You Don’t Have to Quit Your Job to Reach the Unreached

What if the nations are no longer only out there?  What if the intersections of our everyday lives are the new Roman Roads? Could it be that the highways for the gospel now run through your office, your career, your company? 

Christian, let’s take a few moments to reengage our missions imagination and consider fresh opportunities for a global age. 

But first, by way of reminder: The Great Commission has not changed. The ancient rescue plan of God remains. He still gathers and scatters his people through the local church. 

But the world has changed. 

People, ideas, and the cultural narratives they create are converging in our cities. The unreached are increasingly within reach. Now, there are greater challenges to gospel access than ever before, but also greater possibility. Christian, you must see yourself within the missional providence of God. He will reach the unreached, and he seems to be doing it in creative ways. And he plans to use you (Romans 10:14)

Here are two brief stories of how God is igniting the Great Commission imagination of ordinary members at my local church to reach the unreached.

A MUSLIM REFUGEE & A SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER

Elizabeth’s 6-year-old daughter, Emily, begged her to introduce her to another little girl at the neighborhood pool. Feeling awkward and slightly uncomfortable, Elizabeth reluctantly approached the girl’s mom with a smile and asked her, “How old are your kids?” Little did she know that this simple moment would change everything for this mom named Karima.

Karima was a refugee who recently fled Afghanistan with her kids, after her husband disappeared under Taliban rule. As Elizabeth began to gather the various pieces of her story, she began to pray for her. Karima suspected right away that Elizabeth was a Christian, but she didn’t know anything about Christianity. She briefly mentioned her husband had spoken about Jesus before his disappearance. 

With deep sadness in her heart, she told Elizabeth she wondered if learning more about Jesus might honor her husband somehow.

Fast forward a few weeks, and Elizabeth ran into Karima at the grocery store. “God sent you here,” Karima tells her. After some small talk, Karima shared she wanted to learn how to drive. Elizabeth immediately remembered that our church had just launched a new refugee ministry that offers driving lessons. She connected Karima to Sharon, one of the lead volunteers in the new ministry.

Sharon is a senior project manager at a major company. She sees her work as a gift from God and her skills as a tool for mission (Col. 3:23). Her job has afforded her boundless opportunities to bless her city, and to steward her time and talents to advance the kingdom of Jesus. 

Through everyday faithfulness at work, the Lord has built around her a gospel ecosystem. One expression of her faithfulness is serving in our refugee care ministry, teaching internationals how to drive—many of whom have never heard the gospel. 

Sharon didn’t quit her job to reach the unreached, she leveraged it. 

Shortly after Sharon befriended Karima, her daughter began asking questions about Jesus. Elizabeth and Sharon eventually found a Bible in her language, and connected her with an Afghan pastor who partners with our church. 

Through steady time in the Word and committed friendships, Karima came to faith in Christ and was baptized. Today she is being discipled and sharing her faith with others like her in the same refugee ministry. 

This wasn’t the result of some grand strategy, but ordinary faithfulness in the ecosystem of work, church, and time stewarded well among the nations streaming into our city.

A CORPORATE PROFESSIONAL AND A NEW CALLING 

Meet another faithful church member: Austin is a deacon in our church. He serves faithfully and shares the gospel alongside his wife in our city. He also works at one of the big four global accounting firms. 

Austin’s vision for his career is that he would glorify God through his work, and leverage his time, treasure, and skills to build up the church no matter where he is. Over the course of the last few years, he and his wife have been imagining how they could use their jobs to reach the unreached in a global city in Southeast Asia. 

With some creativity and purposeful curiosity, Austin began connecting with colleagues at international offices. He landed on two possibilities in two of the most influential neighborhoods in all of Southeast Asia, both filled with unreached peoples. 

Our church is encouraging the launch of a new church plant in one of those neighborhoods and is loosely connected to another church nearby. Austin and his wife will join one of these efforts later this year to help the local church access the unreached through his global company. 

He’s not quitting his job to reach the unreached, he’s leveraging it.

CREATIVE SENDING FOR A CREATIVE AGE

Still, please hear me loud and clear: We still need to send people to the remote and rural corners of the world. There are still many places without access to the gospel. But, in a global and urban age, God is establishing a new global interstate system from which many more can transport the gospel through workplace pathways. 

Christian, this is design, not disruption. The new “Roman Roads” are begging to be traversed by faith, taking the gospel into the corporate offices, universities, supply chains, and global firms of the world. 

This moment in missions presents immense challenges, but also unparalleled opportunities. Your work is not a barrier to mission but a means by which the nations are reached in your city and beyond. You don’t have to quit your job, you may just have to leverage it!