Career Choice
It all begins with an idea.
Ways of having career impact
To help us understand how a specific role can have impact, we’ve identified six main channels of career impact.
Direct impact - The output of some jobs directly makes or facilitates the making of disciples, e.g. ministry or reforming the religious studies curriculum.
Gospel witness - Sharing the gospel with colleagues or clients, or shaping the entire culture of our team.
Radical generosity - Giving or investing or sharing the wealth generated from our work into gospel ministry.
Skills for impactful volunteering - Volunteering our workplace skills to ministries. E.g. accountants advising on church finances.
Time and location for other ministry - Some roles may give us more time or place us in a country or region for unpaid ministry.
Career capital - Build up character, skills, knowledge, connections and credentials to have greater future impact.
Generally, we’ve found that the graduates we work with can have the highest impact through their direct impact or radical generosity.
Direct impact often leads to multiplying fruit. Those whose work directly enables disciple-making or who directly make disciples can raise up dozens who themselves go on to make more disciples, spreading the gospel far beyond what one person could achieve alone.
Radical generosity helps unlock kingdom growth at scale. Graduates in the West have earning potential far beyond global norms, and with full-time ministry in unreached regions costing as little as £700 a year, the return on giving is enormous. Choosing to give sacrificially can fund dozens of gospel workers and transform entire communities.
That’s why we place a special focus on our three strategic pathways, introduced on the next page: ministry and discipling culture maximise direct disciple-making, while gospel patronage releases radical generosity to fuel disciple-making at scale.
Gospel witness
Every Christian is called to witness, and the workplace offers a unique opportunity as colleagues share life with us day by day. Relationships at work often create natural openings for conversations about faith that might not happen elsewhere.
Furthermore, if we’re intentional about seeking impact, our example can also strengthen other believers. When colleagues see radical generosity or bold career choices for Christ, it can encourage them to follow suit, multiplying the impact far beyond our own.
In this guide, we’ve focused on career choice and generosity, as those decisions come before you start work. Once you enter the workplace, gospel witness there becomes vital too, even if the fruit seems smaller. For help, explore LICC’s excellent resources, especially their 6Ms framework, and Chris Gillies’ On the Way to Work.
3 strategic pathways
Past revivals have seen 3 particularly strategic leadership roles:
The gospel ministers, the Wesleys: These are the people leading the charge in making disciples.
The culture disciplers, the Wilberforces: Making disciples doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s inextricably linked with our culture, laws and institutions. The culture disciplers are those shaping these spaces to pave the way for the gospel.
The gospel patrons, the Huntingdons: These people are the least glamorous and the most easily forgotten, but they are completely crucial to the gospel preachers and the culture disciplers. They’re the professionals and business people who are earning the money to fund the work of the Wesleys and Wilberforces.
Revival is always born in prayer, but past revivals have also happened because people have done their parts—particularly the leaders in these three spaces. The evangelical revival of the 18th and 19th centuries was led by Wesley, Wilberforce and Huntingdon. Read their stories on the next pages.
We believe these three career pathways are still particularly strategic for making disciples, so we encourage you to prayerfully consider them.
It is important to note that these routes are not for everyone. Christians are led into all spheres of work. And regardless of where God places us, we should be as effective as we can in pursuing an impact for Jesus.
These careers also carry significant spiritual challenges. Selecting one of these needs careful discernment as they can result in greater temptation from the flesh due to the money (1 Timothy 6:10), power or status these careers can have. Furthermore, due to the potential for impact, these careers undergo great attack from the enemy.
Full-time ministry
Example roles
Direct ministry:
Missionary
Youth ministry
Church leadership
Kids ministry
Christian counsellor / pastoral worker
Student workers
Ministry trainers
Christian writers, speakers or content creators
Strategic leadership and operations:
Founding ministries
Leading a Christian charity
Church / Christian ministry operations, communications or fundraising
Working in monitoring and evaluation in ministry
Building tech for ministry
Whilst all workplaces should be mission fields, full-time ministry is work where the direct output of us or our organisation is disciple-making.
There’s a huge range of options for our various skills, whether we’re gifted operationally, pastorally or in gospel teaching. However, key spiritual dangers of such roles include pride, burnout, and lack of accountability.
