As a pastor, I have encountered this situation countless times: an individual approaches me during a particularly vibrant season of their Christian life, eager to honor Jesus through their career. They often say, “Ed, I’m praying about entering full-time vocational ministry. I am trying to discern if God is calling me to become a pastor, minister, or missionary.”
This perspective is common within the church. Many believers assume that a deep love for the Lord naturally requires a transition into professional ministry. While it is true that we are called to serve God at all times, this assumption can sometimes lead to a misunderstanding of how spiritual gifts and professional roles intersect.
However, serving God faithfully does not always necessitate a career in the church. Consider the most consistent followers of Christ in your own life. While some may be church leaders, many likely serve God through their secular vocations. Their dedication demonstrates that one can honor a divine calling while excelling in a professional environment outside of traditional ministry.
One issue today that often leads us to separate glorifying God from our work is that many people see work as a way to make money. The bigger purpose behind a career—glorifying God—is easily lost in the busyness of paying bills and providing for our families. Work is almost transactional now: We do our assigned tasks, we get paid, we repeat the cycle. It has become much more difficult to keep God at the forefront of work.
Another issue is that people today generally think of work as being hard. They typically see it this way because of Genesis, when humans are assigned by God to “toil the land” after the Fall (Gen. 3:17). I think it’s important for us to recognize that work is actually part of life before the Fall. In Genesis 2, God puts Adam in Eden for the sole purpose of caring for the land. Work is made more difficult because of the Fall, yes, but it is not a result of the Fall.
Since the beginning, part of our role as humans has been to work. It’s a reason for our being. And because it’s such a big part of who we are, it’s usually a topic that comes up in churches from time to time. Conversations about work usually lead to conversations about vocation, a word that comes from the word call. I think it’s useful to apply it to whatever job you perform. For example, I have a sense of calling to ministry and writing, while a teacher feels a sense of calling toward educating others. Martin Luther and countless other theologians (and just regular people of God) have been studying vocation for centuries. Luther especially spent a lot of time talking about what it means to be human and answer the call God places on your life. Specifically, he studied and wrote about how we can be our best for the glory of God in whatever role we are called toward.
One of the things that he emphasized was the idea that as humans work, God works through humans. For example, every material thing that we are blessed with, whether it’s a house or clothes or a car, is made by a person. Luther calls these people “God in disguise.” He says that God uses people to create goods that can be used by God. Everything that humans accomplish is really an accomplishment for God, because he works through our work.
Knowing that God works through our work means that we should be taking a different approach to our jobs. As I mentioned earlier, the problem today is that we approach work with the wrong mindset. We get stuck in the belief that work is for money alone.
Christians sometimes believe that the purpose of work is to make money, give a percentage of that money to the church, then come to the church on weekends to worship and potentially serve. I think we need to flip the switch and take a new approach to work.
Yes, donating money and serving others is important, and it is a blessing to be financially stable enough to give to others. But our ability to financially give back to our church is not our entire platform. Our platform is our entire life. Because work is such a crucial part of our lives, we need to see it as a platform for Christ’s glorification.
In 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average person spent eight hours working every day. It would be a mistake to spend those eight hours focused solely on making money and crossing tasks off the to-do list. That third of our lives needs to glorify God, just like the other two-thirds does.
The main point here is that we can glorify God through our work by using our jobs as places to live out our purpose. Today, I want to challenge you to change your approach to work. In your interactions with coworkers and in your tasks, make it a goal to be mindful of the ways you are glorifying God through your work.
This article originally appeared on The Exchange and is reposted here by permission.