God’s Co-Founder

Work as Worship: Rediscovering the Sacredness of Everyday Work

If you've been a follower of Jesus for any stretch of time, you've heard the term "stewardship." Jesus spoke on this in the parable of the dishonest steward and the parable of the talents. A steward is a fiduciary — a manager. He owns none of the assets, and yet he manages them for the owner. The owner entrusts him to care for, manage, and, in the case of these biblical texts, increase those assets.

When we entrust our assets to an investment advisor, we do so expecting they'll bring us a return and not engage in any reckless strategies or negligence that would put our property at risk.

From Burnout to a New Understanding of Calling

After nearly a decade serving the local church, I hit burnout pretty hard. My wife and I found ourselves seeking God's wisdom for how our family could thrive. So we made the hard decision to move back to my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, where we had a huge network of support and family to help out as we raised our young children.

After taking a six-month sabbatical, I found myself back in the business world. At first, this was very disorienting. Had I failed at the call of God on my life? Had I disqualified myself? It was a difficult season. But God does some of His best work in the difficulties of life.

During this time of sabbatical, rest, and restoration, God began to show me many areas that had gotten out of whack in my life — in my mind, my heart, and my character. One of those areas was my understanding of calling, vocation, and work. You see, I had made the mistake of thinking my calling was to a position or title of "Pastor." I won't go into all the ways God has renewed and deepened my understanding of calling — we'll save that for another blog post. Instead, I want to unpack a different revelation: work as our worship.

The False Divide Between Sacred and Secular Work

In many corners of the church, and in the hearts and minds of many believers, there's a false and deceptive theology that there is a secular/sacred divide in our work. Simply put: ministry is sacred work, and everything else is secular.

I'm sad to say that, as a pastor, I had fallen into this belief too. It's an understandable one. It's easy to think that when you spend your working hours and energy on people and tasks related to the church of Jesus, that work is sacred, since the church is God's plan for the salvation of the earth.

But consider the implications of this belief: does that mean the two percent of the body of Christ in full-time vocational ministry is engaged in the "real" work of God, while the other 98% of us are just doing secular work to fund the ministry of a select few?

I'm grateful for my winding career path, because I've spent significant time in both the business and ministry worlds, and I've seen some things. I've seen ordinary, blue-collar working men live holier lives and share the gospel with more lost and broken people than a pastor of 30 years. I've also seen pastors — myself included, at points — live far below the character and holiness Christ has called us to, more focused on personal success and status than on service to others.

I'm here to tell you: it is not where you collect a paycheck that determines the sacredness of your life's work.

Work and Worship Are the Same Word

It's extraordinary to me that in Hebrew, the word translated as "work" is the same word translated as "worship." The Hebrew word avodah (עֲבוֹדָה) means work, worship, and service, all at the same time.

It's also extraordinary to me that before the fall of man — while man was in the Garden of Eden, in perfect relationship with our Creator and His creation — God immediately put the man to work.

It's so easy to fall into the trap of a Western mindset: that the goal is to make a lot of money so we can enjoy life — travel, experiences, accumulating the wealth and possessions we want, leisure as the real point — and work is just what we have to do to get there. That's false and deceptive too. Our work is part of the purpose of God in our lives. Not some curse we have to deal with this side of eternity.

God the Worker, God the Entrepreneur

Almighty God is a Creator. A worker. Scripture says God worked for six days and rested on the seventh. You could even say God is a founder — an entrepreneur. Like an entrepreneur, like any worker, God creates and builds something completely new. When we work, we create something that didn't exist before.

If you're in business, you may understand this at an even deeper level. But truly, every one of us is creating our way through our workdays. God was at work creating the cosmos. He is at work sustaining it. And He continues to work toward its redemption. He invites us daily — no matter what work we're engaged in for a paycheck — to work alongside Him.

You, day laborer: God is inviting you to labor with Him. You, founder: you are God's co-founder. You, teacher: God is inviting you to teach His lessons. You, caregiver: God is inviting you to care for His children.

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." — Ephesians 2:10

You were created to work and to worship God. Let your work worship God.

No matter where you get a paycheck, you get to choose how sacred your work becomes.

You have been entrusted with a sacred work. Steward it well.