God’s Amazing Plan for Non-Preachers
Rev. Tony Cooke
When a person is called to preach, the urgency of that call (especially in the early years) can be all-consuming and all-important. If a person lacks maturity and perspective, the call to preach can seem so important that all other aspects of life seem to pale by comparison. Hopefully the young preacher will grasp the idea that other issues are vital as well — such areas as character development, building healthy relationships, and giving proper attention to the practical areas of life.
While not diminishing the significance of the preached Word, in this article I’d like to address God’s amazing plan for non-preachers and the inestimable significance that applies to people — not just those standing behind a pulpit — but non-preachers who are living out the Word of God in their day-to-day lives.
It helps to note that many of the people God used throughout history were not preachers, at least not in the general usage of the term. Consider these remarkable individuals:
- Adam was a gardener and a security guard.
- Abraham was a tribal leader, a trader, and a herdsman. In today’s terminology, he was a CEO with more than 1,000 employees.
- Joseph was a slave, a prisoner, a warden’s assistant, and a government figure in Egypt (Governor, Prime Minister). Through divine guidance and through his government position, God used Joseph to save the lives of millions of people.
- Joshua was a military leader.
- Daniel was a high-ranking government official in two empires (Babylonian and Persian).
- Esther became the Queen of Persia, and God used her to save the Jewish people from what would have been the first holocaust.
- Nehemiah was a top assistant to a Persian King.
- Luke was a physician.
- Lydia was a businesswoman.
- Paul spent considerable time in “secular work” as a leather worker / tent maker.
- Priscilla and Aquila were tentmakers as well.
- Erastus,one of Paul’s friends, served as the city treasurer of Corinth, and later served as the Overseer of Public Works in the same city.
- Jesus spent six times longer as a carpenter/craftsman than he did as a preacher.
Anyone who thinks that only preaching is important should pause and think about the following statements.
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with excellence.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.
Sinclair Ferguson writes, “Twentieth-century man needs to be reminded at times that work is not the result of the Fall. Man was made to work, because the God who made him was a ‘working God.’ Man was made to be creative, with his mind and his hands. Work is part of the dignity of his existence.”
“Work is applied effort; it is whatever we put ourselves into, whatever we expend our energy on for the sake of accomplishing or achieving something. Work in this fundamental sense is not what we do FOR a living but what we do WITH our living.”
– William J. Bennett
John Stott defined work as “the expenditure of energy (manual or mental or both) in the SERVICE of others, which brings fulfillment to the worker, benefit to the community, and glory to God.”
“Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called and his work will be as sacred as the work of the ministry. It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it.”
– A.W. Tozer
Colossians 3:22 (NLT)
23 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 (NLT).
“Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.”
If you’d like to learn more about the value of work, please check out The Work Book: What We Do Matters to God.
