The Typical Church Mindset
It is October and St. Paul's Church is about to launch its annual stewardship drive for next year's budget. Just before the sermon, Howard Rankin goes to the front of the church and explains briefly why, as chairman of the stewardship campaign, he is committed to giving time and money to his church. Pastor Hines follows with a sermon on stewardship and the volunteers are called up front and commissioned to "carry this church's message into the homes of all our people." Pastor then asks the congregation to rise and asks, "Will you support and pray for these fellow members as they carry out their commission?" The congregation responds with "Yes!"

Then the volunteers are trained, stewardship calls are made, and as the volunteer visitors return to the church to report on the pledge commitments they have received, Pastor Hines and Howard Rankin greet and thank them for their work. Their results are posted on a blackboard as all eagerly await the final tally.

The following Sunday, Howard report the results at church and the congregation gives all the volunteers a big round of applause. Following the service, the visitors and their families are treated to a very nice "thank you" lunch in the fellowship hall.

That scenario, or variations of it, is played out in thousands of American churches every year, as hundreds of thousands of church members carry our their lay ministry to their church. These same people then go into their weekday worlds, but with little sense of having a Christian ministry there.

Can congregations use the model that has been proved so successful in having lay persons do ministry in the church to help them with their ministries in the workplace? I think so.

Then Something Interesting Happened…
Now consider, if you will, what happened when St. Paul's Church committed to affirm, equip, and support all their laity for ministry in the world. Since there are so many arenas for the worldly ministry, they decided to concentrate initially on the field of public education.

Pastor Hines contacted Rebecca Quinto, a junior high school principal, to see if she would agree to be the leader for the program. Rebecca's first step was to go through the congregation's directory to make a list of all those whose work is in any way connected with the field of public education. It was an easy job because St. Paul's lists the names, addresses, phone numbers, and occupations of everyone in the congregation. Her church defines occupation as that which occupies most of one's time. Paid jobs and unpaid jobs are occupations. For retirees, the directory lists their primary pastime or volunteer work. For children, their grade in school is listed.

Rebecca collected a list of about twenty-five persons: five teachers, one school superintendent, two school bus drivers, two school nurses, two school board directors, one custodian, two cafeteria workers, three volunteer teacher aides, one counselor, three administrative clerks, and so on. A letter went out, signed by both Rebecca and Pastor Hines, asking them to participate in a six-month program designed to connect their faith with their work. Out of the twenty-five, all but three agreed to participate. They were asked to be sure to attend the church service on a particular Sunday. The Sunday was billed as "Ministry in Education" Sunday.

The special Sunday came, and Rebecca stood up in the front of the church and talked about why, as chair of this project, she was committed to living out her faith in her job in public education. Pastor Hines then followed with a sermon in which he affirmed the ministry of Christians in education. Following the sermon, the twenty-two public school workers were called up to the altar and commissioned to "be the ministers of this church in the field of public education." Pastor asked the congregation to rise and asked them, "Will you support and pray for these fellow members as they carry out their commissioned ministries in our public education system?" The congregation responded with a "Yes!"

Every Tuesday night for six months, Rebecca met with the group to help them become more intentional and effective in their workplace ministries. Because of constitutional separation of church and state, it was clear from the start that no overt witnessing to their faith could be part of their strategy. Instead they talked about the creative, redemptive, providential, just, and compassionate dimensions of their work. From time to time, Rebecca brought in a consultant to help with an especially thorny problem. Bible study and prayer became a routine part of their meetings. They used videos and had fun with role playing. Pastor Hines dropped in from time to time to listen and learn but he made it clear that they—not he—were the ones God had called for ministry in their public schools.

The same type of support, educational resources, and commitment used for training for in-house lay ministry was used for training for worldly ministry.

As the months passed, the group became extremely supportive of each other. There was built-in accountability. When one person shared a problem with the group and suggestions were made for possible strategies, that person wanted to keep the group updated on his or her progress with the strategy.

At the end of the six months' period, a second "Ministry in Education Sunday" was held and this time Rebecca preached the sermon. She shared the many ways the group was able to become more sensitive to and skillful in ministry in their places of work. She asked the group to stand and the congregation applauded. Pastor Hines stood up and spoke of how impressed he was with what the group had done.

The six-month period had ended, but a funny thing happened. During that time, the group had become so close and had become so deeply aware of their ministries in the field of public education that they decided to keep meeting.

A month after the "Ministry in Education" group got started, a second group was formed for people working in public service. A month after that, a "Ministry in Business" group started. Then came "Ministry in Homemaking." There was "Ministry in Retirement" and "Ministry in the Classroom" for high school students. On they came, one new group each month, until everyone in the congregation had the chance to be affirmed, equipped, and supported for their ministries in daily life.

St. Paul's stopped having annual stewardship drives. Once the members began to connect faith and daily life, their worship life became more important and their support of their church—both financially and in volunteer service—grew. Howard Rankin joined the "Ministry in Industry" group because, as the CEO of a small but fast growing company, he saw multitudes of opportunities from Christian ministry.

There were small occupationally-related groups meetings all over the place and all of them were led by lay persons. Pastor Hines' role was theological resource person when needed to constantly affirm all that was happening.

In my present congregation we have tried most of the elements of this approach for brining the workplace into the worship place but we have not yet pulled it all together. We have tried some other things, however.

The Monday Connection
One of the most successful ways of connection worship and work has been our Monday Connection group.

The Monday Connection is a group of people from The Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. They meet for breakfast the first Monday of each month at a local restaurant to discuss the everyday implications of being a Christian.

At each session one member distributes a personal, real-life case study. We also ask each presenter to be especially attentive at the prior Sunday's worship service to see ways in which the worship speaks to the case study he or she is presenting.

We arrive promptly at 7:00 a.m. One offers a prayer and then food orders are taken. By twenty minutes after seven we are finished eating and copies of the case study are distributed.

After they have been read, the questions begin. "What do you mean by ___ ?" "Can you give me more detail on ___ ?" "How do you feel about ___ ?" Once the group has clarified the issue, members think of options. "Have you ever thought about ___ ?" "What would happen if you ___ ?" Frequently these options are hotly debated among the group. We often find that one of the group has faced a similar situation and is eager to share that experience. We never tell someone what to do but provide options and debate them. That in itself has been of great help to the one presenting the case study.

Our pastor and director of lay ministries usually attend as biblical or theological resource people. From time to time one of them will call for time out while a biblical or theological connection can be made.

We are out promptly at 8:00 a.m. so that people can get to their jobs. At the close of each session, we ask if someone will volunteer for the next month's case study. No one is pressured to present a case study, but someone always seems to come forth. The case studies tend to relate to problems or decisions that must be faced at the person's place of employment. But not always. Several cases have related to family problems. The fifty case studies we have dealt with over the past five years have been varied and challenging.

One manager told of an employee who was assigned to a lonely location where his job was to ensure the safety of a transmission station. The manager suspected the employee was sleeping on the job. The only way to find out was to spy on him. Should the manager authorize surveillance of the employee to insure safety, or should the employee be trusted? Which is the greater Christian responsibility, to customers or to the individual?

Another case involved an elected County Commissioner whose closest associate on the Commission was constantly grandstanding before the press to gain name recognition for future elections. Nothing illegal was ever done, but sometimes the actions bordered on being unethical. The group member pointed out, however, that she received support from the self-aggrandizing Commissioner on important issues and frequently they stood alone on issues that were politically unpopular. She asked the Monday Connection group if she should distance herself from a person whose tactics she did not support at the risk of losing an important ally.

A plant manager who had experienced many painful years of dealing with a son on drugs told of how some of his employees came to him for help with their own children. However, the union contract at the plant required that a union representative always be present when management met with an employee. The only way to have effective and confidential drug counseling with the employees who sought him out was to keep it secret from the union. Should he risk trouble with the union and his own managers for violating this part of the union contract?

One person spoke about dealing with a sexist boss. Another asked about what to say to an aged person who wanted to die. Someone else talked about a brother who constantly took advantage of a mentally retarded sister.

All of these point to the same question: "What would Christ have me do in this situation?" Our pastor has stated repeatedly that the case studies have been very helpful to him in understanding the kinds of issues parishioners face.

Whenever possible, the group tries to find ways in which the worship service of the previous day connects to the case study. Was there something in the lessons, the sermon, the liturgy, or a hymn that related to the problem? More often than not, we have found no connection. This was a sobering discovery for our pastor. While we recognize that a worship service cannot possibly relate directly to the specific needs of 250 different people, we have learned to look harder for connections to our everyday lives. And our pastor has become more intentional about faith-life connections in his sermons and prayers.

The Monday Connection was started and fully maintained by lay persons. The pastor and director of lay ministries are not responsible for any part of the program, although they have, on occasion, presented their own case studies. Their primary contribution to the process is to be on-the-spot theologians.

Meetings run from September through June. This enables people to drop out at the end of a cycle instead of going on forever. Each August our church sends a letter to about forty persons who might have an interest in being part of the next cycle of the Monday Connection. A return postcard is enclosed to indicate if the person wants to be put on our mailing list for the forthcoming cycle. Usually about half of the people contacted respond favorably to the invitation.

About ten days before the first Monday of the month, postcard reminders from a lay leader go to all names on the list, indicating who will be presenting the case study. Participants are asked to respond by phone, indicating whether or not they will attend, so that the proper number of reservations can be made at the restaurant. If no word is received by Friday, a member follows up with a phone call. We believe the postcard reminders with phone follow-up are key factors in maintaining a high attendance pattern.

For many people, the Monday Connection has supplied the only means for them to discuss some of the vexing issues of life with a group of committed Christians. The normal routine of congregational life provides few such opportunities. In fact, a few of the regulars have indicated that the Monday Connection has been one of the most meaningful experiences they have ever encountered in their church life. One new member of our congregation said, "This has been the most exciting thing I have ever experienced in any church to which we belonged."

Excerpted from "Bringing the Workplace into the Worship Place: Celebration and Education for Worldly Ministry" by William Diehl, appearing in Faith Goes to Work: Reflections from the Marketplace by Robert J. Banks (editor), with permission from the Alban Institute. Copyright © 1993 by The Alban Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

William Diehl is the founder of The Coalition for Ministry in Daily Life and a retired executive of Bethlehem Steel. He is the author of The Monday Connection: On Being an Authentic Christian in a Monday-Friday World.