7/24/24 - 2052: The Word at Work

Jim: You've tuned in to iWork4Him, the voice of collaboration for the faith and work movement.

Martha: We are your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, and our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: Martha and I love to find out about new organizations forming across the country that are built around the mission to disciple Christ followers to live out their faith at work. We love it even more when we hear about organizations that form in our great new state of Missouri. Not that Missouri is a new state, but it's our new state. The other day we found out about Gateway Faith and Work in the st. Louis, Missouri area, hence the gateway thing. Their upcoming fall event - we're going to talk about today and we're going to get to meet their coordinator and emcee of the event, Miranda Carls. I had a short conversation with Miranda, but I knew that she needed to come on iWork4Him to tell us all about the event and all about Gateway Faith and Work. Miranda Carls, welcome to iWork4Him

Miranda Carls: Thank you. So good to be with you, Jim and Martha, and welcome to your new state of Missouri. It's my old state. I've never lived anywhere else other than the state of Missouri. Welcome. It's a great place to be.

Jim: Thank you. We really enjoy it. It's fun. We really love being back in Midwest. We both grew up in the Midwest, but spent 20 years, I was going to laugh and say 20 years of purgatory in Florida, but it really wasn't that bad, but it was hot and muggy all year long.

Martha: Yeah, I know. That's how most people feel. So I really just, but now we're in the show me state.

Jim: We are. So show me what God is doing up there, Miranda. We really want to hear all about the Gateway Faith and Work event and the ministry of Gateway Faith and Work. But first we want to hear your Jesus story.

Miranda Carls: Yeah I would say that I have an uninteresting Jesus story, but that would be offensive to the transformative work of Jesus on not only my life, but the life of every Christ follower. Everyone's testimony is incredible because of the redemptive work of Christ. But I will say that my journey to Jesus began very early. And followed a very slow and steady path through the first part of my life.

I was raised in a Christian home. I had very faithful parents. They were excellent examples. I had that, that classic 1980s flannel board childhood. And I'm thankful for that. I was exposed to truth and to scripture very early in life. And then I faced kind of your typical challenges in my teen and college years. And that's really where the pressure existed to pick if I was going to move forward as simply a nominal Christian or as a committed one.

Nominal Christianity was the norm at that time, which is different than today, but I chose to be a committed one and was fortunate to be engaged in a really solid college ministry and have good fellowship with other people through my early career and then on toward today as well. So that's my story of coming to Christ. And thankful that it began very early and I love hearing, I love hearing everyone's Jesus story, but that's mine. Began early and slow and steady. But I think we all get to that point where we have to decide is this a faith that I've just inherited from my parents or is this something that's real and that I'm committed to as well?

Martha: I, very much like you, probably a very similar testimony, but yet I love that you said, God's transformative work we cannot diminish. I was just having a conversation with a friend the other day about flannel graphs. I love that you said that but a lot of us leave our faith in that flat dimension and not go deeper. And I was like, Oh, that is such for people that understand what a flannel graph is. That's a really good analogy. So connect the dots for us, then what is your work story? And how did you come to understand the connection between your faith and your work?

Miranda Carls: Yes. I love that. I think that's an important question for all of us to consider. Anyone who loves Jesus and has a job, we have to look for those connections. So I have always worked in the field of people development. I've never worked in a church or ministry setting and I've always known that the Christian life is to be fully integrated and fully for Christ, whatever you do, right? So I've always known I was to be fully Christian and -

Jim: Wait a minute, always? You grew up in a church where they told you that no matter what you're doing, that was, your faith must be lived out there? That was your ministry place, that was your mission field? You grew up in a church where you were taught that?

Miranda Carls: Yeah, I, I don't know if it was... we can't look back on our childhood and always identify who or where we were taught things. But I don't remember ever thinking that being a Christian was supposed to only apply to one part of our lives. I don't know if I would credit my parents or just reading scripture from an early age or a pastor.

But I, I know where that question's coming from, Jim because for a lot of people, that's not the message or what they hear or what we think. I tend to think that most committed Christians who are in Scripture regularly, who are engaged in fellowship and conversations with other Christians, who are spurring them along regularly, who are being fed by the word regularly, probably cognitively somewhere in their brain know that we are supposed to be for Christ all the time, always. That's very clear in Scripture.

