PROFIT Garage–You Are The Dynamite

I greet you all in the name of the Father who sent the first missionary to the world, the Son and in the name of Jesus Christ, who commissions all of us to be missionaries and in the name of the Holy Spirit whose indwelling in our lives makes us as missionaries!

Every one of us who has attended the interview process is acquainted with the two questions that every interviewer asks, irrespective of the company – Why Google? Or Why Wipro? Or Why Oracle? Or Why Infosys? Or Why IBM? Etc and the other question – Why You? You are always faced with a situation in an interview to convince the employer why you chose to apply for that particular company and why should they choose to select you for that company. Even though most of the times our answers are not out of convictions they are prepared & answered to convince the company.

In a job interview, employer while interviewing an applicant asked: "Young man, do you think you can handle a variety of work?" He answered: "I ought to be able to. I've had ten different jobs in four months."

In the same way another employer asked an applicant: "In this job we need someone who is responsible." And the applicant answered: "I'm the one you want. On my last job, every time anything went wrong, they said I was responsible."

Well, even now in this session we will seek to know the answers for three “why” questions –

Why workplace evangelism or why workplace witnessing?

Why me? and…

Why now?

Why workplace witnessing?

The Great Commission in Mark 16:15 to “Go into ALL the world and preach the gospel to every creature”, has predominantly come to be known as the call to full-timers, pastors, evangelists and missionaries.  But when we look at the verse in our present settings, we come to terms with a greater reality of the commission, that which is binding on us who are at the workplace, at the corporates.

In order to drive home this truth I am borrowing the words that God simultaneously gave Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade and Loren Cunningham, founder of YWAM (Youth With A Mission) in the year 1975.

"The culture is shaped by seven mind-molders or mountains of society. If we can influence each of these areas for Christ, we will win the culture of our nation."

And they charted them down which came to be known as the Seven Mind Molders:

These are the “ALL the world” in our present day context. Every one in this world are part of one or the other of these worlds and those of us in the corporates are no exception. Though in the early centuries cross cultural transition was very essential for the proclamation of the gospel, and greater importance was given to the commission to “Go", now the urgency lies in “preaching the gospel”, as transitions and migrations are very much part in the life of any corporate Christian – moving from one city to the other and moving from one company to the other. We went and always “Go” in the context of job search, but what is left out is “preach the gospel”. 

Writing for The CALL, the English magazine of GEMS for the column on Tentmaking I wrote:

Birds and animals migrate from one habitat to another in search of food and water and to survive when extreme weather conditions prevail at their home land. People too migrate primarily for work and studies and ultimately to make a better living. When survival and balancing the eco system are the primary purposes of animals, their migration fulfils their purpose of existence. But is that so with man? Is existence the ultimate purpose of man and is that why he should be migrating?

What then is the missing element in his purpose? The Bible says, “whatever you do, do ALL to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) And the greatest purpose in the life of a Christian that glorifies God is obeying the Great Commission, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)

Those who have migrated to another place have already come half through with the Great Commission. Putting it the other way, God has chosen you in the first place and has brought you to another culture so that you might fulfil His commission, as a Tentmaker. And for those planning to shift, Tentmaking should be part of your plan.

 

Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China rightly said: "The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed".

 

And that takes us to the question “Why me?”. You are already in the plan of God’s Great Commission. When sluggard Christians hesitated in obeying the great commission, God used globalization and the corporates to move, especially Indian Christians out of their comfortable Christian colonies to the corporates. Brother, Sister, you might be wondering how you got this job which you did not expect. I tell you, God had a cause in His mind, a plan for you in bringing you to this place and placing you in this company and that is to “preach the gospel”.

Someone rightly said: To some Christ calls: "Leave boat and bay, and white-haired Zebedee"; To some the call is harder: "Stay and mend the nets for me."

Jesus in His High Priestly prayer to the Father prayed, “ I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to the world just as I do not belong to the world. Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.” (John 17:15-18)

If you are a saved Christian then you are already a sent Christian! Sent by Jesus to be His witness at the workplace.

Thirdly “Why now?”

