Mark Greene's script for:
Alpha in the Workplace International, Holy Trinity Brompton, Friday May 23rd 2008
I’m delighted to be here for all kinds of reasons but particularly because this is a day to consider how one of the most important tools for evangelism that God has given his church can be used in one of the most important contexts for evangelism of our time.
Whenever I meet a new group of people I like to tell them that I used to work in advertising – I find it builds a bond of trust between us very quickly. In fact, I spent ten years in advertising in London and New York. And I loved it… I loved the people, I loved the pace, I loved the creativity, and I adored the lunches.
Now I work for the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity where we are concerned with one simple but vital question which is well, let me illustrate using the example of one of the greatest of all post-war British heroes, the man who can indeed be relied on to save the world:
Bond, James Bond will save the world.
Now Bond, James Bond is not widely acclaimed in Christian circles though I suspect there is not a man in this room who has not at some point imagined himself to be Bond, James Bond. Though if truth be told most of us are more like Johnny English. Still, Bond has many qualities worthy of praise.
He is courageous, persevering, resourceful – the master of technology never its slave.
He is decisive and patriotic – he may like Samson sleep with the enemy but unlike Samson he never gives away secrets critical to national security.
He is strong, agile, multi-skilled, intelligent, witty, cultured and honest.
He is also a male chauvinist pig, an emotional desert and a spiritual black hole.
But for all that when Bond, James Bond goes on his missions, four things are true: he is briefed properly, he is trained, he is resourced and he is supported, and he is commissioned for his mission in the world.
But if we ask ourselves whether adult Christians are properly briefed, trained, resourced and supported for their mission in the world, on the whole they tell us that that they are not.
Which is why Stott, John Stott founded the LICC – because he saw with searing clarity that overall the church in the UK and beyond were simply not equipping the people of God to connect God’s to the issues they faced in God’s world. LICC’s Faculty are focused on a variety of issues but all designed to help Christians making a difference where they are.
If you want to get our free e-mails word for the week and connecting with culture or you’d like to find out more about LICC do fill in the red contact card…
What difference does following Jesus make to why we work and how we work and how we see our co-workers?
First, a riddle and two questions for you:
When is a:
Christian not a Christian?
Minister not a minister?
Church not the church?
Holy Spirit not the Holy Spirit?
Well, it’s a riddle, parable if you like, so in the tradition of Jesus I will not give you the answer. If it’s not clear by the end of my talk – you can always buy my book.
[Thank God it’s Monday]
Why does the workplace matter?
Well, you all know that it certainly matters as a context for evangelism otherwise you wouldn’t be here… but my brief is to pull back the lens a bit and look at some of the enormous scope of God’s interest in the workplace as a foundation for seeing how Alpha can be used in that context.
Now although I worked in a highly competitive industry, it was a hundred and fifty years ago and I am now under no illusions about the impact of contemporary work patterns on people in the Western world.
We have entered Slave New World and for many people, including Christians, it’s affecting their relationships, their physical and mental and spiritual health.
Now it is not my brief to address these issues today but suffice it to say that the Gospel must demonstrate its relevance to the way work is done and the consequences of that for people.
And it must demonstrate that a Christian has resources either to make different work-style choices or that we have different resources to live through the pressures we face. Otherwise the only Gospel we will have to proclaim is a leisure time Gospel. If the Gospel doesn’t work where we work why should I believe that it will make any difference to any other area of my life?
Well, lets begin with some scripture:
Colossians 3:23-24
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for people, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
Who believes these verses?
Well, that’s good but I have to tell you that I have yet to be in a church where those verses are operationally true... where the builder as valued as the barrister? Where the cleaner as valued as the banker? Is the housewife as valued as the CEO?
