Ministry In Word

— by Henry Kaestner

Editors’ note: This was adapted from Faith Driven Entrepreneur: What It Takes to Step Into Your Purpose and Pursue Your God-Given Call to Create by Henry Kaestner, J. D. Greear, and Chip Ingram. Copyright © 2021. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.

Sharing our faith is important. Obviously. In His last words on earth, Jesus gave His followers what is now known as the Great Commission:

Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20)

The question is, how? You may have heard a quote that is often misattributed to St. Francis of Assissi that says, “Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.”

My struggle with this quote is that it creates an unnecessary hierarchy between preaching by action and preaching by word. We could go back and forth on this forever, but why not both? The love of Christ can be seen in the way His followers live their lives, but we shouldn’t stop there. Our words should absolutely back up our actions. 

There are opportunities to do this everywhere. David knew this.

I will give you thanks in the great assembly; among the throngs I will praise you. (Psalm 35:18)

Imagine what it would look like to praise God everywhere we went. Now, this idea may conjure a strange image of a man walking around the office with his hands raised singing worship songs, but that’s not what I’m saying.

I’m saying every place and every person is an opportunity to share the good news of what Christ has done in our lives. This perspective changes the way we live our lives. Think of how different your life might look if you sprinkled truth throughout every conversation you had during the day.

When we read this verse from David, things like “the great assembly” and “the throngs” don’t necessarily sound familiar. The thing is, we do have those. They just look different. We have an office space. We have co-workers gathered together for lunch. We have meetings with investors. We have conversations with customers. God can be praised in both our words and actions in those moments.

My point is evangelism is a vocal activity, and every single place you go and every person you encounter is presenting you with an opportunity to praise God by living and loving in a way that draws others to Him. And if entrepreneurs are good at anything, it’s seizing opportunities.

But if you feel nervous, uncertain, or awkward, I get it. That’s why I want to walk you through how you can share your personal testimony, what it looks like to be winsome, and why prayer is the linchpin of your ministry.

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Simon Sinek has a powerful TedTalk titled “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.” And in it, he talks about the importance of “why.” He uses Apple, Martin Luther King Jr, and the Wright brothers as examples of what can happen when we are in touch with our core motivations for living and doing what we do.

He shares how almost everyone knows what they do, many people know how they do it, but few know or even acknowledge why they do it. He asks the audience to consider their purpose, their cause, their reason for existence.

In business, the “why” behind what you do is crucial. Entrepreneurs especially know this. You’re not going to get out of bed every morning and enter the risky start-up world if you don’t have a strong motivation for why you’re doing this in the first place.

The same is true when it comes to integrating our faith and our work. We may know the why behind our business, but do we know the why behind our lives? This question is reminiscent of the famous Socrates quote, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Well, you, the Faith Driven Entrepreneur, don’t have to worry about this quote. You’ve examined your life, you’ve surrendered to God, you know the reason for which you live—namely, to glorify Him.

Yet, for some reason, “God’s will” for our lives remains this mysteriously indiscernible thing that no one ever quite understands or figures out. We all want to know what God’s plan is for our lives. But this isn’t the right question. We’re focusing on the “what” instead of the “why.” We can find some clarity in Proverbs:

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans. (Proverbs 16:3)

Notice that this verse says to commit “whatever you do.” It doesn’t say “figure out exactly what God would have you do and then do that for His glory”—although that may be today’s common wisdom. It says commit whatever you do to God. That’s your why.

The what of your business is less important than the why. And the why is so that God would be glorified in all of it.

Maybe it took you a long time to start your business because you weren’t sure if it was God will. Well, regardless of how you came to discern what God’s will actually is, you can now live in the fact that God’s will is for you to glorify Him in whatever you do. Period.

And the way in which you got there is a journey. It’s your personal testimony. This is what you can share with others. It’s the simplest, most effective way to share the Gospel. 

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Redeemer's Center for Faith and Work conducted a survey of working believers from around the country and found that only 6% had shared their faith at work. 6%!

