Thoughts on the Integration of
Work, Ministry, and Worship

Presented By Gary Williams on August 15, 1993,
at Saratoga Federated Church, Saratoga, California
Copyright 2003, 2007

What is worship?

When Christians describe worship we usually talk about singing, prayer, communion, offerings, and praise -- the things we do in church.  Especially the things we do that touch us emotionally, that give us a feeling of connecting to God.  In the Book of James the acts of worship are described quite differently, focusing on how we affect others instead of how worship affects us. James writes that authentic worship involves:

●  Control of the tongue
●  Assisting orphans and widows
●  Keeping oneself unspotted from the world.  

James isn't giving an all-inclusive list – that’s obvious -- but he makes the point that worship can’t be separated from our everyday attitudes and actions.  That’s affirmed in Matthew 5:16: In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.   Likewise, the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the church at Rome that: Everything we do is worship, so whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. (Romans 14:8)   Probably the ultimate expression of worship comes from Luke 9:23.  In this passage, Jesus says: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

What is worship?  It’s when we love God so much we consciously choose to put Him first every day. That’s what pleases our God and causes others to praise Him. Gathering together is important.  Worshipping God with songs, praises, and prayers is important.  But what we do in church loses its meaning if we don't worship God when we're out in the world.  The Bible tells us that He wants our hearts.  He wants us to love Him. And he wants us to love our neighbors as ourselves. That's why worship has more to do with how we live day to day than what we do in church on Sunday. 

Is the cross a daily burden or our symbol of strength?

Jesus said we must pick up our cross daily.  What does this mean?  A friend cautioned me that this scripture might put you off.  I hope that won't be the case.  I realize modern usage has transformed the message of the cross from one of salvation to one of heavy burden.  We all know the expression:  "That's the cross I have to bear."  To a follower of Jesus, however, to you and me, the cross signifies victory over death.  It signifies God's incredible gift to us. 

The world's definition is diametrically opposed to what Jesus himself promised.  In Matthew 11, verses 28-30, we read:  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  This promise means we can pick up our cross daily and follow Jesus without being crushed under an unbearable burden. 

But can we follow him daily without quitting work?  Yes we can.  The Bible teaches that we are expected to work, and we are to pick up our cross daily and follow Jesus.  We’re to do both.  Jesus did not distinguish between work time and Jesus time. He said we're to pick up our cross in the morning and carry it throughout the day, every day.  We’re to make a conscious decision each day to take it to work.  At the end of the day, we carry it home.  If we stop to eat, we take our cross into the restaurant.  We take it to community meetings.  We carry it to parties.  We carry our cross to church on Sunday.  I really like this imagery.  Our cross is with us as a constant reminder of who we are and who we have chosen to serve.  It's also a reminder that we represent Jesus wherever we go, and that no matter how troublesome our situation or that of the world’s, ultimate victory is ours. 

Remembering this should make a difference in where we go, what we do, what we say, how we feel, and how we relate to others.  We’re told to talk about our faith with one another, encourage and exhort one another, and praise God together.  We're also told to go into the world and practice our faith. 

Another way to think of this is that as followers of Jesus we’re not so much gifted by God as we are God's gifts to the world.  It's only when we learn to put Him first that we are able to fulfill the role God has prepared for each of us.God intends for us to be conspicuous.

The Bible says others will know Him by how we live, and it tells us that when we are practicing our faith we are worshipping Him. Jesus illustrated what he meant by saying we are to be salt and light.  Salt adds flavor and light chases away the darkness.  Just as salt is worthless until poured out of the shaker, a light is useless until turned on in the dark.  Think of the implications of that!  A flashlight used in daylight isn't worth much.  How well do we serve God when the light of our faith only shines among other Christians?

How can we worship in the workplace?

For some reason, integrating our faith into the workplace is extremely difficult for most of us.  Maybe we just haven't thought about worshiping God through our work.  Maybe we're afraid of what our associates will say if they find out we’re Christ followers.  Or maybe we think it’s important to keep our work and worship lives separate. Like keeping church and state separate. 

In Charles Colson's book, The Body, he quotes a 1990 survey of mainline churches that found only 32% of the members believed their faith had anything to do with life outside of church.   As we attempt to understand this issue, we should go back to what Jesus taught.  Let's consider Luke 9:23 once again.   Here our leader is telling us how to follow him. We pick up our crosses daily and we deny ourselves.What does this mean? It’s our opportunity to actually apply our faith to real world situations.

C.S. Lewis wrote that faith and obedience are like the two blades of a scissors.  Both blades need to be in place if the scissors is to do its work.  When we deny ourselves, we give up our own goals and aspirations in favor of what God wants for us.  We become obedient to Him, rather than to our own desires.  A willingness to deny self, then, is a key for reconciling work and worship.

Getting a handle on what it means to deny ourselves at work isn't easy.  The answer is different for each of us, because we each face unique opportunities.  Obvious implications include how we relate to those we work with, how we do our work, where we work, and how much time we give to work versus other aspects of our life.  You deny self, for instance, when you treat everyone as equal to yourself, from entry-level employees on up.  You deny self by giving up opportunities to enhance your position at the expense of someone else.   You deny self when you give up the fast track in your company, to spend more time nurturing relationships with your God, your family, and your fellow believers.  You deny self when you risk the ridicule of associates by interjecting a biblical perspective into discussions at lunch and around the coffee pot.  This, of course, means you've already denied self in order to become biblically literate, so you can represent God's word accurately and in a way that encourages others to want to know more.

You deny self when you speak out against a business plan or business tactics that put corporate profits over fair and just treatment of employees, customers, suppliers, and others.  And finally, you deny self when you deliberately choose to live at a lower standard than your income would allow, so you can give generously to advance the cause of Jesus. 

This idea of denying self hasn’t been an easy lesson for me, even though I grew up in a Christian family, one with a heritage of faith that goes back several generations.   

Life's lessons

Since my teen years I've felt that God wanted me to serve Him.  I've just been slow to understand what that meant.  When I was in college, I began to pray that God would use me.  It never occurred to me that He could use me in work settings.  I thought there were only three ways to serve God: Minister to a church; be a missionary in a foreign land; or volunteer in various ministries of the church.

Because of my limited view of ministry, I now believe I've missed or misused a great many ministry opportunities over the years, especially while at work.  When I said I've missed ministry opportunities at work, it's not because people haven't known about my Christianity.  They've known that at every job.  But I now realize that over the years most people saw my faith by what I didn't do. I didn’t drink, didn't swear, didn't tell dirty jokes.   Church is another story.  I've always been involved, teaching Bible classes, organizing special projects, serving on church boards, and so on.  At church, I've been known for what I do.

Personally, though, in every secular job I used to feel like a piece of my spiritual life was missing or something was out of synch.  Here I was, feeling that I should be in some sort of ministry  -- to serve God in a special way -- but church work alone wasn't the answer and I didn't feel called to be a missionary or a pastor.  I never even considered that my secular job could be my ministry.  When I couldn't figure out the problem, I thought something was wrong with the job or the church we were attending. 

The problem, of course, was me.  In the middle 70's, Raelene and I began to volunteer with a new parachurch ministry.  Its goal was to help Christians integrate faith and obedience into all areas of life.  We organized workshops and seminars. And we published a variety of resource materials on family issues, Christian and social concerns, small group Bible studies, and many other subjects.  This was a different type of ministry than we had known before, and it seemed to fit us perfectly.

In 1976, I resigned as Executive Editor of a publishing company to work in this new ministry full time.  The next four years were the most challenging and exciting times of my life.  I was, as friends pointed out, in "full-time Christian service."  I had arrived!  I believed that this was the God-given career I'd been longing for, that everything leading up to this time was preparation for what I was now doing.  In year four, however, the original focus of the ministry began to change, and there was conflict.  That's when a friend called.  We hadn't seen each other in 10 years, but he "just happened" to think of me.  He was consulting for a high-tech company that made computer-aided design and manufacturing systems.  My friend wanted to know if I was interested in joining them.  So I left the ministry in 1980, feeling like I had lost an important piece of my life.   I was heading back to a secular job, and my life had fallen out of synch again. 