The context here is not a reference to church work, to evangelism, to teaching, to health care to any of the jobs that we in the Christian subculture regard as kosher. It is a clear statement about all forms of work. WHATEVER you do. Do it with all your heart. And the Lord would hardly ask us to do whatever we do with all our heart unless it was of genuine significance to him. Work was not the malicious invention of a vicious, sadistic, divine dictator but was given to us before the Fall.
The workplace matters because work matters.
Work was part of the original plan and even though it has been made harder by Adam’s disobedience,
“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” Genesis 3:17-19
it is still part of the plan for each of us.
There are limits to the joys and satisfactions we can expect from work – but it can be redeemed. There is still much joy in work… in creativity, in achievement, in relationships, in earning money … Our culture may encourage us to whinge about work and so may our church subculture but the reality is different – many of us like a lot of what we do. Indeed, we are as human beings designed for work, for purposeful activity – for the benefit of humankind and to the glory of a worker God.
In the beginning, in Genesis Chapter 1 we see a picture of a worker God. Five times it says that God created, five times that he did…
This is the God who planned, created, reviewed, finished. And appreciated. It’s good. He told himself at the daily progress report. And very good at the overall project review.
In Genesis 2:15 the worker God gives humankind work, he makes them stewards of the garden, an agricultural context not a purely decorative one...
“The Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15
The workplace matters because God created us to work.
Purposeful work is a primary, not a secondary activity, and God’s interest is intense not casual.
Which brings us back to our friend:
[Elephant]
“Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.” Genesis 2:19
God is intensely interested in You.
Your Work matters because you matter
God is interested in how you use the
Talents
Freedoms
Opportunities
Power
Resources God gives you.
Of course he is…
Of course he’s interested in the small things…he created them. In his kingdom all is significant.
So work is not the result of sin, it is rather a component of our worship of God.
The workplace matters because it is a context for worship.
In the house, in the office, on the factory floor - as well as in the church - it is Christ we are serving.
How many of us think that way?
As we change a nappy that overfloweth, type a letter, answer a phone, do a billion pound deal, make an arrest?
Do we think this is for God?
Do we value all forms of work equally?
Certainly our society doesn't value all forms of work equally... But biblically, it’s not what you do that determines its value, it’s who you do it for.
It’s not even how well you do something it’s in whose strength you do it and for whose glory it is done that determines its eternal worth. It is very easy to go day by day and never ask God’s help in the things we do day by day … Of course, if we’re under enormous pressure – if we’re about to be fired, if we haven’t made our numbers, a client is barking at us then we know to pray but the real challenge is to ask God’s help in the things we do quite well already...
“I am the vine you are the branches – apart from me you can do nothing.”
If Jesus isn’t in it, it’s not worth anything.
What amazing things might happen if we asked Jesus to come into things we already do quite well actually?
The workplace matters because it’s place where we are meant to operate with Christ, in Christ as well as for Christ
Our society doesn't value all forms of work equally.
And nor if we’re honest do we in the church? In fact, we hardly talk about it at all.
Oh yes, men may talk about work but we talk about work like we talk about sport. It’s safe ground. How’s work Ed? Fine. How’s work Jim. Fine.
We’re like bull walruses on the beach honking at each other about how marvellous our work is …
[Walrus]
But we are not asking one another spiritual questions. We’re not asking: how are you dealing with the fact that you find your secretary knock-down, drop-dead gorgeous and you are already married with 19 children? We are not asking how is your relationship with your boss? Or how have you resolved that issue with a supplier? Or how is that colleague you asked us to pray for because he was sick?
Work is not on the spiritual agenda.
Over 50% of evangelicals I have surveyed have never heard a sermon on work.
The majority of churchgoers in England at least feel that they get no significant support in their work from their churches at all. No significant support for the thing they spend 60% - 70% of their working lives doing. And given what we know at LICC about the rest of the world it’s true there too.
Now this isn’t some little side-line, some specialist ethical issue... that only affects a few people … it’s the way we spend 60 or 70% of our lives…
Why? If the workplace matters to God, why doesn’t it seem to matter very much to the Church?
