I sat next to a Jewish woman once at a public school function and when she found out I was a Christian, she had a question all ready for me.
“Maybe you can explain this,” she said. “A young man came to my door recently. He was a college student painting houses. My house needed painting so I took his card. When I asked him about the fish symbol I noticed on the card, he smiled and said, ‘Oh, I’m a Christian painter!’ Now what do you suppose he meant by that?”
I laughed and told her I really didn’t know except that he was a Christian who was trying to make some money painting houses.
When it comes to our place in the world, it’s much better to be a Christian than to be a Christian something-or-other. In other words, stay away from using “Christian” as an adjective. No one knows what a Christian painter is anyway. Even Christians don’t know; we just think we do because we use these terms all the time.
I asked the woman how she responded to his comment about being a Christian painter and she said, “Oh, I just asked him if he could paint!”
I like this woman. It’s really simple isn’t it? It makes no difference to her if he was a Christian painter or a Muslim painter or a Buddhist painter…she only wanted to know if he could paint her house. There’s a lesson here.
When it comes to our work in the world, our work comes first. The young painter, as well-meaning and as passionate about Christ as I’m sure he was, got his witness too far out in front of him. His witness is to do a good job as a Christian. How we do our job is not a means to a witness, it is our witness.
In the marketplace no one cares if you are a Christian. They just want to know: Can you paint? Can you compute? Can you run a company? Can you market this product? Can you manage this store? Can you operate this cash register and smile at all my customers? Once you prove yourself as having integrity and value to your employer, then the fact that you are a Christian will mean something.
People have so many religious preconceptions today. To announce your allegiance up front means you will have to fight through all those preconceptions just to be heard; and even then, the stereotype is hard to shake. If you establish credibility on other levels first, you can clear the deck of all that other stuff. Then you might have a better chance of getting someone to consider what it really means to be a Christian.
In the end, what you claim to be is nothing compared to who you are.
John Fischer The Catch 
i can relate a bit to today’s Catch in that the other day I had someone refer to me as a “man of God.” To which I thought of replying back, yes I like to think of myself as that, yet would much rather then claim that let my life and actions ‘speak’ of me has one. I have since learned the very reason she stated it was / is because of my life and a few of my actions – when a few years ago i would have been simular to that ‘Christian painter’ and would wanted her to call me a Christian, yet now-in-days I like to be thought of as a ‘man of God.’ Jus now want to be more like David to be thought of as a man after God’s own heart… which I have very lil doubt w/ the Catch and the Catch family someday I’ll get closer to that goal… 🙂
This is one of the reasons I like “The Catch”. It is somehow different from all the other “Christian” (there’s that adjective again) blogs I read and it makes me think deeper. I think one reason folks use the fish symbol is the theory that it won’t scare too many folks away, but it may attract other Christians to hire you as sort of a “code” for “Hire me, I’m on your team.” As an employer who interviews & hires a lot of folks, I can relate to the “I only want to know if you can paint” idea. At the end of an interview (where I NEVER seek out such things) the candidate openly volunteered that he was a born again Christian, identifying his church to me and a fellow common Christian friend we had. Against my better judgment (and because he really did seem like the best candidate) I hired him. It was a bad hire, and he only lasted for a few days, leaving a few questions in my head. Was he really a Christian or did he just say it because he picked up “signs” in my office (yes there is a fish symbol & even a cross somewhere in here) hat thought that would get his foot in the door? Did his volunteered information help or hinder the process?
Good questions.
PS let me plz add a big praise to our God – 4 this week, in-fact yesterday He moved another mountain in my life – each and every time He sees fit to do that, it humbles me and I get more thankful & grateful to be a servent of such a great Lord & Savoir – there is no other word but amazing for His grace and love!
John,
Thanks again for reposting this article. It has even more meaning to me than it did when you originally wrote it in CCM Magazine umpteen years ago. Thanks again. God Bless.