ON MISSION AT WORK - LLOYD'S STORY - #4 Use what you have, don’t wait for the perfect conditions or people.
ON MISSION AT WORK is a series of stories by individuals on how they are living out their faith in their workplace.
LLOYD’S STORY - Lloyd is a very close friend who I went to secondary school with in Zimbabwe. He has been based in and around Edinburgh and works in the financial sector. We recently holidayed together and when he told me his story of workplace mission I knew it would be a blessing and provocation.
I hope it blesses and encourages you to do similar,
Hugh.
Use what you have, don’t wait for the perfect conditions or people.
The classic error in evangelistic work is to hold off and wait for perfect conditions. We should assume that we may not have more time in the future to do that which God lays on our heart today. There is to be an urgent, deliberate and persistency, as bringing the Kingdom of God to bear in every situation we find ourselves. This is decisively not nasty or pushy but filled with the fruit of the Spirit and tends to be natural and flow out of a compassion for those around us rather than judgement or condemnation.
As Matthew Henry has said: “Let the circumstance give way to the substance and let not the thing itself be lost upon a nicety about the time. It is good striking whilst the iron is hot and taking people when they are in a good mind. Delays are dangerous.”
It is crucial that you do not enter a missional work alone, instead straight away begin to gather a small group of believers who share the same vision with you. The workplace is a hard place to be a Christian, especially when you are alone. I would start by praying for God to reveal a few key individuals who I could co-labour with. The new testament is full of the plural ‘you’, meaning that God intended the Gospel to go through the hands of many individuals, not isolated firebrands.
When considering gathering a team and starting a workplace or ‘any’ place evangelistic work to impact a certain context, you may look at the people you have or may not have to start with (those that God has given to you to get it going) and decide to call it a day almost immediately considering the task at hand. You may even say to God, “Please give me decent people, leaders who are fully formed and ready to go, and now!”. It must be said that our Lord is ok with such requests – he can handle anything and would prefer we go direct to him with complaints and requests.
Look at Jesus’s starting point. He had no disciples and was already thirty years old before he did anything substantial. He starts by preaching from Peter’s boat. The boat Peter had just returned from fishing in the entire previous night. Luke 5:10-11 says; “Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.”
Jesus came upon some fishermen and they were the first individuals he called to be his disciples or followers. He did not start at the temple, looking for the most learned religious leaders. In fact, he often had the hardest time talking to the religious leaders of the time, who would not accept his unconventional ways. It was those who obeyed and followed immediately who he made into his key disciples. Even those who did not look or fit the part. Call out to anyone who fits the part and who shows an immediate sense of call and can go along with what you are doing. They are the ones he would have you use – don’t wait for the perfect or fully formed.
So practically how do you go from a single person (you alone) in a large organisation, to more than one person? How do you gather your second, third person?
The work environment is all about people, conversations and networking to get outcomes in the course of the working day. Use the conversations to drop hints and comments that would unearth potential co-workers. It helps to make clear at the first meeting to anyone that you believe in Jesus. In this way there is no doubt in your mind that they know you follow Christ and they themselves are in no doubt about your following of Jesus. This may take the form of a simple comment in response to ‘what did you do over the weekend?’ like ‘I was at church on Sunday’. Or if there is some who has a sick relative or family member – offer to pray for them in a sensitive way. I found that gently letting people know about Jesus and that I was a Christian was very liberating and it helped me get to the next step – being involved in conversations as the Christian in the team or context. It has only been a recent development over a few years that I have decided to ditch the ‘secret Christian’ approach at the office and has made the journey easier – not harder if it is done sensibly and with utmost love and genuine friendship.
Often there are noticeboards or virtual noticeboards or an intranet or internal social media type platform in which staff can interact. Use this to search for or sensitively let people know that you are a Christ-follower. I started by putting up a simple bible-based encouragement on a Friday and just waiting for any responses or people to get in touch. Often people would get in touch privately and ask to meet up. I found the meeting up element to be a vital component of aligning vision and getting a team in place. Those who I met up with for an initial discussion could feel and sense my passion to see the lost won. Often those I meet are initially cynical about workplace Christian groups after having been part of a rather stale or directionless group in the past. By sharing your clear vision and intent to not be just a small huddle for Christians but a radical and open group whose purpose is to serve, love and be open to share the gospel with all and everyone in the wider organisation, suddenly lights up the conversation and they realise they are not alone.
Once you have a small group of about five individuals who are passionate for the name of Jesus and keen to serve in the workplace on behalf of Jesus and are open to being used by God you can set off. Begin by praying together and chatting through their backgrounds and ensuring that everyone is on the same page in terms of their understanding and belief in the fundamental aspects of the Gospel. I have found that using a tool called the Gospel Revolutions which explores the basic concepts of the Gospel and is not church specific but purely biblical is transformative in base-lining the core group of leaders forming.
Returning to the position I began this discussion around – the urgency at hand, the need to use those who God gives you rather than waiting for the perfect individuals to come along; this is such a key thing. If we will not trust God to use us now and instead hide our gifts and talents for some unknown future time, the great commission will simply not happen. Waiting for perfect weather to plant is not faith, planting seeds in expectation of the rain is faith. Francis Chan explains how we often pray for a specific confirmation to go somewhere or perform some act of faith in obedience to God. Rather he says we should go or act by default and instead be praying for God to close the doors or halt us in our tracks – like Paul when he felt the call to go to Macedonia. He assumed it was something he was meant to do, rather than spending months and years waiting for specific confirmation. This is a generalisation of course but it does put faith in Christ centre stage – are we really a faith filled people if we are always holding up God and waiting for hundreds of confirmations from our friends or a specific word to direct us. If God has said to us; do it, then we must have the faith to do it.
Trust God, that those he provides at the start are the exact people you need to join with. Often, they are from very different church backgrounds and experiences of faith. Some of that is irrelevant, and there to humble us and return us to what the bible says and what God wants us to do, with a focus on the Gospel and Christ rather than a set methodology or how we have done it at our church in my past. If unity develops and is maintained – there God commands a blessing. Use those he surrounds you with to get the ball rolling. The individuals that God has surrounded me with have been an absolute blessing and encouragement. None of them are church leaders or confident public speakers, but all of us have suddenly been emboldened as we have realised that we are called to a greater calling together. We look back at the events we have put on and it seems impossible that such weak and insignificant people could have pulled them off in such a public manner to the encouragement of so many – yet God has done that. We could have spent years training each other and practising to get it perfect, polishing our approach before eventually going out. But God has made the work of an evangelist to be that of constantly stepping out and trusting that the words, the people, the timing and the current resources he has already provided and at hand are enough. Be they five fish and two loaves or anything above that – they are enough. He is enough to work with any of our weaknesses or limitations.