I’m a Christian—But Who Am I at Work?

An Ill-Fitting Identity

Back in my twenties, when I began working for state government, I struggled with how—as a Christ-follower—I should see myself in that role. By that time I could look back on more than two decades of involvement in local churches. But my church experience had not given me any language that could connect my faith with my role in the work world.

Within the church context, I kept hearing that I was a “layperson.” But I pushed back against this way of seeing myself for at least two reasons. First—and most important—I could not find “layperson,” “laity,” or anything close to them in Scripture. These words, so common in traditional church talk, were simply absent from the Bible.

Second, it was not only that the literal terms “layperson” and “laity” were missing from Scripture. More significantly, the whole clergy-laity concept seemed to cut across the grain of what Jesus himself taught. For example, when he said, “you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers” (Matt. 23:8), he leveled the playing field. Class or rank distinctions were to have no place among his followers.

“Layperson” is a word that sidelines. John Stott said, “’Lay’ is often a synonym for ‘amateur’ as opposed to ‘professional,’ or ‘unqualified’ as opposed to ‘expert.’”[1] And Lesslie Newbigin wrote that the word “has come to mean, in common speech, an ignoramus, an outsider.”[2] Eugene Peterson wrote, “Within the Christian community there are few words that are more disabling than ‘layperson’ and ‘laity.’"[3] R. Paul Stevens cautions, “’Only a layperson’ is a phrase that must never be found on our lips. It is irreverent and demeaning."[4]

So the whole “lay” family of words, marking me as an unqualified outsider, seemed to bench me spiritually Monday through Friday.

My church-experience repertoire of terms also offered “tentmaker” as a way of seeing myself in my work. Here again, though, the word did not seem to quite fit what I was doing. The most obvious drawback? My job, unlike Paul’s, had nothing to do with making tents. Then too “tentmaker” often carries the notion of serving in some cross-cultural capacity—not true of what I did on weekdays.

No, neither “layperson” nor “tentmaker” would serve me well as a word of self-awareness in the work world.

Why The Problem Matters

This lack of a role-descriptive term for working Christians does not trouble pastors or missionaries. In each case, they can count on words that relate the work they do to God’s purposes in his world. If I serve as a “pastor,” that word tells me my role is to shepherd a flock of God’s people. If I work as a typical “missionary,” the word tells me I have been sent to serve God in a culture different from my own. Thus, for those engaged in so-called “full-time Christian service,” the lack of a spiritually significant work-role descriptor is not an issue.

So why should it matter whether I, as a Christian, have a term for who I am during all those hours I spend every week at work? After all, in my core identity I am a child of God. Those who receive Christ are given “the right to become children of God” (Jn. 1:12). Isn’t that enough?

No.

In addition to knowing ourselves as children of God, we all need social identities. The Bible has many social-identity words: carpenter, tanner, dealer in purple cloth, jailer, doctor, director of public works, and so on. “Pastor” and “missionary” are social identities with clear links to the child-of-God identity. The rest of us Christians also need a term that relates our core identity to what we do.

Lacking such a term, we find it difficult to see ourselves as contributing much to carrying out God’s agenda during our years in the work-world. As a result, many pine for their retirement years when they can “really serve the Lord.”

Sadly, Christians in workplaces around the world do not recognize themselves for what they could be—a multitude of kingdom-of-God ambassadors sent out to bless the world with light and truth and products and services.

Toward a Social Identity for the Working Christian

That sort of a multitude could come about if each Christian were to see themselves as a self-supporting agent of God’s kingdom. Yes, this social identifier is a bit long. But not much different from those we already use in church circles: “associate pastor for senior ministry,” or “pastor of high school ministries,” or “senior pastor of congregational development.”

Each word in self-supporting agent of God’s kingdom counts, so I’ll expand on its parts—in reverse order:

God’s kingdom. Whatever the work may be, it takes place under the sovereign rule of King Jesus. God’s kingdom is the wide-angle context or setting of the work being done. A job in the world does not fit into the local church organizational chart. Only the kingdom panorama is large enough for the work world.
God’s “kingdom rules over all” (Psa 103:19). Or, as Abraham Kuyper said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” So whatever square inch my job may cultivate, it matters to the God who owns it.
Agent. According to The Free Dictionary, an agent is “One empowered to act for or represent another.” This role is well known and understood in the work world with its sales agents, insurance agents, real estate agents, etc. On the job, Christians should represent and act for their Lord in their human relationships and in the ways they conduct their work. They are ambassadors of King Jesus.
Self-Supporting. Too often among Christians, working to earn money in a so-called “secular” job has been seen as less spiritual than working for a nonprofit or faith-based organization. True, greed plays a large part in the world’s answer to “why work?” But the Bible never suggests that getting paid for work is tainted.
On the contrary, Scripture treats earning money to pay one’s own way as an undertaking God endorses. For example, Paul, who practiced self-support, called Christians to follow his example: “You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody” (I Thes 4:11-12).

