Tom Lutz, in the introduction to his new book, “Equipping Christians for Kingdom Purpose in Their Work,” is quick to acknowledge that for most of his Christian life he accepted “the hierarchy that puts worldly, profit-seeking work at the bottom of the God-serving pyramid, and reveres church ministry positions at the ‘spiritual’ peak.” He had rarely heard sermons that talked about work in any meaningful way, he recalls, so naturally assumed that it was “peripheral to spiritual growth.” Like so many Christians who work in the secular world, Lutz concluded that the main value of work, other than meeting basic needs, was to provide the money for the more serious, more spiritual work of the church.
“I needed my eyes opened to a new way to read the Scriptures about our anointing for God’s kingdom purpose,” he writes. “I needed a spark to light up my imagination.” He dove into the faith and work movement, where his vision for work was vastly expanded. Gradually, he and co-author Heidi Unruh came to believe that author Amy Sherman was right: “Discipleship that doesn’t equip people for the way they spend 40% of their waking hours isn’t discipleship.”
Hence, the goal of the book, Lutz says, is to see a critical mass of Christians who are influencing church culture from within while impacting their workplaces and communities through the vocation, gifts, and talents God has given them. The dream, Lutz says, is that “vocational discipleship can ignite a movement where showing up for work means showing up for the love of God, creation, and neighbor.”
ByFaith editor Richard Doster recently spoke with Lutz about a few the book’s key points.
In Chapter 4, you talk about how the foundation of vocational discipleship is to help people see themselves as God’s imagebearers. Why is that necessary?
One thing that distinguished the original humans from nonhuman creation was that they were made “in the image of God.” In the garden, God gave these image-bearers three assignments: 1) this place is empty — so create abundance for the benefit of all; 2) this place is dangerous and incomplete — therefore, subdue it, tame it by corralling forces like wind, water, electricity, etc., for the benefit of all; and finally, 3) this world has infinite potential, placed by an infinite God — therefore, cultivate all that potential for the benefit of all.
Theologians call these commands, collectively, the creation mandate. When the image -bearers fulfill these commands, what the Bible calls shalom or flourishing occurs. Everyone has a call to contribute to the flourishing of all. After God spoke these words, He pronounced the image-bearers blessed and announced that now the world was “very good.” God therefore defined all human activity in the world aligned with His creation mandate as spiritual.
Have you ever considered that in heaven, nothing that we call “ministry” today will be present? No preaching of the gospel to sinners … no volunteer crews rebuilding after a natural disaster … no drug counseling or soup kitchens … just God’s people honoring their Creator by cultivating abundance, developing unlimited potential, and ruling the renewed earth for the flourishing of all.
Too often present-day believers don’t understand that. When I say spiritual, they think nonphysical. When I say redemption, they think, exclusively, sharing the gospel of forgiveness of sins. When I say heaven, they think disembodied. The net result of this meta-narrative is they subconsciously think that spiritual stuff, stuff that really matters to God, is what happens at church on nights and weekends. When people grasp this role as image-bearer, suddenly “spirituality invades all of their lives,” as a man I discipled stated it. All legitimate work finds a home in this creation mandate perspective, therefore everyone, from sanitary engineer to brain surgeon, finds that God smiles on their work. Therefore, seeing myself as an image-bearer makes a great difference.
You believe that one of the key tasks of a vocational discipler is to help people shift from a “church-centric” perspective to an “image-bearer” perspective. What does that mean? Why is it so important?
If as disciplers we are not conscious of this distinction, we run the risk of reinforcing a limited view of spirituality. When we truly disciple people for all of their life we become a “vocational discipler.” Dorothy Sayers tells us that failing to disciple believers for all of their lives results in a perception that the gospel is irrelevant because, as she says, “It only applies to 10% of one’s life.”
When believers enter their workplace, not seeing it as a godless desert but as a place where they can enjoy God and glorify Him forever — truly understanding that God wants the work done well, for His glory and the flourishing of His beloved creation — then they are doing what Jesus instructs in the Sermon on the Mount: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).”
When believers work with this motivation, the result is, as 1 Peter 3:15 suggests, that people will ask for an explanation for the hope that is within us. So, if you are a church leader, one of the best ways to increase the evangelistic impact of your congregation is to teach this image-bearer perspective.
While we’re on that subject, I want to jump to the end of the book, where you say that most Christians read the Bible in a church-centric mode. Therefore, vocational disciplers need to understand how to study the Bible as a book written to image-bearers who work. How is that different? And what difference does it make?
