Willy Kotiuga, People at Work: Preparing to be the Whole Church. 8.6.10

Willy, thank you so much for addressing this crucial topic and for being a great role model of workplace ministry.  I particularly love the concept of a Joseph model in family business, household management, prison administration and public service.  I think this could be expanded into an indepth study.  My doctoral research on Chinese business Christians found that many business leaders in China and the diaspora are highly active in their companies, through professional development courses, charitable work, lunch time prayer and Bible studies, Sunday meetings in their factories, consciously placing Christians in management roles, etc.  Many of these business people are in restricted access situations, so workplace ministry has provided an excellent opportunity.  I believe the key in your paper to breaking down the church worker/lay worker divide is a change in the clerical mindset to acknowledge workplace ministers.  “Serving the church” normally equates to using precious after office hours to do volunteer work for the church.  Only then are people considered worthy or useful church members.  Far better for the clergy to acknowledge that their congregation members are serving the church in their workplaces every day!  One possible way to bring church workers into the lay workplace is cooperative efforts in leadership and ethics professional develop; serving the needs of the workplace through practical helps; cooperative community charitable activities; leadership and mentoring programs; etc.  As coworkers see the positive influence of bringing clergy into the workplace, this will nurture an “enabling environment”.  We’ve had “Walk a Day in My Shoes” and the “Undercover Boss” – perhaps it’s time for the “Undercover Pastor”?