It seems that while there is plenty of conversation around faith and work, there aren’t many people talking about faith at work. Thankfully, Peter gives us three tips in one verse that will help us better share our faith at our jobs.

Always be willing to share the reason for the hope that you have with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 3:15)

Always be willing

Notice this doesn’t say always be sharing or always be talking about your faith. It just says always be willing. Sometimes, sharing your faith doesn’t fit in a sales meeting. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared to talk about Jesus if the conversation allows it. Find the balance between forcing a faith conversation and letting it organically occur. Always be ready and always be praying for opportunities.

The hope that you have

What God has done in your life is not up for debate. We often tend to view conversations about faith as chances to convince someone or argue someone into a relationship with God. But that’s not really how it works, right? We can never go wrong with simply talking about what God has done in our life. We are all broken people who need Jesus. Or, as a famous theologian once said, “Christianity is just one beggar telling another beggar where he found food.” The most conversational and relatable thing we can share is why we believe and why we have hope.

Gentleness and respect

Gentleness and respect are the results of healthy relationship building. People are always more receptive to information when it’s coming from someone they know and trust. Which means more, movie recommendations from strangers or from friends? It’s the same with faith! Establish relationships with your employees and co-workers that are built on gentleness and respect and let the conversations flow from there.

We don’t need to corner our employees during their lunch break to share a sermon with them, nor do we need to walk through the Roman Road with every customer we encounter. But we do need to be ready and willing to share. Paul gave Timothy the same instruction.

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction. (2 Timothy 4:2)

I understand that this isn’t always easy. But you aren’t in it alone. When in doubt, you can always turn to prayer.

Raising funds. It can be every entrepreneur’s greatest nightmare. Steady climb after steady climb to the top of Venture Capital mountain, only to walk back with your head down after each rejection. It’s not easy. In fact, this is the easiest stage of the journey to toss out the elevator pitch and quit.

When we first began fundraising for Bandwidth, we started out going 0 for 40 on pitch meetings. Seriously. People weren’t touching us with a ten foot pole. At the time, we thought that people were prejudiced against our faith. But now, I look back and see that, no, in reality, we were forcing our will over God’s. We weren’t seeking Him first—we weren’t seeking Him at all—and instead we focused on doing what we wanted to do.

Now, we would pray before walking into every meeting, But we prayed for success. We prayed that we would walk out of those investor meetings with a certain amount of capital. But we never prayed whether we should be raising money to begin with.

When I read Matthew 6:33 today, a specific word sticks out.

But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

Faith Driven Entrepreneurs are great at seeking after God, but seeking after Him first is a huge distinction. And when it comes to sharing our faith at work, when we’re ministering in word, seeking God first changes the entire way we do this.

Because when we’re praying for God to show us opportunities, to provide the right words for us to say, He will. But when we’re trying to find ways to force our own evangelism strategy into conversations where they don’t fit, we’re being willful, not faithful.

Ministering in word means being able to pray for someone in Jesus’ name. It doesn’t stop at praying for ourselves. It’s seeking God first and foremost in any conversation. When someone shares a struggle or a worry with you, the first thing you can then do is ask if you can take that problem to God.

And when we pray, we’re communing with the living God. We’re talking to God. And when you pray with somebody else present, you’re inviting them into that very sacred communication you’re having with God. They’re now witnessing the power of God.

When you pray for someone, you’re inviting them to experience God for themselves. And after you pray, you can look at someone who may have zero experience with God and say, “What I just did, you can do any time you want. You might think I’m crazy, you might think I’m talking into the air, but I believe in a God who loves me and listens to me. And He’s there for you too.”

Think about how incredibly beautiful and powerful that moment can be. Asking someone, “Is it alright if I pray for you?” is such a simple question, but it’s the type of moment that God can use to open their eyes to see Him.

And that’s what ministering in word is all about. We’re not trying to be incredible orators and apologists. We’re just inviting people to see God with their own eyes. Ultimately, we’re incapable of doing that for them—that’s the work of the Holy Spirit.

But God is eager to use us, eager to take our words and to transform them into something truly powerful and life-changing. We just have to start by opening our mouths.

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