TGC has a new regular feature, an advice column on work called Thorns and Thistles. In today’s edition, I was invited to field a question from someone who changed jobs to seek evangelistic opportunities:

People don’t like to be condescended to or manipulated. If you are only in that workplace to get a conversion out of people, they will know it and they will resent it. Excellent performance in the work itself, for its own sake, along with humane treatment of customers and coworkers, will earn you the right to be heard. Paul’s tent-making wouldn’t have been a viable evangelism strategy if he made lousy tents. The fact is that you have not left full-time ministry. The word “ministry” simply means “service.” All Christians, without exception, are in full-time service to Jesus Christ, and to the world he cares so much about. Whatever a Christian does—writing reports, driving trucks, sweeping floors—is ministry to God and neighbor. When it is done in a God-honoring way, it is a powerful witness that draws people toward the verbal witness.

Send your work-related advice questions to ask@tgc.org!