...Work a Corporate Job

I am a Christian. I also work for The Man. While it's no Goliath National Bank, I own stock in the $3 billion corporation. I have business cards with the boring-ish blue logo on them. It's not my ideal world but I am making an honest living in my 40-hour-a-week-cubicle. 

I have many friends who work in full-time ministry. I am incredibly grateful for them. Actually, sometimes I want to be them. And yet, not for any reason that they themselves have given me, working a Corporate job makes me feel like a second-class Christian. 

Jon Acuff, author of Stuff Christians Like (among many other awesome works) hilariously approaches the desire to go into full-time ministry, calling its workers "professional Christians:" 

"'I wish God was my boss. That would be awesome. He wouldn't care about my sales sheet. He would care about my soul sheet.' Then you feel a little embarrassed becuase it was that was such a low quality joke...You tell your friends, 'There has to be more to life than this. I need to be serving God with my talents full time.'" 

Perhaps that's true. But I wonder where I got this idea that I would achieve first-class Christian status by being hired by a faith-based organization? 

A few months ago, I met a phenomenal woman who has been in full-time ministry for many years. Upon my introduction I said I wasn't "crazy about the corporate world." She hastily replied "Well, of course you're not: you've tasted The Kingdom." Immediately, I agreed. But as I contemplated the matter-of-fact statement, I thought "Isn't the implication, then, that others who work in the corporate world haven't tasted The Kingdom of God?" That for-profiters don't have the opportunty to taste and see that The Lord is good? I think her intentions were pure in saying this to me. In fact, I think she probably wakes up everyday realizing the blessing of receiving a paycheck for preaching the gospel.

Still...I don't like when people tell me life. It makes me think of my favorite scene in the Italian-cult-classic, Moonstruck. The young Nicholas Cage and even bigger-haired Cher get in a shouting match. In her heavy Brookyln accent she says "I'm tellin' you your life!", implying that she knows his life better than he does. 

Does that make me the angsty Nick Cage then? Maybe. But the fact of the matter is that not everyone can receive a paycheck from a ministry.  Who would fund them if all Believers worked for ministries? Who would build connections with people in those corporate offices? If we all worked for churches or organizations with "justice" in the title, Christians would rarely interact with those who don't share our beliefs without them being "work". People don't want to be your work; they want to be cared for (see Ronny and Loretta). 

The beauty of the world is that it's not divided into good guys and bad guys. Or Christians and non-Christians. As Christians, we should never divide ourselves as "us" and "them": a perspective I've gained by working for a public company. 

Whether they're the backbone of a social good organization or on the streets teaching scripture, I have great respect for those who give up their lives, in and out of work, for a cause. Maybe someday I'll work for a life-altering, chill-inducing non-profit organization. 
For now though, in my short life, I have been denied for jobs with ministries. 

And the lie of the world is that I'm not a good enough Christian. I am not righteous enough, pious enough, selfless enough. When the truth is: I'm not called to it. I work in Corporate America. In a booming industry. Where projects drive a bottom line and that bottom line is fiduciary, not altruistic.

It would be easy to believe that bottom line doesn't contribute to The Kingdom. The alternative? To combat the lie that the privilege to work in full-time ministry directly correlates to a higher degree of holiness.