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For over ten years Michael Easley has pastored Immanuel Bible Church in Springfield, Virginia. Located near Washington, D.C., the church has many people in political, governmental, and military careers. PreachingToday.com talked to Michael about the unique challenges of preaching about work to people with demanding jobs.

PreachingToday.com:When it's time for you to preach about work, how do you open the ears of powerful people?

Michael Easley: One thing that helps is I visit them at work. That opens them up because I've taken an interest and inconvenienced myself to come to their environment, see what they do, and meet who they work with.

People who work in high places are often discouraged, so I say things like, "Have you ever thought that God is using you here? Isn't it amazing that God has put you, a believer, in this situation?"

I have a friend in a high political position, but he's sort of a farm boy who never intended to be there. I left a phone message for him once that said, "I know it's tough for you right now, but God has put you there, and I'm proud to be your friend. I'm praying for you and your wife and kids. I'm excited that you are there for our country."

He told me later he saved the message, took it home, and played it for his family to hear.

You or I would be amazed at what these people do, but they're just flesh and blood. Even though they're on TV, they brush their teeth, they argue with their spouses. When you encourage these folks and say, "God is using you," it ministers to their souls. I have found I need to acknowledge their accomplishments.

How we relate to people one-on-one affects how they hear our preaching.

What would hinder your effectiveness?

If in my preaching I apply the truth in a way that treats their jobs or their world as simple, as though it's easy to make their decisions or fix their problems, then I am terribly nave. I have a friend who was cheated out of a $10,000 commission. If my preaching gives a simplistic view about handling tough situations, that destroys my credibility.

When you preach to people who have tremendous demands and responsibility placed on them, you can't just say, "You shouldn't be working so many hours; you've turned your job into a god, and you don't see your kids." Instead I may say, "I know your job is important. I respect what you're doing for our country. Is there some creative solution you haven't thought of yet that will help you make time for other important things?" I don't say it's easy to do, and I don't act as though I know what the solution is. It accomplishes the same thing, but one approach uses guilt and the other gives them opportunities to do problem-solving.

How do you try to overcome the natural objection, "Pastor, you don't live in the same world I do"?

When I first came here, I knew nothing about our military and political workers. I discovered right away that I wasn't using their language. They use acronyms all the time, like OBE, "overtaken by events." I found when I picked up some of their language, they knew I understood their world better.

And I've noticed when I use illustrations from my jobs before pastoral ministry, that's when people come alive. "I had a boss when I was in college who never encouraged us, was always breathing down our necks, and never gave us a break." Eighty-five percent of the people say, "I have a boss like that."

Again, I can't emphasize enough the effect of visiting people in their workplaces. I spent a whole day, sunup to sundown, in a car with a salesman on his route. I asked a thousand questions about his company and what he did. Boy, the credibility I earned with him. I got an education—and some great sermon illustrations.

What work-related themes do you stress?

For most of their careers, our people leave for work at 0-dark-thirty in the morning and come home at 0-dark-thirty at night. They spend hours on the Beltway (the expressway circling Washington D.C.). I kid with them, "Have you ever thought of that Beltway as a giant hamster wheel? All of us run like mad on that thing, and when one of us falls off, we think, Good, now we can go a little faster." They'll laugh, and then I'll ask, "What would it take for you to rest?" I let that statement hang for a while. You can see the audience thinking, I wish I could take a breath. At least once a month in my sermons I say, "if I could give you one gift, I would give you the gift of rest."

In addition, I preach what my dad taught me: "The reward of work is not the end of work but the work itself. The fact that you can work is a gift." America looks at the reward of work as a paycheck, promotion, title, achievement. If we are going to spend the bulk of our lives working, we need to change our theology. It's not just the paycheck. It's something bigger, and the fact that you and I can use our skills and take Christ with us in the workplace is a gift from God.

Michael Easley is a teaching pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Brentwood, Tennessee, and author of Interludes: Prayers and Reflections of a Servant's Heart.