Christians in the Workplace

I figured some people may be wondering what it is that I'm doing now that I have graduated, so I thought I would share one aspect of my summer: my job. Actually I have a few jobs including working in the cafeteria, babysitting, and being a research assistant for this project Christians the Workplace. The caf is nothing too new and babysitting doesn't take up much of my time, but this Christians in the Workplace project fills my mind pretty much all day every day- and I think that's a good thing.

What is "Christians in the Workplace?" Basically, I am working with a team of people to develop a curriculum for church small group ministries to use to start a workplace ministry. This is something that a lot of churches do not have and don't see the need for. I had never really thought about it until this project, but does your church have a workplace ministry? Pretty much all of our churches have children, youth, college, over 50, women, men, singles, young marrieds, stay at home moms, and all sorts of other ministries, but I know of very few that have small groups (or any ministry) specifically focusing on the work a person does. This is sad to me since people spend more time at work on average than ANYWHERE else.

So what's the solution? Well I'm not entirely sure, but I think this curriculum is a start. Instead of churches making individuals feel guilty for not being more involved in "ministry" at church, we can encourage members to love the Lord in all areas of their lives- especially at work. Now I'm not saying that all churches fail in this area, but I think a lot of churches fail to help their congregants see the value in their every day work. What this curriculum is about in my opinion is freeing individuals to do ministry and be ministered to at work.

We are in the final stages of the curriculum now and it is exciting to see it all coming together. We have videos, scripture passages, and discussion questions to facilitate authentic conversation in any number of small group settings. What's great about this is that the curriculum is versatile and will be able to speak to a large number of people. But even as we wrap up this stage we are not done. Now we are thinking about how to get a quality Spanish version and would love to do other languages as well. We are thinking about doing a youth version of the curriculum in order for families to connect when both parents and students are going through a similar curriculum simultaneously.

This is an exciting project, and there is no way I could do it justice here but I love to share what I am learning. It seems no matter where I go now I either apply what I have learned or pick up some new piece of information for the project. I am constantly asking myself "Do I see my work as a ministry, how can I grow spiritually through my work, and am I acting in an ethical manner at work?" I wonder how it would change our work environments if all of us Christians took these questions seriously...