Okay, I know that’s a provocative title, but I hear that consistently from men and women who are serious about equipping people to live their faith in the workplace. Dorothy Sayers nailed ecclesiastics over 60 years ago in her brilliant piece entitled “Why Work?” When church leaders fail to honor “secular” vacations, the workplace fails to honor God.

BUT

Is that a reason to abandon churches? In my mind that is an equally onerous mistake. The fact is that those of us fighting for mind space in working men and women’s minds need the church. In the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex where I live the workforce numbers in the millions. And there are about forty of us trying to awaken Christans to take their faith to work. Not enough. We need the church to join in this mission. Oh, and of course there’s the fact that the church is Jesus’ personal building project, of which He is quite fond.

My question is simply this: How can we awaken pastors to the fact that if they are not preparing people, spiritually forming them, for the workplace, then the workplace is forming them. And how can the church expect to compete with a two-hour a week block of time compared with 40 hours plus the average person spends in the workplace.

I’m committed to cracking this code. In January, I was asked to help LeTourneau University found their Center for Faith and Work. I am thrilled to find the same commitment to the workplace and the church in President Dale Lunsford.

Forget the church? No way. Do you have ideas? Please share them. I’ll be in Orlando, April 4-6, if anyone else is interested in discussing ecclesiastical code breaking.