“Don’t share the gospel near my business.”
This is expected from a disgruntled atheist shop owner. It’s devastating when it comes from a Christian missionary.
Cross-legged on a Moroccan couch, I sat learning from a missionary. The stats are overwhelming—100 million people in 5 North African countries. 99.9% are Muslim. Across the Maghreb, over 1500 die daily never hearing the story of Jesus. This is one of the most neglected places by modern church-planting efforts.
Our group was 5,000 miles from home, and we grieved the perceived hopelessness. Then he explained something that should be hopeful—modern missionary efforts.
Business as mission—the concept, not the organization—is popular. I have personally championed it stateside. What a powerful idea: smart Christians start healthy businesses in unreached countries. Gospel saturation flows naturally.
But my friend—dedicated to the advancement of the gospel—hears this rebuke from a Christian business missionary:
“Don’t share the gospel near my business. I don’t want it to deter people from coming to the store.”
Business eats mission.
Why move overseas simply to count dollars?
The whole purpose of this blog is to elevate Monday mornings. The church neglected to disciple you and me that our spreadsheets, meetings, sales calls, construction projects, financial analysis matter to the glory of God. There is spiritual significance to the 40+ hours at my desk.
The shallow solution is often evangelism—if I convert my heathen coworkers, it sanctifies my work. The hour-long conversations about Jesus cleanse my other 39 hours.
Business eats mission epitomizes this shallow spiritual significance, slathering it on a Monday morning. It shouts: my work finally matters because I am around the most heathens. Until it no longer does.
I am conflicted.
I recoil at this idea that Jesus is uninterested in what I do if I don’t share the gospel with my coworkers. I mean what about Jesus? For the first 30 years of his life, he was a carpenter. Was God uninterested until Jesus made the wine?
No, there is no conflict. The gospel doesn’t take from my work. And my work shouldn’t eat the gospel. The two can sing.
Exodus writes this song. One of the last instructions to Moses on Mount Sinai was this: “See, I have chosen Bezalel . . . and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills.” (Exodus 31:1-3)
The first person that scripture records as filled with the Spirit of God was a craftsman. Not a prophet. Not a priest. Not a king. A worker.
Bezalel builds the tabernacle. He encounters God. Then all his work becomes an encounter with God—for himself and for others.
The Christian worker—concerned with the glory of God and the spread of the gospel—can’t separate the two. Every moment at work, every meeting scheduled, every laptop opened, is an invitation to encounter God. He has filled you with the Spirit of God, now produce something—even if just a spreadsheet—that becomes an encounter for other people.
Back in Morocco—or at your office—it should be different.
“This store owner is always fair, isn’t he?”
“Have you noticed how this shop is thoughtfully organized?”
“Ever wonder why their employees are so responsive?”
It’s because they are filled with the Spirit of God…let me tell you about this God.
An encounter with God breathed life into work, and work became an encounter with God.