Where is the Faith & Work Movement Headed?

Some thoughts regarding our modern age of vocational Christendom, re-tethering the movement to the church, and the singular focus of Frodo Baggins.

**painting above is “L’Angelus” by Jean-François Millet

“We’re doing what the church has never been able to do.”

Provocative as those words might have been, my heart sank a little bit. I was attending a well-known faith & business gathering, where one of the main-stage speakers was making a general point about the modern faith & work movement: Christians in business are outpacing Christians in the church.

A recent Gallup Poll reports that small business leaders are trusted twice as much as churches and pastors (there are good & legitimate reasons for this). In the wake of what has been a seismic shift away from church-planting (as a data point, Chicago has seen an annual decrease each year of churches within the city since 2010), the age of the Christian entrepreneur has emerged. The collective momentum of the faith & work movement is reaching a critical mass and bearing much fruit — with a myriad number of resources offered for Christian business owners, venture builders, investors, working professionals, executives, and so forth. “Faith & work” is somewhat en vogue. Heck, even Silicon Valley is jumping on board.

The idea that the faith & work community is now doing “what the church has never been able to do” is indeed noteworthy — but is it healthy? In other words: if the movement grows, but pastors and the local church are its casualties, should we celebrate it?

There are others that are probably more qualified to write on this than I am (Jeff Haanen’s pieces are superb). But this is a topic I daily wrestle with, as my vocation rests firmly within the locus of faith & business. And so I find myself asking, more often than not, “where is this faith & work movement headed?”

Clearly, it would seem that the modern iteration of the movement is scratching an itch that pastors (broadly speaking) have not been able to. Christian discourse about work has often been reduced, misguided, or altogether nonexistent. And yet now, many working Christians are “finding their tribe” in a way that is theologically rich, contextually specific, and immensely helpful. This is a very positive development — I praise God for these sorts of breakthroughs!

At the same time, it seems that the movement has forgotten that pastors (and this may be surprising to some) are also “working people”, who wrestle with many of the same vocational questions as the CEO, the VP, and the Managing Director do. A directional shift away from clerical inclusion in these kinds of conversations could be interpreted in different ways, but the common refrain I often hear is something along the lines of “well, pastors just don’t get it”, or “the church just moves too slow.”

The extent to which those quips are true could be debated. Yet it indicates an ideological drift away from the institution of the historic church, the role of pastors as shepherds, and generally, turns into an ecclesial fallacy. My concern is that the movement is becoming the very reasons for which it even began: at times reductionist, unfortunately bifurcated, and quietly unaccountable. In championing the idea of “business for Jesus”, we may reduce work discourse down to merely the problem of economics and capital allocation as the only important problems to be solved. In placing such a significant emphasis on the necessity of a “faith & work” conversation, we subtly reinforce the idea that a sacred/secular divide exists. In “moving at a speed that the church cannot”, we sever ourselves from the very institution that God hath wrought for His salvific purposes. There is no such thing as a “faith & work movement” apart from God’s sovereign plan to work and through His body, the church.

And so, we desperately need the conversations that plumb the depths of our vocational discipleship to be joined at the hip with the pastoral ministry of the local church. To that extent, I’m quite grateful that Faith-Driven Entrepreneur & Barna have allocated significant research and energy in this particular direction; I’m also grateful for Redeemer Presbyterian Church and the Gotham Network, which continues to champion “faith & work” as part and parcel of the church’s overall effort. Christianity certainly needs business folks to use their gifts, but it also need pastors to use theirs. The joint force of these two personas working in tandem is much healthier than one superseding the other.

Which leads me to another critical point in answering the question, “why does the faith & work movement need to be re-tethered to the local church?” Because doing so will decidedly unite us under the common banner of Jesus Christ, who is Lord. Otherwise, it is possible that the movement may become known for a number of different organizations building kingdoms without its constituents ever acknowledging their allegiance first and foremost to the King of Kings. If we rub our eyes a bit, our current moment appears a bit Corinthian:

“What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:5-11).

Indeed, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone — not our modern faith & work movement, nor any of its unique iterations! Absolutely, we build upon the foundation; but far be it from us to believe that we ourselves are some sort of necessary foundation. We are merely fields…buildings…workers. It is God who gives the growth. The throne room of God Himself is the endpoint we are aiming for. Worship of Jesus must be our common song. Jesus first, Jesus last, Jesus forever. If we miss that, we miss everything. The historical, local, and institutional church exists to continually show us the face of Jesus. Which is a long-winded way of saying: Christendom is not the same as Christ.

Now truthfully, this post is not meant to be pointed in one particular direction. It’s actually an exhortation to remind myself that, as the great Reformer Martin Luther once said, “When you have Him…you have all. But you have also lost all, when you lose Him.” We cannot become so focused on the impact of Apollos or on the following of Paul. Apollos and Paul are certainly helpful kingdom workers, but only to the extent that they lead us to the feet of Jesus do they remain helpful. Our modern faith & work manifestations cannot become an echo chamber of noise about Christendom, instead of a wonderfully-unified song that belts out, “Jesus, the only One who could ever save! Holy, there is no one like You!”

Perhaps this can be a helpful image: in Peter Jackson’s masterful depiction of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, there is a scene (watch it here) where all the races of Middle Earth are arguing about what ought to be done with the ring of power. Eventually, a tiny and insignificant hobbit arrives at the only possible conclusion: “I will take the ring to Mordor!” cries little Frodo Baggins. This, Frodo reminds the fellowship, is the singular goal of the mission.

And in the same way, worship of Christ alone, above all else, must be the singular goal of our faith & work efforts. We cannot take advantage of these wonderful platforms that we have been given to preach some kind of self-interested economic, or political, or tribal gospel. As Saint Paul reminds us: “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor. 1:23).

This is a message that no single person, or organization, or business can lay claim to. In our gathering and in our creating and in our building, my prayer is that the world sees an undeniable yet humble force of “little Christs”, throughout both the scattered church and the gathered church (as my good friend Malissa Mackey often says).

So, where is the faith & work movement headed? Ultimately, the throne room of God, as depicted in Revelation 4 — preceding the marriage of Christ to His bride, the church:

“And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they existed and were created’” (Rev. 4:9-11).

Lord, may the world know that any time we gather to discuss “faith & business”, “faith & work”, “faith & investing”, or whatever else…may they know that this is what we are aiming for: worship of Christ, the One who is worthy, who is seated on the throne, who lives forever, who created all things, and by whom all created things exist. May it be so! Come soon, Lord Jesus!

Keep going.