If you would have asked me 3-5 years ago what my world would look like at twenty-five, I would have told you I would either be married or close to it and working full time in ministry, most likely in the church setting. I graduated from college with a degree in communications with the intention to never use my degree in a corporate setting. I started writing a book six years ago and figured it would launch me into the speaking world and the rest would be history.
Yet here we are. I am not married, nor anywhere close (help a sister out). I am not doing full-time ministry. I am not working for a church. My book still isn’t published, although it is close! I am doing the exact opposite of what I envisioned myself doing; I am working the corporate American desk job. Here is the thing though – I have liked not working for the church. Not only have I liked it but I truly believe it has been the best thing I have done for myself. Let me explain why.
From a young age the phrase, “you are going to do big things,” was spoken over me. I am grateful for the people who have come alongside me and seen potential in me. However, I think somewhere along the way there was pressure to rise to the occasion. When you grow up in the church world big things are often equated with ministry things. So when the rubber met the road and it came to decide to start looking for jobs, it felt like there was only one option: ministry. However, that wasn’t what was on the table. Last July I even wrote about taking this job and how unsure I was of it. Yet, there was faith rising up in me that was a gentle reminder that I was not off his radar so I stepped in.
Rereading that post I realized that so much of it was me coming from a place of “I will do this because I know it won’t be forever” or “I’ll make do for now.” However, I write to you today four months into this new role to tell you that the Lord does not ever intend for us to just survive. He has never been a stingy God. He has always been one of abundance. He doesn’t ask us to approach the table and receive a scarcity of portions. Where I am does not change who He is. I thought this job would be me putting one foot in front of the other with my head down until another door opened. I thought that I would pull up my bootstraps and endure the days until He made another path. I thought wrong.
At 5 am every morning, you will find me in my pj’s, with a cup of coffee, snuggled up in a blanket, with my journal and bible. Trust me, I know, 5 am is EARLY. However, getting in the word every single morning has become even more important to me than it has before. I think it is because I realized that I am stepping into an environment where I have to interact with all sorts of people all day long. If I don’t make the conscious effort to impart truth into my soul nobody else will. Day by day, the Lord has been peeling back layers of misconceptions I have. As I have read His word I have seen how many of the things He calls us to as His people that are not consistent in me.
I started to see how hesitant my faith could be. It is easy to talk “Jesus” in the church. I thought I was good at church talk but I found that I was only good at church talk in the setting of the church. What does that say about me? It says that there is work to be done still, and I know He will do it. He transforms us continuously through the process of sanctification. We are ever-changing for the better. When we let Him take us there.
In an office full of business people, I have to daily ask myself, “am I giving these people a reason to think I am different?” As God’s people, we are called to be holy, set apart. Peter tells us in all of our conduct we should be holy. (1 Peter 1:15)
All our conduct.
Whew. That means from the time I open the door at work to the way I fill up my water bottle, how I answer the phone to how I operate in the lunch line – in all of my conduct I am called to be set apart. That has convicted me and challenged me. However, it has also excited me because it is allowing me to learn how to incorporate who Jesus is in more ways than just how I serve on a Sunday at church or how I post on social media.
Does my life match what I write?
Does my life match what I claim?
Does my life match what Jesus says it should match?
Does my life have consistency?
Am I the same in the church setting as I am in the business setting?
All of these questions… I do not think I would have ever asked them if I wasn’t where I was.
I am not saying that I do not believe in the local church and that I am not in support of those who do work for it. I know plenty of people and some of my closet friends are working full time for the church. We need those people. And we greatly need them rallying around us who are being sent out into different environments. What I am saying is that I think there is something beautiful and liberating to realize that you can be madly in love with Jesus and not be in the church world. It does not make you less of a follower. It does not mean you are spiritually growing less. It does not mean you are less beneficial to the building of the kingdom.
What if.
What if our workplaces were full of people with masters in theology?
What if our schools were full of people who madly enthralled with Jesus?
What if our hospitals were full of people who daily were in His word?
What if the church already has enough employees and the best thing you could do for the Kingdom of God was walk into a different setting?
What if we had people finding ways to incorporate things like discipleship and bible studies into these non- church settings?
John Mark Comer says, “There is no such thing as the secular and spiritual life. There is only the integrated life.” He is making the point that there is no divide. There is not “some of us do ministry because we work for a church or a non-profit” and “some of us have secular jobs.” As the people of God, there is only the integration of who we are and what we do. We do not set our spirituality aside to go to work, even if it is not a faith-based environment. We don’t have to run in the doors Monday morning quoting the book of Ephesians but we remember the call to be holy, set apart, and we fight for that to be true of us. I love that phrase – integrated life. I love it even more that the team I currently work for at CFA is called “integration.” Hello Lord, I get it.
This past week I had the chance to stand in front of a room of business people and teach God’s word. It was incredibly kind for the Lord to merge the two together. It was not something I expected to happen. In fact, when I took this job, one of the biggest questions I asked was, “where does my passion for teaching fit into this role?” He didn’t owe me that opportunity but like I said before – He is not a stingy God. It was special and different than any time I have taught before and I think it was because I was not in a church setting. It felt like fire in my bones to know that in a hotel in Atlanta there was a room full of business people opening up God’s word.
A woman found me after and said to me, “That is your calling. Why are you not doing that?” With no hesitation whatsoever I told her that as much as I loved what I just did that I was confident that where I am is right where God wants me. It is because I know that I am learning more about being a follower of Jesus and how to walk that out on a day to day basis than I ever have before. It is because I know that I can’t be dependent on what I say on stages to let people know my faith. It is because I know that an integrated life is what I should be living and I am slowly but surely learning how to let that be true of me. I don’t know if I would have ever seen the disconnect and the places that needed to grow if I was not where I am.
So yes, I like not working for the church because it is teaching me how to be the church in a way I never saw coming. We do not have to “survive” where we are. He is inviting us to the table today. The table is set by Goodness Himself. Not only is there something for you where you are, but there are good things for you. Take it from me – the most unexpected thing could turn out to be the best thing. It is just how He works.
Go on friends.
Be holy.
Be set apart.
And do it wherever you are.
P.S shoutout to the people in the picture above. They are truly the BEST team you could be on. I hit the jackpot.
