LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Steven Covey, author and consultant, puts it well when he says “in order to be successful, you have to begin with the end in mind.”

The goal of this workbook is to be a tool, a spiritual workbook, a journal, that empowers and equips the workplace believer to have greater levels of effectiveness, vision, and courage to impact their world of work.

The mega themes of this workbook are summarized in the following statements.

• The state of the modern workplace is ripe for spiritual awakening and many believe it is our greatest mission field.
  
• Spiritual awakening will take place in a new kind of village in the 21st Century, the vocational village. These vocational villages are the modern day companies and industries of the world. They, like villages of old, have common language, network of friendships, and an established communication matrix.
  
• Companies, industries, and organizations are “containers” that hold people. These containers along with other aspects of life, make up the modern day city. The city can have a negative impact on people, but God actually intends the city to be a blessing to it’s people.
  
• There is particular power in the “ministry on location” of the workplace believer and how their witness is lived out “on the premises” that cannot be matched by events and other offerings that happen outside their company or organization.
  
• God has not only given us the commission to share our faith, and the commandment to love others, He has also given us the Cultural Mandate which means as believers He intends us to be stewards of the culture around us – both the corporate culture, the city culture and the culture at large. Businesses have a major influence on culture. Believers working within businesses have a responsibility for that influence to be positive. This can actually produce even greater witnessing opportunities when this mandate is fully understood.
  
• God has a personal growth curriculum for us which includes ever greater stewardship of our time, talents, skills, abilities, finances, families, relational networks, places of work, organizations, church, and city institutions.
  
• A workplace believer has a high calling as a missionary and ambassador to the world of work no matter what their current position is. They can be confident that no matter what their long term vocational direction, God’s calling for them today is for them to be His ambassador in their world of work and spheres of influence.
• A workplace believer impacts their world of work through 10 pathways of spiritual influence. These 10 pathways fit into the broader themes of bringing to our vocation: God’s presence, God’s excellence, God’s perspective, and God’s big story.
  
• There are specific action steps the workplace believer can take to elevate their impact to the next level. The believer must choose to yield as an instrument of God and be desirous of being used by Him. Being commissioned as a workplace missionary further serves to confirm this calling.
  
• There are effective tools and resources available to the workplace believer to enhance their impact.
  
• Knowing their Religious Freedom at Work brings confidence to the workplace believer that they are within their legal “rights” of wanting to integrate faith and work.
  
• God has done incredible things through the workplace before and He will do it again.
  
• Practical steps to get started.