CANADA AND THE LAUSANNE GLOBAL WORKPLACE FORUM
Transforming our work one step at a time
Transforming our work one step at a time.
Back in 2010, my workload was heavy as a senior director of a large engineering construction company that kept me travelling around the world four months of the year. I was an engineer, not a theologian or a pastor, but I did ponder how my faith could better intersect with my work – a challenge for any Christian in the marketplace.
Then the Lausanne Movement invited me to organize a Preparing Your Marketplace for a Faith Journey track for the Cape Town 2010 Congress. It was an event that brought together more than 4,000 influencers from around the world for a ten-day meeting. I had never done anything like this before.
What could I say or do that would add value to a gathering of respected scholars and faith leaders from the four corners of a round world?
I realized my own workplace struggle was exactly what I did have to offer. After all, one of the largest unactivated people groups that span all nations and continents is the workplace.
Most of the world’s population works to support their families. Believers who have a personal relationship with God exist within all segments of the workplace. Some are effective in using their workplace to invite others to join them on their faith journey. For others work is a place where faith shapes their behaviour, but not much more.
I decided then to join the minority to become a highly activated person, and commit to expanding God’s Kingdom through my place of work. At Cape Town 2010 God opened my eyes and broke down the barriers between faith and work so I could join others to prepare myself and my workplace for an incredible faith journey.
In October 2017 I became program chair of the Global Workplace Forum (GWF 2019) held this past June in Manila, the Philippines (www.Lausanne.org/GWF). My passion for activating believers in the workplace was greater than my desire to stay on the sidelines. The gathering was the first of its kind in Lausanne’s history, where the majority, 65 per cent of the near 900 participants from 110 countries,
65 per cent of the near 900 participants were Christians whose primary place of work is outside churches or ministry organizations.
were Christians whose primary place of work is outside churches or ministry organizations.
Participants represented a landscape of the global workforce, from manual laborers to CEOs, entrepreneurs and investors, blue-collar, white-collar, pink-collar, as well as no-collar workers, those who work as homemakers or caregivers in the often unseen workplace called home. Two hundred virtual participants interacted with the program and each other online.
GWF was designed to explore issues believers are addressing through the lens of the workplace. The complexities of work around the world were recognized in talks that looked at how the workplace intersects with topics like health, poverty, economic injustice, women’s empowerment, human trafficking, children at risk, urbanization, artificial intelligence and more. Case studies of gospel transformation through workplaces and businesses around the world were presented. Participants interacted in table groups, worked together in creative collaborative spaces called labs and attended seminars, regional meetings, and experiential site visits at companies and organizations around Manila.
CANADA WAS THERE
The Lausanne Movement has global networks dealing with 37 critical issues that impact the Church and missions globally. Although Lausanne is a global movement, Canadians are making significant contributions to the movement both in Canada and internationally.
Canadians provide key leadership roles to a number of these issue networks. Laurie Busuttil of
Canadians are making significant contributions to the movement.
Grimsby, Ont., is chair of the business program at Redeemer University College where she teaches in the management, marketing and not-for-profit streams. “Before I arrived in Manila, I expected to attend another conference hearing from talking heads,” says Busuttil. “But during GWF God reaffirmed my calling to prepare young people to do business differently – to live vibrant, winsome Christian lives before their colleagues.” As a result of GWF, Busuttil has resolved to be intentional about talking more with students about how being a Christian should change our approach to doing business.
James Bruyn, who directs a Faith at Work Network in Calgary, valued the opportunity to join with leaders from around the world. “We participated in a learning lab where we explored what the Church in the marketplace could look like,” says Bruyn. He has joined with Marketplace Care Canada in Calgary and Edmonton to bring local leaders involved in workplace ministry together to pray and strategize how they might work together for greater Kingdom impact. “If these go well, we will explore doing this across the country,” he says.
GWF planning began in 2016 with a vision for a concerted longterm effort to transform the way we work and how we think about our work. The challenge was to be more intentional in activating workplace believers to change how they work, and also inviting Christ to be a more integral part of their work. All participants started preparing for GWF six months before the conference began, to enable them to be equipped to engage upon arrival in Manila, with a toolkit to apply what they learned and build on the momentum created at GWF.
Our desire has always been to enable workplace believers to reach their full potential by providing – Laurie Busuttil them with appropriate tools and then empowering them to grow. Participants tasted a flavour of their potential and received powerful tools. We are praying God will use and empower them to grow His Kingdom. /FT
“. . . during GWF God reaffirmed my calling to prepare young people to do business differently – to live vibrant, winsome Christian lives before their colleagues.”