
Hosted by Jim & Martha Brangenberg · EN

This week we paid special attention to you, the everyday workplace believer, and your role in bringing God's Kingdom here to earth. Just because you're not a pulpit pastor or a foreign missionary doesn't mean that you're not in full-time ministry. Your workplace is your mission field! You might be the only representative of Jesus that your coworker, vendor, supervisor, or client ever comes into contact with. Every work day is an opportunity for you to be the hands and feet of Jesus. So, stop thinking less of yourself if you don't have a job in vocational ministry. Where you work and who you work with – none of it's an accident! Practice being intentional at work, especially with those who would never step foot inside the walls of a church. Your full-time ministry has already begun, and the workplace is the largest mission field in the world.

· Jim: Welcome to the iWork4Him Power thought for the day, we are Jim and Martha Brangenberg with iWork4Him · Martha: When Jim & I were 13 we committed our lives to full-time Christian Ministry. So naturally I thought I would be a pastor's wife or a missionary. · Jim: I thought I was going to be a youth pastor. · Martha: When we got married, I naturally thought that ministry was in our future. · Jim: Martha was right about that. But we were both wrong about the location of our ministry. We kept thinking we were headed for church ministry. · Martha: But Jim and I are both good at business and we ran an insurance agency. We didn't know our ministry was right there in front of us. We treated people well. · Jim: But we never saw it as a ministry. In fact, no one ever spoke into our lives that we could have a ministry in our workplace. · Martha: But we were in ministry and our workplace ministry calling perfectly matched our God given gifts, talents, and abilities. · Jim: So, are you committed to full-time Christian Ministry? You'll find it at your workplace today! · Martha: For more about iWork4Him and the iWork4Him podcast, go to iWork4Him dot com. That's iWork the number 4 Him dot com.

Perhaps the single most devastating sentence I ever hear is this "I have decided to quit my job and go into full-time Ministry." Ugh…This one sentence describes the condition of the hearts and minds of millions of Christians. It is a misunderstanding that stops today. You don't need to quit your job to go into full-time ministry. You are already a full time fully funded, fully trained missionary. You are fully equipped and fully enabled to enter your mission field. You understand the language and the culture, and you already love the people. You know your mission. As a Jesus Follower, everything about you has been changing, and everyone around you is now benefitting from your faith, whether they believe in Jesus or not. May your vibrant faith pave the way into life-transforming conversations as you love your neighbor on your workplace mission field.

Do you want to see your workplace as a place to live out your faith? Your work is a place where you finally get that chance to be involved in fulltime ministry. Then do these things. 1st Start praying for those you work around, by name every day. 2nd look for ways to serve those same people over and above what your job requires you to do. 3rd look for ways to build a friendship with those you work with, outside of work, where real relationships can develop. 4th Look for ways to pray with people when you see them having a rough day. And 5th, all along be a person of excellence, in your work. Do these things and you will see your workplace transformed by God right before your eyes. We call this the iWork4Him Nation Covenant.

Modern church culture emphasizes the importance and prestige of working in full-time ministry as a pastor, foreign missionary, or the like. But here at iWork4Him, we want to help resurrect the original idea behind the idea of ministry. There's a theological misunderstanding that the top jobs in the Kingdom are missionary and pastor, but that's simply not true! There are no tiers in the kingdom. No 1st tier jobs and then 2nd tier jobs supporting 1st tier ministers. We should be ministering wherever we go and in whatever we do. Call to mind the familiar Bible verse 1 Corinthians 10:31: "So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." That means that our work should be worship – and that's awesome! Take a few minutes to reflect on how you can glorify God today through your full-time ministry at work, at home, and in your community.

What do you do when you're faced with a problem at work? If you're like me, you probably go about trying to find a solution, usually starting with Google! We met and interviewed a remarkable woman named Susan. She went to God first, not google. She asked HIM for the answer to the problem. And kept praying in earnest expectation until He answered. She said to us "God has the answer to every problem, if we'd just ask Him." So, how about you? Are you depending on yourself, Google or asking others first? Or are you praying to the one who has ALL the answers? We invite you, the very next time you're faced with a work challenge, to stop, pray and ask God to give you the answer.

When Jim came home one day and said, I think we should hire a prayer intercessor for iWork4Him, I didn't know what to think. We had heard from and interviewed business leaders and organization leaders from around the country with prayer intercessors on their staff. I thought it was powerful, but I had never considered that someone should be paid to pray. We pay people to do all kinds of other things around our workplaces. Why wouldn't we pay for them to spend time interceding on our behalf with our heavenly father? It's a radical idea today, but it totally makes sense. It has changed how we do business each and every day. Consider hiring an intercessor for your business or organization today and see what a difference it makes when you have an additional set of ears listening to Him.

I have to be honest with you. I never thought prayer and work had anything to do with each other. I'm guessing I'm not alone. Prayer seemed like the kind of thing you did at church and around a meal at home, but in a business meeting or around the conference table? Not a chance. I never thought prayer would become an active part of my work life. But that's been part of the transformation process in my life. Maybe you're not ready to pray out loud in a meeting, but my challenge to you today is to pray before you go into any meeting or start any formal conversation. Ask God to be a part of it. When you have a busy day with lots to do, ask God to help you concentrate and work with excellence. Involve your heavenly Father in your work. See what happens.

I grew up in a household where faith and work were lived out daily. My mom and my dad prayed over their business all the time. So it wasn't new for me to see a connection between faith and work and prayer when Jim and I got married. However, we had never been discipled to understand the relationship between faith and work. I saw it lived out in my dad's and my mom's lives, but Jim had never seen that done. I saw my mom and dad put prayer at the center of all of their major decisions at work. I saw God rescue my parents from financial peril in business and bless them as they took steps of faith in business. Prayer works and is a critical part of everyday business. Can you give it a try today – and pray before you act?

In praying for those I worked with, serving them above what my job required me to do and in developing real relationships with them outside of "Work", I began to notice when their demeanor changed and they were having a bad day. I learned to ask, "How are you doing today?" I really wanted to know the answer. They would respond with "I'm Fine", then I would respond, really? Freaked out, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional? Really, how are you doing? Then I would be quiet and let them share what was really going on because they knew I genuinely cared. When they were done sharing, I learned to say, "Thanks for sharing that with me, can I pray about that with you right now?" I never got turned down. Mind you this took a couple of years to develop but you can do it too. You can start by simply asking "How are you doing today?"