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How to Share Christ in the Workplace

  • Whitney Hopler Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
  • Published Jun 13, 2013
How to Share Christ in the Workplace

Editor's Note: The following is a report on the practical applications of R. Larry Moyer's book, Show Me How to Share Christ in the Workplace (Kregel, 2013).

If you’re a Christian, your job isn’t just a job. It’s a ministry that God has called you to do for His kingdom, no matter what type of work you do. Your efforts in the workplace have eternal value when you use the time you spend there to be the best witness you can be for Jesus Christ.

When non-Christians notice good character in your attitudes and actions on the job, they’ll want to discover more about how you’ve become a strong person. When you take advantage of opportunities to talk with those you work with about the relationship you have with Christ, they’ll want to discover more about how He can change their lives, too.

All too often, though, people hesitate to talk about their faith at work because they don’t know how to do so effectively. Sharing your faith in Christ on the job isn’t as challenging as you may think. Here’s how you can do so well:

Pray regularly. Make it a daily habit to pray for the Holy Spirit to empower you to share your faith effectively with the people you interact with at work. Pray for: plenty of opportunities to share your faith, the courage you need to overcome fear, protection so you’ll be safe from evil while sharing your faith, success in spreading the Gospel message, and the salvation of the people with whom you share your faith.

Recognize opportunities. God will likely present you with a variety of opportunities to get to know people from your workplace and develop personal relationships with them. As you earn their trust, they’ll become open to talking with you about their lives, which can lead to discussing faith. Opportunities include conversations during lunch breaks, carpooling, and special events. You can follow up on people’s sincere comments that indicate spiritual searching by offering to give or loan them Christian literature that explores their questions.

Let your life support your message. The way you live should support the Gospel message that you communicate, so people will take what you say seriously. Ask God to help you live in a way that draws the people you relate to at work closer to Christ rather than driving them farther from Him. Ask yourself these questions to determine if you’re living the kind of life you should be living: “Am I a good worker?”, “Do I act and react with self-control?”, “Do I tell the truth?”, and “Do I live consistently?”

Pay attention to your words. The words you choose to communicate with when speaking or writing on the job contain tremendous power to either help or harm people. So be careful, not careless, with your words in the workplace. Do your best each day to choose words that are graceful, truthful, wholesome, compassionate, and that motivate people to seek God more.

Turn conversations toward spiritual issues. As you talk with people at work about what’s going on in their lives, God will give you opportunities to naturally transition from talking about secular issues into discussing spiritual issues. Start by simply plowing into conversations that you and other people mutually enjoy (such as about your families, jobs, or backgrounds) and trusting the Holy Spirit to inspire and guide you to move from talking about secular issues to spiritual issues, and then from discussing spirituality to presenting the Gospel message.

Explain sin and repentance to people who may not yet understand those concepts. If people don’t realize that their sin has separated them from a holy God, they won’t be able to understand their need for Christ. So when talking with coworkers about their spiritual lives, compassionately explain that sin means missing God’s mark and rebelling against Him, that all human beings struggle with sin in this fallen world, and that God stands ready to meet them wherever they are and help them grow. Be sure to tell them that repentance: is essential to salvation, works in cooperation with faith, and doesn’t depend on any emotional response to sin (such as crying) but instead leads people to change their minds about sin.

Explain to people what it means to believe in Christ for salvation. Make it clear to your coworkers that believing means trusting in Christ alone to save them – not Christ plus anything else (such as a good life, church attendance, baptism or other sacraments, or keeping God’s commandments).

Communicate the Gospel message clearly and completely. Take care to present the Gospel message clearly and in its entirety when you do reach the point of presenting it to people in the workplace, so they don’t get any mistaken impressions of it. Explain that: We are all sinners, the penalty for sin is death, Christ died to pay for humanity’s sins so they can connect with a holy God, Christ was buried, Christ rose again as proof of His victory over sin and death, and Christ was seen by many different people during the 40 days between His bodily resurrection and His ascension to heaven. Personalize the Gospel by telling each person with whom you talk that Christ died for him or her, and that he or she can be saved through faith in Christ.

Follow up with new converts. After coworkers come to Christ, try to meet with them regularly for about eight weeks to help them get established in their faith and start to grow spiritually. Encourage them to join a local church, get baptized, and develop daily habits of praying and reading and studying the Bible. Pray with them and for them. Invite them to join you for Bible studies or service projects.

Use your testimony as an evangelistic message. Take advantage of the opportunities that God gives you to tell the people you work with the story of how God has worked in your life so far. Prepare your personal testimony of faith in advance for when opportunities to tell it arise. Your testimony should clearly explain where you were spiritually before you came to Christ, how you came to Christ, and what difference Christ has made in your life today.

Adapted from Show Me How to Share Christ in the Workplace, copyright 2013 by R. Larry Moyer. Published by Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Mich., www.kregel.com.

R. Larry Moyer (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary; DMin., Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary) is founder and CEO of EvanTell Inc., a global evangelism ministry based in Dallas, Texas. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Sacred Theology degree from Philadelphia Biblical University in 2001 and regularly speaks at evangelistic outreaches, training seminars, and in classrooms across the United States. Moyer is the author of several books, including Free and Clear, 21 Things God Never Said, 31 Days with the Master Fisherman, and Welcome to the Family (by EvanTell). Visit EvanTell’s website.

Whitney Hopler, who has served as a Crosswalk.com contributing writer for many years, is author of the new novel Dream Factory, which is available in both paperback and ebook formats. Visit her website at: whitneyhopler.naiwe.com.

Publication date: June 13, 2013