Stories of us: Michael

Hi, I’m Michael. I work as an actuary in Sydney. Lately I’ve been thinking what evangelism in the workplace will look like in the future. They say with COVID-19 life will never be the same. No doubt it will change our evangelism as well.

To be honest, working from home has made me a little less proactive with workplace evangelism. Before COVID it was the incidental social interactions in the office that at times “incidentally” led to deeper conversations. With everyone working from home, those social interactions don’t occur anymore. It’s difficult to have deeper conversations over a messenger app. And weird to zoom call someone: “How are you going, really?”

I admit I probably should have made more of my own opportunities than I have. Partly that’s because of laziness (if I’m honest!), and my time being swallowed up by work. What it does show me is how reliant I was on structures when it came to evangelism. The office got us together. Physical contact led to evangelism opportunities.

It will be interesting to see what the new workplace evangelism landscape will look like, when we don’t all return to the office together.

While the workplace evangelism landscape is still to be determined, there has been one constant. I’m very thankful for my Evangelistic Prayer Team (EPT). We only began at the end of last year but it has kept me grounded in a time of great change.

I joined an EPT in the first place because I find workplace evangelism difficult. I naturally think worst-case scenario – maybe that’s the actuary in me! I feel with my EPT that we are a team that supports each other. That if we do have a discouraging conversation, we can pick each other up – we’re not alone. It’s been encouraging to rely on God and prayer and see God work through us. Earlier this year, one EPT member was able to invite two primary school friends and another colleague to a City Bible Forum event. It felt like we celebrated a team “success” (humanly speaking) together.

So, whatever this new workplace evangelism landscape will look like in the future, my EPT God willing will support and inspire me through these challenges. I think I will need this even more, if the structures don’t re-materialise and I need to make more of my own opportunities.