The Most Strategic Mission Field

We call on Christian leaders to recognize that the workplace is the most strategic mission field in the world, and commit to equipping Christians in the workplace to fulfill their role in the Great Commission.

At the Second Lausanne Congress in 1989, Ford Madison, Pete Hammond, Bill Garrison, and Lee Yih presented ‘A Theology of the Laity’, a paper by Garrison which proposed that laypeople are God’s chosen instruments for the task of world evangelism. Referencing Proverbs 30:24–25, he wrote, ‘Although conventional wisdom says the layperson is insignificant and small, God’s wisdom has always been to mystify the world in His choice of instruments.’

In 2010, at the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism in Cape Town, eight hundred individuals gathered for session one of the workplace track. Jerry White, former international president of The Navigators, began his presentation by asking attendees how many of them came to faith after hearing the gospel proclaimed at a large event by an evangelist like Billy Graham or Luis Palau. Fewer than twenty people raised their hands.

White then asked how many came to faith through a co-worker, friend, or family member, and more than 750 raised their hands. Though admittedly unscientific, White’s survey made a resounding statement about evangelism in the workplace and at home.

At the 2019 Lausanne Global Workplace Forum in Manila, Michael Oh, the global executive director / CEO of the Lausanne Movement, noted that one percent of people in the universal church are in professional ministry, and when it comes to evangelism, the other 99 percent are greatly neglected.

‘You [the 99 percent] don’t exist to help professional ministry leaders fulfill the Great Commission. We exist to help you do it,’ Oh wrote in Christianity Today, placing the responsibility of evangelism not on professional ministers and missionaries who overtly proclaim the gospel, but on ordinary Christians who spend their days in the workplace.

His statements echoed the sentiment of The Cape Town Commitment, in which the 2010 Third Lausanne Congress pledged to:

• Encourage all believers to affirm their work as ministry
• Challenge workers to take their skills, trades, talents, and professions globally where the church cannot go, for the glory of God
• Recommend that church leaders support and recognize the workplace as a mission field
• Urge the body of Christ to pray for Christians in the workplace, businesses, and professions

However, over the past 33 years, it seems that papers, surveys, pledges, and statements have fallen on deaf ears. The result can be summed up in one word—neglect—and our neglect calls for a radical, two-fold shift in mission strategy.

First, we must redefine the frontline of gospel impact, and second, we must designate and deploy primary messengers (the 99 percent) on the frontlines.

As we approach the Fourth Lausanne Congress in 2024, we call on Christian leaders to embrace this mandate, recognize that the workplace is the most strategic mission field in the world, and commit to equipping Christians in the workplace to fulfill their role in the Great Commission.

Correcting Misconceptions about Workplace Evangelism

Most Christians in the workplace are hesitant to acknowledge and fulfill their noble call to evangelism. The idea of discussing faith in their workplace is unsettling, as the vast majority feel they do not have the gift of evangelism.^[1]

Many feel unprepared to answer questions they fear coworkers will ask. Others feel unqualified because they have not lived an exemplary life. And some worry that they might cause rifts with colleagues, create conflict with bosses, or even lose their job. Yet many of their concerns and obstacles stem from a skewed perception of evangelism.

What if the 99 percent understood that playing a part in someone’s journey to faith in Jesus could begin with something as simple as having a cup of coffee with a colleague, encouraging someone who had a rough week, or offering a helping hand to a boss or coworker under stress? What if they understood that doing good work can turn on the light for coworkers ‘so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven’ (Matt 5:16)?

What if the 99 percent understood that playing a part in someone’s journey to faith in Jesus could begin with something as simple as having a cup of coffee with a colleague, encouraging someone who had a rough week, or offering a helping hand to a boss or coworker under stress?

What might change if people knew they didn’t have to be perfect and say just the right things—that it was God’s work to draw people to himself since ‘no one can come to me unless drawn by the Father’ (John 6:44)? Through brief interactions and casual mentions of faith, the Father is at work in the hearts and minds of people to draw them to Jesus (John 6:44).

What if they believed Jesus’ words that ‘all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’ (Matt 28:18) and grasped that Jesus authorizes them to act on his behalf to fulfill their calling as his witnesses at work? What if they counted Jesus’ promise as true—that ‘the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you’ (John 14:26)?

