After 33 years as a pastor of a local church, I went over to the dark side of college administration and became a university president. After 10 years on the dark side, I look back at my old work and wonder what I would do differently.

I think I know. Rather than trying to wrestle 10 volunteer hours from laity who had worked 50 hours that week, I’d invest in the quality of their 50 hours in the workplace. Rather than convincing them to energize the programs I was most invested in, I would energize the work God had given them to do in the world. Rather than measuring success as seating capacity on Sunday, I’d measure it as sending capacity on Monday.

Yes, I’d still ask them to invest in youth and children, serve in the nursery, feed the hungry, visit the sick, and do all the things a mature body of Jesus does. But I’d view the mission of the local church as the way we served the community through our work.

The gathered church occupies 5-10 hours a week at most. The scattered church lives shoulder-to-shoulder in the world 50-80 hours a week. As a gathered church, we are mostly among the found.

As a scattered church, we are mostly among the lost.

This conviction drove me to write The Way We Work: How Faith Makes a Difference on the Job.  If I pastor again, these are the kinds of things I will say to people.

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You can purchase a copy, find out more, or read a few sample pages of my new book, The Way We Work, here.