Changing the 80/20 Rule in the 9 to 5 Window

What does the Billy Graham organization, the North American Mission Board, Wagner Leadership Institute, Harvest Evangelism, and some mega-churches throughout North America have in common as of 2003? They all began a new focus on workplace ministry in 2003.

Dr. Billy Graham has said “I believe one of the next moves of God will be through believers in the workplace.”

The 80/20 rule says that 80% of ministry will be done by 20% of the people. This would probably accurately describe where the Church is today. We’ve heard about the unreached people groups in the 10/40 window, but have we really considered the unreached people group in the “9 to 5 window?” This group of people has the power to impact society because they often hold positions of influence in society. The Lord has quietly begun a move among Christians in the workplace that has been getting national press even among secular business publications like the New York Times and Fortune magazine. The goal of this movement? I believe the goal is societal transformation.

Where do you spend most of your time?

Let me ask you a question. Where do the majority of people spend the majority of time interacting with the majority of unsaved people? Is it in the neighborhood? Is it in the local church? No, it is where most people spend 60-70% of their waking hours – the workplace.

Consider these Facts about the Ministry Life of Jesus:

Of Jesus’ 132 public appearances in New Testament, 122 were in the marketplace.
Of 52 parables Jesus told, 45 had a workplace context.
Of 40 divine interventions recorded in Acts, 39 were in the marketplace.
Jesus spent his adult life as a carpenter until age 30 before he went into a preaching ministry in the workplace.
Jesus called 12 workplace individuals, not clergy, to build His church.
Work in its different forms is mentioned more than 800 times in the Bible, more than all the words used to express worship, music, praise, and singing combined.
54% of Jesus’ reported teaching ministry arose out of issues posed by others in the scope of daily life experience.
A Gallup Poll revealed that more than 50% of people surveyed said that discussed spiritual issues with a fellow worker over a 24 hour period.

Are We Really Getting the Job Done?

Now let me share some other disturbing facts in how we are equipping men and women to live out their faith in the workplace. A Wall Street Journal survey revealed a 50% dissatisfaction rate among executives and an 80% job dissatisfaction rate among general workplace population . Among 500 surveys taken among Christians it revealed a 50% job dissatisfaction rate. Doug Sherman, author of Your Work Matters to God said, "If Christ is not Lord of my work, He will never be Lord of my family." These figures reveal a lack of purpose between our work and faith lives. And a survey done by the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity found that 47% of those surveyed said that teaching and preaching they receive is irrelevant to their daily life. Finally, Sherman also found that that 90-97% of Christians have never been taught to apply biblical faith to their work life."

If we are going to see our society changed for Jesus Christ we will have to change the way we equip believers to live out their faith where they spend a majority of their time.

One Man God Used to Bring Transformation to the U.S.

The year, 1857. Jeremiah Lanphier was a New York City businessman who wanted to do something significant for God. In a small darkened room, in the back of one of the city’s lesser churches, he prayed alone, making a simple request of God; a simple request that was ultimately earth-shattering: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"

He saw his work as a holy calling from God and began a marketplace prayer meeting on September 23, 1857. The meetings began slowly, but within a few months, 20 noonday meetings were convening daily throughout the city.

The New York Tribune and The New York Herald issued articles on the meetings, officially making them the city's biggest news. Now a full-fledged revival, it spread outside New York, and by the spring of 1858, 2000 workers met daily in Chicago's Metropolitan Theatre, and in Philadelphia, the meetings mushroomed into a four-month long tent meeting. Meetings were held in Baltimore, Washington, Cincinnati, Chicago, New Orleans, and Mobile.

Thousands met to pray because one man stepped out. Annus Mirabilis, the year of national revival, had begun. It was an extraordinary move of God through one man, and it started in the workplace, led by a Christian in the workplace – a group long considered the least prone to any form of evangelical fervor.

I believe the early seed of this is beginning in our nation and its starting in the most unlikely place – the 9 to 5 window!

Os Hillman is president of Marketplace Leaders and the International Coalition of Workplace Ministries and FaithandWorkResources.com. He is author of TGIF Today God Is First daily email devotional www.marketplaceleaders.org that is subscribed to by 80,000 people daily and author of nine books. ICWM will be hosting a major summit for marketplace leaders and church leaders October 26-29 in Minneapolis. For more on this and other articles on God’s move in the workplace visit www.icwm.net.

For additional reading on this topic we suggest Faith & Work: Do They Mix? by Os Hillman