Christ in the Workplace

Prayer Requests/Time in Prayer 

• How can we pray for you?  
• During this time, don’t focus on the prayer needs of others in your life, we want to pray for you.

Opening Questions 

• What do you do for a living? What do you do at work each day?
• What do you like best about that job? What do you like the least?
• How did you get into that line of work?
• What special skills does it require? What unique challenges exist?

Content Overview 

Send these resources to your disciples, instruct them to take notes, and go over your thoughts and takeaways together: 

• Your Work Matters Video 
• Genesis 1:28
• Genesis 2:15,20
• Exodus 31:3-6

Model and Practice 

Model:  

• Share with your disciples how you have experienced the fullness of the Spirit by participating in the work that you do for your job. Walk them through the kinds of attitudes and actions that needed to take place in order for that to happen.
• Give your disciples a picture of what it has looked like for you to serve instead of being served in your workplace. Model for them how you plan your meetings, interact with your co-workers, finish projects, etc., in order to serve others at your work place.

Practice: 

• Have your disciples journal about the ways that their view on their work has differed from the biblical view of work.
• List ways that you “felt God’s pleasure” when you were working at something that God created you to do.
• Go to the Lord together in prayer and ask God to give you all a fresh perspective on work based on your conversation today.

Action Steps and Prayer 

• Before you leave, come up with an action plan of how each of you will seek to serve others instead of being served this next week at work.
• Ask God in prayer this week that He would give all of you a moment where you are able to do something that allows you to feel God’s pleasure in the way that you work. Update each other throughout the week when that moment comes.

Prayer Requests/Time in Prayer 

• How can we pray for you?  
• During this time, don’t focus on the prayer needs of others in your life, we want to pray for you. 

Accountability 

• What is one thing that you read from scripture that you believe the Lord is trying to teach you? What are you going to do about it?
• What is one thing that you are praying that the Lord would change in your life this week? How can you partner with God in making this happen?
• What are some takeaways from implementing the new practices from last week’s DG session?
• Who are you praying for and are planning to show hospitality towards in your life who has not yet put their faith in Jesus?

Content Overview 

Send these resources to your disciples: 

• Jeremiah 22:13,17
• James 5:1-8
• Proverbs 22:16
• 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
• Proverbs 11:1-4
• Matthew 7:12
• Deuteronomy 24:14-15
• Proverbs 6:6-11
• 1 Timothy 6:6-10,17-19
• Performance and Attitude Video

Model and Practice 

Model: 

• Share with your disciples a time when personal gain or praise of others at work became an idol in your life. Walk them through how you found freedom from that idol and sought God’s glory instead of personal gain or praise.
• Show them how you prepare for a day of work in the morning. Walk them through how you center your heart and mind on Jesus so that He would be the thing you value most.

Practice:

• Ask your disciples to make a list of ethical values that a Christian might bring into the workplace.
• Ask your disciples to confess a time that their idolatry of praise or profit kept them from living into the ethics that Christ calls us to in the workplace.
• Discuss as a group ways that all of you might be idolizing different aspects of your job and valuing them over God’s glory.
• Have everybody come up with a game plan of how they are going

Action Steps and Prayer 

• Have each person in the D-Group write out 2-3 tangible ways that they are going to improve their attitude in the workplace this week.
• Pair up people as accountability partners in order for them to check in with each other throughout the week. Ask each other questions about how their reliance on God has shaped their attitude and how that has shaped their performance.

Prayer Requests/Time in Prayer 

• How can we pray for you?  
• During this time, don’t focus on the prayer needs of others in your life, we want to pray for you. 

Accountability 

• What is one thing that you read from scripture that you believe the Lord is trying to teach you? What are you going to do about it?
• What is one thing that you are praying that the Lord would change in your life this week? How can you partner with God in making this happen?
• What are some takeaways from implementing the new practices from last week’s DG session?
• Who are you praying for and are planning to show hospitality towards in your life who has not yet put their faith in Jesus?

