenging disproportionate bonuses, or an uber-driver being a messenger of the gospel as she listens for gentle opportunities to point passengers to Jesus, even though her own precarious employment may feel like it’s heading nowhere. In all these ways and more, there are natural opportunities to live our faith through our work, where going head-to-head with the powers that be can be the exception rather than the rule.

Surely this is an instance when we should be learning from workers not necessarily theologians? Are there some inspiring stories of Christian workers?

Kara: Again, lots of stories in our book. Even if you look at the Australian Christian Book of the Year author, Tony Rinaudo, there is someone who uses his work and vocation for an amazing impact, to promote flourishing that has attracted international acclaim. At the conference which spawned the book, I was touched by the story of a guy who was a cleaner in a school. He pointed out that he was the first person the teachers saw at the start of the school day, and the last person they saw at the end of the day. He had an incredible pastoral role, even as he cleaned the classrooms: encouraging, caring, listening, and even offering to pray for the teachers. And, of course, he had to do a good job of cleaning!

Andrew: So many! But perhaps what we need to do is start listening to—and telling—stories of ordinary people doing ordinary work making an impact on those around them. Local stories are more likely to make a difference to us than distant ones. A number of churches are now getting people up the front to talk about their work. What they do, how they see God at work, their joys and frustrations and failures, their need for prayer. That’s what we need—and to have conversations about what’s really going on at work with folk when we gather—on Sundays, in small groups, whatever. The fact that we know them, are familiar with their lives and contexts, see their struggles and their little triumphs, and that they operate on a familiar scale is important. I wonder whether listening to our local ‘saints’, rather than looking for workplace heroes might make more of an impact?

Dave: Our book, and this larger project of integrating theology, church, and the workplace, intentionally starts by listening to workers. So, in one sense, we agree! Speaking as a theologian, we’re often guilty of offering wonderfully abstract ideas which we encourage Christians to drop like a stone onto their context, unaware of the unhelpful waves this creates. But the solution isn’t to slough off theology. Instead, we’re convinced that we need each other. So, we first listen to what’s actually going on in the contemporary workplace, forming tools so we can see how we presently live our faith—for better or worse—where we’re called to be. This positions theologians to help everyday followers of Jesus imagine what should be going on, locating their work within God’s mission, and how they may already be fruitful even when it’s hard to see. And it invites church-paid workers to create communities that train and equip these believers to sustain and live their calling Monday to Saturday, making a difference in a tangible way on their frontlines. Finally, through this conversation, we all discover how to more effectively communicate the gospel, finding jargon-free ways to reveal why Jesus is genuinely good news for their colleagues, impacting the whole of life. That’s the promise of a better conversation, guided by the Spirit, where we listen to each other, starting with Christian workers. 

And of course, you have made me think of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker!

Kara: That movement is an important part of the faith–work story: the understanding that we can honour God and serve others through ordinary work; the idea that we each can live out a priestly vocation in our workplaces. 

Andrew: And the Clapham Sect and the early union movement, RSPCA, education reform…

Dave: Yes! Thinking of our work, It was another Dorothy (Sayers), a peer of Day, who asked, ‘How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of [their] life?’ By God’s grace, this book is our answer. When our vision of vocation is transformed, then theology, church, and the workplace come together in a beautiful harmony which inspires every disciple to sing, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’. God is calling us to make a difference, whatever we do, wherever we are, whoever we are. 

Transforming Vocation is available at The Wandering Bookseller