Biblical precedent
Jesus was clear in Luke 10:2 that “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” Two thousand years later, this remains true, with entire countries having only a handful of Christians and millions across the UK who’ve never heard the gospel.
Throughout the Bible, we see examples of people being set apart for full-time, paid ministry. For example, God appointed the entire tribe of Levi to serve in the temple. “I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord to do the work at the tent of meeting.” (Numbers 18:6)
Church leadership in particular is described as a “noble task” to desire (1 Timothy 3:1), and those who serve faithfully are promised an eternal “crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:4). Scripture honours this vocation, both in its importance and in the eternal reward promised to those who shepherd God’s people well.
Potential impact
Full-time ministry is particularly impactful because of its multiplicative effect on the ministry of others, and because it remains a deeply neglected field.
Pastors multiply impact. A faithful pastor may influence hundreds of people across their lifetimes, who in turn make disciples of others, finance full-time ministers, enter full-time ministry and shape entire cultures. Yet the number training for church leadership is falling across the UK and many theological colleges are closing.
Missionaries can spark enormous gospel movements. The ongoing modern missionary movement, begun just two centuries ago, is responsible for hundreds of millions of Christians in previously unreached countries. For instance, Christianity in Africa grew from 9 million in 1900 to over 600 million today. Yet we need more missionaries. In the quarter of the world that’s most unreached, there’s just one missionary for every 500,000 people. That’s one gospel worker for a population the size of Liverpool.
John Wesley
John Wesley was a visionary gospel leader whose strategic approach shaped one of the most far-reaching disciplemaking movements in history. He preached over 40,000 sermons and founded the Methodist movement. His legacy shows how intentional ministry can multiply disciples across generations.
Discipling culture
Example roles
Shaping the institutions that influence people’s discipleship:
Politics
Education reform
Legal reform
Media institutions
Tech and AI ethics
Urban planners placing churches at heart of planning
Promoting church based development within secular NGOs
Shaping society’s view of Christ:
Thought leadership through applied research (e.g. think tanks)
Cultural influence (e.g. through social media, song, blogs, podcasts, writing, as a public figure)
Discipling culture is creating a culture which helps make disciples. This means strategically shaping institutions, ideas and public discourse to foster societal responsiveness to the gospel. Making disciples doesn’t happen in a vacuum - a nation’s culture and institutions shape what people believe, how they live, and whether they’re open to Jesus. By discipling culture, we facilitate the disciple making work of the entire body of Christ, paving the way for the nation to know him. However, key spiritual dangers of such roles include power, self-glory, and worldliness.
Biblical precedent
The Bible is clear that those in influential positions matter.
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. (1 Timothy 2:1–2)
Paul calls us to pray for those in power precisely because their leadership shapes how people can live lives of godliness. But we are not only to pray, we are often called to lead.
Throughout Scripture, God positions his people to disciple culture, using their positions of influence to shape the direction of nations.
Daniel (Daniel 6): Serving as a royal official, Daniel’s steadfast faith and deliverance from the lions moved the king to command everybody to worship God.
Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2:1–10): As cupbearer to the king, he leveraged royal trust to rebuild Jerusalem and allow Jews to worship God in the temple.
Potential impact
Strategically discipling culture can create far-reaching, long-term impact by shifting the spiritual climate of a nation. It can open doors for the gospel that would otherwise remain closed.
For example:
Reforming religious studies in schools, currently one of the least popular subjects, could make space for every child in the country to come face-to-face with the claims of Christ and the call to follow Him.
The Chosen (TV series) is discipling culture through high-quality visual media. It portrays Jesus with emotional depth and historical realism, and has reached over 600 million views globally - introducing Him to many who would never attend church.
William Wilberforce
Wilberforce discipled culture. He campaigned for the abolition of the slave trade, therefore shaping the institutions which influence people’s discipleship. He was equally passionate about shaping society's view of Christ, what he considered “the reformation of manners”, believing that only the love of God could truly teach people how to love one another.
“God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the reformation of manners.” William Wilberforce, journal entry, 28 October 1787
Gospel patronage
Example roles or industries:
Entrepreneur
Finance (trading, private equity, etc.)