The Great Divide Sacred Secular Divide
This is the pervasive belief that there are some areas of our lives that God is really interested in – church activities, prayer, home groups – and others that are at best neutral – sport, fitness, the arts, school, university, work… rest, sleep.
Well, you say that doesn’t apply to me. I know all of my life is to be lived before God.
Let me ask you this rather smart-alecy question. How many people here could give me a theology of maths. Some thoughts about what maths might reveal about God?
Theology of maths?
Now, how many of you did Maths at school? In fact you would have done it for an hour a day, 8 months of the year, from the age of 5 to the age of 16. For 11 years. A couple of years longer if you were very good, and a couple of years longer if you were very bad. Say 50% of you grew up in Christian contexts.
So if I ask you the question, “Can you think Christianly about Maths?” is that not a legitimate question? Is it not legitimate to expect us to be able to think Christianly about something that fills so much of your life?
What does Maths tell us, then? It tells us something about truth. 1 + 1 = 2. One plus one does not equal 2.1307. Somebody comes up to you and says, “One plus one equals 2.1307.” You don’t say, “Well, if it works for you, if it makes you happy, that’s fine.” No! You say: “You’re our accountant, you’re fired.” The equals sign is not a magic sign. Even in a postmodern world 1 plus 1 equals 2 on a scale of 10.
Maths points us to a God of order, a God of reason, a God of rationality. A god of truth.
Perhaps Maths also gives us insights into concepts like eternity, or even the Trinity. What is 1 + 1 + 1? The answer is 3, for those of you who didn’t go to Oxford. “You can’t do the Trinity that way, can you?” You cannot do it. You cannot explain the Trinity using addition, but what is 1 x 1 x 1? One. which shows how three entities can be equal in value and relate to one another, and still be One.
Which solves the problem of the Trinity.
The same applies to virtually every subject in the curriculum except perhaps science. What kids do between 9 and 5 is not on our agenda. What students do between 9 and 5 is not on our agenda. What workers do between 8 and 7 is not on the teaching, preaching, praying, agenda of most local churches.
We have a
Leisure Time Christianity
an evenings and weekend pursuit…
Not a
Whole Life Christianity
So SSD affects every aspect of Church life – it affects who we think is important.
“All Christians are born equal but full-time Christians are more equal than others.”
We have a false hierarchy of the holy. At the top,
Pastor – bathed in halonic light…
Missionary – when they are overseas.
Full-time Christian Worker – people who work for the Salvation Army, Youth for Christ, the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity... very holy people.
Tentmaker –
What is a tentmaker?
A tentmaker is someone with a job skill that another country needs and hey use that job skill to get in there as a Christian. A tentmakers are midwives, elctricians, builders, teachers of English as a foreign language, accountants... people with the skills that you here tonight have got.
And it’s those skills that enable Christians to get into countries that are closed to traditional Christian missionaries...
So, what happens is if you, for example, go to work as a Christian for Kodak in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia? Well, then you are a very strategic person, your picture is on the wall in the church with a little elastic band taking you to where Riyadh is on a map. And you will be prayed for.
But suppose, you work for Kodak in Harrow near where I live, what are you? You’re nothing.
Is your picture on the wall? I doubt it. Do you have a little piece of elastic band honouring you in that way? I doubt it. See there we have it. It’s very common but totally unintentional, totally unintentional.
Below tentmakers we have elders, who are obviously holier than deacons, who are holier than poor Christians, who are holier than middle income Christians, who are holier than rich Christians because where there is brass there is muck and the muck is at the heart of every man or women who makes brass.
There is in the church today a deep suspicion of those who generate wealth as if the only way to generate wealth is in someway to be ethically compromised. Now clearly, the Bible warns against the dangers of wealth and it is true that overall rich people in the general population tend to be less generous than poorer people but that is no reason to brand anyone who generates jobs and wealth as morally compromised.
And of course everyone is holier than these people.
