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Do you realise that your work takes you to places your pastors can never go? Your work puts you in touch with people that your pastor may never meet.
I cannot walk into the bank and start preaching but if you work in that bank, you are the pastor and preacher assigned to that workplace. From there you minister and carry out your ministry of reconciliation.
I am a Pulpit Minister. My pulpit happens to be in a Church Building. You are a Marketplace Minister. Your pulpit is in your Workplace.
We are all “full-time” servants of the Living God! The only difference is the way God funds our ministry.
As a vocational Christian worker, I am funded by your tithes and offerings. You are funded by the fruits of your labour. But in both cases, God is our Provider!
1 Timothy 5:8: “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
Is our focus on things eternal or things temporal? Are we working for Kingdom advance or purely for earthly gains?
So whether we are pastors or plumbers, we provide for our family as God provides for us. The real test is focus.
Matthew 6:33: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you …”
Whether we work in the church or the marketplace, the test is in 2 Corinthians 4:18: “We fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen for what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.”
The real question is this: Is our focus on things eternal or things temporal? Are we working for Kingdom advance or purely for earthly gains?
Do you recognise that God has placed you in that office, clinic, school, factory for the eternal purpose of bringing God’s love and presence into the hearts of lost humanity?
Whether you are a pastor, a lawyer, a doctor or a mechanic, the question remains: What is the focus of your heart – temporal or eternal?
The “secular” becomes “spiritual” when the focus is eternal. The “spiritual” can become “secular” when the focus is temporal. It is not the fruit of our labour but the focus that matters!
Your workplace is your pulpit. Your workmates are your congregation. Your work is your platform.
In the light of this truth, if our work is divorced from our witness, we are missing the point!
Reflection and Discussion
1. “The ‘secular’ becomes ‘spiritual’ when the focus is eternal.” Do you agree? What if your secular job requires you to perform acts – such as cutting corners, falsifying accounts or taking advantage of the vulnerable – that go against Scriptural values?
2. Read 1 Timothy 5:8. Does providing here mean financial provision specifically? Do you think we are called to provide for our relatives in other ways as well?
3. Reflect on your life’s experiences – both the highs and the lows – that have prepared you for the role of marketplace minister today.
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