19 February 2025

Headstart equips young workers to stand out for Jesus

Former Ministry Training Strategy intern Natalie Lim with other young workers at Welcome to the Jungle 2023. Picture: Supplied

Hannah Felsbourg

21 January 2024

A Christian ministry program is helping young professionals combat isolation and navigate faith in an increasingly secular work landscape.

Welcome to the Jungle, an orientation evening for City Bible Forum’s Headstart program, will connect recent graduates through watch parties across five Australian cities.

2025 marks the initiative’s tenth anniversary of helping Christians in their first five years of work stand out and stand up for Jesus.

Former Headstart leader Ron Lieu said the program helped him recognise work was an opportunity to build relationships and demonstrate his faith.

“For non-Christian friends in the workplace, you might be their only connection to God,” he said.

Mr Lieu said before Headstart, he thought of work as just something that needed to be done and pushed through.

The program helped him recognise his workplace as an opportunity to demonstrate his faith through excelling at work as well as to build meaningful relationships.

“I want to be good at my job and want to be honest, I think that comes from wanting to be a good reflection as a Christian in my workplace,” he said.

Read more: Finding faith in the workplace

Headstart connects young Christian workers through regular gatherings, with both in person and remote options to make it accessible for people with different work schedules.

Mr Lieu said it provided a space to discuss workplace challenges that weren’t typically addressed in regular church services.

He said it also offered a valuable sounding board where participants could learn from each other’s experiences and perspectives.

Headstart founder Mark Leong said many Christian graduates felt isolated when transitioning from university to work, believing the lie they were alone.

“Statistically, if you go to large corporations, there’ll be hundreds of Christians around. They just haven’t been networked together,” he said.

Headstart provided them the kind of Christian community they might have had at university, but with other young workers.

Mr Leong said Headstart guided young workers on how to be a positive example of Christ through doing quality work and how to share their faith with their co-workers directly.

“We want people to stand out for Jesus by being his representative and living a distinctive life, but we also want them to stand up for Jesus by declaring with their lips,” he said.

Read more: Three friends. Three weeks. Three conversations about God? 

He said the program helped participants develop appropriate ways to express their faith at work.

“It’s not going to be standing on your chair yelling that Jesus is Lord like you’re a street preacher,” he said.

Mr Leong said most Christian graduates initially believed reading the Bible with colleagues was impossible.

But over 12 to 24 months participants learned to build relationships through regular coffee runs and lunchtime walks with colleagues.

He said these casual interactions often progressed to after-work dinners, where faith conversations emerged naturally.

Mr Leong said several young workers had gone on to read the Bible with their colleagues after building these gradual connections.

Welcome to the Jungle 2025 will take place on 17 February both online and in-person, with watch parties in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, and Toowoomba.

More information is available at citybibleforum.org/event/welcome-jungle-2025.

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