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A Publication of RenewaNation: Helping Children Develop a Biblical Worldview.

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Friday, March 22, 2019

The Primary Location For Spiritual Formation




“I’m prepared to contend that the primary location for spiritual formation is the workplace.”

This remarkable statement is by Eugene Peterson, written in his book, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. [Emphasis added.]

Does your church provide training for spiritual formation in the workplace? It’s unusual to find a church with a program specifically to help construction workers, bus drivers and short-order cooks integrate a biblical worldview into their daily work. 

Marriage? Yes. Parenting? Yes. Missions? Yes. Music? Yes. The workplace? No.

I was blunt and forthright last week with pastors. Am I going to "hit" them again today? No apologies here. My aim is not to be critical, but to be constructive. Again, the stakes are too high, and the time is too short. The bottom line is, if the workplace really is “the primary location for spiritual formation,” then we have a problem, Houston.  

I once interviewed twenty senior pastors in the Seattle area, asking about their own church practices regarding helping congregants connect their faith with their work. 20 out of 20 pastors (100%) indicated they believed the local church should play a role in influencing the Monday-through-Friday workplace. A strong majority felt the church should be training, equipping, encouraging, instructing and/or supporting its members in this endeavor.

When I asked what their level of satisfaction was with how their own churches were doing in this regard, the average response was 4.58 on a level of 1-10 (with 10 being the highest). Twelve pastors gave themselves a 5 or lower. Six pastors gave themselves a 3 or lower. In total, 80% of the responses were a 6 or lower.

About 75% felt that having classes that focused on applying Christianity to the workplace would be a positive thing to do, but only one pastor indicated such classes had ever been taught in his church.

When I mentioned the idea of commissioning working people during Sunday morning services to live out their faith in the workplace, most pastors liked the idea. But hardly any had ever done so. A couple of pastors had Sunday service prayer for teachers, police officers and firefighters. Accountants, car mechanics and civil servants, however, were off the radar.

Here’s what Paul Stevens, the author of The Other Six Days, had to say about this matter in an interview I did with him a few years back when he was a professor at Regent College:


 (If the video does not play, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4jLkPzdkuc)