Disciple-Making Movements at Work
On a factory tour a worker jumped up and greeted my guide with rare enthusiasm.
“What was that?” I asked when we were out of sight.
“I saved his marriage.”
My guide—a pastor’s kid and former Christian counselor—holds responsibility for changing the corporate culture of a billion dollar company.
We had met to explore what it might look like for this company to invest itself in the Great Commandment, the Great Commission, and what I’ve come to call the Great Team—the Apostles, Pastors, Evangelists, Shepherds and Teachers (APEST) of Ephesians 4:11.
A Mission Field on our Doorstep
I began pondering.
“What happens to a man’s productivity, company loyalty, and the rest of his life when God uses his work environment to save his marriage?”
“How else can the invasion of God’s Kingdom into the workplace help transform society?”
Yet as Drew Steadman observed in MF a year ago: “When Christians are urged to share the gospel, they instinctively reach out first to strangers and overlook people already in their life. We have to train them to live as ambassadors in the places where God has already put them—work place, neighborhood, social groups, family and friends.”[1]
Many believers spend more waking hours at work than any other single location. What will happen when the Church equips, as missionaries to this context, members who own or work at a business? What will happen when business owners and workers alike apply the principles refined in remote mission fields to pursue God for disciple-making movements in their own work environments?
Imagine the “spiritual capital” created when companies see their greatest bottom line as better husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, families, and communities![2] Imagine the global impact when companies see adding new divisions, markets, locations, and franchises as part of their discipleship multiplication strategy!
A Vision is Born
Legacy Initiative Network was born to pursue this vision by assisting leaders (in business, organization, and ministry) to develop their context as discipling communities that equip employees to lead their relational networks into Spirit-led, Jesus-following ekklesia. We seek to do here at home what Business As Mission (BAM) and Business For Transformation (B4T) networks are seeking to do on the field![3]
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