Your Real Job Title
Author: Rev. Regina L. Lowe
Over the next two weeks, we’re going to explore the foundation to great leadership. This week we’ll start that exploration by focusing on the importance of knowing our real job title.
Read part 2 of this series here.
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according tohis own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given tome, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. (1 Cor 3:5-10, NKJV)
We’re Approaching Work All Wrong
We all know what it’s like to look for a job. And as we look back over our working lives, we can see a similar progression. When we’re young, we’re often focused on just getting a job so that we can have some income. As we progress into our working careers, we start to shift from just having a job to also looking at the job title.
Generally, we want our job titles to show some sort of progression. From entry-level, to mid-level, to advanced/senior/executive. With this progression, comes more responsibilities, greater influence, and more money.
Progressive job titles helps us to stand out among others. It shows that we’re competent, talented, and bring a wealth of value and experience with us. So, we find value in the job title and the types of responsibilities that come with it. And many times, that becomes the basis of our next job hunt.
But we’re approaching this all wrong.
Yes, it is important to know our job title and the responsibilities that come with it. Some of us will never look at our position descriptions after the first 90-days on our jobs. And that’s a big mistake!
However, it’s also wrong for us to have a single-minded view of our job titles and responsibilities. This single-minded view means we read what’s on the paper. We understand what the organization wants from us. And we learn how to do it according to our leadership’s expectations.
That’s not enough.
A single-minded perspective actually minimizes how successful we’ll be at our job sand the ultimate level of impact and influence we’ll have.
The way we should be approaching this is through a dual-minded perspective. Not dual-minded as in hypocritical, but dual-minded as in having both an earthly perspective and a spiritual one.
The earthly perspective is needed because it helps us to understand the job that we’re being paid to do. It helps us to know by which metrics our performance will be judged. And we will know what we need to do in our daily work.
The spiritual perspective is also needed. And this perspective holds a greater importance than the earthly one.
Working Our Real Job Title Creates Increase
The spiritual perspective allows us to know what our real job title and responsibilities are. This is the job title and responsibilities given by God to us, for the assignment to which He’s called us.
When we live a life in alignment with God, our jobs don’t just pay the bills, but they are also assignments that God gives us to help advance His kingdom and will where we work.
As we take on a spiritual perspective for work, we will see our jobs as assignments from God. At each assignment, God decides the role we play. In other words, He gives us a job title that’s unknown to our employers, but that also supersedes our employer’s job title.
Aligning ourselves to God’s job title will help ensure our spiritual fulfillment from our jobs and will lay a foundation of successful job performance.
God gives us a job title because we are His fellow workers. As fellow workers, we must view our places of work as God’s field, God’s organization, and God’s company. They are places where He wants His kingdom to be spread and His will to be done. We are in place to implement His plans for the organization to fulfill its purpose.
Ultimately, we all have similar spiritual job titles. They begin the same and end based on our unique assignments.
We are all Master Builders. And our unique assignments tell us what we’re building. For example: Master Builder of Peace, Master Builder of Strategy, Master Builder of Kindness, Master Builder of Challenge, Master Builder of People, etc.
Being a Master Builder is not about experience, degrees, or certifications. A Master Builder is someone who is obedient, submitted, and aligned as a fellow worker of God.
Master Builders lay foundations so that others can continue to build on them. Master Builders work so that God’s will is fulfilled, ensuring the ongoing success of an organization, ministry, or church.
While work gets hard and we go through periods of great challenge, we can’t lose heart, and we must persist. When we accept the position God gives us, we are also benefiters of His mercy and grace to do the work.
This means that when we take our work to the throne of mercy and grace, He will give us what we need to keep going. We have daily help from Him to be resilient in our assignments, persistent to complete the work, and the power to succeed.
Doing the work of our earthly job titles through the assignment of our spiritual job titles brings success. Not success out of our own greatness, but out of and through God’s power at work within us (see the devotional The Power to Get. It. Done.).
This is why our spiritual job titles won’t list requirements for degrees, certifications, and particular work experience on them. God gives us wisdom and methods to accomplish our earthly work even when we don’t have the standards from an earthly perspective.
Therefore, we should never let a perceived earthly lack minimize how we show up nor the value of what we bring. We can trust God to help us gain the spiritual wisdom and talents along with the earthly standards.
Finally, as we work our real job titles, God gives us success and brings the increase. He rewards our efforts and the quality of our work. Yes, we will experience people and powers who will resist us, fight us, and doubt us. This may have a negative impact on the results of our work. But, if we remain faithful to our spiritual job titles, God will ensure victory and success at the end.
Note about spiritual job titles:
they are fluid and we likely carry more than one. Be open to when God wants you to operate in one, or multiple, at any point in time. And know that your spiritual job title can carry across multiple earthly ones.
Weekly Power Shifts
Power Shift 1: From Earthly Title to Spiritual Assignment
Reflection Question: If you step past your corporate position description and look at your workplace through a spiritual lens, what is your real job title? Are you currently operating as a Master Builder of Peace, Strategy, Kindness, or People in your organization?
- Your Action Step: Write down your current corporate job title on a sticky note. Right beneath it, write your God-given title: "Master Builder of [Your Assignment]." Place this somewhere you will see it every morning before you start work. Before you tackle your email or step into your first meeting, read it out loud to remind yourself whose company you are actually building.
- If you want to take this a step further, spend time in prayer to ask God about the responsibilities that come with your job title and how He wants you to do them.
Power Shift 2: From Earthly Lack to Divine Qualification
Reflection Question: Where are you allowing a "perceived earthly lack" to minimize how you show up or cause you to shrink back at work? (For example, alack of a specific degree, a certification, or a feeling of being underqualified.)
- Your Action Step: Identify the exact project, task, or meeting this week that makes you feel intimidated or exposed. Instead of trying to white-knuckle your way through it based on earthly standards, pause and take it to the throne of grace. Pray a 60-second prayer asking God for His supernatural wisdom and methods, and step into that space knowing His power within you supersedes any human requirement.
Power Shift 3: From Forcing the Outcome to Trusting the Increase
Reflection Question: When work gets heavy or you encounter difficult people who resist, doubt, or fight you, do you lose heart and try to fight back with earthly strategies, or do you stand firm in your spiritual assignment?
- Your Action Step: Pick the most challenging relationship or road block currently draining your energy at work. Intentionally stop trying to force are solution on your own terms. Commit to remaining completely faithful to your spiritual assignment in that situation this week, and explicitly declare: "God, I am doing the work, but I trust You to bring the increase and ensure the victory."
