Scattered ServantsSample

Ordination of the Ordinary  

At the end of my Bible college studies, there was a commissioning service designed to remind us that God had uniquely gifted and called each one to serve. It was beautiful and memorable. And yet it strikes me how the vast majority of us rarely enjoy such a moment of ordination/commissioning for our regular jobs. We resent our work because we have never been sent to work in the local company by the local church. 

We don’t associate commissioning and prayers of blessing with jobs outside the ministry of the church. But in the Bible this was normal practice. When Isaac blessed Jacob, he blessed his business: your flocks will grow, your inheritance will increase, your business will excel, you’ll become known as a good businessman in the community. The pattern continued in the next generation with Jacob and his sons. There was always blessing, not only on individuals and their families, but on their businesses and enterprises. It would have been inconceivable to conduct business without blessing.

Jesus commissioned His disciples to bring life to every place and every space, to unleash and unlock the kingdom. It was the same pattern of blessing intended to transform the whole of society. I paraphrase Matthew 28:19–20: “Therefore go (to your workplace) and make disciples (be a teacher) of all nations (your coworkers), baptizing (immersing) them in the name (the nature and identity) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them (by your example) to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

It’s time to see everything, everywhere filled with ordinary glory. It’s time to ordain hairdressers and Uber drivers, engineers and baristas as kingdom carriers. It’s time to release filmmakers and poets, lawyers and doctors. It’s time to anoint people to teach in church and teach in schools. It’s time to recognize apostles and architects. It’s time to bless the missionary and the machinist. It’s time to pray for the young woman heading to seminary to study theology and for the young man heading to university to study fashion. 

It’s time to ordain the ordinary. We do so knowing that the next great move of God is not going to be a movement in the church. It’s going to be a movement of the church into society, rewriting the story of education in our cities, health in our cities, and business in our cities. God is repositioning the church to reach the whole city, with believers communicating, demonstrating, and celebrating the supremacy of Christ in every corner of culture.

Scattered servants release the kingdom everywhere, every day. It’s what we were made for. We were made to step into the story, breaking out beyond our services, study groups, and strategy meetings. We were made for a story bigger than your local church, greater than culture. In this reading plan, you'll be challenged to step into God's story in your work and your life, no matter where you are.

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We hope you enjoyed the Scattered Servants reading plan. You can learn more about Alan Scott and his new book Scattered Servants here.