I don’t think it is necessary for Christians to steer their careers toward nonprofit work or the helping professions. I think Christians should steer their careers towards the skills and passions the Lord has blessed them with and that they have gained throughout life. As Christians, we can often get wrapped up in thinking a calling only means becoming a full time missionary or being a pastor. Though some are called into those fields, many are not. A calling can be in almost any place of employment, whether it is a “helping profession” or “non-helping profession”. It could be a stock broker, a realtor, a computer engineer, or a music teacher; we can still serve God wherever we are working.
With that being said, what about the Christians who do have the skills and passions that can be used in a nonprofit or go into a help-related profession? These Christians must still be wary of the implications behind this line of work. Sometimes Christians jump into this realm of work thinking that since they are working for a nonprofit organization or are in the “helping profession” they are automatically “helping” and serving other people. Unfortunately, just the intention of “helping”, especially internationally could actually hurt those they are trying to help and serve.
Our society in the West often promotes the idea that we know everything and have all the answers to the world’s problems. In the book When Helping Hurts by Brian Fikkert, Fikkert talks about this issue and the unconscious “god complex” that many Christians in the West have. This “god complex” is a way we sometimes act towards the “economically poor,” in that we are superior and they are inferior. We believe that if we provide the “things” the poor are lacking they will rise out of poverty and have better lives. Though this can be a part of the solution, solely giving out monetary or material goods will not solve the issue of poverty. I am not trying to steer people away from this field of work (I myself hope to work in this field one day) but as Christians, and really anyone who steers their career toward non-profit work, we need to be very aware of this false concept.
When we do approach the nonprofit and helping professions world with the humble understanding that we do not have all the answers to poverty, and that money and material goods will not solve all the world’s problems, we can then be a small part of the process of changing people’s lives. Throughout my college experience, I have gained a better understanding of what this looks like through becoming more culturally sensitive, looking at poverty with a bottom-up holistic approach, and realizing I do not have all the answers. In Bryant Myer’s book Walking with the Poor, he talks about this holistic or transformational form of development which is “seeking positive change in the whole of human life materially, socially, psychologically, and spiritually”. When we approach these fields of work this way, we will not only go in with the right intentions but also the right mindset.
At the end of the day, no matter what field of work we as Christians go into, whether it’s working as a financial planner for a corporation or as a development worker in Guatemala, God can use us in those places in unexpected ways.