PE Christians commissioned to minister at work

Members of two Port Elizabeth churches were recently commissioned to serve as missionaries at their workplaces, in a step which workplace ministry advocate Mike Smith hopes will soon be adopted by many more churches.

The commissioning, which took place over a period of three weeks, through prayer and laying on of hands, forms part of the Masestro Worklife programme which has been adopted by both Harvest Christian Church and St Nicholas Anglican Church.

Smith, who was managing partner of KPMG and a former president of the Port Elizabeth Chamber of Commerce and Industry before he retired in 2006, heads up the 9.2.5 Workplace Ministry initiative of Transformation Christian Network (TCN), which aims to encourage Christians to see their places of work as their primary mission field.

“For 19 years of my working life I was waiting for God to call me without realising that it was right there in the workplace. For the last seven years of  my career I lived out my call, ” said Smith.

Since retiring, Smith has actively promoted the vision of helping Christians to break down the walls between their secular and sacred lives. In 2008, he went to Atlanta, USA, with a delegation from Harvest Christian Church to learn from a ministry called His People at Work which equips local churches to equip their members to serve God at work.

Smith said that TCN was campaigning to get other churches to embrace the Maestro Worklife coaching programme. He hoped that many local churches would be on board by January 2012 and would be actively commissioning their members as workplace missionaries. Anybody wanting further information about implementing workplace ministry issues can call Smith at  083 452 7005.

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Preaching at the recent launch of the Worklife programme at St Nicholas, Smith said: “It does not just mean talking to workmates about Christianity – it also means working for God, glorifying Him in every action, every business decision and every ethical judgment, living out the presence of God. The workplace is the one even playing field where non- Christians can see Christ at work in their Christian colleagues for 40, 50, 60 hours a week.”