How are we Made to Matter? Randy Kilgore Interview part 1

Over the next three days, we are priviledged to interview Randy Kilgore, the author of Made to Matter, Devotions for Working Christians.

The title of both your book and your organization is “Made to Matter.” What does this mean to the average Christian in the workplace?

That’s the question I wish every interviewer would start with, because I think it raises the issues that are closest to the heart of nearly every effective workplace ministry. Plus, it crosses the age or generational barriers.

For example, Made to Matter for workers in their fifties and older strikes a “did I pick the wrong path” chord. Almost every group we speak to in this age category wrestles with some form of angst around the belief they’ve not been useful to God or to others.

Scripture counters this angst with freedom: For most of us, there isn’t just “one perfect calling” we can miss. That means we have the freedom to serve God almost anywhere, in any career, and still “matter” in the way God envision and our soul yearns for in our later years. Even when God does have a “one perfect calling”, He always makes sure we know it; so if we missed it, it’s not some deep secret that just pops up late in life. God doesn’t play those kinds of head games.

At Made to Matter, we show workers, using God’s own words instead of our own, they can matter regardless of the place they serve, and even if they did have a “one perfect calling” and missed it; because God is able to redeem even wrong choices. There’s never a time when God can’t redeem our paths, and even our errors, when we surrender to His will.

What’s surprised us, though, is how Made to Matter is received by younger workers. While post-fifty-year-old workers are only now considering God in their daily lives, many of today’s younger workers are wondering about such things at the start of their careers. Older workers started their careers without the timesavers and technology of today, and as such, busied themselves with the details of life in a way that pulled them away from deeper thinking and into their present responsibilities. Younger workers, while often imprisoned by these timesaving technological devices, seem drawn to questions of the future by those ever-changing features, and thus, are more willing to explore God and the supernatural at an earlier age than those of us born in the fifties and earlier.

So, the same questions an older worker asks in retrospect are being asked by younger workers in anticipation. That surprised me very much, and made it easier to sort out what questions to answer first.

For example, whenever I teach workers about the role faith has in their jobs and careers, I always start by showing them they were made to be in relationship with God, they were NOT made to do things. Doing things is merely one of the ways we engage in that relationship with God. In other words, the reason God made us is because He wants to fellowship with us.

Workers have trouble with that concept because they place their value–and draw their identity–from their work, but that’s wrong. What happens when you’re not able to work? Are you suddenly no longer valuable? Does God discard you because you can’t do things? Of course not. We were made to be in relationship with God, and in relationship with others, and our actions, including our jobs, are to serve that primary purpose. Our actions, including our jobs, must never become our primary purpose or we’ve lost the view God intends.

Work in a proper perspective is fulfilling and meaningful, even when its difficult and performed under less-than-ideal circumstances. Whenever work trumps relationship as the most important part of life, though, it guarantees an out-of-focus experience that ultimately drains us, and is always, always, always, viewed eternally as failure.

Part 1 of 3.

Read the book review here.
Next week we’ll pose your questions to Kilgore. E-mail your question, “How can I make a difference….”. If we use your question, you’ll get a free copy of the Made to Matter book.