Inviting Jesus into Your Workplace: That Same Jesus Who Invites You into His

By Kevin Voges

There are many excellent Christian books that explore how we should work, launch a business, and serve while in a business through a Christ-focused approach.

"Inviting Jesus into Your Workplace: That Same Jesus Who Invites You into His" is different because this book not only shares a wide range of ways that followers of Christ witness His glory, it also provides insights that explain how you can too.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 2, 2024
• ISBN: 9798350962956

Kevin Voges

Kevin Voges is the President of The Material Works with an ambition to help people accomplish more as a team than they could have ever dreamed to achieve by themselves. Kevin is a 2002 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award winner and has led a TMW technology team win the American Metal Market's 2016 Award for Steel Excellence in the category Best Process Innovation and American Metal Market's 2011 Award for Environmental Responsibility/Stewardship. In addition to witnessing Jesus at work, he works with church and mission organizations to reflect Jesus's love to those in need. Kevin is a lover of good design, playing piano, learning about virtually anything, and could talk with other pilots about aviation until the cows come home. He enjoys snowboarding, wakeboarding, or really anything as long it involves Sweet Stef Miles and their kids. Studying Scripture at BSF helps keep Kevin between the gutter rails. A perfect day for Kevin would be to start his day worshiping His Savior with Sweet Stef Miles by his side spending the rest of the day together on their lake marveling at our Almighty's handiwork.

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Cover of Inviting Jesus into Your Workplace by Kevin Voges

Inviting Jesus into Your Workplace

© 2024 Kevin Voges

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN 979-8-35096-294-9

eBook ISBN 979-8-35096-295-6

To my wife, Sweet Stef Miles

For Him who saved me.

Contents

Foreword

Section I

Preface

Chapter 1 Not Going to Hide It Under a Bushel

Chapter 2 Can We Legally Witness Jesus in the Workplace?

Section II

Chapter 3 Learning from Others

Chapter 4 Authenticity

Chapter 5 A Business Man of God

Chapter 6 A Soft but Passionate Voice for Jesus

Chapter 7 Fireball for the Lord

Chapter 8 True Wealth is Witnessing

Chapter 9 Leading by Following Christ

Chapter 10 Serving Him While Protecting His People

Chapter 11 Love His Creation, Love Him

Chapter 12 Vulnerability

Chapter 13 A Mess Like Me

Section III

Chapter 14 An Introduction to Section III

Chapter 15 Asking the Holy Spirit to Help Us Prepare

Chapter 16 Match Game

Chapter 17 Go!

Chapter 18 Pay It Forward

Section IV

Chapter 19 An Introduction to Section IV

Chapter 20 Learning from the Interviews

Chapter 21 The Holy Spirit

About the Author

Foreword

Renowned researcher George Barna recently said during an interview that we’re living at a time of Christian invisibility in our culture. What does that mean?

Well, he explained, What I’m seeing now is that we’re getting to this place where the typical American … will not have anyone in their circle of influence who has a biblical worldview. You’re not going to be influenced with God’s truth.

Let that sink in for a moment—we are reaching a time in this culture where the average American will not be influenced by anyone who has a biblical worldview. What a sad state of events in this once very Christianized nation.

But, even with the decline of Christianity across the nation, God’s plan remains unchanged. His redemptive plan has always involved his people obeying his command to be salt and light, making disciples of all nations, preaching the gospel, and contending for the faith. In other words, doing the King’s business until he returns (Luke 19:13: So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. ‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’)

Yes, we get to be part of what God is doing, armed with the promise that I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18) and that behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20b).

If you’re reading this book, you likely work with unbelievers, people who need your biblical worldview and the gospel message more than anything else. I trust this book will help equip you to boldly and gently proclaim Christ in your workplace by your deeds, your attitude, your actions, and your words.

Remember, we don’t save anyone—that’s God’s job. Our job is simply to be faithful and obedient to plant the seeds, trusting God for the harvest.

In Christ,

Ken Ham,

Founder CEO Answers in Genesis, the Ark Encounter,

and Creation Museum

Section I

Preface

Other people have written some excellent books on how to use the Bible as a guide for conducting business. One of my favorite such books is David L. Steward’s Doing Business by the Good Book: 52 Lessons on Success Straight from the Bible . As the title suggests, David’s book focuses on 52 important lessons and principles. It’s a special book for anyone at any time.

Later in this book, you’ll read my interview with Brandon Mann, who co-authored with David Steward another fantastic read, Leadership by the Good Book: Timeless Principles for Making an Eternal Impact, which teaches leadership through a Biblical lens.

Another book, The Gospel at Work: How the Gospel Gives New Purpose and Meaning to Our Jobs by Sebastian Traeger and Greg Gilbert, is yet another good resource on the same topic. In this one, the authors discuss how to put Christ’s meaning and purpose behind the jobs we do, how we set priorities in our lives, and other very important Christian principles.

There are many other excellent Christian books that explore how we should work, launch a business, serve while in a business, and so forth through a Christ-focused approach.

