Filling the Gap from Sunday to Monday
Sally Santana (Bremerton Sun, 10 July 2004)

In the latest e-newsletter I received from the Yale Center for Faith and Culture was the listing of a summer course titled, “Ministering to Those Called to the Marketplace: Overcoming the Sunday-Monday Gap.” I was intrigued by its description, which asked: “How do clergy minister more intentionally to the needs and possibilities of those in the business world? If one’s work doesn’t matter to the pastor, how can it matter to God?”

In light of recent corporate scandals, this interested me. But on a closer level, I wondered about the employee who occupies a pew on Sunday, yet feels it’s OK to steal a pack of pencils from the company storeroom on Monday.

The following is a portion of my interview with Dr. David W. Miller, Exec. Dir. of the center (www.yale.edu/faith) and instructor of the course.

“Sir, what is that gap? Is it a breach in the ethics between being in the pew on Sunday and the boardroom on Monday? Is it the difference between what we hope for ourselves, sitting in church on Sunday, and our actions the rest of the week?”

“The gap I’m referring to is where the Sunday worship experience from prayers to sacraments to sermons while often meaningful and well administered, bear little relationship to a person’s Monday workplace or office reality. This often leads to living a bifurcated life where we compartmentalize our faith as a private matter relegated to Sunday, and where our Monday is no longer shaped by or informed by our faith teaching.”

“I understand your course has to do with the pastor’s side of this. What is it that you believe pastors are preaching up there?”

“Many pastors are simply not trained to think about the church as anything other than the center of one’s faith life. The church should be a means to equip the followers of Jesus to live out faith-filled lives Monday through Saturday. Many pastors have a theology that spiritualizes faith and takes it out of the realm of the nitty gritty of life. Yet the Bible gives a consistent message that people of faith are meant to be salt and light in the world. The best advice one might give future clergy is ‘it’s not about Sunday!’ That reframing makes a huge difference in how clergy preach, pray, lead worship and teach.”

“If you had to summarize your goal for this course, what would you hope the soul sitting in the church would get from a pastor that took this course?”

“The realization that our daily work matters to God; indeed, it matters deeply. Not only what we do but how we do it. And that the Christian faith is a rich resource to help us discern what lines of work to go into, and how to carry ourselves once we’re there. Work can be a holy calling.”

Is there a disconnect in your life between what you believe on Sunday and do on Monday, no matter what faith you practice? If so, ask yourself why.