Did you ever stop to think upon the fact that the job of any pastor in any church on any given Sunday is actually to serve you and equip you for the rest of the week?  Check out Ephesians 4:11-12.  A big part of church on Sunday is for work of Monday!!!  Yet, sometimes we develop in our minds an unhealthy division between 'church' and the rest of our lives in the week, which is dominated by work, study and family commitments.  This results in a struggle to imagine that God is interested in what we spend most of our time and energy - which is simply a launch-pad for spiritual evangelism.  However, you'll be relieved to hear that's not the case.  God has an intense interest and a special calling for you in whatever sphere of public life you are in.  In the Bible, this arena of life is often called "The Gate" (the place people met to do work and business), and God's interest in what goes on in the Gate can be found throughout the Pentateuch's law and throughout the Prophets.

Your work life matters to God because:
(1) He created it - work is God's design for humanity in His creation (see Genesis 1-2)
(2) He audits it - God oversees and judges what happens in your work and calls you to live a life of uprightness, justice and integrity to honour Him as much as it is in your power.
(3) He rules it - God's sovereign government is not excluded by market forces or demand/supply considerations.  Humans are responsible for their decisions,risks and choices; but over all at the very same time God rules!

God has two callings on your life: your general calling to be a child of God and christlike person; and your specific calling (whatever particular details of your life He has prepared for you to walk in e.g. your relationship status, your family circumstances, your job, your living situation, etc.).  A Puritan once wrote: "we have a general calling (to serve the Lord Jesus Christ) and a personal calling (a particular employment by whcih your usefulness in your neighbourhood is distinguished)". 

Your specific/personal calling matters to Him, because He made it to glorify Himself through you in the world.  It's a divine calling to be a business man, a house-wife, a stay-at-home mother, a farmer, a student (for a time!), a joiner, a lawyer, an accountant - as well as its a divine calling for those called to be pastors, overseas missionaries and alike.  It all matters!  God has given you a specific calling for you to glorify Him in, but also be a faithful missional presence for Christ in word and deed (Colossians 3:17 "whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus").  Pastors and Plumbers alike are divinely called to be gospel-ministers (2 Corinthians 5) or missional people who live, love and speak in the name of Jesus to all we meet.

So whatever you do in the Gate in 2012, do to for the glory of God in an attitude of serving Christ (Ephesians 6:7) and as a faithful presence and witness for Christ (Matthew 5:16).