John in his first epistle chapter five and verse nineteen says, “We know that we are of God , and the WHOLE WORLD lies under the sway of the wicked one”.

The times that you and I are living denotes the urgency to take the gospel message to every one who is living around us and working with us. Financial Express on 17th October of this year read - Financial express latest business and finance news: The dark side of Bangalore Shining: It's No.1 in suicides in country.

On May 19th of this year NDTV carried a rather very sad story: In a tragic incident, a 31-year-old software engineer, who recently resigned from Infosys, murdered his two-year-old daughter and committed suicide yesterday. According to the police, the deceased Santosh Sarade was living with his parents and wife and daughter in an apartment at Koodlu on Hosur road.

Police said that Sarade worked with two top IT companies earlier, and joined Infosys six months ago. He was facing some health problems and this was affecting his ability to work. The cops informed that he was being treated for depression at the Apollo hospital, but as his performance at work was being hampered, he was asked to resign on May 16.

After slipping deeper into depression following the loss of his job, Sarade contacted his company on Tuesday pleading to be reinstated, but his request was denied. During the night, his wife woke up and realized that her husband and daughter Riya were missing. She realised something was wrong when she found the door in the next room locked from the inside.
She woke her in laws and peeped through the window only to find her husband and daughter hanging from the ceiling with curtains from a window.

This Garden City , India’s Silicon Valley has become the Suicide City and is termed as the Suicide capital of India and only you and I as Christians know that it is the same old Satan who was the reason for the fall of first mankind in the Garden of Eden is acting even now in this Garden City. It is not only true of Bangalore but of every city and every corporate in India and in other parts of the world.

To tie it ALL up I would like to turn your attention to three ALL’s from the Bible:

God’s great commission to ALL of us is: Go into ALL the world and preach the Gospel. Which definitely calls us to preach the gospel in the corporate world. Wherever I go, whichever company I work I am called to “preach the gospel”.

Devils great temptation that ALL of us face is summarised in the following verses: “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him ALL the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “ALL this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.”” Never before have we had such phenomenal growth of economy in India and equal number of options to be lured into hunting for “Success” which is measured by the rise in position and wealth and the world has chosen to “Serve” the devil and it has not left many Christians as well. Jesus when faced with the same temptation answered: “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord Your God, and Him only You shall serve” (Luke 4:8) Are you hunting behind “Success” or submitting to “Serve” the Lord at the workplace? Those who answer the call to serve God at the workplace would invariably obey the commandment: “whatever you do, do ALL to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Someone said: A free flowing river purifies itself and is alive with life. So also is the Christian who becomes involved with others in sharing the Gospel. That Christian will discover the reason for his or her existence. Being involved in the ministry of a witness is essential to finding the fulfilment we desire as humans.

The greatest pursuit of most at the workplace is to enjoy the present and for the rest is to make ways for a better future. ALL that they do now is focused on to this – the profile or career that one builds, the company that one chooses, etc. But Paul says in Philippians 1:12, “But I want you to know, brethren that ALL that happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel”. Whenever and whatever I do, I am called to “preach the gospel”.

In Revelation 11:15, “the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”

The arts word, the business world, the educational institutions, the governments, the corporates all become of our Lord and of His Christ. And this can happen only if you and I resolve like Paul saying, “yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16)…. at my workplace.

The slides of the session for viewing/downloading:

 

You Are The Dynamite

View more presentations from Mariyosh Joseph

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You may would also like to read/see:

1. A mantra for workplace evangelism

2. Workshop on Worldviews

3. There is no one else_the irrefutable workplace missionary call

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(This message was shared at the PROFIT conference at Bangalore on the 5th Nov 2011. Shortly the video will also be made available to view/download. If you are a Christian professional, then PROFIT is for you. To know more about PROFIT visit www.profitconnect.net or write to profit@gemsbihar.org PROFIT or PROfessionals Fellowship of International Talents is a mission initiative of GEMS - Gospel Echoing Missionary Society, for professionals. PROFIT is a network of Christians who intentionally and actively use their professional identity to do-the-ACT of passing THE TRUTH in the workplace.)

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