Owen Cooper. Do you recognize the name? Until recently, I certainly didn’t. But now I count Owen Cooper among my heroes.
What about these men and women: Truett Cathy, David Green (or Steve, or Mart), Abraham, Anne Beiler, Bill Job, the Guinness family, Jorg Knoblauch, Daniel, Jill Boorman, Kip Miller, William Renfrow, the Harrison family, Lydia, W.T. Cassels (Jr. and III)?
The list goes on, but few of us know that names like these represent an incredible legion of men and women around the world who are (or were) positioned as ambassadors for Christ — many with “legions” of their own, some as solitary foot soldiers, and some in areas of the world where other “missionaries” can no longer go or stay. Did you know that two of the companies led by men and women in this list have each seen more than 10,000 men, women and children come to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through the intentional evangelistic ministry of their business organizations? And the even greater news is that this list is growing at an amazing pace!
If this is a new idea to you, it may be because for generations (and especially in the United States) we confused the constitutional separation of church and state with a biblical-sounding worldview that told us to separate our faith from “the real world” — to keep it private and certainly never bring it to work, whatever that work might be (pastors and missionaries excepted). That understanding was enhanced by the perception that there is a hierarchy of “calling” in the kingdom of God, a hierarchy that valued the call of a pastor, missionary or “full-time” Christian worker while seeming to devalue “laymen” and “laywomen.” Of course, we knew that was not the case, but it certainly felt that way. It also had the result of allowing laypeople to leave the real work of the church — the winning, the discipling and the integrating of faith into every area of life — to those “called” to do that work “full-time.”
The great news is that the Bible says something entirely different and wonderfully freeing and empowering to everyone in the Body of Christ. We all have incredible potential to impact the world for Christ, and that impact can be released anywhere — at church, at home, at work! God wired us each uniquely (Psalm 139). He gave us gifts. He gave us “pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the Body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12).
Os Guinness, in his transformative book, “The Call,” reminds us that we are all first called to a personal relationship with Christ and then called to that vocation where we can be of the most use to Him. He writes: “The truth is not that God is finding us a place for our gifts, but that God has created us and our gifts for a place of His choosing — and we will only be ourselves when we are there.”
Getting this part of a truly biblical worldview right is as essential now as it has ever been. Missionary funding (which actually needs to start long before just funding specific missionary training and sending — think: education) is a challenge. Missionary access is a challenge. The culture, with its deceptive messages and overwhelming flow of information, makes it increasingly hard for the next generation to hear — let alone respond to — a traditional missionary call. It’s time for all of us to consistently and clearly articulate the truth that integrating faith into every area of life — into every calling — is exactly what the Bible is saying to us, and to cast the vision that truly integrating faith multiplies the legion of missionaries on the front lines exponentially, even placing them in those parts of the world we thought were closed to the Gospel (including corporate boardrooms and the halls of government).
We might begin to see the list of names above as a list of heroes who step into their vocations every day expecting, and equipped, to represent their King and to draw those around them (many of whom would never enter a church) to want to know the One they represent, the One who gives them joy regardless of circumstances, the One who gives them hope no matter what happens on Wall Street or in Washington, D.C., and the One who enables them to love their employees, coworkers, bosses, neighbors and anyone else who comes along because each of those is made in the image of their King!
And my new hero? Owen Cooper was the second (and last) “layman” to serve as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1972-1974). During his term, he visited every state in the union and every country where a Southern Baptist missionary was serving. Mr. Cooper had an impact on increasing the global food supply (especially in the U.S. and India, where he also increased mission impact), was front-and-center supporting the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi in the 1960s, and was named Baptist Layman of the Century in 1985. That is an ambassador for Christ. Now, let’s add more names to that list!
— Doug Hunter is executive director of the Whitfield Center for Christian Leadership and the International Institute for Charleston Southern University.