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I met recently with a young man who had a final interview that day with a large Christian organization in this area. He was very excited at the possibility of working for an organization where the first requirement of candidates was “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” I hope he gets the job.

At the same time, I hope his expectations aren’t too high. For example, he told me he wasn’t as disciplined in his daily time with God as he wanted to be, and he hoped that would change if he was hired. I don’t know why it would unless he asks his supervisor to make time with God consistency part of his job!

As one who has been on both the secular and sacred sides of what Mark Greene calls The Great Divide, I offer these simple observations, especially for those believers who dream of working for a Christian organization:

• If all believers worked for Christian organizations, there would be no one to fund them! It takes at least 10 tithing believers just to pay the salary of one paid Christian worker and that doesn’t count buildings and other overhead.
• Most people who work for Christian organizations are doing whatever they would be doing if they were working for a secular organization: bookkeeping, computers (my friend’s field), building management, etc. Not even everything pastors do is “ministry.”
• Working for a Christian organization is very much like working anywhere else. Some are well run; others not. Some colleagues are competent and pleasant to be around; some not. The difference is that one goes into a Christian organization with higher expectations!
• If all Christians worked for Christian organizations, there would be no one to reach unbelievers at their workplace. One pastor in our area rightly analyzed that when a large Christian organization moved to town and hired 1300 people, in the short term, Christian influence in the city would go down.

I write a bit more about this in my book The Disciple’s Work, which is designed to encourage believers in “regular” work–not “paid Christian employment.”

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3.23, 24, NIV)

But Daniel, brimming with spirit and intelligence, so completely outclassed the other vice-regents and governors that the king decided to put him in charge of the whole kingdom. (Daniel 6.3, MSG)