Christians should view workplace as mission field, Lausanne speaker says

The workplace is one of the world’s most important mission fields, a speaker at the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization told attendees.

“How did the gospel spread so quickly and so widely in a time without the internet?” asked Julia Garschagen, director of the Pontes Institute for Science, Culture and Faith “The gospel traveled in the suitcases of politicians like the Ethiopian eunuch. It was passed on with the goods of saleswomen like Lydia.”

In her opinion, the first Christians accepted a synergy between work and gospel witnessing to the extent that “Paul didn’t even bother to write a chapter on evangelism and the workplace.” This is a valuable prototype for evangelistic strategy today, because 99 percent of church members spend their lives in the workplace, she said.

Garschagen examined how Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Acts 16, with the jailer doing his normal job looking after the two prisoners. Yet these two men carried the presence of God, as part of the temple of the living God. As a consequence, the jailer becomes a believer.

“What we can learn here in Philippi is that we carry the presence of God wherever we go,” she said, according to the Christian Post. “And if the workplace of the jailer, a prison, can become a holy ground because of the presence of two Christ followers, surely your workplace can become a holy place, too. You carry the presence of God to a meeting on a Monday. You bring the power of God to your business on a Tuesday, you embody Christ while you cut people’s hair, while you teach, while you cook, while you do your scientific research. Wherever you travel on a business trip or as a work migrant, you take the presence of God with you, just like Paul and Silas did.”

Every workplace is different, and there may not be opportunities to openly sing worship songs or talk openly about the Christian faith, but Garschagen said opportunities abound to seek direction from the Lord for the organization itself, as well as pastorally caring for colleagues as a “priestly presence.”

“Ask the Lord for wisdom, for creativity, for courage and for sensitivity,” she said, “and ask him to help you lead life so that people will ask questions because they see your integrity.”

–Lee Hartman | Metro Voice