Nine times out of ten the reasons we have for pursuing one occupation or another are confused, for this reason its good to look through the background on work, as it appears in the Bible.

Creativity and Service

The Bible makes it clear that before the fall, God designed human work to have two main characteristics: first it should mirror God's creativity. As people made in His image [Gen. 1:26-8] we seek to use our God given gifts and natural abilities in a way that we find satisfying. Secondly, our work should glorify God as we seek to do the things He requires of us in His world [Gen. 2:15-20].  The word used for work in here also means service [Nu. 3:6-8] and worship [Ex. 3:12], and from the outset, this work done by humans for God within His creation was considered as something done for God's glory.

Our ability to pursue either of these ideals to their full potential is marred by the curse of frustration that God placed on human work after the fall [Gen. 3:17-19]. We now have a working world that is so tainted by sin that it feels to be beyond redemption. This means that it is often difficult for us to see clearly where or how God can best use us, or our working lives. It seems a far step to move from Adam's agrarian work to accountancy, computing or retail - sometimes we have to learn to think laterally about the ways that God can use us in these different areas.

But the truth remains that we should still seek, however hard it may be to achieve, to live the whole of our lives for God's glory - including our work and our study. If our motives and aims in pursuing any career are to see God glorified then that will guide and check our ambitions whilst at the same time giving us ample opportunity to work out holy living wherever we are. 

Work as Mission

There is no excuse for any of us to see work as anything other than a means to glorify God and as an opportunity through which to take the gospel to a needy world. In Titus 2:9-10 Paul expects even slaves to make the gospel attractive to their bosses through the way they go about their work. What a privilege for them and for us to be involved in the mind-blowing task of attracting people to the Lord of life! Yet this was Paul's expectation then, and it is still Jesus' expectation now.

Without this important perception of mission in every workplace we can get ourselves stranded on the sacred/secular divide:

•  We can perpetuate the myth that people working for Christian organisations are somehow better than those who don't.
•  We think that we can be more or less righteous in God's sight by virtue of our occupation!
•  This gives a false sense of security, if we think that working for a Christian organisation will resolve our personal issues of spiritual maturity and witness.
•  Next we dismiss as irrelevant or meaningless the day-to-day activity of the majority of God's people here on earth with secular occupations.
• 4 Those left in secular work get discouraged us from seeking ways to glorify God, by living as salt and light no matter what they're are doing.
• 4 Many of us end up as spiritual schizophrenics, with a wrong dualism between our sacred and secular activity. The only function of our main occupation becoming earning money, chasing power or career success as its own reward.
•  This may lead us to become people who use all our spare time (outside our irrelevant job) for "meaningful church work," in a way that can damage relationships at home, in the church and with our Lord.
•  Ultimately a dismissal of the importance of Christians in secular employment would lead us towards a secular working world that was devoid of Christians!

This is worth emphasising, as the workplace is the number one environment in our society where people make friends. It is the single place where Christians are most likely to meet non-Christians, and it is possibly the only place where many non-believers will come into contact with you. If you're looking for a place to present the gospel, then working life offers the best (and often the most tricky) platform for most of us.

Working for a regular secular organisation, many Christians find themselves paid by a non-Christian organisation to sit day by day with a group of non-Christian people who are also being paid not to run away from them. This is not a situation to exploit, but it is a circumstance in which we can rejoice as we prayerfully try to model and explain the gospel to colleagues.

Mission as Work

If the secular working world offers such a great mission field, and it is right on our doorstep, can we ever justify not going to work there?

Well the truth is that this world is the mission field. Every single part of it, every tribe, every nation needs to hear the good news that Jesus Christ has died that we might live, and that He has returned to life that we may have eternal life. No one is exempt from the need to hear and respond to this message.

Just in case you think that working for a Christian organisation is not for you, check out the following questions.

The percentage of the world's population that can answer ‘Yes' to all four of these questions is around 5%. If you were then to ask what proportion of those 5% were evangelical Christians, committed to spreading the gospel, you would end up with about 0.075% of the world's population. This figure could be further reduced to show those for whom service overseas is easier due to lack of family commitments etc.

We all know the freedom and flexibility that we have to travel the globe seeing its sights and experiencing its variety of cultures. The truth is that our ability to travel as we do is still a privilege reserved for an elite minority of the global population. This is an asset which we possess, not dissimilar to Paul's Roman citizenship which afforded him greater freedom as he travelled throughout the Roman Empire.

We have changed the way we see mission work, no longer bracketing it so automatically with colonialisation. There are now many new and exciting opportunities to live out the kingdom of God, and to proclaim the gospel of Grace to people who have no established Christian community in their midst.

One thing you should be aware of is that working for a Christian organisation is an act of service, and should not be viewed with naïve glamour. There is no fast-track spirituality afforded by working for a Christian organisation, and while it may appear easier to see the fruits of your work, it can also be easier to develop an assumed righteousness. As we have said throughout this handbook, the truth of the matter is that our personal relationship with Jesus Christ has to be our priority, no matter what we do.