"Some of my earliest memories are of the marketplace."

I grew up in a two-story house overlooking the main plaza in San Nicolas, Argentina. Like in every Spanish town, the plaza was the center of life. The Plaza Hotel, flanked by the Catholic cathedral and the police station, was on our block. On the east side were the courthouse, the National College, and the Social Club, where the city fathers gathered. On the north side were Customs, the Italian Club, and homes of the leading lawyers and politicians. On the west side were the National Bank, more homes, and a popular restaurant that between meals set tables on the sidewalk and doubled as the town café.

   City Hall was three blocks away, but it made its presence felt by the sonorous carillon that faithfully announced the time at 15-minute intervals 24 hours a day.

    The plaza was wedged between the port and the city’s two main streets where most of the businesses operated. It was such a vital part of the city that everything of substance happened in or around it. It was there that the military parades and political rallies took place. On Saturday evenings beautiful girls and handsome boys would choreograph the ritual of courtship under the attentive eyes of mothers, who would stand nearby, and fathers, who would sit at the café and pretend to discuss sports and politics.

    This area of town was called el centro (the center) because everything revolved around it. In essence, it was the marketplace in a microcosm. Through the ages, cultures around the world have fashioned their own versions of the marketplace, but they always included these three basic components that were found around the plaza in my hometown: business, education, and government.

    Early Christians made the marketplace the focal point of their ministry because their occupations regularly took them there. As they conducted business, it was natural for them to present the Gospel to the people they encountered. Marketplace people played a vital role in the emergence, establishment, and expansion of the early church—in fact, most of the followers of Jesus Christ remained in full-time business while simultaneously conducting full-time ministry. This was possible because they saw the marketplace as their parish and their business as a pulpit, to them witnessing was not an occasional activity but a lifestyle.

Generals, Not Privates

Today, millions of men and women are similarly called to full-time ministry in business, education, and government—the marketplace. These men and women work as stockbrokers, lawyers, entrepreneurs, farmers, chief operating officers, news reporters, teachers, police officers, plumbers, factory foremen, receptionists, cooks, and much more. Some of them have great influence on mainstream society, others are unsung heroes with low profiles, but each of them has been divinely called to bring the kingdom of God to the heart of the city.

    Unfortunately, many of these marketplace Christians feel like second-class citizens when compared to people who serve full-time in a church. This should not be the case. No matter the occupation, Christians who work at secular jobs need to know that they are not perpetual privates in God’s army just because they have not gone to seminary. They have the potential to become full-fledged generals whose ministry is in the heart of the city, instead of inside a religious building.

    Not only is it OK to do ministry in the marketplace, but God has explicitly called these Christians. They have been chosen and empowered by the Holy Spirit for a divinely sanctioned assignment.

    Most marketplace Christians already know that their ministry and their occupation are somehow connected, but they do not comprehend exactly how. Even though they sense that they have a call to ministry, they hesitate about exchanging their secular setting for a religious one. Quite often they are told that this vacillation is due to lack of faith or, worse yet, an attachment to worldly things. This indictment leaves them confused because deep down they feel that their spiritual destiny is in the marketplace.

    Unfortunately, many of these marketplace ministers fail to fulfill their divine destiny because they are often derided as untrained or uneducated. This is not a new accusation. It’s exactly what the two businessmen-turned-ministers, Peter and John, were called by the religious clique. This should never happen because the requirement to be a minister is not religious education; rather, it is the spiritual conditioning that comes from “having been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Jerusalem Transformed

Such conditioning allowed the apostles to fill Jerusalem with the good news in just a few weeks by leading thousands to the Lord. As a result, Jerusalem experienced transformation at the deepest level: the needs of the poor and the widows, two vulnerable groups, were met (see Acts 6:1-7). The hungry were fed and the sick were healed (see Acts 2:45; 3:1-8). The Gospel even had a positive influence on the Sanhedrin, the most powerful forum the Jews had (see Acts 5:33-39). Solomon’s Portico became the place for a steady stream of ministry, giving the emerging church favor with the people (see Acts 5:12-15). Soon multitudes from nearby cities flooded Jerusalem (see Acts 5:16).

    What a change! This was the city that had previously grieved Jesus to the point of tears but was now giving Him tremendous joy! It began on the Day of Pentecost when the disciples left the enclosed confines of the Upper Room and went to the open space of the marketplace. On that day Peter, the fisherman, became the first fisher of men, setting a pattern soon to be replicated throughout the Roman Empire. This movement was led not by individuals notorious for their religious acumen, but by people known for their roles in the marketplace: fishermen, tax collectors, farmers, and more.

Three Business Partners

It did not take too long for these enthusiastic preachers to transform myriad towns and cities, culminating with Ephesus, site of the most dramatic encounter recorded in Acts (see Acts 19:1-13). This city, with a demon-driven economy and a marketplace that was the citadel of evil, experienced a radical transformation. It is not a coincidence that at the center of God’s move were Paul, Aquila, and Priscilla. Their dual ministry-business status connected them to the religious community through their teachings and to the marketplace by their tent-making enterprise.

    The call to serve in the marketplace and the call to serve in traditional religious settings are both valid and interdependent, since they involve ministers who respond to the same divine calling. Whether people are priests in the Temple or kings in society, God has called each one of them.

Excerpted by permission from Anointed for Business by Ed Silvoso (Regal Books, Ventura, California 93003), copyright © 2002 Ed Silvoso.