
My wife and I are blessed to work with an amazing group of college students at our church. These kids are students at Bethel University in McKenzie Tennessee. They come to us from all over the United States with a wide range of backgrounds. These are not your “average” kids. They are mission-minded Christians who are never afraid to share their faith.
My wife and I had dinner with them this weekend and they shared their ambitious plans for bringing their faith to campus this semester. I found that the challenges that they will face are very similar to the challenges that we face in bringing our faith to our workplace. My wife and I discussed 1 Peter1:13 with them as a great guide. In that verse, we are called to prepare our minds for action. We discussed setting priorities, developing a specific plan, and acting. We came up with a proactive plan for their semester that I think can also be a plan for caring our faith to work:
1. Pray like crazy!! That is the most proactive thing we can do to align ourselves with God’s will for our lives. This time spent with Christ helps us to understand his plans for us and helps us to put on the armor of faith we will need to deal with the opposition we will likely face.
2. Expect to be used – If we pray for God to put someone in our path for us to witness to we had better be prepared because he will. If we pray God send me we should have our bags packed.
3. Model Christ – I may be in places where I may not be able to verbally share my faith, however, I will almost always be in places where I can model Christ in the way I act, the way I respond to difficulty and the way I treat others. Francis of Assisi once said, “preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary”.
4. Focus on a few – we may not be able to reach everyone in our school or workplace, but we might be able to reach one. I believe that we often set ourselves up for failure when we plan to reach everyone. I really do believe in the Butterfly Effect. Everything we do matters.
5. Build relationships – It is much easier for me to share my faith with those I have built relationships with.
6. Pray like crazy – When we start and end our plans in prayer we can never go wrong. Pray without ceasing is not a suggestion, but a command!
There is nothing intensely theological about this plan, but it does offer a practical guide that we can use to bring our faith with us to work every day.
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