Work at Home and the Christian Message

Working at home and schooling at home are two identifiable trends of the emerging North American Christian culture in the new millennium, perhaps for similar reasons. The school at home families want more control over the doctrines and the environment that their children are subjected to while the work at home families want to divest from companies with highly questionable business ethics. This raises some serious questions for the future of Christ’s faithful. Is the Christian retreat to the hermitage of home life an abandonment of the evangelistic duty (Mt 28:19) of the Church? Is the scholastic sequestering of our children going to shortchange their communication skills with the modern and still highly secular world? The way to handle these problems can be found in the Holy Bible. Jesus’ prayer for us in the garden of Gethsemane was that we should not be removed from the world but that we should be one so that the world would know that the Father sent Jesus out of love for us (Jn 17:16-23). He also prayed at that time that although He called us out of the world we are no more belong to the world than He does, which is where we gain our understanding that we are to be in the world with out being of the world.

That’s why communities both off and online have developed in support of families who make the school and work at home choices every day. They help us maintain our identity as an image of God and keep us from being made into a worldly image. These communities not only provide stability, but also are carving a niche in the economy such that the secular world takes notice, especially advertisers and marketers. A quick look at the online world of working at home and schooling at home will yield a plethora of ads encroaching on all sides of these web communities. The consistent abundance of these ads on these sites is a strong indicator of a firm market. So, the secular world is taking notice and the opportunities for evangelizing are growing as fast as the ad space is. In fact, every ad is a tiny affirmation of our presence in the world. With credibility like that we should have no trouble viewing our interactions in our work at home marketplaces and our school at home support groups as chances for evangelization. It makes for interesting conversation at parties too. As any school at home parent will tell you, they have often had to defend their position. And every work at home parent will tell you that parties make great business opportunities.

What might at first seem like a retreat is really just regrouping to consider a new plan. What started as a safe place to raise children is fast becoming the frontline in the battle to maintain Christian and true family values. This living testimony given by our example is a large part of the new evangelization. So take heart and be reassured that your house, whether it’s acting as your office, your school, your home, or all of these is not a bushel you’re hiding the light of your faith under. It’s part of the shining city on a hill.