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Bloom Where You Are Planted
Episode 4: The Workplace As A Mission Field
Hi everyone. I am glad to be back again. Today, I want to share with you how the workplace can be a mission field.
I have already mentioned in my last episode that no matter how ordinary you are, you can be made holy by availing for God’s use. And this includes the workplace. In fact, wherever He calls and use you, it is a mission field for Him.
Jesus led the way. By his ministry on earth, he has shown that instead of separating ourselves from those in the workplace, we need to be actively engaged in the gospel of hope. Pastor Rick Ezell in his sermon, Your Mission in the Marketplace, said:
When Jesus entered our world, he didn't box himself inside the four walls of the synagogue. He walked into the lives of sinners. He touched the lepers. He associated with prostitutes. He dined with heathen. He scandalized the religious community by penetrating the world. In order for Jesus to reach and rescue the world he had to penetrate it.” (unquote)
A clear example is when Jesus reached out to Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). Jesus penetrated his world by befriending him even though he was a hated tax collector during those days. Jesus called him down from the tree where Zacchaeus had perched to catch a glimpse of him passing by. Jesus even invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house.
What transpired in his house convicted and transformed this man. He vowed to repay back what he had cheated in terms of interest four times over. What a classic example of a marketplace conversion with clear evidence of repentance!
Likewise, to impact and influence the world for Christ, we must penetrate it. Working in the marketplace enables you to do just that.
On Sunday, the church gathers, but on Monday through Saturday, the church scatters. The workplace offers one of the greatest opportunities to get out of your Christian ghettos to increase the connection with non-Christians and seekers. How else can you make an impact in an increasingly broken and dysfunctional world? The workplace is where we bring Christ’s kingdom of light into the kingdom of darkness.
Billy Graham said: “I believe one of the next great moves of God is going to be through believers in the workplace.” (unquote)
As I look at the trends today, I could not agree more. Next, I would like to talk about:
Have you considered that the workplace can be an opportunity to plant churches and that your church can become missional as a result? What is the meaning of being missional? It means to incarnate the lives of believers into the culture and environment of those we are reaching out to. In the case of those in the workplace, there is a need to identify and be with those who are in the workplace!
When Jesus was on earth, this is precisely what He did – He incarnated himself here and more particularly among the chosen race to identify with the people and their circumstances. He dwelt among them and ministers to them where they are.
But over the years, we have lost the DNA of Christ’s outreach strategy which is missional in focus. How did this happen? Let me explain.
The focus on the Temple in Jerusalem as the place where God’s presence dwelt belongs to the old covenant. It resembles an institution with an established structure and clear delineation of duties by the high priest, Pharisees and Sadducees. But we have moved from the old into the new covenant.
The body of Christ is now an organism where Christ dwells and not confined to a location or building. The church was commissioned to be scattered to the ends of the earth. The early church, described in the book of Acts, signals the start of this new phenomena.
But the organic church movement so vividly described in the Book of Acts has since stalled. Once Christianity became the national religion of the Roman Empire, there was a gradual retardation of the church into an institution with hierarchies and man-made laws. Sounds familiar?
Since then, almost all revivals have eventually been smothered because we are creatures of habit. Someone once observed that every revival creates a movement which, over time, degrades to an institution, and ends up being a monument. We have somehow lost the early organic church DNA and we urgently need to rediscover its dynamism.
This requires a “relational, culturally sensitive, non-standardized approach to ministry.” This is where the workplace offers an opportunity for a church to be missional.
This concept is not new. It started with the early churches. They simply met in homes or even public places like the lecture hall of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9; 20:20). Faithful believers, such as Epaphras, were sent out to start churches in Colossae (Colossians 1:7), Laodicea and Hieropolis (Colossians 4:11-13). Churches were birthed without dependency on the mother church in Jerusalem or Antioch. They took the initiative without waiting for instructions from Paul, the church planter. Paul commended them for their missional spirit in Colossians 1:6 -
All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. (unquote)
The missional church concept is more and more relevant today because we are seeing fewer and fewer people willing to step into an established church to explore the faith. As Neil Cole puts it in his book Church 3.0:
“How to make the church more attractive” is the wrong question. When we make it about the church, what kind of church, what is done at church, who the preacher or singer is — we miss the point. It should be “How can we let people see how attractive Jesus is” ... Relationships and spiritual connection become the valued currency rather than expensive buildings, technology, and promotional advertisements. (unquote)
The workplace as an opportunity for church planting enables the mother church to fulfil her role as a missional church. It sends out disciples to be incarnated into the culture and norms of their difference marketplace communities.
How does a church become missional in the workplace?
This involves believers and seekers who share common professions or have common interests gathering regularly in their work environment. Instead of persuading them to join an established church in a particular location for worship, they gather as a homogeneous group for worship. This can create a rapid growth of indigenous church plants in the marketplace which stay in the marketplace.
Timothy Wong is one who has caught the vision. He heads group research at DBS Bank in Singapore and has run Alpha courses at The Book Café for the past 15 years. He sees workplaces as harvest fields where Christians bring a part of heaven into places that are “dry and thirsty”. Timothy feels that churches must learn to release their leaders to the marketplace instead of keeping them within the church just to increase their congregation numbers. In an interview, he remarked:
Church should not be limited to a Sunday Service. If I’m a pastor of a 1,000-member church, do I want to keep my leadership team so that I can meet my goal of becoming a bigger 2,000- or 3,000-member church? Or am I actually ready to say, thank you God for blessing us with 1,000 members. Now I want to release these 1,000 people to start groups of 10. Even if my church shrinks, these guys are out there doing what God is calling them to do. (unquote)
Consider a particular potential scenario: The Dannug family in the Philippines owns a chain of 82 FC Home Centers selling furniture and home appliances at 12 shopping malls in Manila and other provinces in Luzon as at the end of 2019. The owners, Mr and Mrs Isagani Dannug, invited Pastor Danny Rayo of New Life Baptist Church in Manila to conduct Bible studies for store employees in all their FC Home Centers. This could be held in the evenings after the stores are closed. Most of the employees were nominal Catholics or Protestants.
Pastor Rayo was able to garner resources from his church for 12 of the 82 Centers. He also mobilized 27 other churches and their pastors to help out in 2 to 3 Centers. Each FC Home Center meets once a week with a church team. Imagine the potential of establishing church plants in all the 82 outlets! Even if only 20% succeed as a church plant, there will be about 16 new church plants.
Moreover, if you are a pastor, you can imagine the potent force of unleashing the laity to be actively involved in establishing a church plant for each Center. What they need is support and equipping from the pastors or able church leaders.
A church plant can comprise employees from a few outlets within close proximity. The leader of the church plant can be bivocational for financial viability. Each church plant can continue to be affiliated to the mother church and to each other.
It is time to pass the mandate of the Great Commission to every able member of the church by growing and equipping them to be disciple-makers in the marketplace. Otherwise, the potential of the body of Christ will be severely curtailed and the ministry team run aground from exhaustion.
Establishing church plants in the marketplace provides a platform for disciple-making and enables the sending church to be truly missional.
1. Are you excited about being in the marketplace? Give reasons for your response.
2. Share about your marketplace environment and discuss how there may be possible opportunities for lifestyle evangelism or sharing the good news.
3. Based on the concept of planting a church in the marketplace or among those who share some common experiences/professions, do you see the potential in your own marketplace environment? Why or why not? Discuss.