In practice – Page 2 – Worship Works

26Oct 2021 by Francesca Gan

Discovering work as worship

For some people, the idea of building their career for the next 40 odd years seems like a really exciting prospect, but if you were me after graduating university, it was a prospect that filled me with anxiety at worst and apathy at best. I have a distinct memory of walking to church with a friend in our final year of university, both of us decrying the idea of the same old 9-5, day in and day out, until we retire. It made us shudder. Does that seem like a familiar feeling to you? For lots of people, work is a way to make money and to live, especially when the excitement and novelty of the job wears off, and we’re left with “Let’s just make it till Friday then…

26Oct 2021 by worship

You are more than a demographic profile

In practice

This short post started as a side-note to a piece on career changes, while mentioning "Gen-Z" (also known as "Zoomers"), the demographic group defined by social scientists and the media as those people born between the mid-to-late 1990s and the early 2010s. When I mentioned research that classified people in their careers according to their demographic cohort by generation - such as Generation Alpha; Generation Z (Gen-Z, or Zoomers); Millennials; Generation X; Baby Boomers... I felt I needed to add a health warning. In my view, it’s not always helpful to place ourselves into a bracket such as “Gen-Z” and allow the demographers and social scientists to define what we are like. We are all unique individuals, with millions of things shaping our experience. There are times when it may…

17Apr 2020 by Mary Kangley

The Word of our God endures forever

In practice, teaching

The importance of being rooted in God’s Word as a Marketplace Minister “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”Isaiah 40:8 This verse has enchanted me ever since I was young. The grass and flowers: part of God’s awesome Creation, things that we appreciate for their beauty but equally we take for granted, even they fail. But, we can choose to root ourselves in something that is everlasting, that which will challenge us, grow us and never fail us: God’s Word. In my role as a Marketplace Minister, all I do begins with my foundation in scripture. It has to be, because what I am called to do, I cannot do with my own strength and understanding. For transformation that begins in the…

18Nov 2018 by worship

Praying with watchfulness: Korea

chronicles, In practice

We have recently been learning and applying principles for co-creating with God, and praying with watchfulness. We have seen how God, who made us in His image, gave us the ability to create - to envision something and to produce it. And we do this best when we do it not independently of Him, but co-working with Him. We see that this can shape how we pray, too. I believe that in one sense God is waiting for us to agree with Him in prayer so that He will act. In our workplace ministry setting, we apply the model that Jesus taught his disciples in Luke 10, to enter a house and first say: “Peace to this house”. Then where the disciple was welcomed, to stay there, eat with their…

14Nov 2018 by worship

Prayer changes things: addiction

In practice

In Maidstone, Kent, a quarterly prayer walk takes place in the town centre where believers from across the town gather to pray over the community. When not prayer walking, many of the group meet weekly at the start of each week to listen to the Lord speak as He puts issues on their hearts and then pray with watchfulness and thankfulness. During the town-centre prayer walks, we noticed the prevalence of betting shops in Maidstone, which led us to pray for those addicted to gambling in the community. Christians in Maidstone pray regularly through the town centre (this photo from 2014) Then just two weeks ago when UK Sports Minister Tracy Crouch resigned in protest at the government's delaying of a new law to curb the lure of fixed odds betting terminals, it…

24Oct 2018 by worship

Working with Jesus

chronicles, In practice

It was 1997, and the Internet was coming. In fact it was already here, in the UK, but few people or companies seemed to realise what a difference it was about to make. I had spent the first six years of my career since leaving school working with computers in various ways, learning to program and developing technology for managing data and business processes. The company I now worked with was a start-up in print management. The founder had previously led a larger company where I had worked as a programmer, and when he left to form a new business he invited me to join his team. It was a perfect environment for me to learn fast, and after three years we had a powerful technology platform up and running…

17Aug 2018 by worship

The Ekklesia at work: reflections from a marketplace minister

In practice

After the completion of a recent course following Ed Silvoso's book Ekklesia, Adam, a marketplace minister and research analyst, wrote this reflection on his personal application of Ed's teaching. Read on to discover how understanding Jesus' Ekklesia as the vehicle for transforming nations affects our whole life as his followers. Jesus did things differently, so should I. When Jesus set out the heart and purpose of His ministry vehicle, the Ekklesia, it deeply challenged the social norm. The Ekklesia challenged the traditional religious structure of the synagogue as the place or worship, sacrifice and teaching by taking a familiar concept and turning it on its head. Jesus demonstrated throughout his earthly ministry that he would constantly challenge mind-sets in order to bring people back to the Father’s heart. In his…

12Feb 2018 by worship

Transforming nations, one client at a time

In practice

The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household. (2 Sam 6:11) As marketplace ministers, how do we align our vision to transform nations through our work with the individual needs and goals of our commercial customers? This is a great question inspired by conversations I’ve been having with my team. To be more specific, if a client’s goal is simply to sell more products and make better profits, is it possible for us as marketplace ministers to align that with our goal to help the client make a positive difference in their community? One of the paradigms we have for marketplace ministry is that of Prayer Evangelism, which follows Jesus’ instructions to his disciples…

09Jun 2017 by worship

Prayer Map

In practice

This Prayer Map is a visual guide as our team of marketplace ministers pray together each day. It's covered in sticky notes, colour coded by theme: Blue: Nations and communities As we sense a nation on our hearts, we pray for it - we might pray for its government and systems, for peace over that nation, for its relationships with other nations. Through our work and research we look to discover what the key and emerging issues are for that nation, so that we can pray more effectively for it. If we have colleagues or clients in that nation, we learn from them how to pray for it. Sometimes as we have been led to pray for a nation, the Lord has opened up new business (aka ministry) opportunities in that…

07Jun 2017 by worship

Pray-up

In practice

The daily pray-up is a 30-minute time to pray and reflect each morning for one of the teams we work with. All team members are welcome to join, and the session is loosely divided into 5-minute slots with a focus aligned with the company's mission and vision. A poster reminds the team about each of the key areas to pray into: