I have already shared my personal story and details of my journey as a Christian called to both a secular job and a role within the life of the church. Within my story, I have described some of my thoughts and questions about a potential sacred-secular divide in the area of faith and work.
I realised I was not alone in my thinking when I read a 2009 survey report conducted by the London Institute of Christianity called ‘Apprentice 09’ (Care, 2009). The survey found that 59% of the 2,859 respondents found work to be the most challenging context to be a disciple for Christ. The most challenging finding within the study for me as a church leader, was that 62% of the respondents in full-time paid employment experienced little, not much or no help or preparation from the life and ministries of the church, to deal with the issues they faced at work.
This set me on a journey, was this correct?, did other people feel this way and if so why?, what should the leaders of a church be doing about this? My further reading in this area confirmed ‘Houston – we have a problem’.
It would have been easy to read a few more books, listen to a couple of podcasts and put in place some of the recommended actions to support members of the congregation in their work and faith journey. This felt inadequate as I truly believe each Christian has the experience, wisdom and insight to bring their thoughts and views to a table of discussion and innovation. This is the living reality of ‘practical theology’, real people exploring faith in their own lives in practical ways. This research study creates a space for those discussions to take place with members of our congregation and to build a discipleship pathway that embraces the whole of our lives.
In reality, 98% of the gathered church will spend 95% of their lives outside of the church living as the scattered church. We all have 168 hrs a week available to us, of those 168hrs we are awake for about 120hrs. Most of us spend no more that 10hrs a week in church activities, for some it is much less. If we estimate we have 110hrs remaining, those remaining hours are spent elsewhere ie at work, in the home, with family and /or friends. For a lot of us, many of those hours will be spent undertaking some form of work – paid, unpaid, in the home, the community or a workplace. Work is significant, navigating it well, feeling equipped as a Christian and understanding its place in our theology is important.
The novelist and playwright Dorothy L. Sayers, one of my favourite mystery writers, was also a Christian apologist. She had a very forthright view on work and the Christian faith:
‘In nothing has the Church so lost Her hold on reality as Her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments, and is astonished to find that, as a result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends, and that the greater part of the world’s intelligent workers have become irreligious or at least uninterested in religion…. But is it astonishing? How can any one remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?’ (Sayers, 2004, p. 138)
Sayers is making a wider point here which is that by not giving attention in the Christian faith to work, we are failing to present a gospel to non-believers that addresses the whole of their lives. Another reason why we need to ensure that the area of work is fully embraced in our gospel message.
Work is linked to our understanding of vocation, calling, ministry, whole-life discipleship and of being a ‘priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:4-5 NIV). Such is the centrality of work to our Christian faith that it is worthy of further exploration through this practical theology research study.
So who best to talk about and share their experiences of work and faith? – you.
Who can inform the thinking of the leadership team, help develop meaningful resources and activities as the gathered church to equip people to be the scattered church in the area of work? – you.
By participating in this study you are helping to create a legacy, a legacy for those currently working and for those generations coming up behind us who will enter into work.
I look forward to journeying with you in this important area of faith and work.
Blessings
Jean
References
Care, B. (2009). Apprentice ’09’ Survey – Full Results. London, Spring Harvest and The London Institute of Contemporary Christianity.
Sayers, D. L. (2004) Letters to a Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine,. Nashville, Thomas Nelson.
Appreciating Theology 