In your career-building years — How to go beyond Sunday and live your faith 365 days a year.

by Amy Gage | Photography by Owen Stayner

At 36, David Schroeder is in the thick of his career-building years. An instructor at Bevill State Community College in Alabama, he teaches Western civilization, world history and U.S. history, with a focus on the Civil Rights movement and the lives of African Americans.

Schroeder is a faithful member of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he sings in the choir and serves as an elder. Merging those two worlds—the secular and the religious—feels like a triumphal calling on his best days. At other times, Schroeder concedes, it is a delicate balance.

Schroeder isn’t alone with this challenge. To varying degrees, Lutheran churches call upon their members to demonstrate their faith, in words, actions and deeds. For many churchgoers, that can be awkward or even risky—particularly in a society that stereotypes Christians and aggressively pushes images in the media that run contrary to Christian practices and values.

“The interface that Christians have with non-believers is fascinating to me,” says the Rev. Stephen Hower, author of the book Contrary to Popular Belief and pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Ellisville, Missouri.

Churchgoing people, he contends, live in a separate world from their secular neighbors, who put their faith in popular culture and short-term personal gain. “They prefer positive thinking to the power of prayer,” he says. “They ask, ‘Are there such things as miracles? How could Jesus be the Son of God and the son of man?’ All those things that require faith.”

Browse through a bookstore or search the Internet and you will see that the question of how to integrate faith with work—and, indeed, with all aspects of life—has become a compelling one. Resources for those who want to be more than “Sunday Christians” are plentiful.

“Right now in America, religion is in vogue,” says the Rev. Donald Patterson, pastor of Holy Word Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas. Still, he cautions Christians to be careful about witnessing at work. “There are laws,” he says. “You can be accused of religious harassment.”

Everyday Christianity
To be a Christian at work—or at your child’s school or in a volunteer endeavor—means learning to live your church-based values every day. The Rev. Peter Marty of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa, tells a story of a worker who agonized with Marty over his company’s insistence that he pad his billable hours. “He said, ‘On ethical grounds, I can’t do that,’” Marty explains. “I urged him not to become bitter with colleagues and told him, ‘How you leave is going to be pretty important.’”

Hower urges his parishioners to be visible and vocal with their faith. “If somebody is going through a hard time, or a good time, say: ‘Can I pray for you?’ We talk about people’s sphere of influence,” he says. “Live your Christian example in the workplace so a person will come to you, and you’ll be ready.”

Schroeder strives to live what he calls a “Godly” life, in every aspect of his existence. When a female student, a Baptist, challenged Schroeder’s assertion that Martin Luther was “the most important Protestant reformer,” the professor offered to attend a revival with her—provided she come to church with him.

“The Lutheran church says that we have an occupation that God has chosen for us to fulfill,” he says. “We do witness to Him in our everyday life: the way we treat the environment, drive our cars, treat strangers walking through the mall.”

Whether Christian, Muslim or Jewish, Americans do have the legal right to carry their religious practices and beliefs into the workplace. That includes even dress and speech. According to the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., dedicated to protecting religious freedom, employees may refuse to work on the Sabbath or other major religious holidays. They also may decline tasks that contradict their moral and religious values.

Generally, all sincerely held religious beliefs are protected by Title VII, according to an ACLJ article titled, “Answers to Common Questions About a Christian’s Workplace Rights.” The article urges employees to educate themselves thoroughly on how the law has been applied.

Socially, Schroeder likes to introduce his friends and students to his faith. “There aren’t many Lutherans in Alabama,” he says with a grin. He enjoys Thrivent Financial for Lutherans-sponsored activities such as a recent minor-league baseball game where he threw out the first pitch. He’ll invite people to his church, but generally to activities rather than the worship service itself.

“Their guard may go up at a service,” Schroeder explains. “At a dinner or a Bible study, they’re more relaxed. You expose them to good people who aren’t there to use them for business opportunities. They’ll just meet good, Godly people.”

Amy Gage is a freelance writer in Northfield, Minnesota. She writes the “Seeker’s Diary” column for the “Faith and Values” section of the Minneapolis StarTribune.

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