Can A Secular Endeavor Be Spiritual?
“Your company is your church” he said. “The people who work with you, sell to you, buy from you…those are your parishioners. Some are going to be sold out to Christ. Some don’t know and don’t care. But they’re all within your ‘reach’…within your influence. It’s your job to meet every one of them ‘where they are’, to pray for them, serve them, love and accept them…and point them to Jesus, both with your words and with your life” said the speaker.
That was different.
“But I’m responsible to my boss & the shareholders. I’ve got budgets to meet and numbers to make. How can my job be ‘spiritual’ like a pastor’s?”
Hold that thought.
Skip to the conversation I had with a senior pastor. “Who is the CEO of your church?” I asked. “I am” he said quickly. (Whoa! “I am”? Didn’t someone else say that somewhere?)
How can a secular job…a job dealing with inventory, code, contracts, deliveries, lawsuits, heart attacks, interns, HR…how can these jobs be spiritual? And how can the work of the senior pastor of a large church be anything other than spiritual?
Here’s how…
A secular endeavor, approached from a spiritual perspective, is spiritual.
A spiritual endeavor, approached from a secular perspective, is secular.
It’s all about motive. It’s about why you do what you do. If the business leader goes to work for spiritual purposes, his work is spiritual. If he works to bring glory to God by “doing his work heartily as to the Lord”, it’s spiritual. If he’s passionately loving and serving people out of gratitude and obedience…because God told him to ‘love one another’, because he ‘considers others better than himself, because even if he wants to be great, he does that by being a servant…if that’s why he works, then he’s ‘in the ministry’ baby! And his work is spiritual.
If the senior pastor’s motive is to keep up the growth, make the budget, raise the capital, expand the programs, and be famous for leading the great big church down the street….then his work is secular. And God may move far from it. And him.
The pastors and church leaders we admire and follow aren’t focused on the money, the number of “cheeks in the seats”, or the next building to be built. They’re focused on life change….on being used to help someone move one step closer to Jesus. It’s getting in on what God is doing.
God is all about motive. Science is about how. God is about why. Science tries to explain how God created everything. But it has no answers to ‘why’.
Do you go to work to make money? Earn a living?
Without a doubt.
Do you work to apply your gifts and abilities? Feel valuable? Do good work and feel good about yourself?
All of the above.
And there’s nothing wrong with any of that.
Both you and your pastor get to choose every day. Secular work or spiritual work? There’s no purely spiritual job…maybe a monk or something. The pastor has to oversee the finances and stuff. There’s a secular piece for sure.
And us lay people have to make money…money to give, save and live. No argument there.
The challenge is in the true priorities of our heart.
Here’s why God’s love is so amazing…one of many reasons. He says in Proverbs 16:2
“All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, but the Lord weighs the motives”.
Isn’t it cool that our Heavenly Father accepts us, even with our mixed motives? He knows our hearts, “weighs our motives”, and loves us anyway. He loves us extravagantly in our humanity.
Way cool.
Question: If your workplace thoughts and actions could be put on an old-timey scale and weighed, which would weigh more? The spiritual or the secular? Comment here.
Breathe New Life Into Your Discipleship
Small group mentoring can help you engage your people, build your core group of leaders, and transform your church. Our free resources equip you with all the tools you need to launch a sustainable mentoring program.
Responses (6)
Unfortunately I would have to admit secular. I know that I tend to put my life in boxes. This is my church box, and this is work box. In reality everything needs to be spiritual. I pray that one day the Holy Spirit will get through my thick skull to change the way I think.
Your honesty will facilitate your growth Jon. Most of us live by that river running through Egypt called “denial”. You’re not one of those. You can change your focus and God will help you if you ask Him…constantly. Which, by the way, is the way to change your focus, constant prayer and praise for His beautiful name.
Thanks for the post, Regi, I really appreciate the thoughts and perspective. Sadly, I’ve been around a few ministry folks who leave the impression of business-first. It feels confusing, frankly. Now, I’m hoping to inspire lots of young people to think spiritually about secular work as they enter the workplace for the first time. Blessings–
….gotta be different…be a lighthouse and show them the way.
This is a great column and contains so many truths. I think even when we feel like we have started doing our work for Christ it’s amazing when a major stress or problem arises that we can claim in back and ignore what He is doing. One of my biggest work goals is to stay focused on Christ all day, even when it gets tough. I still have a long way to go.
So do I, but we’re on the journey….that’s what matters!