Workplace Ministry - How To Equip Ourselves

How many of you think you are leaders?

How many of you think you are followers of Christ?

The fact is that we do not have much of a choice or much of a say in this matter. Let me explain why.

John C Maxwell, the noted Church leader, author and Leadership Guru, states in the Maxwell Leadership Bible that one of the simplest, but most profound definitions of Leadership that he has come across is ¡§Leadership is influence¡¨. I could not agree with him more. You look at any leaders, you will ultimately realise that they influence the lives of their ¡§followers¡¨ in many ways, some of them good, some of them bad.

And here is another profound statement, once we profess our faith in Jesus Christ, we are automatically called to influence the lives of others around us, in manner that will help them to get the same salvation that we got, the same salvation that is available for any one of us. The bible makes it clear to us in many places through Jesus¡¦ words. Let us read some of them.

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Matthew 5:13-14

Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world. What happens if we hold the light or a candle and there is darkness around us? Where do we hold the light or candle? We automatically hold it in front of us, so that others could see the way.

Let us look at some of the other calls of Jesus.

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:8

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go

and bear fruit¡Xfruit that will last. John 15:16

I like John 15:16 particularly. Jesus is not giving me a choice here. He says, he chose me.. chose me to go and bear fruit. This is what drove me to set up the ministry that I am part of. I was encouraged by the very first red letter words in the Bible, Luke 2:49, as written in the NJKV ¡§Why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about my father¡¦s business¡¨ Jesus was very clear that his mission on earth was to complete his Father¡¦s business, His father¡¦s business of salvation, which the father has been communicating to all peoples through prophets, heroes, heroines, kings , priests etc etc.. without much success.

In the ministry to which God has called me, I help Christian professionals and organisations to understand and use the Leadership principles and tools available, and required, in the ¡§secular¡¨ world, from a biblical perspective. And the beauty is all the leadership principles used in the corporate world today are available in the bible. The problem is, we mostly do not look at them from that perspective. I have this model of Leadership development which I call as the Menorah FOLD, which is explained in my web site www.menorahleadership.com

The Menorah FOLD starts with the truth that all of us are called to bear fruits. If we are called to bear fruits, especially in the form of more lives saved for the Lord, (because that is what He desires, He does not want even a single soul to perish) . If we have to influence others, it will depend a lot on how others feel to be in our company. Do they feel encouraged to be in our company? Do they feel, disgusted to be in our company? Or some where in between? The next truth is , the way others feel to be in our company, is to a large extent influenced by the way we behave in situations. In corporate world we call this Leadership Styles. Again, the way we behave is a function of who we are, and the situation that God places us in. Who we are, could become a complex function of our personality, our skills and competencies etc. But for us Christians, it is all derived out of our Christian Identity, who we are in Christ. In the Menorah Leadership Ministries, we help Christian Professionals , Christian workers and Christian Organisations understand these principles and apply them at work, immaterial of whether we work in a Christian organisation or a secular organisation.

A lot of Christians feel uncomfortable with the thought that they are called to do ¡§Ministry¡¨. We are comfortable believing that ministry is best left to full time missionaries or pastors or workers of Christian organisations. After all, the Bible tells us to ¡§go or send¡¨ and a lot of people take comfort in the ¡§send¡¨ part of the command. But the fact is, ministry need not always be a full time work. Ministry is how we uphold the statutes in the place where we work.