Big tech
Corporate lawyer
Consultant doctor
Tradesperson
Business owner
Pilot
Property developer
Gospel patrons are those generating resources to fund the gospel preachers and the culture disciplers. However, key spiritual dangers include greed, lifestyle creep, and distraction.
Three elements are important to have a large impact.
Be sacrificial. This should be a costly ministry where we sacrificially submit everything to God. Practically, we encourage setting a lifestyle cap beyond which all income goes to gospel ministry. Therefore, we earn to give - as our income increases, we raise our standard of giving, not our standard of living.
Seek a high income. John Wesley famously suggests we gain all we can and save all we can solely to give all we can.
Give effectively. We should give strategically as well as generously to use our resources to have the biggest disciple-making impact. Inspired by Wesley, we suggest our attitude to money should be “get all we can, keep as little as we can, and give as effectively as we can”.
Biblical precedent
Wealthy supporters appear throughout the New Testament. For example, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna and others supported Jesus and his disciples “out of their own means” (Luke 8:3), and Paul was supported by Phoebe, a “patron of many” (Romans 16:2).
Paul himself suggests we should earn, so we can give to those in need. “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.” (Ephesians 4:28)
Potential impact
Gospel patronage is, if we have the gifts to do it, an easy way for many of us to make a very tangible, significant kingdom impact. For example, with full-time indigenous church planters needing to live off less than £1000 per year in many unreached countries, imagine the impact of Christians seeking high incomes, solely to each fund dozens or even hundreds of gospel workers.
Historical example
John Laing was the owner of Laing Construction, builder of the M1 and the Severn Bridge. Alongside transforming workers’ rights, he funded and advised many new evangelical organisations. These included Christian Unions through UCCF, Tyndale House, which prepared the ESV Bible, and he resourced countless church plants across the UK. He was able to do this by vowing to make God a partner of his business and capping his expenditure to that of a middle manager.
Lady Huntingdon
Lady Huntingdon, a wealthy Countess, significantly supported the 18th-century Methodist revival through extensive gospel patronage. She constructed 200 chapels, backed evangelical preachers like George Whitefield, and founded a ministerial training college.
A word of caution
Gospel patronage often means working in demanding, high-pressure settings where wealth and status are prized. These environments bring real temptations that can quickly pull hearts from Christ. This path requires sober discernment and firm accountability – and even with the right skills, it is not for everyone.
Role spotlight: Missional entrepreneurship
What is it
Missional entrepreneurship is launching gospel ventures that address the mission challenges of our time. It is reimagining mission by creating new models of ministry.
Why we need it
Billions have no chance of hearing the gospel. Mission in the West is expensive and often ineffective. At the same time, our world is changing rapidly, and new frontiers of mission are opening. The church can no longer default to “maintenance” over mission. Instead, we need fresh imagination with innovative approaches.
How to do it
Has God built us to innovate? If so, start pioneering ministries now to develop our skills. And whenever possible, take risks for the gospel - seek seed funding to go full-time and trust in God’s provision.
Alongside missional ventures, entrepreneurs could launch for-profit startups, giving them the power to disciple the wider culture and fund gospel ministry. Yet a particularly neglected area is innovation in how we’re doing ministry.
Example roles
Church planters - new faith communities in creative contexts
Missional tech founders - developing AI tools, apps or platforms for evangelism and discipleship.
Media organisations founder: Creating organisations which use media, arts and online content to share the gospel and shape culture
Mission organisation founder
Christian social enterprise founder (businesses addressing both social and spiritual needs)
Youth ministry founder
Ecosystem founder (building networks and communities which foster more effective disciple-making)
Creating alternative education models, for example, founding Christian schools
Put it into practice
Which of these three pathways (if any) could most effectively leverage your gifts, opportunities, and leading for maximum disciple-making impact?
Do your skills lend themselves to discipling culture, and if so, what career and what path within it would lead to the greatest impact?
Could you see yourself serving in full-time ministry, whether in a teaching or operational role?
Could gospel patronage be your path, and if so, would you commit to sacrificial generosity to guard against the pull of wealth?
What spiritual dangers in these careers would you be most vulnerable to — and how could you guard against them?
Given your current faith, would pursuing one of these careers be wise, or could it expose you to dangers you’re not ready for?