In response to the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics’ article “Is ‘Tent-Making’ Enough to Glorify Jesus?”

Have you ever wondered why David Green, founder of Hobby Lobby, doesn’t go into full-time ministry? He seems like such a gifted man. Now that he’s made his millions, why doesn’t he step away from the business to engage in real ministry?

If you understand anything about David Green, or the impact of his company, you understand how nonsensical that question is. David is in full-time ministry!  He serves God and impacts lives, creating economic and spiritual value in communities throughout America through his business.

Yet, there was a day when Mr. Green felt like many other followers of Jesus working in secular jobs — like second-class citizens of the kingdom. Green, whose father was a pastor and whose five other siblings all went into vocational pastoral ministry, said this, “After I went into retail, I thought I was a second-class citizen. It took me years before I understood that God had a purpose for me to fulfill” (Work as Worship).

Blogger Austin Burkhart speaks of this attitude that is so pervasive among followers of Jesus in his recent post. He observes, “Christians outside of vocational ministry too often feel that they need to clarify or justify their purpose, as if to say, ‘My work isn’t spiritual, so to prove that I’m a ‘Christian’ I need to make clear that my real mission is to preach the gospel.’”

Well-intentioned Christian leaders have often perpetuated this unfortunate and unbiblical thinking. We have communicated that being called to ministry means leaving one’s day job to become a pastor or missionary.

The biblical truth is that every believer is called to full-time gospel ministry through the unique vocation for which God has wired him.

As Martin Luther argued nearly 500 years ago, “It is pure invention that pope, bishops, priests and monks are to be called the ‘spiritual estate’; princes, lords, artisans and farmers the ‘temporal estate’… They are all alike, consecrated priests and bishops” (An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility).

God called me to be a vocational religious worker; I love to preach, teach and lead the ministry of Crossworld. But my call is no more or less of a call to ministry than that of every other follower of Jesus who lives out his or her God-given calling through a job. I’m in full-time ministry, and so is David Green. When we begin to understand that our God-given profession in life is not a hindrance to but rather a means of living out our God-given purpose in life, there will be no “second-class Christians.”

Dale Losch joined Crossworld as a disciple-maker in France in 1988, and has served as Crossworld’s president since 2009. He loves to motivate people to use their God-given passions to make disciples wherever life happens. Hear more from Dale.