What if these believers were confident in Christ’s presence—that he is with them always and everywhere, in every situation (Matt 28:20)? Indeed, what if the millions of Christians in workplaces around the world believed these truths and were equipped, encouraged, and commissioned to take their proper place in fulfilling the Great Commission, following the example of the early church?

The Historic Nature of the Workplace in Fulfilling the Great Commission

Before his ascension, Jesus outlined his strategic plan for reaching the entire world with the good news of God’s kingdom.

And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ (Matt 28:18–20)

‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ (Acts 1:8)

First-century followers of Christ embraced their mission, and the number of disciples grew from a few hundred before Pentecost to over six million by the end of the third century^[2]—considerable growth by anyone’s calculus and the greatest communication success story in human history.

We might be tempted to believe that the exponential growth of the early church was the result of effective preaching by Peter, Paul, and a few other gifted communicators whose work was spreading the gospel. Or we might credit Paul’s strategy of targeting key cultural centers and planting churches that could infect the surrounding countryside. These efforts were no doubt noteworthy and important,^[3] but even more so is the fact that early Christians of every ethnicity, gender, and level of society were passionate about extending Christ’s kingdom. According to theologian Michael Greene, they were determined to ‘act as Christ’s embassy to a rebel world, whatever the consequences’.^[4]

Ancient history and the New Testament tell us that the gospel spread like wildfire along trade routes, in public places, and from house to house or from oikos to oikos. The basic meaning of the Greek word oikos is a house, but in the first century, an oikos was also the basic social and

economic unit of the Greco-Roman world. A house was not only where a nuclear family lived, it was a workplace—the small business of the day, which included family members, hired workers, and household servants.^[5]

Through informal conversations within and between members of oikos, working men and women shared the gospel with friends, relatives, coworkers, suppliers, customers, teachers, and soldiers—their network of workplace relationships. They were not professional preachers or missionaries, but informal evangelists.

As early as Acts 8 we find that it is not the apostles but the ‘amateur’ missionaries, the men evicted from Jerusalem as a result of the persecution which followed Stephen’s martyrdom, who took the gospel with them wherever they went. [. . .] This must not have been formal preaching, but the informal chattering to friends and chance acquaintances, in homes and wine shops, on walks, and around market stalls. They went everywhere gossiping the gospel; they did it naturally, enthusiastically, and with the conviction of those who are not paid to say that sort of thing.^[6]

‘They went everywhere gossiping the gospel; they did it naturally, enthusiastically, and with the conviction of those who are not paid to say that sort of thing.’

In addition to accounts in Acts that reveal ways the gospel spread, the church at Colossae provides an example of how people took the Good News with them on ancient trade routes to the interior of Asia Minor (today’s Türkiye). As far as we know, Paul and other Apostles never visited Colossae personally. The gospel was likely brought there by businesspeople, such as Epaphras, who traveled to Ephesus on business, was discipled by Paul, and brought the good news back to his home in Colossae.

Paul also emphasized the importance and goodness of work in Colossians and 1 Thessalonians. Work is not just a necessity; it is a calling that forms the backbone of local society. The worker is honored and recognized for his or her work, which gives a credible platform for sharing the gospel message.

Furthermore, the value of work is emphasized throughout Scripture. From the Garden of Eden to the building of the tabernacle and the temple, people of skill were sought and employed. Nehemiah employed everyone in the work of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. Joseph, Daniel, and Esther were laypeople who made a difference in their secular context.

The workplace was the most strategic venue for evangelism for the early church, and we believe this is the case today as well. For this reason, it is critical that we shift our thinking about evangelism—regarding the messengers and the method—to fulfill the Great Commission today.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of our Evangelism at Work series. In Part 2, we discuss the ‘how’: How can Christians who do not have the gift of evangelism effectively bring the gospel into their workplace?

Endnotes

1. Barna research indicates that only one percent of Christians say they have the gift of evangelism. ‘Survey Describes the Spiritual Gifts That Christians Say They Have,’ The Barna Group, February 9, 2009, https://www.barna.org/barna-update/faith spirituality/211-survey-describes-the-spiritual-gifts-that-christians-say-they-have.
2. Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 6.
3. Acts 2:14–41, 6:7–10, 11:4–18, 13:13–49, 17:11–12.
4. Michael Greene, Evangelism in the Early Church, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003), 23.
5. An oikos of any size also had an oikonomos or steward whose job was the oikonomia or stewardship of the household—where we get our English word economy.
6. Greene, 243.