Don’t Just Get a Job. Build a Platform!

COMMENTARY

Graduation speeches are pretty low-pressure speaking gigs. Not a single person is there to hear what the speaker has to say. They just want him or her to say it quickly! It’s low pressure for the speaker, yet commencement exercises offer an opportunity to challenge people at an inflection point in their lives.

I was honored to speak earlier this month to graduates at Warner University. I tried to challenge them, as they move into “adulting” and begin their careers, to focus on more than professional opportunities or paycheck growth. I urged them to begin building a platform.

The word platform has lots of meanings. The graduates that morning at Warner walked across a platform to receive their degrees. App developers have to decide if their app will be platform-specific or work across multiple platforms. Publishers want books from authors who already have a platform to promote their books—social media followers, speaking opportunities, or email lists.

In the world of Frontier Missions, the word platform has a very specific meaning. A gospel worker’s platform is the professional identity that allows them to live and work in a country where the Gospel is restricted—a place where calling yourself a missionary means you won’t get a visa. By day, the person might be a coffee broker, travel writer, English teacher, or digital nomad. Doing their legitimate job with excellence allows them to stay in the country where God has called them. Opportunities to fulfill their higher calling grow out of relationships that their platform allows.

My challenge to graduates—and to all of us—is that it isn’t only frontier missionaries going to China, Saudi Arabia, or Afghanistan that need to think about platforms. Every follower of Christ should be intentional about building platforms in their lives to introduce people to Jesus.

Your software engineering job at the tech startup isn't just about writing code or launching apps. It's a platform to reach scientifically-minded engineers who might never step foot in a church but will spend long hours every week working alongside you.

Your nursing degree isn't just about clinical outcomes or finding a job quickly because nurses are desperately needed; it’s a platform to speak peace to the dying when they realize their earthly citizenship is about to expire.

For teachers, your classroom isn't just a place for curriculum and learning; it’s a platform to plant spiritual seeds in the lives of 25 students and their families. And every August, you get a new mission field!

And it isn’t only your profession that can become a platform. Maybe it’s coaching a little league team, or serving at a women’s shelter or joining a local service club.

Focus on your platform doesn’t give you a pass on improving your skills or being excellent at your tasks. Keep on learning, training, and expanding your professional skills. In fact, as professional skills grow, it almost always leads to your platform growing too.

Consider the story of a young man named Arman. He fled Iran as a refugee, encountered Christ in Europe, and became a passionate evangelist. That passion meant Arman didn't look for the most prestigious job his education and training might deserve.

Arman actually quit his “better” job to become a taxi driver.

He didn't do it because he was passionate about sitting in traffic. He did it because driving a taxi gave him a platform to meet 10 or 20 new people every day, which meant he had 10 or 20 opportunities to tell people about Jesus. Every day!

In three years, Arman saw 150 people come to faith through conversations in his cab. All because he chose a job based on the platform it gave him to share Christ rather than his bank account or his own professional advancement.

I hope the story of Arman inspired the Warner graduates, and I hope it inspires all of us. It’s wonderful to receive a paycheck (especially when those student loan payments start up). It’s wonderful to move out of your parents’ house into your own place (wonderful for your parents, too!). It is a worthy goal to become skilled in your chosen profession, climb the ranks, earn respect from coworkers and peers, and gain access to more opportunities.

But it is even better to do all those things while building a platform to introduce more people to Jesus, to recruit more citizens for heaven.

That challenge isn’t just for this year’s graduates. It’s a challenge for all of us who’ve heard Christ’s call to go into all the world and make disciples.

Todd Nettleton is the host of The Voice of the Martyrs Radio. For more than 25 years, Todd has traveled the world and conducted face-to-face interviews with hundreds of persecuted Christians. Todd is the author of “When Faith Is Forbidden: 40 Days on the Frontlines with Persecuted Christians.”