Work and the Church: does your church know what you do for a living?

As the shape of Britain’s industry has shifted, so has ministry in the workplace. Industrial mission used to be very much based on work-place visiting in industry. Most chaplains were ordained, though there were some lay chaplains too. With the decline in manufacturing industry the role of industrial chaplaincy has undergone many changes, although the model of a ‘ministry of presence’ in the workplace remains. The focus now is upon the ministry to work and economic life however, where manufacturing industry survives, industrial missioners do too. Nick Parish, industrial chaplain, examines whether the church manages to bridge the gap between work and faith and below (left and right) we explore two other areas of ministry to workplaces.

Does your Church know and/or care what you do the rest of the week? Whether you do paid or unpaid work, are self employed or work for a multi-national company? Does it know if you make decisions involving large sums of money and affecting large numbers of people? Does it care whether you love your work, or consider yourself a wage slave and have a chart in your desk of the number of days left before retirement? Or does it want you to join another committee that you can rush to straight from the station?
If you want to find out, a good thing to do is pay close attention to the prayers at your next service. Do you pray for anyone’s work (not counting Bishops and Vicars)? If you do, are they for the ‘caring professions’ of teaching and medicine? Most importantly, do they pray for your profession, for the work that you do?

We have two problems relating Faith and Work. Firstly, the two are often not linked at all in either the liturgical or pastoral life of the Church. Secondly, any links are often limited to what we subconsciously regard as ‘Christian’ jobs. If you are an estate agent, a bus driver or a part time shelf filler at Tescos, you might get the impression that God isn’t that interested in what you do for a living! (Or even worse, that He doesn’t really approve).

Our Diocesan Strategy for Mission encourages us to relate to the world in new ways. An obvious place to start is to find out about the economic lives of the people we meet with every week. What are the issues they struggle with? What challenges keep them awake at night? And what spiritual support do they need from the Church?
Mission to Work and Economic Life (MWEL) is part of the life of the diocese that tries to bridge the gap between work and faith. We take the Churches’ ministry into the workplace through Chaplaincy, and through encouraging people like yourself to see their work as part of their Christian ministry. We work, too, with local Churches and Christian groups to help people explore relating their Faith to their work, to feel able to raise ethical and moral issues from work in their Church life and to discover that God is very interested in what we do with our economic life.

One specific area we hope to develop is our involvement in training. We would love to help local clergy and others with pastoral responsibility develop this ministry in their own setting. Then perhaps the prayers will flow, and the House Groups can become places of trust where work issues are shared and taken seriously. Being a Christian is not a hobby, it’s a way of life. You know that, don’t you – does your Church take it seriously, though?