Level up your Impact
It all begins with an idea.
Marry wisely
If you marry, the single biggest factor in whether you continue an all-in career for Jesus, especially when it comes to radical generosity, will usually be whether your spouse shares that vision.
Expect to make sacrifices
We should expect to make sacrifices for God with our careers.
Following Jesus means being willing to lay down everything. Around the world, some give their very lives for the gospel. For most of us, the cost will be different — a risk to our reputation, comfort, career success, or financial security.
If Christ is worth everything, then nothing is off-limits. Hold your career with open hands, ready to say with Paul, “To live is Christ, to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
Influence others for impact: What if your friends chose impact too?
Your impact doesn’t have to stop with you. If you help just two other Christians use their careers for maximum disciple-making, you’ve already tripled your lifetime impact. This is one of the simplest and most strategic ways to multiply your fruitfulness for God’s Kingdom.
So encourage your peers and colleagues now to seek impact, make strategic career choices, and be radically generous.
Start now
Your university years and early career are uniquely high-leverage times to influence the entire trajectory of others’ lives.
Why?
People are more open to change – They have not yet locked in major life decisions, grown accustomed to higher living standards, or taken on responsibilities that reduce flexibility (such as marriage or children).
More time means more impact – Choosing an impactful route early gives many more years of multiplying Kingdom fruitfulness. As gospel patron Mart Green reflected, “Had we started when I was 25, I could have enjoyed that blessing another 10 years!”
How to influence your network
Personal conversations – Talk to friends or Christian colleagues about career impact. Be intentional – Why not try to speak to 10 people about how they could use their careers for the Kingdom.
Host informal gatherings – Organise dinners or small events for friends. For example, one startup founder we know runs generosity evenings for around 20 friends in his home.
Share within your community – Speak at your church, Christian Union, or small group, or start a Fruitful Work group to explore these ideas together.
Bring people to Christ – Focus on bringing your friends and colleagues to Christ and, if appropriate, invite them into this vision too.
Public influence
Share online – A single post on LinkedIn or Instagram can reach hundreds.
Consider building a platform – This could be a podcast, blog, or YouTube channel—and sometimes a niche focus can be especially powerful. For example, a Christian quantitative trader might write for other Christian traders about giving radically and effectively to ministry. Cody Hobelmann, a financial planner, and Kealan Hobelmann, a surgeon, illustrate this well — they host The Finish Line Podcast, which explores setting a lifestyle cap, and has enabled them to reach thousands.
Consider counterfactual impact
What is counterfactual impact?
Counterfactual impact is the difference you make by doing something versus what would have happened if you hadn’t done it.
Why is this important?
It’s important in your work and volunteering. For example, your church might have more guitarists than slots in the worship band, so joining would add minimal counterfactual impact as worship can happen without you. Instead, joining the youth team, where leaders might be desperately needed, could enable deeper discipleship for teenagers – boosting your counterfactual impact.
It’s important in your giving. If you give a fixed amount each year, then £1,000 from that total to a homelessness ministry might house someone for a month, but if that money would otherwise go to a ministry able to plant an entire church in an unreached country, the counterfactual impact of giving to the homelessness ministry may be negative compared with giving to the church-planting ministry.
How to use this
Apply this lens to your career, volunteering, and giving. Always consider the difference you add beyond what someone else would have achieved in your place. A big implication of this is that you can often increase your impact by focusing on neglected issues. These are areas where, if you were not involved, the work might never happen or would happen at a much smaller scale. In well-served areas, it is far more likely someone else would step in and fill your role.
This is humbling
Thinking about counterfactuals reminds us that the impact we personally achieve is not what ultimately matters. What matters most is that God’s Kingdom grows, whether through us or through others.
Build up career capital
Focus on building up your career capital – skills, character, experience, credentials, and network, so that you can have higher impact in future.
Focus on building flexible capital: things useful across sectors (e.g. communication, leadership, tech, strategy).
Go out a level
Focus on increasing your impact by multiplying it through others. Expand your gospel influence, either by becoming more senior, for example, moving from a teacher to a headmaster or by shifting to roles which have a more system-wide influence.
Ed, one of our founders, followed this path:
Trained as a doctor to become a medical missionary
Realised by instead working as a UK doctor, he could fund 30 full-time church planters
Launched 500k, a mission organisation that funds 1,300 church planters
Now, alongside running 500k, he’s helping grow Fruitful Work to inspire thousands of students into more impactful careers.
In each step, he has sought to multiply his impact by enabling or influencing others to be more impactful.
Be prepared to switch roles
Career seasons change. A role that once maximised your impact may not always do so. Be ready to pivot when a new opportunity offers greater disciple-making impact.
Don’t cling to comfort. Follow God’s leading into new assignments, and regularly ask, “Is this still the place where I can serve most effectively?”
Innovate for Christ
Nehemiah saw the need, Jerusalem’s walls in ruins, and acted, rebuilding them. See what the world needs and use your God-given creativity to launch startups, tools, or side projects that advance the gospel.
If we want to shape the future, we may need to create our own opportunities—they are less likely to be handed to us than they might have been in previous generations. And remember, the vast majority of ministries and companies began as side projects, so you do not need to be working full-time on one to get it off the ground.
Stay ahead of the curve
The job world is changing fast. For example, AI is expected to automate many computer-based jobs by 2030, especially in graduate roles. Consider how AI will drastically change the job landscape, and stay ahead by learning to use these tools yourself. Think strategically about discipleship—focus on reaching tomorrow’s spaces, not yesterday’s, as the church is often slow to adapt to new opportunities.
Put it into practice
Who could you personally challenge this month to pursue greater disciple-making impact in their career — and how will you do it
What platform, skill, or opportunity could you use to inspire dozens, or even hundreds, of others to work for maximum Kingdom impact?
What’s one insight from this section that you will act on within 3 months to increase your Kingdom impact?
In the ministries you’re currently involved in, what would happen if you weren’t there? Would your absence make much difference counterfactually?