(I am herewith putting forth
a document as to what I think ought to be the vision for Christian
professionals. This is just an opening document on this subject.
I expect that this will be discussed and changes will be made,
which is a ‘must’ for us to make
a powerful impact on our nation)
We recognise the enormous privilege to practise
Christianity as professionals in living the truth and life
of Jesus Christ and thereby serving and being a service
to our nation in a unique way.
We affirm that the church in India must encourage,
mobilise and equip thousands of professionals to be witnesses
of Jesus Christ and that we need to pray for truth and justice
to prevail in public life and to live lives of Integrity
and righteousness.
From the very beginning the Lord God created man to work.
Man was assigned a specific task to do. In his work and
through his work, man was to serve God with all his heart
and mind and strength. History records for us that Europe
under the influence of the puritan Christians became wealthy
because they worked on their jobs as unto God and not for
themselves. Our country needs to be powerfully impacted
by God’s people. India needs to know the God of the
Bible and who else can best reveal God to them but the Christian
professionals through their life and work.
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The Christian professional
reveals God through the excellence of their work.
‘Customer is king’ is the catch phrase of
today. Quality has become a mandate in the market place
and not an option. Is this not the greatest opportunities
for the Christian professional to do the best quality
work because He serves the living God? People around may
laugh, ridicule and even question the Christian for his
motives for his excellent work. This will be the opportunity
for the Christian professional to share his love for the
Lord and his love for the Lord will be communicated through
the work.
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The Christian professional
is a person of Integrity
Corruption and compromise is the accepted state of the
Indian society. We are told that corruption is probably
the number one problem in the country. The Christian professional
will face corruption situations constantly. Instead of
running away from the problem he will remain in the situation
and trust the Lord to take him through the situation victoriously.
The Christian professional will look at the difficult
compromise situations as an opportunity for God to act
and the Lord to reveal Himself through his stand for truth
and righteousness. Nobody else will have to face corruption
issues as much as the professional. This then will the
place of witness for the Christian professional.
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The Christian professional
will accept difficult jobs/ transfers/ assignments as
God’s way to use him to reveal Himself
This in my mind needs to be the way the Christian professional
looks at his job. Today we think that it is the ‘full
time Christian worker’, who is expected to go to
the forefront and be posted in difficult places. Mission
organisations struggle to send Christian workers to far
flung frontiers, whereas the Christian professional can
very easily accept a posting to a frontier place and get
paid for by his organisation / Government. A Christian
professional accepts a difficult posting as God’s
way of leading him to be in the place where God wants
him to be as a witness.
Similarly the Christian professional does not run away
from difficult assignments but accepts these assignments
joyfully and trusts the Lord in finding solutions to the
most difficult problems. All these become opportunities
for witness.
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The Christian professional
looks at his work as a service to the nation
One of the sad situations of the Christian’s attitude
to our country is to leave the country as quickly as possible
and find a posting abroad. I am speaking of the attitude
of believers. We are trying to send our children out of
the country at the earliest opportunity. The Christian
professional looks at our nation as his priority and decides
that he will stay here even though it may not pay him
as much as a foreign posting would give him. India is
today a land of opportunities. We have the freedom to
share the gospel without any restriction. Shouldn’t
the Christian professionals be looking for opportunities
to share the gospel to the leaders of our nation in every
field? Christian professionals will work for the building
of our nation and not live for themselves. This attitude
will shame the people who accuse us that we are antinational
and do not have a commitment to our nation.
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The Christian professional
will look at financial investment for evangelism in our
country as our responsibility.
As a people we are still dependant on financial assistance
from abroad for missions in India. The Christian professional
will be the key instrument to make the church in India
to recognise that we have finances right here in India
for missions in our country. India has received more finances
than any other country for evangelism yet we as a nation
are far from being reached with the gospel. Unless we
learn to take responsibility as good stewards to finance
missions in India we will never reach our nation with
the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the Christian professional
who can be a role model in this aspect and show through
personal stewardship and investment the vitality of reaching
our nation with the gospel with finances from within India.
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The Christian professional
is best placed to reach the leaders of our society
Most of our evangelism is to the marginalized people.
The poor are important from God’s eyes yet the fact
is that the decision makers and leaders are hardly reached.
It is the Christian professional who can challenge the
intellectuals of our nation. He will show them through
his life and work that his relationship with the Lord
Jesus makes him a real and normal person who is vitally
involved with the daily pressures of life but yet lives
a powerful and Godly life.
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Finally the Christian professional
will be the motivator and mobilizer for the whole church
to be witnesses
The Christian professional who is practising the above
life style will become an agent to motivate and mobilise
the whole church, which is what is needed for us as God’s
people to impact the nation for the gospel. We need individual
life styles to snowball into a movement that will challenge
the nation. This is what the Christian professional will
do since he is in touch with people and reality.
Based on all the above points, it is the Christian professional
who is actually the front line evangelist. It is the Christian
professional who needs to be equipped with the Word of God,
The Biblical mandate for evangelism, Communication skills,
Understanding people groups, Religions, Personal evangelism,
Counselling skills, Stewardship, Integrity, Leadership and
other aspects that will make the Christian professional
sharp in his situation for the gospel. This is the emphasis
of Ephesians chapter 4. The role of the Evangelist and the
Pastor is to equip the church for works of ministry.
I am putting forth a mission statement for the Christian
professionals
The Christian professional is the front line
evangelist who will communicate the gospel through his life
and work. He will be a person of excellence in his work
place, a person of integrity, with no personal agendas,
seeing his life as a service to the nation, sharing his
resources for the growth of the gospel, reaching the leaders
of society and mobilising the whole church to reach our
nation for the gospel of Jesus Christ
© Haggai Institute India
