Office Work as Ministry

by | Oct 26, 2026 | Podcast

Faith at Work: Reinventing Church episode artwork

How Do You Share Your Faith at Work?

Brittany Bilowus has worked two very different desks. For four years she worked the front office of a dental practice in North East, face to face with patients all day, including the ones who had to hear they owed sixteen hundred dollars for a crown. Today she’s in a cubicle at Erie Insurance, on the phones with agents. Same person at both desks. That’s the point. “It’s important for me to not be two different people,” she told George Lippert, “because number one, that’s exhausting.”

Brittany has no title for what she does at work and no budget for it. In this Everyday Influencer episode of Reinventing Church, Derek Sanford and Danielle Hartland listen to four moments from her interview and name the moves anyone can make, whether you’re the life of the party or would rather be home with a book.

Should Christians Blend In or Wall Themselves Off?

Derek opens with a little history. There was a time when the church building was the biggest one on the town square and the pastor sat at every important table. None of that is true anymore. Missiologist Andrew Walls said the fundamental missionary experience is “to live on terms set by others,” and for most Christians those terms are set by a manager, a call queue, an HR policy or a neighborhood association.

Across the centuries, the church has tried two ways of dealing with that, and both cost it its witness.

  • The chameleon. When missionaries from Persia and Syria reached China in the 600s, they explained the faith in Buddhist and Taoist vocabulary. A monument they raised in 781 tells of the Messiah’s birth and says nothing about the cross or the resurrection. They translated Jesus until he got lost.
  • The fortress. After the 1925 Scopes trial, American fundamentalists pulled back and built a parallel Christian everything: colleges, radio, schools, music, T-shirts. The neighbor ended up on the other side of the wall.
  • The restorer. Abraham Kuyper, the Dutch pastor who later became prime minister, faced both ditches at once and chose a third way. “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: Mine!”

Derek’s summary: we build a fortress when we feel threatened, and we become a chameleon when we want to be liked. Both are about our comfort, and neither is aimed at the good of the people around us.

What Does “In the World but Not of the World” Really Mean?

The phrase isn’t a quote from the Bible. It’s a slogan built from Jesus’ prayer in John 17, the night before the cross: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world” (v. 15), and “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (v. 18).

Derek points out that the slogan gets two things wrong. It uses the wrong word: being “in” a place is about location, and being sent “into” a place is an assignment. And it uses the wrong order: “in but not of” makes staying clean sound like the goal of the Christian life. For Jesus, “not of the world” is where his people start. “Sent into the world” is where they’re going.

Jeremiah 29 gives the restorer’s job description. God tells exiles in Babylon, the city that burned the temple, to build houses, plant gardens, “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you,” and pray to the Lord on its behalf. Note who did the sending.

What Does Faith at Work Look Like on an Ordinary Day?

Here are four moments from Brittany’s interview, and what you can take from each one.

“Who am I supposed to talk to today?” Brittany prays in her car on the way to work, asking God who to encourage, and asking for protection from rude callers and hard billing conversations. Plenty of people pray to get through work. Brittany prays about who the work is for. Nothing about that prayer requires a personality type. Derek connects it to a simple prayer Grace Church calls Borrowed Eyes: “God, what’s your heart for them? What’s your assignment for me?”

“With the permission of my office manager.” When a coworker was going through hard times, Brittany stopped her day to listen and pray with her, inside the rules of her workplace. “She was also that for me,” Brittany says. The friendship ran both directions, and the coworker was never a project. Brittany wrote that woman’s name on the floor of Grace Harborcreek before the flooring went down and kept praying. Four years after Brittany left that job, the woman lost her husband and told Brittany she had given her life to Christ. “I mean it took years.” Our job is to plant and pray. The harvest is God’s job.

“This moment that I’m mad at him for.” A few years ago Brittany, a musician on the worship team, lost her hearing. The coworkers she had talked to about God came back to ask how she was getting through it. She was honest: she was angry, and some days she ignored God altogether. That’s lament, the same move as Psalm 13, which opens with “How long, O Lord?” and ends with “I have trusted in your steadfast love.” People respect you for your accomplishments. They relate to you through your struggles. It’s the treasure in jars of clay from 2 Corinthians 4:7.

“Build the trust and don’t jump right in.” Brittany keeps Scripture and encouraging words in her cubicle, “and I’m not taking it down.” She also adds, “if your workplace allows it.” Small doesn’t mean hidden, and honoring the structure isn’t the same as hiding.

What Can I Try This Week?

Every workday this week, before you walk in, ask God Brittany’s question: “Who is today for?” Write down the name that comes to mind. Before Friday, do one small thing for one of those people: send a text, ask a question, or listen five minutes longer than you normally would. If you have five names on a list by Friday, you did it. And if you’re an introvert, this one’s for you too. It might just take an extra lap around the parking lot.

What Happened Behind the Curtain?

George Lippert interviewed Brittany in studio a few weeks before this recording, and Derek wasn’t in the room. What you hear from Derek and Danielle is their first reaction to the tape. One detail stopped both of them: the names written on the floor at Grace Harborcreek. Before the carpet goes down in a new Grace building, people write the names of those they’re praying for on the concrete. Nobody walking in can see them. Some of the most important things in a building are the things nobody can see.

Frequently asked questions

Is “in the world but not of the world” in the Bible?

No. It’s a summary of John 17:14-18. Jesus says his followers are “not of the world” and that he has sent them “into the world.”

How can I share my faith at work without getting in trouble?

Start where Brittany did: pray before you walk in, build trust, care for people in ways your workplace allows, and let faith conversations come when people ask. She says, “build the trust and don’t jump right in.”

Do I have to be an extrovert to influence people at work?

No. Everything in this episode, from a prayer in the car to a verse on a desk, an honest answer on a hard day and a follow-up text, works for an introvert.

What does Jeremiah 29:7 mean for Christians at work?

God told exiles to seek the welfare of the city where he had sent them and to pray for it. For most of us, that city includes the office, the job site or the call queue.

About Brittany Bilowus

Brittany Bilowus works in processing at Erie Insurance, where she spends her days on the phones with agents. Before that she spent years in medical and dental front offices, including four years at a dental practice in North East, Pennsylvania.

Links & resources

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