To facilitate a truly global conversation, we ask Christian leaders from around the world to respond to the Global Conversation’s lead articles. These points of view do not necessarily represent the Lausanne Movement. They are designed to stimulate discussion from all points of the compass and from different segments of the Christian community. Please add your perspective by posting a comment so that we can learn and grow together in the unity of the Spirit.

A response to Gordon Preece, Al Miyashita & Willy Kotiuga’s article: Truth in the Workplace

I am in full agreement with all the basic theology regarding issues raised in the paper.

My observations come from 10 years in the business field and 15 years in full-time missions in India working among the corporate young.

To me witness at work has to do a lot with visibility, sacrifice and risk taking.  Witness in the corporate world needs strategy and direction. It cannot be about just going to the office, and hoping someone will ask you about Jesus. At office you perhaps are the only witness they will ever see, that truth must put pressure on you to look for ways and means to give everyone a credible chance to know God.

Did you know that the work you do can be done easily by someone else, sometimes even in a better way. So seeing work as a time bound unique opportunity, entrusted only to us, for connecting with some very special people must always govern us.

So you would at least

• Pray systematically for everyone at work name by name.
• Start a corporate fellowship.
• Find Biblical solutions for office realities. Non-believers do so based on techniques derived from their belief systems. Why be silent.
• Stand up for ethics and morality .Creates visibility but usually comes at a price.
• Manage money, lifestyle and priorities the Jesus way.
• Take and make opportunities for witness in and beyond the workplace.
• Seek to enhance influence through daring long term personal decisions .

There is a crying need for Workplace Christians to be more intentional like a Nehemiah. God used a concerned godly man and his job at Susa, to restore Jerusalem’s broken walls. I can lose my job but not my witness.

Philip Cheriyan – India