Today, I realize how wrong I was.  When I left my "paid ministry," I shouldn't have been moaning "Why am I here?" I should have looked on my job change as a new ministry opportunity.  Instead, I slipped back into my secular mode.  And once I readjusted to corporate life, I found that my new company was an exciting place to work.  Recognition, promotions, and money came quickly.  I became engrossed in the challenges at work.  When I did stop to think about my spiritual life, I felt guilty that I was no longer in a paid ministry. I had tasted "real" ministry and wanted more.  While I was quick to say that God had given me this job, I did not set aside time to listen to Him so He could tell me why I was there.  Serving God was not my purpose when I showed up every morning.  I still thought ministry was what I did after work.

By 1983, Raelene and I had purchased our sign manufacturing business, which Raelene managed, and I moved to another corporate job.  I still wasn't happy.  I was convinced God wanted me in ministry, yet I also believed He had given me this new job.  It's embarrassing to admit this now; the answer is so obvious. God wanted me to minister where I was.

After another two years of doing my job during the day and church during off hours, I decided to leave the corporate world.  I would work in our sign business and give time to Advent Group Ministries and other Christian organizations. That was in 1985. 

Lessons finally begin to sink in 

It wasn't until January of 1993, when I began to work on a talk for the church men's retreat, that I fully realized how much I have short-changed God over the years. At long last, I was beginning to understand that work and ministry and worship are all tied together.  All those times my life felt somehow out of whack weren't because of where I worked or where we went to church.  My problem was in not realizing that God wanted me to serve Him everywhere, even at work.  Even at the jobs I didn't like.

I used to buy into the traditional idea that it's enough just to be a Christian in the workplace. Now I now believe that's a benign sort of ministry.  I should have been actively looking for opportunities to model God's love. I understand now that work is not just a means to an end.  Service to God, ministry, does not occur in addition to work.  And worship occurs when we pick up our cross daily and follow Jesus to our workplace. 

Work is where most of us spend the majority of our time. God didn't put us here to be successful or to accumulate wealth and power for our own enjoyment and uses.  And God didn't give us gifts, abilities, and career opportunities so we can derive our sense of worth from how well we play the career game.

If we’re honest, most of us will have to admit that our sense of self worth is, or has been, affected by your work.  Richard Reeves, a nationally syndicated columnist, isn't ashamed to confess.  One week the headline on his newspaper column read: "I Work (for now, anyway), therefore I am."  The story began: "More often than not, Americans meeting each other for the first time begin conversation by saying, 'What do you do?' – meaning, of course, what is your job, your work, your title, your identity?  What do you answer if you have no work?  I don't mean that as an economic question.  For Americans," Reeves concludes, "it's a psychological, even spiritual question."

I used to think I was too spiritual for this kind of identity crisis. The truth caught up with me right after I left the corporate world.  One day, I delivered some signs to the law office of a friend.  The receptionist greeted me with:  "Hi, you delivering our new signs?"  Her simple question stopped me cold.  I wanted to say, "No, I own the company," or "No, I'm a friend of your boss."  I was used to thinking of myself as a corporate manager, one who made decisions, planned strategies and tactics, gave direction to others.  Now the receptionist was seeing me as a courier for small office signs.   All at once I realized I was no longer a corporate executive.  I wasn't a "suit," as our employees used to call me.  I didn't know how to view myself.  I stood there for an uncomfortably long time before finally answering that yes, I was bringing their new signs. 

I will never forget how I felt that day.  Belonging to the family of the Creator of the Universe should have been enough status, but it wasn't at that moment.  I still had a lot to learn.  I needed to accept my worth as a child of God.  I needed to understand why I work...and for whom.   God's love is not dependent on my job title.  Nor is His loved determined by how I dress, where I work, what I drive, or how much money I make.  God never called me to succeed in business.  He called me -- and He calls you -- to model His love wherever we are and whatever we're doing.