What If . . . . ?

Churches do not set out to turn Christians into “laypersons.” That term gets attached by default. But what if churches were to intentionally aim at preparing their young people and adults to take their places as self-supporting agents of God’s Kingdom?

The various parts of this role description can trigger questions that will assist church leaders in shaping ways to equip Christians as workplace-ready disciples. For example:

Self-Supporting. How could a church provide training and encouragement in self-support for those in the work world? Do some of them need to unlearn tradition-based prejudice against working for profit-making enterprises? Is it just as appropriate for a church to provide training in self-support as for a mission organization to train its candidates in fund-raising?
Agent. What do Christians need to know about how to properly bear witness for Christ and his kingdom out there in the world of working people? Is explaining the gospel the only way to represent him? How does doing the work itself fit into the role of being a kingdom agent?
Kingdom of God. In what ways does King Jesus rule on earth in the present form of his kingdom? How can the Christian, in his or her work roles, carry out God’s kingdom purposes?

What if a growing stream of these properly prepared self-supporting agents of God’s Kingdom were to begin flowing from churches everywhere? This river of Christians would pour into offices, retail outlets, fields, boardrooms, classrooms, hospitals, construction sites, art studios, corporations, manufacturing shops, and other workplaces. Each believer would become a lighthouse in those spiritually darkened communities.

Where to Begin?

How can church leaders go about equipping people to take their places as kingdom-of-God agents on the job? A few suggestions:

Resolve firmly to become an equipping church for workplace-ready disciples. As Dallas Willard writes, “to make disciples we must intend to make disciples.” [5]
Keep reminding working believers that they are self-supporting agents of God’s kingdom. Centuries of tradition have etched the “layperson” identity deeply into the psyches of church people. Working Christians need to hear themselves consistently and frequently described in different terms.
Assist believers in similar fields of work to find ways to encourage, pray for, and discuss occupational perplexities with each other. Tim Keller writes: “Most churches could develop vocation groups to discuss the particular challenges and opportunities for workers in three basic fields: business, arts, and human services.” [6]
Tap into the wealth of workplace equipping material now available in books, websites, magazines, podcasts, videos, seminars, and other resources. A good place to start is the Theology of Work Project,[7] whose vision is “that every Christian be equipped and committed for work as God intends.”
Recognize well-prepared believers by commissioning them as self-supporting agents of God’s kingdom. In Workplace Discipleship 101, David Gill includes several pages on commissioning workplace Christians.[8] He concludes by saying, “I don’t see any reason why any church couldn’t always do this prayer and commissioning every three months . . . .”
Invite working Christians to share with the whole congregation stories of how they are seeing God at work on the job. Working Christians need to hear reports of how God is at work in the world they live in between Sundays. If all they hear are stories of Bible characters, it may seem that God stopped working in the world two thousand years ago. And if they hear illustrations just from the experience of pastors and missionaries, they may conclude that God works only in the lives of those in “full-time Christian service.”

From Negative to Positive ID

What comes across when Christians hear themselves identified as “laypersons”? Dictionaries usually define “laity” in terms of what such people lack. One website defines a “layperson” as:

A non-ordained member of a Church
A person without professional or specialized knowledge in a particular subject
Amateur person, not trained in religious or other profession
One who dabbles in or experiments with a little bit of everything, especially knowledge [9]

Isn’t it time—instead of labeling working Christians with a word that tells them what they are not—to begin assuring them of who they are out there in the work world? If you love Jesus and know yourself as an agent of his Kingdom, won’t that motivate you to learn how to serve him as the best agent you can be?

Note: Copies of this article may be made for research purposes but may not be commercially published. Copyright, Larry Peabody 2022.

References:

[1] https://www.theologyofwork.org/the-high-calling/blog/just-lay-person

[2] https://www.theologyofwork.org/the-high-calling/blog/just-lay-person

[3] Peterson, Eugene H. The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way (Kindle Location 155). Kindle Edition.

[4] Stevens, R. Paul. The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work and Ministry in Biblical Perspective. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 64.

[5] Willard, Dallas. The Divine Conspiracy. New York: HarperCollins, 333.

[6] Keller, Timothy, with Alsdorf, Katherine Leary. Every Good Endeavor. New York: Penguin Books, 252-3.

[7] theologyofwork.org

[8] Gill, David. Workplace Discipleship 101: A Primer. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 254-62.

[9] Word Hippo. https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/another-word-for/layperson.html