Business as Ministry

But in many of our churches today there seems to be a dichotomy between business and
ministry. For example, it is often said that people are “entering the ministry” when they decide to
become pastors or missionaries. We refer to church work and missionary service as “ministry," and
refer to those who do this as their occupation as being in “full-time ministry,” as opposed to those
who work in the church or mission field part-time or on a volunteer basis. When someone steps down
from a pastoral position or comes home from the mission field and goes into business, we commonly
say that they have "left the ministry."
This distinction between business and ministry is at the heart of what we believe is a
widespread and erroneous notion in our churches that if people want to maximize their impact for
God's kingdom, they need to be in “full-time ministry.” Traditionally, ministry is seen as working in a
church or parachurch organization. We see the effect of this dichotomy on businesspeople (and
increasingly in the nonprofit sector or in the helping professions), which can leave them with the
sense that, at best, they play a support role (mostly financial) for those who are working full time in a
church or nonprofit organization, and that their work is unrelated to serving God, other than providing
necessary financial support.
This distinction between work and ministry has a long history. In the Middle Ages, priests,
nuns, and monks, those engaged in “full-time ministry,” were seen as doing the most important work
of God. But during the Reformation, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other Reformers popularized the
idea of “worldly callings.” They correctly saw that God called people to a wide variety of
occupations, which are sacred callings analogous to those of priests, nuns, and monks. They rightly
saw the whole world as a theater of God's glory and insisted that working in the world has value to
God. This is one of the great legacies of the Reformation: God's call encompasses all legitimate work.
Thus, Martin Luther even said that a hangman was doing God's work if he did it with excellence.
Echoing the idea of work as an altar, Luther said, “The entire world is full of service to God, not only
in the churches but also the home, the kitchen, the cellar, the workshop and the field of the townsfolk
and farmers.” He rejected the dichotomy between the sacred and secular, saying, “Seemingly secular
works are a worship of God and an obedience well pleasing to God.”
Similarly, John Calvin rightly maintained that God could be honored even in the realm of
politics. The Reformers’ views changed European society profoundly. The idea that a person could
have a worldly call provided much of the fertile soil for the industrial revolution and the institution of
capitalism to take root in.”
The Reformers defined vocation or calling very broadly and emphasized a person’s paid
occupation as only a part of his or her overall calling. To be clear, the Bible’s technical language of
calling is reserved for those things that are permanent and irrevocable. God issues a call to salvation,
sanctification, and service. Those aspects of our call are both permanent and irrevocable. But the
Bible does not use the specific language of vocation to refer to a person’s occupation, except in rare
cases, such as God calling the craftsmen and women to their tasks in building the tabernacle (Ex.
35:31-36:1). The language of calling seems to be reserved for the broader aspects of our spiritual
lives. We are called to service, but the arena in which we serve God may change. We are not
necessarily called to one career or occupation in such a way that we can never change.
So we ought to be careful to use the language of calling in the same way the Bible does. What
people mean when they say God called them to a certain career is that this arena of service to God is
the one that best fits his or her gifts, skills, and talents. We use the term calling to refer to that niche in
which we are a good fit. As long it is understood that the Bible does not use the technical language of
calling to refer to one’s occupation, the term can be used as a shorthand way to refer to finding the
place where a person can maximize his or her gifts, skills and talents, and pursue the specific
occupation they believe God is moving them to. Lee Hardy uses the useful categories of “general” and
“particular” callings to help draw this important distinction. The former is the calling to what's
permanent and applies singularly. With respect to the latter, we can have many at once. For example,
we may have particular callings to serve as friends, community members, volunteers, spouses and
parents, in addition to our paid work.