“Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care.” I Timothy 6:20
For more than two decades, and all my adult working life, God called me to serve his Church in full-time ministry. It wasn’t something I aspired to, or pursued, in fact I pretty much fell into it. But it quickly became all I knew. And I loved it.
I spent my days counseling the broken, connecting newcomers, and equipping leaders. I lived and breathed the work of ministry, and was surrounded by life change. There was something incredibly life-giving about using my gifts to further the purposes of God’s church every day. I felt intimately connected to God, and was able to serve others from that place of worship.
So, you can probably imagine how I felt when God encouraged me to step away and try something new. I was lost. And really confused. I wasn’t sure what else to do.
Thankfully, God did not leave me stranded. He assured me that while my past season of ministry had been inside the walls of the Church, the next season would be outside the walls of the Church. He was asking me, and had already been equipping me, to stretch beyond my comfort zone and serve those who were different than me.
Within a short time, opportunities popped up for me to use my skills and education in new ways. I began writing for our local magazines, and managing the volunteers for the Citizen Jane Film Festival. I suddenly had opportunities to connect and minister to new groups of people, including the students and faculty at Stephen’s College, the magazine staff, and the people I was writing about. Then last January I accepted a full-time editor position at COMO Living magazine and my opportunities multiplied. Slowly but surely, I could see what God was doing.
He was calling me to be a missionary in the marketplace.
To steward the gospel message he had entrusted me with.
And to see my assignment as an act of worship.
It’s a calling that many of you completely understand. You have spent your life serving God in your work. You find joy being a light in the darkness. For others, it may be a new thought. A realization that your job could have more purpose than simply a paycheck.
Either way, God has given us, the body of Christ, a critical assignment – to use our gifts to further his message in our workplace. And only He truly knows how desperately our co-workers, patients, and clients need us.
This God-given assignment is what gets me up in the morning, and it’s why I’m counting the days until the Work as Worship retreat on Friday, February 23. This one-day event will give us the chance to learn together. To be encouraged, inspired, and empowered to make a difference in our places of business. To grow in our love for those who think, act, and look different than we do. To commit to our work as worship.
Will you join me?
Click here to learn more about the Work as Worship retreat!