I think what happens is most Christians cognitively know this, but we don't always behaviorally show this. And so that's where what we know and our behaviors cannot always be aligned. But I did definitely get to a point where, okay, I know this. But I was in that space that a lot of Christians fall into at work where we just turn it off, right? We set it aside and we don't think about it throughout the day. And that's where you can call it compartmentalization or something else. But we do it. It's very common. And I found myself in that space and God really used several situations and just pressing on my heart to change that.

And then eventually he led me through going beyond working on myself and being in a place to support brothers and sisters in that as well.

Jim: All right, but you're working on so many things. You're a coach, you're an author, you're a speaker, you're a podcast host, you're a wife. You're a mom of three boys, which that's you know a full time job in itself. I'm a boy. I understand. You're like a superhero. You're a song leader at church, too. How do you keep all that in proper perspective? Prioritize your walk with God?

Miranda Carls: Yeah. I wish I were an actual superhero because that would be very impressive to my three boys. You know, we all fill our time, right? So that everyone, I bet the folks listening in also have a full list of roles and responsibilities that we could rattle off, and for me I think I always try to look at spiritual health and that's what I encourage other people to do as well, because this looks different. Life looks different for everyone. And I think it's not always about numbers, like how many organizations are you working with, or how many boards are you on, or how many kids do you have? How many activities are they in? It's about looking at what that actually looks like for you and how that's impacting your spiritual health.

So even when I work with clients, with professionals, I never prescribed that a certain number of working hours is good or bad. It's about impact. So for me, I like to consider things like have I designed my day with so little margin that I'm unable to fulfill the discipleship opportunities that God has placed in my path with my children and friends? Is my, to go back to what we talked about a moment ago - is my focus fully off of Jesus for my entire workday or is a focus on Jesus integrated into my workday? Do I have focus time for connecting with God and spending time in his word Monday through Friday, not just on the weekend when the pastor asked me to open my Bible or when I'm sitting down with my church life group?

And if the answer is no to any of those questions, then that's when I know something needs to be adjusted. And maybe I need to minimize time in a certain area or restructure something.

Martha: Constantly asking ourselves those questions is so important because it's so easy to get off task and to not have our priorities right. And in the midst of all the things that we're doing, whatever God has called us to do. So in all of those things, what is it right now that you love the best about what you're doing?

Miranda Carls: I think it's the same thing I've always loved about work and in some capacity, like I said, I've always worked in people development and that's just, What I'm made for. I imagine I'll in some way, shape, or form continue my career in that space. I just love coming alongside people and teams and organizations and learning about them, seeing what makes them tick, helping them to remove any barriers and thrive as a team or as individuals. I love working with people.

That's just how God's wired me. And that's why I work in this field. And then on the faith and work side, which I do on the side of my, the work I get paid for, which is the people development work on the faith and work side, I really enjoy just seeing people, lots of people who are on mission and living fully integrated lives. I think we have a lot to feel very hopeful about as we look at just Christians in the everyday workplace.

Jim: I love that. Thank you, Miranda. Some of the things I love best about my work is the things I no longer have to do. Watching our computers for issues with viruses and hackers. We rely on SaferNet to protect us so I can do the things that i'm really called to do in my work. SaferNet has options for everyone, protection at home and the office. SaferNet. com. Let them know that iWork4Him sent you.

I just love that and Miranda and I love that. I sucked you into that commercial. That was fantastic because you like, that was beautiful because SaferNet really does transform, has transformed our organization.

So before we start talking about Gateway Faith and Work tell us about your book that you released in 2022. The Word at Work and your podcast, The Word at Work. Tell us about those.

Miranda Carls: Yeah. So both the book and the podcast were designed to be peer to peer resources. I wanted both of them to just feel like sitting down with someone who's in the trenches with you. So like I said I've never worked in full time ministry. My paycheck has never come from a church or from a even a non profit ministry organization. I have always worked in other settings.

Jim: You're a fully funded missionary at work. That's what you are, fully funded in your people development job.

Miranda Carls: Yes. I don't disagree, Jim. And I think we need new words. Cause even the word secular - nothing is secular, but Gosh, what was the question again?

 (laughter)

Jim: Sorry. That's my fault.

Martha: Talk about your book and your podcast.

Miranda Carls: Yes. Really designed to be a peer to peer resource from someone else who again, just works, spend a lot of hours each week working and want to just think really intentionally about how to do that biblically and how to do that for the glory of God.

And yeah, for the kingdom, how to represent Christ well in all settings. And so in the book, there's several chapters. There are 10 biblical principles for Christian professionals. We look at things like what should our expectations be going into the workplace? How do we bring our Christian worldview to work, especially if we're going into a setting where the dominant worldview is very different? How do we feed spiritual disciplines, fellowship? How do we disciple others? How do we focus on kingdom impact? Things like that.

Jim: I love that.

Martha: That's awesome. So for anybody listening, if they, you want to lean into this and learn more, you can find the book and the podcast, The Word at Work. Where's the best place for them to find those resources?

Miranda Carls: Yeah. Miranda Carls.com is a good hub for finding both of those things. And any articles I've written on Faith and work can be found there as well. And then the books on Amazon.

Jim: But your podcast is on the Awaken Podcast Network, found online at awakenpodcastnetwork. com, where we've got a gathering over 165 podcasts focused on the faith and work movement, and Miranda Carl's excellent podcast is there as well.

Martha: So we'll put that link in the show notes. That's right. So let's talk about Gateway Faith at Work, Faith and Work. I want to say it properly. Where did the idea come from?

Because you're busy doing your work, doing all the other things God has you called, to do. Where did this idea come from?

Miranda Carls: Yeah Several years ago I started creating a lot of content and resources for Christian professionals. Obviously the book and the podcast that we talked about, and then writing for some other online Christian publishers.

And I started to feel this hunger personally, but also see this hunger within others to be a little, to have activity that wasn't all online for lack of a better term. We can go find tons of articles and follow people on Instagram and all of that. But I think there's a real hunger for face to face connection and local community especially in an area like St. Louis, where there's lots of big corporations. We have Boeing and Bayer and lots of big. There's big office buildings where there's a lot of Christians going to work there every day, and they're probably not aware of all the other Christians that they work with. They're not making those connections.

So it really came simply from a desire to bring Christian professionals together physically and locally in the St. Louis area. And then also provide things to equip them for Christian living and gospel impacts out in the community. Because when we say out in the community, a lot of that is out in the workplace. Because what do many adults do Monday through Friday? They're employed vocationally somewhere. So that's really a big field of impact for many people.

Jim: You can check out more about Gateway Faith and Work online at Gateway Faith and Work.com, and of course Martha will have that in the show notes as well. Alright, so before we take a break and then head really into your huge event coming up on September 7th, I really wanna know what do you see God doing in St. Louis? Greater St. Louis, of course.

Miranda Carls: Yeah, I see again, an increased hunger for community and fellowship. I think that as our culture has changed where I know you guys can recall even 10, 15, 20 years ago there was a lot more Cultural Christianity.

And so that's not really the space that we're at right now. So Christians are facing more difficult decisions, more difficult ethical dilemmas in the workplace than maybe they would have in years past. And I think that creates naturally this hunger to find other like minded Christians and participate in fellowship, which we all need.

And to participate in encouraging one another, challenging one another, holding one another accountable to scripture. So that's really what I see locally and work through things like Gateway Faith and Work is pulling Christians together so that they can receive that, that deep fellowship that's put in the context of being a Christian at work and have those conversations.

And that was really the most exciting thing to see when we had our first event last year, was just standing in the lobby watching people talking. And talking about what it was like to be a Christian in their workplace or meeting people in a similar line of work and having that connection and exchanging information.

And so I think there's a hunger for that. And I see God equipping us to, to feed that hunger. And that's really exciting.

Jim: Are you seeing collaboration within the Christian community, the Jesus following community in the greater St. Louis area? Are you seeing ministries and churches coming together to reach the city together?

Miranda Carls: Yeah, absolutely. And we're all one, one family. And so there's many different churches, of course different denominations, different Christian organizations. I've definitely seen it coming together. We have one of our event sponsors is another faith based organization that serves Christian executives in the area. And we partner with them on this. We have some partner churches who are, helping by being host facilities or sending people to volunteer. So definitely a lot of collaboration. And I think that's something special about Events that exist outside of the walls of a singular church. . I hope every Christian is an active member of a local church body and gathering often with that church body.

But there's something unique and special that happens when we have those events where you bring together people and pitch a wider tent and have people coming from the First Baptist church down the road and the non-denominational Christian Church and all the churches in the area coming together because we are unified in Christ, not through the, whatever name happens to be on the sign outside of our church.

Martha: I love that. And one of the things I love is being able to share what we are doing, what's happening around the globe and in our own state with our listeners. And in this part of the show, I'd love to mention other things that our listeners may not be aware of.

And today I just want to talk quickly about the podcasts that are available to both listen to and watch, because we have a YouTube channel for just about anything, I think. But my current favorite is the, iWork4Him power thought, and it is a one minute boost to encourage or to challenge me as I start my day.

And I just want to encourage you to subscribe to this and any of the other podcasts that we offer by visiting iWork4Him . com and then just go to the listen button to see the listing of ours. And then of course, all of the podcasts like Jim was mentioning on the Awaken podcast network that we have learned about that are speaking into the faith and work voice. You can find on Awaken podcast network.

So the event that you have happening is September 7th. Tell us all about it so people get this picture of what that day is going to look like. And why they should go. Even to inspire them for their own town. But I know this is specific to St. Louis.

Miranda Carls: Yeah. Thanks, Martha. Our theme for this year, and this is our second year having the event, our theme this year is equipped. So equipped for workplace excellence. for faithfully walking the Christian life and then equipped by and for community with other Christians. We will have a mix of keynote messages and breakout sessions and our format last year and this year is that we'll bring in a keynote speaker from somewhere else and then we will have the breakout sessions largely led by Christian business leaders in the St. Louis area or Bible teachers in the st. Louis area.

So we have very much like a local presence in the St. Louis metro area for the breakout sessions. And then our keynote speaker is Greg Cockel from Stand to Reason. He wrote the book tactics, his new book street smarts is out. So he's all about equipping people for gospel conversations with non believers. And that felt like a really powerful topic for this event because as Christians in the general workplace we have a lot of conversations with non believers and there's a lot of opportunities. So looking at how can we do that with grace and truth and do that really well.

 And we'll have lots of food and fellowship and fun things as well, some live music over lunch. So it'll be a fun day and also a very fruitful and edifying day as well.

Jim: And I know everybody that's listening could go to gatewayfaithandwork. com and get registered for that event. You don't have to be from the greater St. Louis area to go. It's easy to get there. Just jump on I 55. You could jump on I 44. All of them lead to St. Louis from somewhere in the country. Even I 40 somehow sneaks up and around. You can get there if you want to. That's right. GatewayFaithAndWork. com. All right, so my question is What's your vision, your long term vision for what you would love to see God do in the greater st Louis area in the workplace, in the hearts and minds of workplace believers, and how are you gonna help turn that city around and build the kingdom there?

Miranda Carls: Yeah, so my answer to this question - I've had to be very intentional about this because if you knew me a little better you know that I love to plan well ahead of things. I like to have all the ducks in the row. I love structure. I love anticipating what will happen.

I've intentionally tried to stay very surrendered and as a steering committee we pray over this all the time. We try to stay in a very surrendered posture. We do a lot of throwing things at the wall and seeing if they stick, just responding to the needs that people have. My answer is that our vision for this is whatever His is.

And we pray each day and he has continued to make each next step pretty clear. We'll have a meeting where we're Oh, where should we hold this? And then just randomly meet a pastor from a church and there's some energy around it and it's a big church and we can do that.

Or we'll meet people who end up being just fantastic breakout session speakers or supporters of the event. So he's really guided things all along the way, even if it's not always with as much runway as I, I sometimes prefer to have. The luxury that we have as Christians is that we know how all of this ends.

We know God is sovereign. And that takes some of the pressure off while we still, of course, press onward in obedience and do everything that we can with everything that he's given us to stay on mission and keep putting things out there that will support Christians. So we've, in addition to the event, the annual event that we'll have we also have been doing some lunch and learns.

You guys probably know my friend, Helen Mitchell. So we had her do a lunch and learn one day. We've got coming up Reagan Rose of Redeeming Productivity. So topics that are very relevant to people in the workplace, but also very rooted in scripture or looking at a topic through the lens of scripture, of biblical worldview.

We've got some You version Bible plans. So we're playing around with different things, some small group models as well. So we're staying surrendered while also putting a lot of effort into putting things out there that hopefully will support people.

Martha: So exciting. And I, what a great example because especially when you're speaking to business people or people in the workplace, we have to plan. We, we have expectations, we have goals, we have, long term, short term, everything in between. And this idea of staying surrendered and saying, Lord, we don't want to get ahead of you.

That's part of our testimony. Jim and I have done that and said, Lord, look at this. We can do this for you. And it doesn't always, it doesn't work out well when you don't, when you're not listening and obeying. So what a great example in the midst of those that you are serving to say, you know what, we are, we're going to let the Lord lead this.

So are there any final thoughts that you want our listeners to hear that they can take with them today, whether it's practical application or something that has to do with your event? Just what would that final thought be?

Miranda Carls: Yeah. First one more thing about what you were just saying, Martha. And this is directed toward if anyone's listening and they want to start something locally. And I'm from a small town. I'm from a town of 2000. If you live in a small town, like there's need for this there too.

And so wherever you're planted right now don't measure things based on earthly metrics. Because our metrics are different and I think of, I always think of the, seed planting that we hear Paul talk about in scripture. So anything that you're doing, if you're walking in step with the spirit he can use that.

So this, for you feeding something like this could be localized to starting a Bible study at your workplace. Or it could be bringing people together in your small town or starting something in, in the larger area that you live in. I think it can be really easy to get caught up in earthly metrics, if you know what I'm saying with some of this, but looking at just what are opportunities and that you can feed into with the resources God has given you and where he's placed you. And pray for those opportunities because he will make the steps clear and guide you through that.

Jim: I think we need to have another conversation because we live in a town of 2200. So our town is much bigger than yours, 10 percent bigger. And there is a desperate need, we've been gathering really just small business people together in our building just to talk about what business going on.

We pray before the meeting and people share, a lot of believers at the meeting, but we haven't made it specifically for believers because we're just trying to connect business people in our small town among the business people because so many of them do business in Springfield or in Joplin.

They're not doing business here in town yet. We have this great little town that 170 years ago was formed because we had fresh water here long before Branson came about. So I love that you said hey if you're in a small town, you could do this here. That just inspired me. I just think that's fantastic. I love that. Thank you for sharing that with us.

Miranda Carls: Yeah, wherever you are. And then final thoughts. So to answer your question, Martha, I would say to everyone listening in, if you don't have one of these three things in place, get them in place this week, because they're important.

So number one. fellowship. If you don't have fellowship with someone else, at least one other person who you fellowship with and they have an understanding of what you do for work and you're able to talk openly about workplace challenges. I think that's important. Have you ever gone to church and you look around and you realize, I don't actually know what any of these people do Monday through Friday?

We don't talk about it. I've found it's very helpful to have peer professionals who are in a similar line of work and are also believers. And then number two, focus time with Jesus Monday through Friday. And then number three, an understanding of how work outside of church walls can grow the kingdom.

So if you're listening and you don't have one of those three in place, I'm guessing if you're listening to this podcast, you probably have put effort into all three of those, but if you don't they're important. So get those in place this week.

Jim: Yeah. Miranda Carls. Thanks for being on iWork4Him today.

Miranda Carls: Yeah. Thank you so much.

Jim: Check out everything she's doing at MirandaCarls. com or GatewayFaithAndWork. com if you want to find out way more about what's going on in St. Louis area and on September the 7th. And all of that, Martha will put in the show notes. You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers, our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately, iWork4Him.