Finding God at Work

We kick off a new series with this episode—Gentle Witnesses: Sharing Your Faith at Work In A Way That Actually Makes Sense.

If you've had a life-changing encounter with Jesus, it makes sense that you would want to share your faith with others. But have you ever felt stuck about how to share your faith?

We know that there are obnoxious and forced and even manipulative ways to "share your faith." We don't want to do anything like that. At the same time, it can be hard to know what the alternative is. Especially when we think about our work relationships, the question feels especially fraught.

But be encouraged: There are relational, healthy ways to share the Good News of Jesus that make social sense and that can help others see how the way of Jesus makes sense of life. It's not about pushing or selling or winning; it's about learning to listen to other people's real-life spiritual journeys and then offering some of yours.

This series has three parts:

• What is the Gospel (the Good News)?

• What are relational ways to share the Good News?

• What are the social implications of the Good News for our work?

You have what it takes to become a Gentle Witness, someone who shares the Good News about Jesus in the gentle way of Jesus.

Sources: Luke 13:20-21 (ESV) The Book of Common Prayer (2019), Prayer for a Spirit of Evangelism

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In this bonus episode for Series 2, Chris interviews Mike Henry, Sr., founder of Follower of One, a global community helping others move one notch closer to Jesus. Mike shares his story of coming to faith and learning that his job *is* his mission field. Chris shares a testimony of participating in a recent Marketplace Mission Trip hosted by Follower of One.

Join Follower of One for Marketplace Mission Trip #37 starting on Sunday 1/19/2025: Sign Up Here!

Once you've signed up for the community, go to the left hand menu and click on the Current & Upcoming Trips tab to find Mission Trip #37 (Jan 19 - Feb 2, 2025). Then click Join!

Marketplace Mission Trips are hosted every six to eight weeks throughout the year. Learn more at https://followerofone.org/.

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Only living things can bear fruit.

A rock can move around, but it can't move itself around.

It can't grow.

It can't reproduce.

It can't bear fruit.

The Bible is the story of how God gives us a certain kind of life. He gives us a kind of life that lets us bear fruit.

He leads us into a way of life where we can choose our deepest and truest desires over our more superficial ones.

He makes it possible for us to choose love.

Get more resources, including a reflection and study guide for each episode, at https://missioncentral.church.

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If you could name the one thing that matters most, what would you say?

In Galatians 5, the Apostle Paul "shows his cards." He tells us what he thinks, in the end, really matters: "The only thing that counts is faith working through love" (5:6 NRSVue).

But what does it mean for faith to "work through love"?

We know that we're saved by faith. The same faith that saves us also, by God's grace, turns us into people of love.

And that love goes to work.

Get more resources, including a reflection and study guide for each episode, at https://missioncentral.church.

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Sometimes at work, I just feel stuck.

Sometimes I feel stuck somewhere dangerous. What's going to happen to me here?

Sometimes I feel stuck all alone. No one's got my back. No one's in my corner.

I have to fend for myself.

When we're stuck fending for ourselves, it's hard to feel free.

We turn inward on ourselves.

Jesus offers us a different way.

He helps us uncoil our spines and rest in the love of God and look out into the world and see:

Where can I serve?

How can I help? Who can I love? That love becomes freedom. It frees us in our work relationships, in our career decisions, and in our emotional experience of work. That love is never wasted. Get more resources, including a reflection and study guide for each episode, at https://missioncentral.church. #FindingGodAtWork #FaithAndWork #Fruit #FruitOfTheSpirit #Love #Freedom #Bondage #Kyphosis #IncurvatusInSe #MartinLuther #NTWright #CSLewis #TimothyKeller #HouseOfCards #Galatians5 #Galatians4 #Genesis3 #Mission #SpiritualFormation #ChristianLife #MissionCentral

Way back in the 400s BC, the Greek playwright Euripides wrote, "For among mortals happy man is none."

In other words, nobody's happy.

It's easy to feel helpless against the vicissitudes of life. One day things are going our way; the next, tragedy strikes.

What would it even look like to experience truly *secure* well-being?

When we turn to the teaching of Jesus, we discover good news about what it means to be joyful and well.

Joy isn't just pleasure.

It isn't just positivity.

It isn't just a powerful idea.

Joy is an indwelling of the presence of Jesus in our very being.

It's a pervasive and constant sense of well-being.

And, strangely, it's compatible with suffering.

When we turn to Jesus, the same joy that characterized his life can characterize our life.

Get more resources, including a reflection and study guide for each episode, at https://missioncentral.church.

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Scholars describe "emotional contagion": the way we feel affects the people around us. You can "catch" anger, cynicism, and despair from the people around you. Emotions like these drive violent conflict all around the world, and the more mundane conflicts in our workplaces.

But you can also catch peace. You catch it from the Lord:

"I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken" (Psalm 16:8 ESV).

When you experience inward peace, it doesn't stay hidden. You get to spread it to everyone around you.

Get more resources, including a reflection and study guide for each episode, at https://missioncentral.church.

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When do we get impatient with someone?

When they throw a roadblock in our agenda.

Rather than pushing ahead to whatever place we want to be, patience allows us to be present right here, right now.

Whether we're waiting for the workday to be over, or for a job offer to come through, or for a coworker to finish their part of a project—there's something there for us *now* that we often miss.

Get more resources, including a reflection and study guide for each episode, at https://missioncentral.church.

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Does kindness count at work?

The norm at work is being nice: superficial social harmony.

But the kindness that the Spirit produces starts in the heart.

Going through the work day is an obstacle course. Not just in terms of everything we have to get done, but also in terms of doing each of those things *with kindness* to everyone around us.

The Holy Spirit is our coach as we face this obstacle course. If we pay attention to his guidance, we can start to face every work challenge with a genuine, tender concern for others' well-being.

Get more resources, including a reflection and study guide for each episode, at https://missioncentral.church.

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It sure seems like certain dogs are better than certain people.

But what makes a person "go bad"?

Or, to put it positively: What does it mean to be a good person?

If we don't have a sense of what it means to be a good person, we don't know how to live.

But people who try really hard to "be good"—especially religious people—often end up "going bad" in a different way: They get self-righteous, tribalistic, and stuck up.

We really want good people who aren't full of themselves. But how do we get people like *that*?

Get more resources, including a reflection and study guide for each episode, at https://missioncentral.church.

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