Think of the way Jesus taught. Consider His parables, for example. As you read through them, you realize that you cannot understand the “spiritual” message unless you understand the subtleties of jobs done in the world. Jesus extracted spiritual principles from the way in which God created the world to function. The result is that those who heard His Sermon on the Mount concluded that He spoke with “authority” (with the sound of truth and wisdom), not as the teachers of the law (Matthew 7:29). To me, that suggests that they realized that Jesus taught from an image-bearer perspective, speaking to all people as image-bearers called to do the work of God, unlike the scribes and Pharisees, who taught from the more confined perspective of their religious institution rather than in a framework that connected with people’s lives.
The difference became evident to me when I was a bivocational pastor. I was starting a business while pastoring a church, so much of my sermon preparation occurred at my desk in my workplace outside the church. As I studied Scripture in that context, it was only natural to create illustrations from or apply my teaching to the world of work — the salesperson I just interacted with, the customer I just served, the employee I just encouraged, the vendor I just paid. Years later I realized that Jesus too taught this way, having spent 18 years as a builder before launching His kingdom crusade. Reading the Bible from a church-centered perspective is incomplete and inadequate for connecting with people where they spend a significant portion of their time.
In Chapter 10, you talk about how understanding the “Big Story” is essential for people to connect meaningfully with their vocational calling. What is the big story? And why is it essential?
Many present-day Christians believe that their preaching of the gospel as the forgiveness of sins is the most important thing to God. When people take this perspective, they are viewing the Big Story as what is called a two-chapter gospel — as if the entirety of the Bible story is about “Fall” and “Redemption.” Now, don’t get me wrong. Gospel preaching is absolutely essential. But consider that it is not God’s ultimate plan. Fall and Redemption are not the reason we were created. Redemption is not ultimate because it has an antecedent, something that comes before it. When we use the term “re”-demption, we are talking about a taking back to or a return to something that takes precedence. What takes precedence is the instructions given to the imagebearers at their creation — that is, the creation mandate.
So, the first chapter in the Big Story, “Creation,” puts Fall and Redemption, as Chapters 2 and 3, into context: Redemption overcomes the fall, thus allowing the image-bearer to get back to the work of shepherding God’s beloved creation. Chapter 4 closes out the Big Story with “Restoration,” when for all of eternity the image-bearers will, in a world absent sin and the curse, focus exclusively on creating flourishing on the renewed heaven and renewed earth, to God’s glory and delight.
Have you ever considered that in heaven, nothing that we call “ministry” today will be present? No preaching of the gospel to sinners … no volunteer crews rebuilding after a natural disaster … no drug counseling or soup kitchens … just God’s people honoring their Creator by cultivating abundance, developing unlimited potential and ruling the renewed earth for the flourishing of all.
Work, you say, is how most of us contribute to the flourishing the world; it’s how we enact shalom. Can you go into some detail on that?
I have a favorite question I love to ask of people I am discipling. It goes like this: What would happen if no one did what you do? Not just if your company or organization didn’t exist, but if no one did what your company does. I have heard some great answers. From a trash collection company: We’d all be dead from disease; from a company that makes fasteners (nuts, bolts, hinges, etc.): civilization as we know it could not exist — all our buildings would fall apart; and from a company that installs and maintains coffee machines in convenience stores: the world will not be flourishing if those commuters don’t get their morning joe!
Vocational discipleship uses questions like this alongside biblical examples to help people discover the ways that their labor brings out the abundant goodness God implanted in creation. We also talk about how Christians can bless the world through their work by being generous with their income, empowering people by connecting them with good jobs, investing in the community where business is done, and so on.
Let’s end where you end. In the last chapter you rhetorically ask: “What is the cost of not leading vocational discipleship — of continuing to let so many people work in the dark?” What’s the answer?
Barna published a research study several years ago titled “Christians at Work.” In it they discovered that less than 28% of present-day believers are what they call integrators, in other words, Christians who could articulate God’s purpose for their work. What was most distressing is that this small group outstripped the great majority of believers in their church program commitment, amount of giving, and, interestingly enough, in their evangelistic activity at work.
In other words, Christians who understand their image-bearer status (as I’ve been calling it) are a church’s most mature and engaged members. Considering the fact that work is where a majority of God’s people spend a majority of their time influencing the majority of the lost world, doesn’t it make sense to ensure that we are equipping all our players to be the best they can be on the field? “Equipping Christians for Kingdom Purpose in Their Work” is my prescription to accomplish that.