Church Is About Equipping People To Be Salt And Light In Their World

As Christians, we’re called to be salt and light in the world, but sometimes it’s difficult to live out our faith in the workplace. There may be rules in place to stop us talking about Jesus or praying for those around us, or perhaps it just doesn’t come naturally to mix work and faith in a secular environment.

Lead pastor at Elim Selly Oak, Iain Hesketh, says, “If Jesus really is the hope for the world, then we have to create the kind of culture that values, celebrates and equips the people of God to live under the lordship of Jesus in all of life.

“This is the kind of culture we’re creating at Elim Church Selly Oak. We are gearing everything around the command of Jesus to be a disciple-making community for the good of our city.”

We spoke to some of the church’s members to find out how they carry the presence of God into their work roles. Despite having very different jobs, they are united in their aim to be good ambassadors of Jesus wherever they go.

Abisayo Abiloye is an SEN teaching assistant at a secondary school in Handsworth. Her role is to support students who have additional learning needs, doing all she can to help them access as much of the lesson content as possible. This involves building rapport and healthy relationships with the students to keep them engaged with the subject, and helping them take part in group work and broader class discussions.

“A large part of working in a school consists of making positive contributions to the school community,” says Abisayo. “Handsworth is a very multicultural area, and a large proportion of the school, both students and staff, are from Muslim backgrounds. This keeps me really aware of my faith, as I’m constantly trying to demonstrate what I believe it looks like to serve Jesus.

“To me, putting my faith into action at work means being a voice of hope and speaking love into situations, especially when it feels too hard. It means being genuinely curious about people, so that I can really see them, and then looking for ways to support them: from mentoring the girl everyone is giving up on as she is on the brink of exclusion, to offering to cover for a colleague who is looking slightly overwhelmed.