Since the average worker spends a minimum of 40 percent of their waking hours in some type of work, it is important to explore its meaning to those in your church. In a worldwide survey of more than 150 countries entitled “The World Poll,” analytics and advisory company Gallup uncovered what they describe as one of the “most important discoveries Gallup has ever made.” Gallup’s CEO Jim Clifton states in his book, The Coming Jobs War, 

Humans used to desire love, money, food, shelter, safety, peace, and freedom more than anything else. The last 30 years have changed us. Now people want to have a good job, and they want their children to have a good job. This changes everything for world leaders. Everything they do—from waging war to building societies—will need to be carried out within the new context of the need for a good job.

Clifton’s application is for “world leaders,” but the implication for you as a church leader is just as important. According to this data, work trumps nearly everything else in people’s lives, regardless of their cultural, geographic, or socioeconomic context. Work is more important than love, money, food, and shelter!

This widespread sentiment, though driven by varying reasons, is impossible to ignore if you care about what people care about. If work occupies such a central place in most people’s lives—surpassing even love, according to the data—then it must become a critical context for discipleship. And because having a good job is so important to your congregants, talking about work provides a unique opportunity to address one of the core desires of their hearts.

Work As a Context for Heart Change

The root cause of this desire varies. For those who are deeply marginalized by poverty, the need may be fueled by survival. For those who long for self-actualization, it may be more about purpose. Whatever the reason— regardless of geographic, socioeconomic, or cultural context—work matters deeply. So, work is the ultimate sphere you must penetrate in order to call your people to a deeper relationship with God. Without a focus on work, it will be almost impossible for those in your church family to experience holistic heart transformation.

Given the value people place on work, perhaps it’s not surprising that it is also a significant source of strain. In 2017 in the U.S., over 85 percent of people reported work-related stress, and only 30 percent of people worldwide considered themselves fully engaged at their job.  A recent New York Times article on wealth and happiness cites a study that concludes “work is the second-most miserable activity; of 40 activities, only being sick in bed makes people less happy than working.”

Work is therefore not only a central longing but also a source of pain. This disconnect calls for the gospel to become relevant to the very arena where people spend so much of their time and energy. They need help integrating what the Bible says about work with their day-to-day lived experience. With its inherent challenges and triumphs, work is the very platform where God meets and shapes your congregants, sanctifying them amid all the ups and downs.

As your church members work—whether it be in construction sites, banks, schools, businesses, or any other profession—they will experience significant pains, joys, conflicts, and confusion. You can help them view their work as a context to press into their relationship with Christ, as an opportunity to improve or alleviate broken systems, and as a way to examine their relationships and engagement with colleagues, coworkers, and competitors.

Work As a Context for City Impact

In addition to being an on-ramp to heart change, focusing on faith-and-work integration can help catalyze Christians to impact their communities and cities throughout the week.

No doubt you desire those in your church to impact your city. It can be incredibly frustrating to labor week after week on sermons and teaching only to realize that your congregants’ lives are unchanged in their day-to-day. Work is a place of focus for city change.

While workers spend about 2,000 hours a year at work, they only spend about 50 hours a year at church and around 52 hours per year volunteering in churches and other nonprofits. Yet when most churches plan projects and programs to impact the city, they are often focused on volunteer work and/or partnerships with nonprofit organizations. Imagine the leverage if the other 1,948 hours per month were unleashed for Christ through the daily work of your congregants. In their book Work and Worship, Matthew Kaemingk and Cory B. Wilson state,

The city will be renewed not by five church planters and five nonprofit leaders; it will be renewed by the complex callings and careers of the five hundred other people sitting in the pews…. The mission of the local church is not limited to a single outreach program. It is not limited to a single missionary. It is pluriform, complex, and all-inclusive. The church’s mission is embodied in the diverse work of all the people all over the city.

If your church wants to truly impact your city and fight against the sin and brokenness in the community, it can’t rely solely on a few hours of contribution from congregants, who, after work and family, have little time to spare. Trying to change a community with only volunteer hours creates an unnecessary burden on both you and your congregants.

But if you equip your church family to integrate their faith into their work, imagine the possible ripple effect in your city. When you encourage them to work for renewal in government, finance, education, healthcare, the arts, manufacturing, media, technology, and transportation, your church may become a powerful catalyst for citywide renewal and impact.

Editor’s Note: This excerpt was adapted from the new book Faith & Work: Galvanizing Your Church for Everyday Impact, by Missy Wallace and Lauren Gill. Published with permission. Learn more and order here.