SLJ Vol 9 No 3 -- Called to a Normal Job?


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It's about time for a change, I thought glumly as I drove home from work one snowy night several years ago. This job just isn't working out, and it's time to pay attention to this sense that I'm in the wrong place.

For the past two years, I'd been trying to build a career in full-time Christian service. As part of my job search, I'd interviewed with dozens of church-related organizations and other groups. Aside from a few short-term positions, my search was not a success.

Eventually, I'd found work that had looked good at the start -- a position with a charitable organization helping physically disabled people. But a few months into the job, I had been disappointed to see that the organization didn't need the skills I had, and would get along fine without me. I felt like a ballplayer turning thirty and still playing minor league, realizing he'd never make it to the majors.

Still, I hated to give it up -- to abandon the dream of full-time Christian service. Wasn't that the expected goal of every Christian? Wasn't it the reason I had given up what had seemed to be a promising career in journalism, hoping to do fund raising for a Christian charitable group?

Maybe God's trying to tell me something, I thought, as I drove into the underground garage of the apartment building. My feelings seemed to sink along with the car as I drove down the ramp to my parking spot. The sickly flicker of the fluorescent lights on the concrete ceiling matched my mood.

There in the car, I prayed about the situation for what seemed like the millionth time. "Okay, God," I prayed, "I'm in the wrong job. I'm going to step out in faith and make a change. I'll get a job in the business world and work in your service as a volunteer."

In the years since that night, I've had a growing excitement that I made the right choice. What seemed at first to be a second-rate choice of career in business has turned into something vibrant and alive.

A DIFFICULT CHOICE
If you're like I was, wondering if God wants you to do full-time Christian service rather than have a "secular" career, you're not alone. I think all Christians ask this question, or should. You may have been raised on fascinating stories by missionaries, pastors and other leaders, telling about rewards of that kind of life. Just picture it -- cruising a jungle river in Borneo in a dugout canoe, with some faithful native converts (now they're called national Christians) doing all the work, approaching a village where eager faces awaited whatever wisdom you would impart.
Or perhaps you've imagined serving right here, in your own country as pastor of a dynamic, growing church in a nice part of town, preaching well-received sermons on Sunday and taking the rest of the week off. (Don't pastors only work one day a week?) That sure beats climbing onto the No. 12 Downtown bus every morning, going to an office where you just push paper across a desk all day, doesn't it?
You may also have some concerns about what else goes on in that office. What if working among non-Christians causes you to lose your faith? Or you might worry that you'll face ridicule if you don't go along with what others are doing.
And it doesn't just have to be a life-long career choice you're making -- it could be a decision regarding a job for this next summer or part-time work while at school. For example, should you spend the summer in a "regular job?" Or work with your church Vacation Bible School, join a Habitat for Humanity team to build a house or become a short-term summer missionary?
These are valid questions, ones that can be resolved only through prayer and close attention to God's leading. Certainly, for some people, the right choice is to work as a pastor, Third World development worker, evangelist or some similar calling. God's work needs such people. But I think that many well-meaning Christian leaders have done young people a disservice in glorifying the life of "full-time Christian service" at the expense of careers in the secular marketplace. It can lead to frustrations similar to what I experienced driving home to a dead-end parking space in a basement garage.