Inviting Jesus into Your Workplace: That Same Jesus Who Invites You into His is different because in this book I not only share a wide range of ways that followers of Christ witness His glory, I also provide insights that explain how these Christians do it daily and how you can too.

I don’t identify myself as a religious person or even as a Christian, but rather as a sinful follower of Jesus Christ. Like you probably do, I struggle with sin (Romans 7:15: I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.) and how my sin affects my relationship with my God who blesses me each and every second of every day. In spite of my falling away at times, I felt the Holy Spirit’s tugging on my heart to write this book (Romans 8:27: And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.).

Any nuggets that you take away from this book are purely from the Holy Spirit. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me (Luther’s explanation of the First Article).

God also gave me a heart for business and engineering design, so while I enjoy things like financial leverage and innovation, I felt it was time to leverage Jesus in our workplace in a unique and innovative way. As the apostle John laid out his purpose for writing his Gospel (John 20:31: But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.), I lay out this book’s purpose here: So that you might have life in Him and express Your love for Him in many ways at your workplace.

In this book, any reference to God points to the only one true God and that true God is three persons in one. They are, in no particular order of importance, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Any other reference to other gods is not the triune God identified in this book. We should love everyone, but that doesn’t mean we all worship the one true God. My one true God is the one true God.

This book is applicable for those who work in a manufacturing environment, work behind counters of fast-food restaurants, drive trucks, lead sub-teams, lead corporate teams, lead no teams, clean bathrooms, care for the sick, and so forth. You get the picture, right?

Please note that the translation I have used throughout this book whenever I use Biblical quotes is the New International Version (NIV).

In this book you’ll see references to Bible Study Fellowship (BSF). BSF is an in-depth Bible study for people of all ages around the world. I have been a BSF student or BSF group leader for over 15 years and have stayed with this program because His Word through BSF continues to point me to Christ. I would encourage any reader who is unfamiliar with BSF to look into classes offered by this special organization.

One more laundry item: The proceeds from this book will be donated to a mission organization that proclaims Jesus Christ.

Okay, now let’s get to the meat of the book. Enjoy and learn with me as I learned about others through authoring this book.

Chapter 1

Not Going to Hide It

Under a Bushel

Some Foundational Principles

I clearly remember a time as a young boy working at my father’s manufacturing plant when I overheard Dad discussing with his salesman, Bill, which is not his real name, that Dad wanted to put a big cross out in front of the company’s manufacturing plant. Dad wanted to show to his employees, vendors, and customers that Jesus guides the people of Red Bud Industries (RBI). Bill argued during a time of low sales levels that it would drive customers away from the company, and Dad argued that he didn’t care whether it did or not. Dad was president of the company, so he obviously was going to win the argument.

Well, actually, God won the argument because the cross is still there and, of course, God wins all arguments (John 16:33b: But take heart! I have overcome the world.).

The cross in front of Red Bud Industries as it appears today

Dad is a terrific example of a Christian who is open in his faith. Every year, he would stand up at the company Christmas party and give a small talk that mostly consisted of why he was so grateful about his blessings from the Good Lord. The Christmas party speeches were heartfelt and public, but I think Dad shows his faithfulness best in his habit of spending peaceful time with the Lord each morning, thanking Him for his many blessings. Spending quiet time with the God who keeps us breathing is definitely underrated.

Mom gave Him glory through her evangelism program at church, visiting people and asking them night after night that age old question, If you were to die tonight, what would you say to God about why He should let you into His heaven?

Those cold nights of evangelizing produced some very warm hearts for our Holy Spirit, who in the end is the real converter (Titus 3:5b-6: He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.).

Mom’s evangelism morphed into writing more than 40 hymns with a hot heart that never stops praising Him.

My older sister, Kathy (who tells everyone she’s my younger sister…this book will set the record straight!), has led Sunday School for many years teaching the kids all I have commanded you. She visits the shut-ins and, in addition to doing so much for the Lord, she and her husband, Kalin, renovate buildings in downtown Red Bud, Illinois, while also running a company that proclaims God’s goodness.

My younger sister, Kim, is a committed church volunteer; her paycheck will come in heaven. At her church, she bakes, leads large projects, and generally is deeply involved in the whole church community. Kim is so full of love that she’d rather serve her Savior than show up on time for anything. One of her T-shirts reads Always Latte with an image of a simmering coffee cup. If Kim orders a coffee, I guarantee that it will be cold by the time she drinks it because...yes, you got it...she’s latte for everything.

My late wife, Lori, did everything from making food for new mothers who were busy trying to get by with their new little one to changing diapers and teaching young children the Gospel as she led the BSF children’s program for many years. She loved the small people (I mean really small) too as she served on the board of a wonderful Pro-Life group for quite a few years. Lori now resides with her Savior after suffering an incurable breast cancer for nine years. Her grace (and, oh, that laugh!) was infectious to all who knew her. Now, while others put up with me here on earth, Lori rejoices 24 hours a day in a heaven without end (Revelation 22:5b: