Taking church to the office

I wonder if we have unintentionally obscured Jesus’s famous commission at the end of Matthew when he tells his disciples to share the gospel message.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19-20

If you have been a Christian for some time, you likely have heard this commission hundreds of times. You may have even skipped actually reading the passage above because you’re so familiar with its message that you can recall it without the help of written words. Familiarity with some of Jesus’s most famous words is a great blessing, but it can also come with challenges. Sometimes, familiarity breeds apathy. Other times, familiarity keeps us from critically assessing if we’re actually following the commission as Jesus intended.

What if we’re doing “outreach” wrong?  

Jesus is sending. He says “go.” He tells them to take his life changing message with them as they journey into life.  

For many Christians, outreach is primarily an effort to invite coworkers or neighbors to church. People are invited to experience Sunday worship with its singing, its proclamation of God’s Word, and its community. Churches also come up with outstanding seminars and programs that can be shared with non-believers in order to get them to your church building. Marriage retreats, grief programs, parenting seminars, and children’s activities are all opportunities to get coworkers or neighbors into the church building.

These programs are all excellent opportunities to share the love of Jesus. I do not intend to dismiss these efforts or their effectiveness. I merely want to highlight that outreach should not be limited solely to inviting people to a building, almost implying that the building and the people in it will save them. Jesus saves, a church building does not.

Christians enter offices, warehouses, classrooms, and boardrooms every day. They have opportunities to bring the love of Jesus with them. Those with an integrated understanding of faith and vocation enter these spaces with a real sense of God’s presence and God’s purpose for them.  

“They see their work not as a means to an end – that is, a place to find people to bring to church; they see their work as the location where healing begins and God’s Kingdom comes near.”

Dr. Ben Ries in “The Kingdom Coming Near: Why Integration of faith and work is one answer to the Church’s waning influence.”

If our coworkers need to come to our church building to experience Jesus, we have missed the calling of Jesus’s great commission in Matthew. Christians are called to take the message and the love of Jesus with them as they do life, including their time at work.

How can you take the love of Jesus into your workspace?

At some point, you will want your coworkers to be plugged into a church community. So many of God’s blessings occur within a church family. Love, support, encouragement, joy, peace, and acceptance are all blessings God intends for His people to experience through a church community. At some point, an invitation to church is necessary. But that’s not the end goal. The end goal is to help your coworkers experience Jesus. Jesus isn’t only in your church building. He can be in your workplace through you.