Encouragements in workplace evangelism

 

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God is good! Our awesome Creator God is at work as His people proclaim His word to lawyers who don't yet know Him.

We are all familiar with the Great Commission Jesus gave His disciples at the end of His time on earth: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28v17-20). But what should that look like in our workplaces? Can we proclaim the word of Christ to our unbelieving colleagues while still honouring our employer and working hard for them?

The answer is emphatically yes, and Christian lawyers are doing just that. We are called by Christ to be His witnesses wherever we are, to be "blameless and innocent" and to "shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2v15). This clearly applies to our witness in our workplace (whether that be a law firm, chambers or law college) as well as to our friends. We must show our colleagues that our hope is in Christ not our job or money, which in these credit crunch times will give us a peace that others simply don't have. We must honour God by working hard and to the best of our ability whether others are watching or not. But we are also commanded to always be prepared to "make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3v15) and to proclaim Christ and Him crucified.  It is after all only through the truth of the gospel that people are saved.

It may seem very hard to stand up for Christ in a hostile work environment. But be encouraged. God is at work in a number of law firms and can therefore work in your workplace too.  There have been some really exciting examples of God using Christians to proclaim His word within the legal profession in the last few months.  Christians in several law firms have hosted lunchtime seminars for their non-Christian colleagues to come and hear the good news about Jesus, and in some cases over 30 non-believers have turned up! A number of Christianity Explored courses have been run in-house at law firms and in one Magic Circle firm over 25 people came along to the first session, with others joining the course later. In another firm, a small group of people interested in Christianity are studying one of the gospels because they want to find out more about Jesus. Praise God indeed! Please pray that God would use these events and courses to bring those attending to a saving faith.

Running a Christianity Explored course at your workplace may seem like a big step to take initially, but there are things you can do in the meantime. Why not pray that God would bring other Christians into your workplace, or if there are already other Christians, perhaps you could start meeting once a month to pray together? God might use your prayers to achieve great things among your colleagues. If you work in London, a number of excellent lunchtime talks take place all over the City. These talks are ideal for taking along interested colleagues to hear from God's word, and will enable you to join in partnership with other Christians in your local area to proclaim Christ. There are weekly talks in Canary Wharf, on Fleet Street and in the Aldersgate area among others – you can find out more here. Of course, wherever we work, whether there are other Christians or local lunchtime talks or not, we should all be praying that God will give us real love for our colleagues and the courage to talk to them about Him.

If you are a student, you could start praying now that God would give you opportunities to witness to your future colleagues. You could get in touch with Christians already at your firm or chambers (the LCF monthly bulletin has a list of contacts) to find out if there is a Christian group and encourage them by letting them know you are praying for them.

So will you get thinking and praying about how God might use you in your workplace? It might be difficult, and will almost certainly be scary, but imagine how wonderful it would be to see people you work with come to know the Lord Jesus for themselves.

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