Content Overview

Send these resources to your disciples:

• Philippians 2:3-16
• Colossians 3:1-3
• Jeremiah 29:5-7
• Christian Employees Video

Model and Practice 

Model: 

• Give an example of how you have used your workplace as a mission field. Talk about the challenges that came and the fruit that God eventually brought about.
• Highlight times in your professional career when you used actions and words to be able to minister to those in your workplace.
• Explain to your disciples how you respond to those who you report to in a way that honors the Lord, even if it’s difficult.

Practice: 

• Ask your disciples to write out 3-5 names of people that they feel the Lord calling them to minister to in their places of work. Come together to explain who they are and why the feel called to minister to them.
• Have each disciple come up with 1-2 ways that they will minister to each of these people in the future. Challenge them to have a mix of ways that they will use their actions to show God’s love and words to tell of God’s love. (avoid invitations to things like church or community group. this should be something that they are doing to minister, not ways that they can invite them to places for others to minister to their co-workers.)
• Pray for each other during this time. Pray that the Holy Spirit moves in power in their lives so that it is not by their strength that they will be ministering to their co-workers.

Action Steps and Prayer 

• Pair up into accountability partners and remind each other of how the both of you want to look like Jesus to those around you at work.
• Commit to contacting each other two or three times before the next D-Group meeting to get updates on how ministering to co-workers has been going.

Prayer Requests/Time in Prayer 

• How can we pray for you?  
• During this time, don’t focus on the prayer needs of others in your life, we want to pray for you. 

Accountability 

• What is one thing that you read from scripture that you believe the Lord is trying to teach you? What are you going to do about it?
• What is one thing that you are praying that the Lord would change in your life this week? How can you partner with God in making this happen?
• What are some takeaways from implementing the new practices from last week’s DG session?
• Who are you praying for and are planning to show hospitality towards in your life who has not yet put their faith in Jesus?

Content Overview 

Send these resources to your disciples:

• Romans 13:1-10
• Romans 12:2-3
• Romans 16:3-5
• Acts 18:1-3
• Psalm 90:12,17
• Christian Owners and Managers Video

Model and Practice 

Model: 

• Share with your disciples who you have authority over at your work, whether you are responsible for a whole company, a few employees, or volunteers. Then, share who has authority over you.
• Paint a picture for you disciples of how you honor God’s authority in your life by honoring the authority of the people that you work for.
• Share with your disciples the kind of characteristics of God’s authority in your life that you have emulated in your authority over those at your work place (grace, humility, peace, forgiveness, etc.)
• Give your disciples a couple of examples of how you have challenged, celebrated, and treated you employees in a way that reflects God’s character.

Practice: 

• Have your disciples write out a list of people that they would have authority over. This doesn’t have to be employees that report to them, but it could also be people who are in their down-chain at work. After that, make a list of people that they report to.
• Lead you disciples in a time of confession of how they have looked like the world instead of Jesus with the authority they have over people at work. Now do the same about how they have not looked like Jesus to the people who have authority over them.
• Have your disciples write down one thing that they need to stop doing and one thing that they need to start doing with the people who work under them and who have authority over them.

Action Steps and Prayer 

• Ask these questions
  • What is one thing this week that you want to do in order to honor the people who have authority over you?
  • What is one thing that you want to do this week to reflect the authority of Jesus to those you lead at work?
• Write down responses and hold each of them accountable throughout the week.

Prayer Requests/Time in Prayer 

• How can we pray for you?  
• During this time, don’t focus on the prayer needs of others in your life, we want to pray for you. 

Accountability 

• What is one thing that you read from scripture that you believe the Lord is trying to teach you? What are you going to do about it?
• What is one thing that you are praying that the Lord would change in your life this week? How can you partner with God in making this happen?
• What are some takeaways from implementing the new practices from last week’s DG session?
• Who are you praying for and are planning to show hospitality towards in your life who has not yet put their faith in Jesus?

