First Baptist Church of Amarillo is privileged to join 11 other Texas churches in Baylor University’s Soundings Project to explore within each congregation a new ministry model.
In First Baptist Amarillo, that model is something not tried previously, with a view to strengthening the body of First Amarillo, perhaps meeting a human need in a new way while sharing the gospel.
A nationwide survey shows 60 percent of Americans are disengaged from their work. Eighty-five percent experience stress because of their work. The false dichotomy is: “Church is what we do on Sunday. Work is what we do Monday through Friday.”
For First Amarillo, the Soundings Project has become Bridges, the broad mission of which is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians by equipping them to discern and live out their callings, with a focus on learning and living out the bridge between worship on Sunday and work on Monday.
Building Bridges
Bridges has been four years in development with a team led by First Amarillo Minister of Education Robby Barrett. The team includes other staff members and lay members devoted to developing curriculum to help participants discern and live out their callings in the workplace.
Initially, the focus was on younger adults as affinity group members in groups of four to six, who joined with an affinity group leader—an older adult. Over a period of seven weeks, they became acquainted with one another and journeyed through a Redeemer City-To-City six-week Bible study titled The Calling of Faith & Work.
Affinity group members have included schoolteachers and medical professionals, a hairdresser, investment advisor, banker, IT professional, insurance agent and human resources director. Some affinity group leaders are retired. Others continue in their work, all with 20 years or more in the workplace.
Affinity group leaders prepared by completing six weeks of training, working through the Bible study chapter-by-chapter and discussing ways of engaging affinity group members in meaningful conversation about integrating worship on Sunday with work on Monday.
Each group decided where and when to meet. Generally, meetings were kept to one hour weekly. Affinity group members were expected to prepare on their own time for the meeting each week to enhance the substance of discussion.
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First Amarillo offered Bridges in 2022 and 2023, with plans for a fall-2024 offering.
In preparation for the 2024 session, the First Amarillo Bridges team is exploring the use of smart phone text and tablets as well as television cable channels to spread the word about the Bridges opportunity. One affinity group member has asked about the possibility of bringing the Bridges curriculum into the workplace as an on-site study.
Bridges curriculum
Questions posed by the Bridges curriculum include:
- In what ways are you discouraged, discontent or disengaged at work?
- Do you feel like an exile at work? If so, what makes you feel this way?
- How does the gospel address and redeem your attitude and circumstances?
- When you see brokenness or a hopeless situation at work, how do you typically respond?
- How do we glorify God with our work, and what impact does that glory bring to our lives and work environments?
- What particular decisions do you need to make in the coming week that require increasing wisdom and the guiding discernment of the Spirit?
- How does the possibility that your work today could last into all eternity change your perspective on the value of your work?
Additional course curricula include Tim Keller’s Every Good Endeavor and Greg Laurie’s Tell Someone, as well as the NIV Faith & Work Bible.
The Faith & Work Bible is referenced continually in The Calling of Faith & Work and incorporates on-point, personal testimonies and real-life modern-day stories appended to the Scripture to help the reader think about ways Scripture can be applied in the reader’s own workplace.
Greg Laurie’s Tell Someone lays out in practical format how each follower of Jesus can share the good news, including the venue of the workplace.
Responses to Bridges
Post-course surveys among the 50-plus affinity group members in the 2022 and 2023 classes have shown a high degree of satisfaction and utility for the Bridges experience. Those numbers are understood best in the light of testimonies from affinity group members.
“I admire this course of study, and I value the time that I invested. First, the course materials are extremely high quality. It is clear that this course was developed by professionals who really know how to design and deliver organizational training,” one affinity group member wrote.
“Second, the focus of the course was on a subject that I had never considered before. Did you ever notice that in Genesis 1, God was performing work?
“Finally, and most importantly for me, in the course I met some of my church brothers and sisters that I had never met before. … I was grateful for the opportunity to participate in this course, and I highly recommend this course to anybody who loves working and who wants to know more about the biblical topic of work,” the group member continued.
Another participant explained: “The Bridges Bible study helped me develop a biblical perspective on the work I do. In addition, the Bridges Bible study helped me see my coworkers in a different light, as we are all created in the image of God.”
The Bridges team has learned interest in this subject crosses generational lines and is not limited to an older generation mentoring a younger generation.
One affinity group member during the first session became an affinity group leader in the second session. Some affinity group members in the second session were nearing 60 years of age, having had many years already in the workplace, but wanting the fresh experience of understanding what the Bible says about living out their calling as Christians in the workplace.
In an exit survey following the first offering of Bridges, two-thirds said they are very likely or somewhat likely to participate again in Bridges.
The Bridges team sees a bright future for this experience to help participants find contentment and satisfaction in the workplace, to see their coworkers as God sees them and to watch for opportunities to share Christ among work colleagues.
Bill Brian is an attorney in Amarillo and a member of First Baptist Church in Amarillo. First Baptist Amarillo participated in Baylor University’s Soundings Project. Soundings is part of Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Called to Lives of Meaning and Purpose Initiative. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.
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