Affirming Believers in Their Vocations

Excerpt from Gabe Lyons Calls the Church to Integrate Faith and Work:

Andy Crouch tells a story about a lady in Boston who taught Sunday school at her church for 30 years. She was also responsible for cleaning up the whole Boston Harbor, which was a nightmare for the city. But the first time she was brought up in front of her church was to talk about how she had taught Sunday school for 30 years. They never mentioned that she had been responsible for helping the entire city by leading this huge project. That's just normal. Pastors and leaders haven't thought as much, I think, about how to affirm work in their congregation. Yet that's the majority of the people sitting there, and it would relate so well to everybody to realize that the gospel is not just about showing up at church or evangelism. It also has a vocational component that demands we go out into the world and bring God's kingdom to bear in every place that we might touch or work.