Content Overview 

Send these resources to your disciples:

• John 4:28-42
• Matthew 5:13-16
• 2 Corinthians 2:14-17
• Colossians 4:5-6
• 1 Peter 3:13-16
• Your Faith at Work Video

Model and Practice 

Model: 

• Take some time to share the different ways you have interacted with your co-workers to earn the right to share your life with them. Explain how long it took and the effort it took to get there
• Role-play how you would share your story with someone at work. Have one of your disciples pretend top be your co-worker and attempt to have a conversation with them about your story
• Now, show your disciples how you would have a gospel-conversation with somebody at work. Go through how you would get into the conversation and how you would then put the ball in their court

Practice: 

• Give your disciples the opportunity to role-play how they would share the Gospel with their co-workers. Pretend to be the co-worker while your disciple attempts to share the Gospel with you.
• Have your disciples list out topics of conversations that they normal engage their co-workers with. After this, ask them to brainstorm how these topics of conversations can lead to conversations about their faith.
• Ask your disciples to confess if they feel like they have or haven’t earned the right to share their faith with their co-workers through the way that they treat them.

Action Steps and Prayer 

• Encourage your disciples to put into practice what the skills they learned during this session by talking about their faith to somebody new at work. It doesn’t have to be a Gospel-conversation, but their faith should be brought up in the conversation.
• If your disciples have already had spiritual conversations with their co-workers, challenge them to share the Gospel with one of them this week.
• Have your disciples come up with a game-plan to earn the right to have a faith-based conversation with their co-workers. What are they going to do to treat their co-workers with love and respect that will help them gain their trust?

Shepherding 

Prayer Requests/Time in Prayer 

• How can we pray for you?  
• During this time, don’t focus on the prayer needs of others in your life, we want to pray for you. 

Accountability 

• What is one thing that you read from scripture that you believe the Lord is trying to teach you? What are you going to do about it?
• What is one thing that you are praying that the Lord would change in your life this week? How can you partner with God in making this happen?
• What are some takeaways from implementing the new practices from last week’s DG session?
• Who are you praying for and are planning to show hospitality towards in your life who has not yet put their faith in Jesus?

Content Overview 

Send these resources to your disciples:

• Psalm 127:1-2
• 1 Timothy 6:9-10,17-19
• Matthew 6:19,24-33
• Don’t Worship Work Video

Model and Practice 

Model

• Share with your disciples your personal calendar. If you don’t currently have one, create one on Outlook, iCalendar, or Google Calendar. Show them the times in your week that you have scheduled to do things that honor God and bless other people.
• Show your disciples your generosity budget. This isn’t about showing off about how much money you give away. If your disciples are looking to you as their shepherd to see how a mature Christian uses their money as a tool to bless others instead of seeing it as an idol, then seeing how you practically do that is helpful for their growth.
• Make sure to confess ways that you have made work an idol in the past or present and share the different guardrails you have to prevent that from happening in the future.

Practice

• Instruct your disciples to draw a 3×7 grid in their notebooks. Label the 7 columns as the days of the week and the 3 rows as morning, afternoon and evening. Now have them label in each grid with what they are doing during that time.
• After filling out the grid, have them share how much time is used for different activities. Have them evaluate the time they spend and share whether they think they spend enough time in activities that honors God, honors their family, and blesses others.
• Ask them to make a mock-budget that prioritizes generosity. Challenge them to think about how much money they spend on themselves with the money that God has given them in order to be a blessing. Help them see how they can use their finances to trust God instead of seeking out their own security and comfort.

Action Steps and Prayer 

• Have each disciple make their own personal, weekly schedule. Using the 3×7 grids, make sure there is plenty of time to prioritize their relationship with the Lord and their relationship with those they care about.
• If they don’t currently use personal budgets, have them create budgets so that they can know where their money is going and what they truly value. If they do have a personal budget, have them review it and decide if their generosity reflects a heart that is rendered towards God.