[Former advertising executives.]
Of course, this whole hierarchy is bunkum but it is operational. Actually, everyone is equal under God.
[Flat hierarchy]
Except of course these people
[Former advertising executives].
Still, comments like this abound:
“I spend an hour a week teaching Sunday School and they haul me up to the front of the church to pray for me.
The rest of the week, I’m a full-time teacher and the church has never prayed for me. That says it all.”
We say we are not beset by the sacred secular divide, but what is in the church’s prayer diary…
Is there anything on there that has anything to do with how most people spend their time Monday to Friday?
Think about what you pray about in your home groups.
SSD also affects when we think the Church is the Church.
In Matthew 5, Jesus gives us two metaphors for the church, for the people of God. Light and salt.
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.”
This is an image of the church ‘gathered together.’
And there’s another metaphor.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men.” Matthew 5:13
This is an image of the church scattered in the world. But the ‘you’ is till plural. Are we any less a member of the body of Christ when we go to work than we are in the church building? Doesn’t God want to be involved in these places?
[Workplace Logos]
But how do people feel? When you run an Alpha course in the church or in a local home, sing carols outside Walmarts or Asda then the whole church prays for you but when you go to work or school, most Christians feel they go alone. They don’t feel that they go as the individual representative of the body of the King of the Universe, fuelled with wisdom and supported in prayer. They feel they go alone.
Where is the church, where are the people of God? Here?
[Local Church ]
Or here?
[Wider Area ]
The workplace matters because the people of God are there. And you are a member of the church wherever you are. And the role of the teachers is what?
“The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors & teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”
Ephesians 4:11-12
Pastors and teachers are there to equip the saints for works of ministry.
Where will works of ministry be done? Where can we express love to a person, pass on wisdom, show care, share the Gospel? Wherever we are in relationship with others. For most Christians, most days the place where they can love and serve others is the place where they spend most their time – where they have most relationships – work or school or neighbourhood.
And if you want to help your church leaders think this through then this little resource might help. Supporting Christians at work – without going insane. Which gives pastors the vision, the theology and a host of practical ways forward.
[Supporting Christians at Work – Without Going Insane]
So we have a false view of the importance of the relative importance in God’s eyes of different callings… and different contexts:
Very hard to do…
Why does your work matter to God?
Let me give you three more reasons:
Value of Work:
Instrumental Value
Work is the instrument God uses to get things done that he wants done.
Does God want you fed? Yes.
Does God want me to provide for your immediate family? Yes.
Does God want you to provide for the poor? Yes, he does.
Does God want you to contribute to the household of God? Yes, he does.
Does he want you to use your gifts and talents for the benefit of the wider community?
How is he going to do that? One of the ways is through work. Work is an instrument God uses to get things done he wants done.
Then there is the intrinsic value of work …
Instrumental Value
Intrinsic Value
Like numbers?
Like dancing?
Like cooking?
So work is valuable in God’s eyes because through it we do what he wants us to do – provide for ourselves and others…
Work is valuable because through it we can use the gifts he has given us and express praise to him for the way he has made us.
- Strategic value
The workplace is valuably strategically as a context where we can minister to others, transform society and witness to Christ.
In fact, what better context?
After all...
Workers are:
Connected
Think for a moment of how many people you meet, talk to, eat with, write to, work with in a week? 10, 20, 30 – some of you over a hundred every week. Warm contacts.
You don’t have to create relationships - you already have them... you don’t have to build and cross bridges, they’re already built and crossed - you don’t have to look for common ground, you already have it.
Credible
Transparent
Where else can a non-Christian better see the difference that Jesus makes to a life than in a place where everything is the same for Christians and non-Christians? Same pressures, same ethos, same difficult boss, same gossip, same food - same everything 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 hours a week - you can’t avoid them and they can’t avoid you.
