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On a purely practicle level, we need farmers, lawyers, police officers, and doctors just as much as we need preachers and missionaries in the world.

But I think the problem comes from thinking that simply because we have a secular job, that we can’t be serving God’s kingdom. But, quite honestly, the best way of sharing the Gospel with people is through relationships, not passing out tracts or Bibles to strangers. Sharing Jesus with co-workers and neighbors is just as important as sharing Jesus overseas in a jungle in South America.

I know of a man who converted from Islam, and since then he has made it a point to share the Gospel with his employees. He has a secular job (owns a resteraunt) and is a pastor of a small church, but he doesn’t allow his passion for Jesus to stop inside the church walls.

A friend of mine often says “If you aren’t sharing Jesus here, what will be different about being anywhere else?” And I think he makes a good point. We talk about missionaries and sharing Jesus and think about going overseas or prison minitries or doing inner-city work, but we never think about the people we see everyday.

Dr. Sawyer, pardon the errors!

Corrected: “… let you know that yours is the third article/post I am reading …”

Dr. Sawyer, you may or may not be surprised, but I would like to ley you know that yours is the third article/post I am reminding on the same subject in the last two weeks. I think I would not be wrong to say that God is “speaking” to me on this, and encouraging me to go back to the “secular” field.

I thank you for your very insightful post. I am encouraged. God bless!

Lisa,

I remember dealing with something very similar right after my graduation from a Bible school many years ago. I was having a conversation with an elder of my church at the time who had spent many years on the mission field himself. His comment to me at that time was something to this effect, “Of course you will be going to the mission field now,” like there was no other reason on this earth for a person to go to Bible school unless they were specifically preparing for missions. I remember the confusion that comment left me with–had I really missed something here?–and also a sense of guilt that I was not doing what I was supposed to be doing.

James,

Great thoughts. You hit on something that was bugging me during my World Missions course this past semester but I couldn’t quite pinpoint it. Now the lectures were great and the professor’s insight, quite formidable in my opinion. But I got the impression that there was this line between “mission” work and other endeavors. I don’t know if that line was intended but it was intimated, for sure. I got the impression that to be involved in missions, was to contribute in some way to organized activity intentionally dispensing the gospel. But I see a Biblical theology of mission of everywhere being a mission field, especially in the secular arena. It is incarnating the gospel for people that need the gospel, which is everyone and that can be done here in a contractor’s office or abroad towards unreached people groups.

Great post! I have only recently come to this conviction….with the help of my 19 yr old son. Someone gave him a book by Michael Horton titled “Where in the world is the church” which dealt with this Reformation idea that the Secular is indeed sacred to God.

How truly freeing it is to finally realize this truth!

I really like this post, there is much of the sacred in the ordinary, much to be learned of God in simply living your life.

Dear Pastor James Sawyer,

GREAT POST!! GREAT POST!!

“Think of the hours and hours spent in the shop, the years of apprenticeship, the days and months and years hammering and cutting and carving and sanding. What are we to make of the fact that the vast majority of God’s time on earth was spent in such ordinary, mundane activity? Have you ever thought about that?”

Ya know… I have never thought about that!! That was a major lightbulb being lit for the first time for me. Paradigm shifting, really.

I’m thankful to your wife… because her troubles motivated you to think, meditate, reflect, cogitate on the artificial tension between the sacred and secular and put your thoughts on paper (so to speak).

Thank you.

“Matt (#2) wasn’t so sure about the above quote, but I think its good.”

Actually, I think it is a very good quote; I just think we need to be careful that we don’t apply it across the board to everybody questioning their vocation and how it aligns with God’s specific calling on their life.