We Need More Christians In the Workforce

This is obviously something that we’ve always known, but it became glaringly obvious to me mid-year.

Let me paint the scene. It was a Sunday night and I was watching Prophet Suddenly 3 (a huge shout out to the Winlos for always putting out edifying content). The first few minutes already had me hooked. Early on in the movie, we saw Nurse Eki being chastised by miokukusheshe for allowing the child (James) to be born. Nurse Eki had been given specific instructions, do not allow the child live.

Initially, their plan was working, but Nurse Eki tells of a “strange doctor” who was sent into the labour room. This man, speaking in an unknown language, neutralized their powers. By default, he became the reason their plans were foiled. The interception of that Christian doctor was the reason James and his mother lived.

Now for a lot of people, this might’ve just been a dramatic scene meant to grip the audience. But for believers, we knew this was a visual representation of something very real that transpires under our noses.

And it struck a nerve. If the original doctor had been the one to deliver the baby, what would’ve been the outcome? Less than 10 minutes into the movie, I had already drawn my conclusion: we need more Christians in the workplace.

Notice this though, one Christian doctor, simply by showing up in his God-given assignment, became the difference between life and death. That’s the power of light in dark spaces.

Fast-forward a few weeks later, I was catching up with a friend who’s in teachers college. She told me about a placement where she had to shadow a classroom teacher. Almost in tears, she recalled how this teacher isolated a child, spoke negativity over him, and even demanded that the rest of the class join in.

When my friend took time to work one-on-one with the boy, she discovered that he wasn’t a “bad child” at all. Yes, he had a lot of energy, but the more the lead teacher tore him down and excluded him, the more his behavior spiraled. In other words, she was triggering him.

My friend tried to intervene, encouraging the teacher to ease up, but when her words fell on deaf ears, she eventually had to escalate the matter. (That story is for another day.) But even in that short window of time, she made a difference. By speaking light over that child instead of negativity, by choosing to see him the way God sees him, she altered his story.

And that’s the point. For a lot of children, the first independent relationships they form outside of their family are at school. Teachers hold a sacred role, to nurture and to guide. If the person in that role speaks negativity over your child, there’s no one there to stop it. But if the person in that role carries Christ, they become a covering, a source of life, and a reminder that God is present, even in a classroom.

Let’s circle back to doctors. The first person who will lay hands on your child when they enter this world, if they aren’t of Christ and are using their gift in a negative manner, what is the outcome for those who haven’t yet committed themselves under the canopy of Christ? But when that person is in Christ, as we saw in the movie, the entire trajectory of a life can be preserved.

So here’s the bottom line: the world doesn’t just need more Christians in pulpits, choirs, or behind microphones, it desperately needs them in scrubs, classrooms, boardrooms, construction sites, cubicles, and yes, even behind the counter at your favourite fast-food restaurant. Because sometimes the most important sermon someone will ever hear isn’t preached on a Sunday morning, it’s lived out on a Tuesday afternoon at work.

We can’t afford to limit our light to the four walls of a church building, when darkness doesn’t clock out at 12:30 p.m. after service. Wherever God has planted us, whether we’re teachers, doctors, accountants, engineers, or baristas, it’s not “just a job.” It’s an assignment. A spiritual post. A place where heaven shines on earth through us.

So the next time you walk into your workplace, don’t just see it as your 9-to-5. See it as your mission field. You might just be the “strange doctor” in someone’s story.

Written by Annabel Iyawe

p.s I don't own this picture, saw it on TikTok and thought it perfect to use here. S/o to the creator 😅