Why My Faith & My Work Are Synonymous

Published March 17, 2022

My faith and my work in my life have become synonymous with one another. They have become one in the same because it comes out of what my true mindset is. To most people on the outside, they look at one as a Christian, and they might say, you’re a business person or a corporate person who is a Christian. But that’s not my understanding. That’s not how I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMc6OfJkCMs?rel=0

I’m a Christian who is assigned to the marketplace, whether as an entrepreneur in my businesses or as a corporate executive in all the boards and that I work on. It’s really understanding that my business and my career might be the pulpit, the place where I preach the Gospel, the place where I get a chance to show who Christ is.

I’m a Christian who is assigned to the marketplace.

The most beautiful part of it is the people I could run into in the boardroom or in the marketplace who might not be people I would meet in church. Some of them never walked through the doors of a church, so I’m the only church they are ever going to meet. Therefore, I have to be the Christ they see in the work that I do. That puts you under a lot of pressure, but it makes you hold yourself accountable. I realize that my truth has to be true. Because if it’s not, I could cost Christ a life.

If I’m the last person on the face of the earth that needs to minister the Gospel to the person I just did business with, or that person would never accept the Gospel because of my behavior, that is one of the most scary things I can imagine as a Christian. Having that at the back of my mind drives the basis of my decision-making every day. It is why I could talk about how “only you can choose” because at every point in time, you’re presented with a choice.

You must have predetermined in advance the context in which you will judge the decisions you will make at every crossroad. For me, that context is three key things.

    1. I want to walk out of every situation preserving my testimony as a child of God.
    2. I want to walk out of every situation preserving my family name.
    3. I want to walk out of every situation preserving my father’s name.

This means you’re willing to pay the price. Now, the reality is you are going to have to pay that price many times, and many times it will cost you. But in my experience, I have learned that every price I’ve had to pay to fight for a good name and for a good testimony is a price worth paying. It’s been painful sometimes.

At every point in time, you’re presented with a choice.

We have to be long term players.

I want to die empty—totally empty; there’s not a gift from God or talent I have that I would not have used for the benefit of my family, the church, the world, or my nation. I want to ensure that I can express all my gifts. This makes me multidimensional in many cases because people keep asking, how can you do so many different things? If you’ve been gifted, God has given the grace for you to express yourself in all those areas, and that allows you to perform multiple tasks at the same time. At the end of the day, I want to know when I walk through the doors of heaven, God can say welcome my good and faithful servant.

My business, my career, my life, and my faith cannot be separated […] we’re one in the same. God meant us to be inseparable from our faith, close to Christ and His life. If we say Christ lives inside me, it means that when I go to work, He’s there. I don’t leave Him at home or leave Him at the gate of the Church on Sunday. There cannot be two sides to it. It is one in the same, and I have to be able to express Christ in the midst of my day.

This article was transcribed from a video short with Ibukun Awosika.

About the Author
Ibukun Awosika

Ibukun Awosika

Founder & CEO

The Chair Centre Group

Ibukun Awosika’s has vast combined entrepreneurial and high-level corporate and not-for-profit board experience across various sectors and geographies spanning over three decades. Globally recognized, she has received multiple awards, including the 2020 Forbes “Woman Africa Chairperson” award, and was also the first Nigerian recipient of the prestigious “International Women Entrepreneurial Challenge” award in 2008. Today, Awosika leads as founder and CEO of The Chair Centre Group, overseeing manufacturing, retail and bank-way security system services. Awosika also formerly led as chairman of First Bank of Nigeria Limited, the country’s premier and most valuable banking brand. Over the course of her career, her leadership has given her the honor of influencing Nigeria’s economic growth by chairing a number of corporate and nonprofit boards including, d.light Design Inc., Convention on Business Integrity, Digital Jewels Limited, and Afterschool Graduate Development Centre, a facility which she promoted to help address youth employability and enterprise issues in Nigeria. She also sits on the boards of Cadbury Nigeria Plc and the International Advisory Board of IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. She was Chairman of GEMS Africa Limited, FBN Life Insurance Limited, FBN Capital Limited and Kakawa Discount House Limited. She also served on the pioneer board of Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, as well as the National Job Creation Committee. Awosika is a graduate of Chemistry from The University of Ife, Nigeria; an alumna of the Chief Executive Programme of Lagos Business School; the Global Executive MBA of IESE Business School (Barcelona); and Global CEO Programme of Wharton, IESE and China European International Business School. With high interest in social issues, including the plight of women in society, Awosika is co-founder and former chairperson of Women in Business, Management and Public Service, as well as the president of International Women's Entrepreneurial Challenge Foundation. An ordained pastor and founder of the Christian Missionary Fund, her faith-based organization works with hundreds of missionaries across Nigeria to change lives with the provision of medical and educational supplies and resources. As a fellow of the African Leadership Initiative, Aspen Global Leadership Network, Institute of Directors and Society for Corporate Governance Nigeria, Awosika aspires to use her opportunities in life to further the greatness of her country by raising entrepreneurs to create jobs. She is a member of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, served on National Job Creation Committee, and sits on the International Advisory Board of IESE Business School, Barcelona-Spain, and the Governing Council of Pan-Atlantic University.

Years at GLS 2015, 2021