Is the pursuit of money a ladder to the top or a stumbling block?

The world's call is quite different.  In the world, greed is good and the heroes are the accumulators.  People work to get, not give. Selfishness is often seen as a virtue in those who are successful.   Even the language of business runs counter to Biblical teaching.  In business there are winners and losers, players, heavy hitters, and lightweights.  Money is a way of measuring the value of people, who are called "human resources."

Compare the worldview with Colossians 3:23: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men."  And how about Ephesians 2:10: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Philippians 2:3-8 also speaks to what should motivate us when we get up in the morning:  "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!"   This is the Apostle Paul exhorting the Philippian Church – and us – to be like Jesus, to give up our selfish ambitions and look to the interests of others, not just ourselves. 

Are you like me?  Do you find that "considering others better than ourselves" can require more than you want to give?  The truth is, I like being served and I like nice things.   I don’t believe it’s an exaggeration to say that few of us really aspire to becoming a servant or a follower, especially if that means giving up control of our lives.   Small wonder.  We live in a society that feeds us a steady diet of success expectations, all measured in terms of money, sex, and power (You ought to write a book, Mr. Foster).  

Time after time the Bible tells us that Christians are called to be the opposite of what the world expects.  Instead of having more and controlling more, we are told to give. Give up our own desires.  Give up our own plans.  Give up what we want.  Give up our rights in order to be free in Christ.  We may even be called to wash a few dirty feet, as Jesus did for the Apostles. It’s only when we give our lives to God, when we deny self, pick up our cross and follow Jesus, that we can begin doing the work God has already prepared for us.  How ironic that we have to give up our lives in order to find them.

Our lives speak God

Eugene Peterson, a pastor and popular author, wrote that the job of a pastor is to speak God to the people.  That fits pretty well for all of us, don’t you think?  When we approach each day as God intends, we speak of Him and for Him to the world.  It’s not so much the words we use, it’s the example set by how we live day by day.  A non-believer observing how we love our neighbors, how we use our time, and how we use our money can always learn more about our beliefs than by listening to us quote scripture or share about how much we love our church.Worship is when we put God first. 

If we can learn to consciously deny ourselves and intentionally do our work to honor God, we can take great pleasure in knowing that this form of daily worship delights Him.  And we'll no longer wonder what it feels like to be a minister or a missionary.  We'll be ministers and missionaries right where God has placed us, whether it's at work, at home, in the community, or somewhere else.  Best of all, we'll know that we are fulfilling our God-given purpose in life.

Think about it.  How will your day be different if tomorrow you walk into work believing that, for now, this is where God wants you?  This is your ministry.  This is where you areto serve Him.  Will you look at the people you work with the same way?  Will you see them as men and women who are created in the image of God, and who are loved by God?  Will you see people you never noticed before?  Will you see needs you never noticed before? 

Try it, please.  Pick up your cross and follow Jesus this day, all day.  Take your cross and follow Jesus to work tomorrow.  Pick up your cross and follow Jesus everywhere you go this coming week.   Know that the cross represents God's amazing grace.  Know that people are looking at you, wondering why you think God is worthy of your love and obedience.   Know that your decisions -- where you go, what you do, and what you say -- will have to be different because that cross is right there in plain sight.  But also know that Jesus loves you so much, he died for you and now he walks beside you, helping you through the day.  Know that he has chosen you to represent him to all who haven't yet accepted him as their Lord and Savior. 

Listen to the words of Carl Ketcherside, a pastor and author: "So long as we think of worship as limited to certain Holy Places and Holy days we are acting as if the words of Jesus had never been written.  In Christ, there are no Holy places, no Holy days and no Holy things.  There are only Holy people.  We cannot dedicate buildings to God.  We can only dedicate lives." 

Will you rededicate your life to Jesus right now?  It's time to stand up and be counted among the faithful.  Jesus told us how: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

Copyright 1993, 2007 Gary Williams, Washougal, WA
If you would like permission to reproduce any or all of this paper, please contact me at gary at gwandrw dot com