Cross-cultural – different ethnic groups
Cross- generational –
You don’t see many 49 year olds in London dance clubs at 2 o’clock in the morning… at least I don’t.
This is the
Great Mission Field
Indeed the moment you stop asking:
How we will reach the UK?
and ask who will reach the UK:
SCREEN
Who will reach the UK?
The picture changes. We often have a picture of the church in the ghetto.
But the reality is that the people of God are not in the corner, the people of God are in the world day by day up front and personal. Traces of grace.
The workplace matters because it is critical to God’s mission in the world.
As Billy Graham has put it:
“I believe that one of the next great moves of God is going to be through the believers in the workplace.”
The workplace matters because it’s the place where we get to demonstrate that the Gospel is more than a message, it’s a life. A life marked by love and by discernment and by the difference that Christ makes.
Often in the church, we set the bar too high when we think of the effective Christian at work.
It’s when we’ve shared the Gospel or even when someone has agreed to come along to an Alpha course – good aims though those are – but at root ministry is simply this: love in action.
Ministry is love in action. Serving others and caring for creation. The workplace matters because it’s a context to love our neighbour.
Ministry is Love in Action
Little things – Kit-Kat. Tara Frankland Story
The workplace matters because it is there where we demonstrate that we care for people as people – beyond their function.
As whole people … Think for a moment about the issues people around you are facing at work… marriage, greed, anxiety, drugs, etc, etc. Can we bring a biblical perspective to bear?
Doreen Yat story.
The workplace matters because God intended it to be a context for human flourishing and he intends us to make it such a context for human flourishing:
Why doesn’t God create Adam on the first day? Why does God wait until the 6th day to create Adam?
Because if he’d created Adam on the first day it would have been dark and there would have been nowhere to stand.
By the time God creates Adam everything is ready for him – land, water, food supply, the potential for purposeful work… God is
Creator of a Context for Human Flourishing
Parent
Single Person
Manager.
Pastor.
View of the cross
Yes, we know that Christ was involved in the creation of all things:
“For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible
and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.” Colossians 1:16
But Christ is not only the one by whom all things are created but the one through whom “all things” are reconciled,
“and through him to reconcile all things to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:20
All things, not some things.
This is the wonder and glory of God’s plan in Christ – not a partial salvation, not an interim solution, but a definitive, once and for all, all sufficient, redemptive sacrifice that promises the utter renewal of all things.
so part of our mission in the workplace is to help create contexts for human flourishing … to create a culture shaped by Christian values...
Oh, you might say – that’s all very well for a managing director but I’m just a lowly manager, I’m just a secretary…
So yes, the workplace matters because it is a context to live and apply and demonstrate the difference Jesus makes to our tasks, our relationships, our organisation but the workplace also matters as a context to share the Good News.
12 years to understand…
His spirit is at work blowing where he will.
The workplace matters because it is God’s.
Work matters to God. Hugely. Because we do it and he cares about us. Hugely. Because it’s the way he’s chosen to get things done he wants done – people fed, clothed, educated, cared for, released... the heart tended, the mind stretched, the spirit nourished, potential released, beauty created, creation cared for...
Workplace is a context for worship, a context for service, for spiritual growth, for prayer, a context to love, to pursue justice, adore truth, show mercy, give to the poor, a context to bless, minister, transform ... a context for Christ to work in you, through you, with you... to make a difference, to change his world for the better, for his will to be done, his kingdom come... on earth as in heaven, in your office as in heaven, in your factory as in heaven... Amen?
So, if you want an opportunity to serve the Lord on Monday - you can do it whatever you do.
If you want an opportunity to minister to a non-Christian on Monday, chances are, if you’re in work you’ll get one.
If you want an opportunity to witness to the reality of Christ in your life in some way tomorrow...the workplace - the place where you spend most of your time is likely to be a place where you’ll get such an opportunity.
May God continue to give you wisdom and boldness to see how you can pursue his mission in His workplaces.
Mark Greene
The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity
