4/16/25 - 2090: The First Annual Global Day of Faith at Work
Jim: You've tuned into iWork4Him, the Voice of Collaboration for the Faith and Work Movement.
Martha: And we are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. Our mission is to inspire every workplace believer to recognize their workplace as their ministry place, where they work with God every day. What can that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.
Jim: There's a move of God on this planet to activate and equip workplace believers to live out their faith in all areas of their life, but especially at work. When a workplace believer comes to understand the significance of their work in God's eyes, they start to see their workplace as a ministry place, their assigned Mission Field.
Workplace believers are fully funded missionaries placed by God to bring flourishing to the world and to be a blessing to all the believers and pre believers at work while operating in excellence in their job. May the 1st, 2025, is not only the National Day of Prayer, but it is also the first ever Global Day of Faith at Work.
This day is an opportunity to celebrate our work and commission workplace [00:01:00] believers to their workplace mission field. Today we have three guests on the show. We don't get to do that very often, so hang on. We've got Elaine Kung, we've got Joseph Vijayam, and we've got Brad Smith. They're all gonna tell you about themselves, but all of them are here to tell us about how you can set up a one hour Global Day of Faith at Work celebration in your town, your workplace, your church, wherever it may be. Elaine, Joseph, and Brad, welcome to iWork4Him.
Elaine Kung: Thank you. Hello, Jim and Martha.
Joseph Vijayam: Thank you.
Jim: Alright, so let's get a little of each of your back stories of your involvement in the Global Day of Faith at Work. Brad, why don't we start off with you, Brad, why are you guys involved in, why are you involved in the Global Day of Faith at Work?
Brad Smith: So in this meeting, I'm representing the World Evangelical Alliance and it was started in 1846 and it has 143 national alliances under its umbrella, and so it [00:02:00] represents 650 to 700 million evangelicals in the world. It has offices in the United Nations, so it actually has a permanent representation there to represent evangelicals in the United Nations, in New York, Bond, Geneva, as well as in African Union and other places. But probably most important, it's there to empower national alliances in these 143 nations to be an influence for unity, advocacy, and connection among evangelicals.
And when you talk about evangelicals in a nation, 1%, less than 1% are pastors and work in local churches. By far the majority are in the workplace, in a variety of places. And so their job is to empower, to equip, and to help people in the workplace to see their role as missionaries, as really stewarding their role for the Kingdom of God. So we've been involved in this for a lot of years, yeah. And we're excited about this Global day because it really is announcing [00:03:00] what has already been happening.
It's just celebrating what God's been doing for a very long time. And we enjoy being part of celebrating that.
Martha: That's so awesome, and I just wanna let all of our listeners know that I will put links in the show notes for all of these organizations because I think that they're gonna wanna dig deeper and learn more.
Maybe they've not heard of any of this information that we're gonna give today. So listeners, you don't have to worry about writing everything down or memorizing all of that. We just wanna give you the opportunity to get the high level conversation because it's really all about something we're gonna be talking about that's happening on May 1st.
Elaine, why don't you give us a little of your backstory on what has led to this involvement with this global day.
Elaine Kung: Yes. So it's always been in my heart that we need to live our Christian faith. So when I was really busy in 1996, children are young, busy serving at a church and a workaholic, quote unquote.[00:04:00]
I found it important of integrating our faith in the workplace where we spend most of our time. So I founded the Called to Work ministry. Called to work as we are all called to work. So since then, now 30 years of mobilizing and multiplying missional disciples at work, our goal is to really encourage workers with practical resources, equip leaders to grow the workplace ministry, and to expand global network.
So last year I thought we have a day to celebrate moms, dads, brother and sister, donuts, pizza, pets day. We don't have a day to celebrate work! So I suggested to Joseph and our Lausanne friends, and we all embrace this idea. That's why we came up with a Global Day of Faith at Work for May 1st. It's starting this year, every year we celebrate work.
Jim: Nice. And when we're talking about the Global Day of Faith at Work you can check it out online at globalfaithatwork.org. Alright, Joseph, [00:05:00] tell us your backstory of why you're involved in the Global Day of Faith at Work.
Joseph Vijayam: Jim and Martha, thank you for this opportunity. Really love what you're doing with iWork4Him. I serve as the catalyst, the Lausanne catalyst, for Workplace Ministry. The Lausanne movement was founded in 1974 by Billy Graham and John Start. And it has become a worldwide movement of evangelicals striving together for global evangelization. And the Lausanne movement is, the way it operates is through three streams.
One is through various issue networks and topics, issues relevant for the spread of the gospel. Secondly, through 12 regions of the world, every region of the world where the church is continuing to grow. And then we also work across generations. We call it the younger leader initiative within the Lausanne Movement. Workplace Ministry is strategic because it is where 99% of the global church [00:06:00]engages the world with the gospel.
And so I have this wonderful and unique privilege since 2019 to serve as the catalyst within the Lausanne movement. And we have our network called the Lausanne Workplace Network that brings together people from various parts of the world to grow together in how we can worship the Lord through our work and how we can spread the gospel in and through our workplaces.
And when Elaine first came up with the idea suggesting that we can have a Global Day of Faith at Work where people come together to pray for the workplace ministry, this just really struck a chord, seemed this day should have been started a long time ago. And I'm glad we're doing it now with May 1st, 2025, and I'm just really glad that in our generation we get to launch this and see where the Lord takes it going forward.
Jim: I'm pretty sure it did start a long time ago! I'm pretty sure that in the garden God said, "Hey, I got this great idea for you. To keep you out of trouble I'm gonna give you assignments [00:07:00] and outta this assignment, I want you to cultivate the Earth. And I've got this garden, and I want you to take care of this garden, and it's gonna just fulfill your every desire and needs. It's just unbelievable. And then it just got a lot harder from there. But it was God's idea. Work was God's idea. It was good.
Martha: But they didn't have a day, a year that they set aside.
Jim: It's because it was supposed to be every day.
Martha: You're exactly right, but we are in this culture where we are conditioned to have days that we celebrate things like Elaine said, moms and dads and all of that. So having this opportunity, this is such a significant day that of course, Jim and I got very excited about it and wanted to share it with all of you listeners.
Jim: That's right, and I think everyone wants purpose in their work, but it can get lonely. That's why we're part of the US Christian Chamber and the network of Christian Chambers across the country. The US Christian Chamber helps Christian business owners grow their businesses and impact their cities, their environments, their communities, through export all over the country. And the US Christian Chamber [00:08:00] gives them expert resources, powerful collaborations, and a national directory to get greater exposure.
You can grow your business at uschristianchamber.com, us christian chamber.com. iWork4Him as a member of the US Christian Chamber, and you can be too.
Martha: Okay, so Joseph, we wanna really dig into why is it, why do you think that it's important for workplace believers to understand the significance of their workplace mission field? Because this is something that I'd love to get your perspective on.
Joseph Vijayam: The workplace is where we spend most of our waking hours. And it is the place where we can be salt and light, as the Lord has called us to be. It is where we have the most number of interactions with unbelievers and even with believers.
So what a great way to be able to live out our faith every single day. And to do it in a posture of worshiping the Lord. We work not unto our immediate bosses, but [00:09:00] for a higher authority. And that's what the, our great opportunities every day as we go to work. And workplaces aren't just in office buildings, they're not just when you are in the marketplace or on Wall Street, it is everywhere.
Workplace is when we are interacting even in our homes as a homemaker. It could be somebody who is driving a cab somewhere in the busy streets of Dubai. Workplaces are all around us and we need to be living out our faith as salt and light.
Jim: And Brad, you are part of a university that is teaching this all the time. Bakke Graduate University. We did a show years ago talking about Bakke Graduate University. That's one of your things. Not only the World Evangelical Alliance, but Bakke graduate. This is something where no matter what people are graduating with, they understand that they're graduating into workplace significance, don't they, Brad?
Brad Smith: So we, the university has a college of business, so we have MBA programs. We also have a College of Christian Theology and a College of Urban Studies because the world is moving [00:10:00]towards cities and the world is moving toward economics and connecting through business. And that all needs to be under the banner of what does the Bible say about that? And so we are, we're founded by the Lausanne movement so that everybody in every college has to study together to break down the silos that often exist between pastors and business people, business people and people in urban work. And so that's what we've been graduating for all these years.
And it's fascinating to watch how God has been doing this movement. We're just joining and watching what's happening. But it really is a, not a new day, but it's a new day of recognizing what God has been doing for decades.
Martha: I think that our listeners are gonna find a lot of what you guys are sharing very revolutionary and very I didn't know there was like these concepts. I know there's so much that we're unpacking here. All of you have a global perspective in the work that you're doing. Elaine, I just, I wanna direct this to you. Do you think that the disconnect between faith and work is just an [00:11:00] American thing, or do you think it is global?
Elaine Kung: I believe it's a human thing, global. (laughter) Wherever we have human, from the beginning of time, like Jim said, God, work is his idea. He intended to bless us with our work. Unfortunately, with Adam and Eve disobeying God, we ever since really make work a drudgery, a Challenge. And yet God really want us to enjoy the work.
So it's a global thing. We seem to have switches in our life. We turn on the switch to go to work, quote unquote secular. Then in the weekend we go to church and turn on the switch, quote unquote sacred. And yet God intended to bridge the secular and the sacred, that whatever you, do it as for the Lord, like in Colossians 3:23. And God is my CEO. My company pays my salary, but ultimately I work for God. So we should be an integrated, holistic, [00:12:00] christian disciple.
Jim: All right, so let ask something controversial. Lemme ask something controversial. Why the heck are we having such a hard time getting this done? The church has been around for 2000 years.
This is not a concept that's new. The early church understood this because they overturned the Roman Empire by the power and the vibrancy of their faith. They transformed the Roman Empire. Why are we struggling so much, the 8 billion of us on this planet, the 2 billion of us who are Jesus followers? Why is this such a struggle?
Who wants to take that one? Raise your hand. Go ahead, Brad. Why are we struggling with this?
Brad Smith: Part of, it's the word "church." We say we're going to church. What does that actually mean? We are the church, and so we've defined the church as only the church gathered on Sunday morning. Partly is even the word "worship." We think worship is watching somebody else sing. And if you can sing above the microphones, you're singing too.
If I am cleaning a bathroom, that's my job. [00:13:00] And in the midst of cleaning a bathroom, I find this sense of joy. God made me to see things that are dirty. God's given me this opportunity to clean 'em up. The next person that comes in is gonna have the sense of beauty. And when I am in there saying, maybe it's not my favorite thing to do, maybe it's mundane. But God put me here. God gifted me to here. God, thank you for doing that. That is actually worship. And I think that we define the words "church" and "worship" in ways that have excluded the majority of church and worship.
Martha: I love that. You've just summarized it so well and so many of us struggle with it. And I wanted to say one more thing about that, and that is the fact that I believe because it is the greatest area of opportunity, it's also one of Satan's greatest battles that he wants to fight and to keep people from seeing it, for what it really is.
And so I, this conversation is so incredibly important because we're going to, as [00:14:00] we dig into this May 1st day of prayer for the people in their faith and work, they're gonna better understand through the opportunities that you have given them, that they have been empowered by God to do what they do, to be equipped for the work that he's created them to do.
Not only the cleaning of the toilet, but the atmosphere that they bring into that room and the way that they can minister to people. How many of you remember being thankful for the cleaners? When we were at the height of infection and worrying about disinfecting and all of that, man, I thanked everybody that was working in that space. But Satan has a real battle going on there, and I think that's a big part of it.
Jim: Elaine, go ahead.
Elaine Kung: Yeah, so as Brad said, we are the church. Wherever we go, we bring God with us and God actually takes us along the way. What's powerful is that in the workplace, you could be the only living Bible [00:15:00] that your coworkers are reading. They may not flip the Bible, and yet through you, as we Work as Worship and make good work and minister with grace and love and that you are the Christ, the little Christian, before them. So through you they get to read the Bible. Through you they get a sense what the church is like.
So it's so powerful. Our work isn't just a paycheck. We are not there just to bless people. We are actually honoring God and be the channel of the gospel someday that you can earn the right to share the gospel with them as well.
Martha: That's right.
Jim: We like to say here at iWork4Him, that as a Jesus follower, everything about you should be changing. Everyone around you should be benefiting from your faith whether they believe in Jesus or not. That's the kingdom, and that's what we're talking about doing. We're talking about celebrating the kingdom that Jesus talked about so much, but that kingdom that he wants us to bring here on Earth.
And we're talking about doing this on May the 1st for the Global Day of Faith at Work. You can find out more online at [00:16:00] globalfaithatwork.org. And I wanna talk about some of the details 'cause you guys are asking, you're suggesting that every town, every organization, every city, every community, have one of these celebrations from noon to one, whatever time zone you're in.
So which means that in the United States alone, that's five different time zones. I think maybe it's more, I don't know. I suppose if Guam is out there, that's a territory. I don't know. It's a lot. So Joseph, what's the purpose of these gatherings?
Joseph Vijayam: Yeah, Jim, the event is itself, it's going to feature a global celebration, as you've said, it is from 12 to 1 in every time zone, and I just recently found out doing some Google searches that there are actually 32 time zones. Some of these time zones actually overlap by a half hour or 15 minutes even.
But nonetheless, what we want to be able to do is for everybody during their lunch hour, wherever they may be in the world, from 12 noon to 1:00 PM, to come together and do these things. Number one, to [00:17:00] pray. Number two, sing worship songs together. Number three, read scripture together, that public reading of scripture, community reading of scripture, and we will give some suggested passages that focus on Work as Worship, and then ultimately a time of commissioning those who are called to ministry in their workplaces.
So it is prayer songs, scripture reading, and commissioning. These are the four things we do together during that one hour as we come together.
Martha: Brad, you wanted something to jump in there.
Brad Smith: So the way Joseph has set this up, anybody can do this in their company. Anybody can do this on their own. However, also in every time zone, there will be a prayer meeting in that time zone at noon led by, and not every time zone. I still haven't found anybody to lead the one in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and several places in the middle of the Pacific.
Jim: There's cruise ships out there. There'll be cruise ships out there. Let's go. Let's do a cruise ship. I am willing to personally, if you can find funding, Brad, I'm willing to [00:18:00] personally, to sacrifice my life to go to the middle Atlantic on a cruise ship to do this.
(laughter)
Brad Smith: Still looking for a facilitator in Hawaii, by the way. However, on the website there will be a listing of all the time zones that have this. And what is the zoom link when somebody, if they don't have one going on in their own business, they can go to that zoom link at noon, their time zone, and there will be a facilitator who will moderate everybody in that time zone. Could be a big group - to go through this process and pray and celebrate together and to meet people in your time zone, whether you're in Africa or in Europe, throughout the whole time zone. So it's a pretty exciting concept.
Jim: So I wanna stop there. Stop there for a second. So you're saying not only can we have localized celebrations, but that there's gonna be a zoom link for every time zone that somebody could come on to no matter what latitude they're in, the time zone will be the same and they could join on with people from all over the globe?
Martha: No, they're gonna join in their time zone.
Jim: Yeah, all over the globe in their time zone. But like the central time zone would involve people from Mexico or from Central American, [00:19:00] south America. That's Cool!
Martha: So I wanna talk about an element of this because we are totally in alignment with all of the elements. But people understand prayer, they understand worship, they understand the reading of scripture, but they may have never seen a commissioning outside of someone that's going overseas, somebody that's actually becoming a funded missionary by a nonprofit organization. The traditional sense. So let's talk about this commissioning for a minute and what that could really mean to the people that are attending. Elaine, why don't you address that?
Elaine Kung: Absolutely. We are so familiar with sending missionaries overseas or even short term or midterm or long term. In fact, we all workers are everyday missionary. Yeah, we are called to work and enter into the world. In fact, we believe we, the workers, are the [00:20:00] largest mission force reaching into the largest mission field.
Martha: Yes.
Elaine Kung: There are many UPGs in our workplace - unreached people group, those who never step into the church, so we want pastors, we want the celebration to send off our everyday missionary to commission each one of us into the workplace. Be that Christian, be that channel of love, and be the one who make a difference. Be the one to minister with grace and love to people around us.
Jim: And I just want to emphasize how important this is because if I had been commissioned as a workplace believer when I was 20 years old, I would've set the world of, the insurance agency world on fire. And then we sold used cars too. We'd have set it on fire, but instead Martha and I wrestled for 20 years with that call to full-time ministry and our call to being entrepreneurs. It was like sandpaper against our skin and our souls for 20 years.
This [00:21:00] commissioning is so important to help with that paradigm shift. It will help you understand, everybody listening to this, help you understand that every workplace can be transformed into a mission field by the paradigm Shift in your mind, that Romans 12:2 moment, by changing the very way you think.
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Jim: All right, this Global Day of Faith at Work, I wanna give each one of you, you guys one more chance to talk about why people should get involved. [00:22:00] globalfaithatwork.org is the website. Joseph, you go first. Why should somebody set up a local celebration?
Joseph Vijayam: Because we all need celebrations. We need to be able to celebrate the fact that God has called us to our workplaces. He has given us a task to do, and he has equipped us to do that task for which he has called us.
How great is that? So when we do this, we are equipping each other and everybody in the workplace to be a missional disciple, fulfilling the great commission the Lord has given us. So let's join hands in your family, in your churches, in the organizations you serve in, and take part by signing up at globalfaithatwork.org.
Jim: Brad, what about you? Why? Why should somebody do it? Talk about, just ask this question. At Bakke Graduate University, where you've got places all over the country, how many celebrations are you gonna have? And by the way, we've got a lead for [00:23:00] you for Hawaii. Talk to me about - I mean, why should somebody do this?
Brad Smith: I am gonna really call out people that are actually owners of businesses or in business. Too often in the faith and work moment, we sit around in the church, we wait for pastors, and part of the problem is we've asked pastors to do more than what probably God has asked them to do. And what happens is sometimes they respond - In the US we have these big churches and staff.
We're very happy to be retailers of religious goods and services. And too often people in the workplace are passive consumers of religious goods and services. Because if somebody else is doing it, why should we? This is an opportunity to take the responsibility and say, I wanna do this. I'm not waiting for my pastor. He's amazing. But my job is to go ahead and do this with people that are work colleagues, people in my workplace.
It makes a statement that business people and workplace people are called to be doing this. And they don't have [00:24:00] to wait for a local church to come up with it. It's designed for you to be able to do it in your workplace with colleagues and people that you serve with. So my charge would be if you're in the workplace, you can do this with your group or even invite your group to come into the time zone. It's a great opportunity for people to take Initiative.
Jim: Globalfaithatwork.org. Elaine kung, last words. What do you got for us?
Elaine Kung: Yes. So when we come together to celebrate, you are in a community of people practicing our faith at work and the four components we talked about, you're going to be blessed with not typical prayer and songs. You're actually gonna be blessed with resources from Theology of Work, providing us with our theme Work as Worship.
So we have prayer that is worship in Work Prayer, and we have songs from Fuller Theological Seminary for Worship for Workers, special song they created that we can use and [00:25:00] the reading of the scripture, including the theology of work commentary. So it's really powerful. And the commissioning was what we used in Lausanne in Korea.
You can have the Lausanne moment together on May 1st with us, and there's more. In addition to English resources, me being a Chinese and thankful in the last year, God let us translate all this material, we would've exactly same material in Chinese language as well. Come join us.
Jim: Fantastic. Brad Smith, Joseph Vijaya , and Elaine Kung, thank you so much for being on iWork4Him today. Thanks for bringing the Global Day of Faith at Work to us and our audience online at globalfaithatwork.org. Thank you all for being here today.
Brad Smith: Thank you, Jim and Martha.
Joseph Vijayam: Thank you, Jim.
Elaine Kung: Thank you, Jim and Martha.
Jim: You've been listening to iWork4Him with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.