Are Some Jobs
More Important
than Others? A "FULL-TIME" CHRISTIAN
The fact is, we're all in "full-time Christian service," no matter what we're doing. God wants to be part of our lives, in every aspect, including what we do for a living. It's possible to be an effective worker in God's vineyard, to use one of Jesus' analogies, whether one's paycheck comes from a religious organization or not. And a secular career can be just as valid as a "religious" career, if that's what God has called you to.
"How so?" you may be asking. How can one be a full-time Christian worker in a secular workplace? Well, my workplace on the 53rd floor of a tower in Toronto's financial district is as secular as they come. And although my work involves marketing communications for a professional services organization, I'm as much a full-time Christian worker as any missionary in Zaire.
Let's look at the ways this happens. Perhaps the first way I think of myself as a "Christian worker" is through the donations made possible by my paychecks, which go to support God's work in many parts of the world. It takes many people donating a part of their wages to support each pastor or missionary.
Consider the example set by a group of six medical doctors I heard of who were called to the secular workplace, but who also had a heart for missions in poor sections of the world. Each year, five of them would pool a fifth of their income so that the sixth could go to serve in a third-world hospital. After a year, that doctor would return and become one of the five senders and a different doctor would go out.
But sending others is only one of the joys. Another way to be a full-time Christian in the marketplace goes far deeper than that. How you do your work is a ministry in itself. Through your work, you have a tremendous opportunity to influence others towards Christ. Who you are and what you do -- and don't do -- on the job says much about your belief system.
If you have any kind of full-time job, you probably spend more time at work than you do anywhere else. People there get to know you -- and I mean really get to know you. It's not like church, where you can maintain your sunshiny best for a few hours.
At work, you can't hide behind a hymnal or a Sunday morning smile. The people you work with, including non-Christians, see you when you have a bad day. They watch how you react when a customer is obnoxious, something breaks, or you get chewed out by the boss. And if you're often angry, or talk about people behind their backs, they may get a bad impression of Christianity. But if they can see you struggling to rely on God to get you through a difficult time, they'll be favorably impressed by the reality of your faith.
They also see, close up, what you're like when someone else has a problem. If you pitch in to help without being asked, or show a positive attitude to a cranky customer, it's a good witness for your faith. Particularly, if you're willing to demonstrate love and caring to people who are going through a rough time personally, people will start to wonder if there might be something to this Christianity thing after all.
God has given me the ability to listen well, and I've found that many of my co-workers talk to me when they have difficulties. These problems sometime relate to their work, career prospects, family situations or romantic entanglements. I think that they can see that I care, and they know that I keep confidences well.
Other Christians in the marketplace show they care, too. One businessperson from Vancouver recently told me about the time his executive assistant's father became gravely ill. He and several other Christians in the company offered to pray for her father's health during their lunch break. That prayer time was a unique experience to the assistant, who joined them in the boardroom even though she was an agnostic. She told my friend afterward that she had never had anyone pray for her, and that she had never felt so much peace before.
With my own co-workers, I make a point of getting to know them personally. Often, it's over a quick bite of lunch in the downstairs food court at a crowded table, but I try to demonstrate that I care. If it were not for the workplace, I would likely never have met these people -- or had the opportunity to offer a Christian witness they could see clearly.
For many people, all the tracts, TV preaching and door-to-door evangelism in the world won't have the same impact as one Christian who shows Jesus to them personally. Jesus calls us to be both "salt" and "light." If salt is to be useful, it doesn't stay in the saltshaker -- and light must be shed as Jesus told us, and not "kept under a bushel" (Matthew 5:14). In this way, a secular career can be of tremendous value to the growth of the church.

Evaluate Your Workstyle

But be careful. I remember a Christian friend telling me of a co-worker who was so active in her church that she spent a lot of her time at work on the phone arranging Bible studies, choir practice and church services. She may have felt she was doing God's work, while all the time she was bringing the name of Christ into disrepute because of her poor work habits.

If this sounds harsh, remember that being a witness has two sides. A Christian who is a good employee and who works hard and honorably is an excellent example to co-workers. Are they watching you? Most certainly.

So if you do talk with co-workers about your faith, be sensitive. Choose your time and place well. I can just imagine how effective it would be for a Christian to corner a co-worker in the company cafeteria, pull out a Bible and force-feed Scripture verses to her or him, while the other employees look on in utter bewilderment.

USING YOUR SKILLS
Not only does the marketplace offer a chance to live out a full Christian life, you'll also have the chance to use acquired skills in a Christian context beyond your career. A friend of mine uses his skills at pizza making, picked up during university jobs, to make great food for church functions. Another friend, vice-president at one of the world's biggest banks, uses her job skills on church committees. I know other people who apply their expertise in areas such as accounting, finance, library science and education in God's work.
Just think of what you could do for the sake of Christ in music recording, Internet web page design, or multimedia programming. It may be that God is leading you into a career that involves some secular work, later applying those skills in full-time Christian service.
But whatever you do, remember that God leads each of us as individuals. Look for his leading. To be sure, the growth of God's kingdom requires pastors, missionaries and others who must be freed up to focus on their ministry as a career. But remember that no matter what you do, you're always "full-time" in his service.

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Carl Friesen works in marketing communications for a major international accounting and consulting firm, based in Toronto, Canada. You can e-mail Carl at: cfriesen@kpmg.ca.

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Not to be reprinted in any other publication without permission.
© 1997 InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the USA. All rights reserved.

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