A collaborative partnership between the Barna Group in Ventura, CA and has produced a new report titled . The first step in a multi-year initiative focused on vocation, this powerful study examines employed, self-identified Christians in the United States. The goal was to specifically explore vocational attitudes within the respondents鈥� paid occupations (as differentiated from other valuable yet unpaid forms of vocation, such as volunteering, hobbies, parenting, and homemaking.)
Dr. Ben Ries, associate dean for vocational formation and director of the Center for Vocational Formation at 蘑菇传媒 in Dallas, was very involved in the study. He notes that 蘑菇传媒 Online offers master鈥檚 and doctoral degrees in business, marriage and family therapy, education, nursing, and theology.
鈥淢y job tries to address the question, 鈥楬ow do we help nurses, teachers, therapists, and working professionals have a sense that their work is meaningful? That it matters to the world? That it matters to God?鈥欌��
Dr. Ries works with 蘑菇传媒 program directors on curriculum development. He also does research and writing 鈥渁round work and faith and meaning.鈥� His own doctorate is in ministry, and he serves as a consultant for 蘑菇传媒鈥檚 .
The genesis and creation story of Christians at Work
Ben Ries explains that it was 蘑菇传媒 that commissioned the study of working Christians with Barna. 鈥淚t’s through the generosity of that we were able to fund the project and pay Barna to do it,鈥� he adds.
The preliminary conversations began in the summer of 2017. That fall, Barna started developing the survey and the qualitative interview questions. The first set of quantitative online surveys was conducted February 27鈥揗arch 12, 2018, and the second on April 18鈥揗ay 8, 2018, using an online panel.
The quantitative survey sample included 1,459 self-identified U.S. Christians 鈥渨ho agree somewhat or strongly that their faith is very important in their life today and are employed.鈥� Employment was defined as:
- Full-time
- Part-time
- Self-employed
- Performing unpaid work for a family business
The participants were presented with a very extensive survey that contained between 150-200 questions. Ries explains, 鈥淭hey were trying to gauge people’s faith commitment and involvement in a community of faith. They had a lot of these questions around how people understand their own giftedness and passions and longings, and how they understood their faith to be integrated or not in their work.鈥�
In addition, Barna conducted candid qualitative interviews with 33 practitioners representing a range of industries and thought leadership on the subject of faith and work. Researchers used a flexible script exploring respondents鈥� experiences of calling and career. Some of their responses are included in the Christians at Work report in the 鈥淐onversations with Practitioners鈥� feature.
Bridging the sacred and the secular鈥擝arna鈥檚 big learnings
After Barna did most of the grouping and weighting of the data, 蘑菇传媒 received a summary of the larger findings. When asked what one of the most significant takeaways was, Ries points to four key questions that 鈥減eople who integrated their work and faith well all responded to positively.鈥�
These respondents, who the researchers found had a consistently demonstrated integrated sense of work and faith, either 鈥渟trongly agreed鈥� or 鈥渁greed鈥� to all four of the following statements:
- “I can clearly see how the work that I’m doing is serving God or a higher purpose.”
- “I find purpose and meaning in the work that I do.”
- “I’m looking to make a difference in the world.”
- “As a Christian, I believe it’s important to help mold the culture of my workplace.”
Another significant finding Ries points to is that 鈥淐hristian workers seek (and often find) meaningful, purposeful employment鈥攁nd that they don鈥檛 necessarily think ministry is superior to the marketplace.鈥�
Barna was curious about the perceived importance of a person鈥檚 vocational 鈥渃alling鈥� being a sacred or a secular one. Participants were asked whether it was better for a Christian to become a pastor or missionary, or to represent his or her faith well at work. On its blog, :
鈥淚n general, Christians are most likely to say that neither one is superior to the other (64%). After all, almost two-thirds of employed Christians (64%) agree on some level that it鈥檚 clear to them how their own work serves God or a higher purpose. This indicates Christians are prone to see spiritual value in any working context鈥攐r that perhaps the marketplace seems to them as urgent a mission field as any.鈥�
Some surprising findings
When asked if any of the survey results surprised him, Ben Ries points to the discrepancy in gender differences. 鈥淪pecifically, single men seem to have a lower sense of connection in their work and faith, which was surprising. Also, single men, the data seemed to say, didn’t feel as supported in their work as married men or married women, or even single women. That was surprising, and a little disheartening.鈥�
found that the Christian men and women surveyed 鈥渟hare goals and qualities as collaborators in work and the Kingdom. In general, they are similarly likely to feel 鈥榗alled鈥� to make a difference, to find purpose, and to feel their strengths are put to use, inside and outside the workplace.鈥�
However, when those Christians are parents, while both men and women are relatively gratified in their family relationships, the study shows that working moms (compared with fathers, single men, and single women) 鈥渁re well behind on all metrics of satisfaction鈥攔elational, spiritual, emotional, you name it.鈥�
Additionally, 鈥淓ven though both mothers and fathers share an equal desire to use their gifts and talents for the good of others (64% and 62%), mothers feel significantly less called to, or made for, their current work than fathers (38% compared to 55%).鈥�
Dr. Ries points to the 鈥渕ental and emotional load鈥� working mothers still carry for much of the family organization as being a likely influencing factor in these findings.
Barna notes: 鈥淭ellingly, the sweet spot for Christian women鈥檚 vocational fulfillment鈥攁nd, inversely, the low point for male respondents鈥攊s actually when they have never even been married.鈥�
What on Earth is God up to?
Dr. Ben Ries supports cultivating a broader imagination for what it looks like to participate in the Kingdom of God. He prefers that Christians see all the work of their hands as holy and unique, regardless of job title or pay scale.
Ries notes that this question of 鈥淎m I pursuing meaningful work?鈥� is a very recent and rather privileged one. He views it as a 鈥済ift鈥� and not necessarily part of everyone鈥檚 life experience or frame of reference: 鈥淔or most of human history, a day was getting enough water and food and not getting eaten by a bear. That was a good day.鈥�
Ries鈥� personal perspective is that most people have not been given the tools, either by their communities of faith or their upbringing, 鈥渢o see the very ordinary, mundane, good work that they do, not as disconnected from the life of God, but integral to God’s work in the world.鈥�
He continues, 鈥淢ost people have a really hard time connecting their work with what God might be up to in the world. I’m not talking about evangelism or prayer or bible studies at work. I’m talking about participating in the world in such a way that it is being a more just, loving, gracious, hospitable, hopeful, joyful kind of world.鈥�
Reis is convinced that if God longs for the world to be a place of human flourishing, to be a place of wholeness and joy and hope and peace and restoration, 鈥渢hen any participation in a moment of hope or moment of joy or moment of peace鈥攁 moment of wholeness鈥攊s participation in God’s longing for the world.鈥�
鈥淭his is part of the good news, I think. That God’s at work whether we’re aware of it or not,鈥� Dr. Ben Ries concludes.