By The Rev. Greg McBrayer

This COVID-19 pandemic has affected people and businesses all over the world. Two areas greatly affected have been aviation and faith. The one thing this pandemic has personally confirmed for me is the importance of God’s unique calling in my life and ministry. Unlike many in this current crisis, I have been busy, working and serving on the frontline in my profession and vocation at American Airlines.

In the middle of the busy Flight Operations Center, amid countless work stations stacked with computers and radars operated by hundreds of essential employees, is a raised platform called The Bridge. That is where I work and serve as Chief Flight Dispatcher and Chaplain.

I came to this industry more than 40 years ago and have spent my entire career in Flight Control Centers at major airlines. My journey has taken me through three painful mergers and most recently the mega-merger between US Airways and American which formed the new American Airlines. In 2015 that merger was completed when the new “Integrated Flight Operations Center” in Fort Worth, Texas, was opened.

This massive Flight Control Center which runs American Airlines worldwide is where God deployed me to serve. I have a day job, and I have a calling – and the two are one. Although I wear many hats, I have one boss and one mission, to serve and glorify God.

Growing up in Georgia, I was raised in the church and I have always loved and worked in aviation. After earning my pilot’s license with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 1984, I returned to school, attended seminary, and eventually took Holy Orders in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), where I currently serve as a priest. Both my passion for aviation and my love for God certainly proved useful in the Lord's ministry plan for my life.

God revealed that plan to me on the Flight Control Floor of US Airways on September 11, 2001. On that infamous day, after the intense stress of getting my flights safely on the ground had passed, I remember saying to myself, “God help us, we need you here!” In the deafening silence of that moment, I heard God’s still small voice say, “That’s why you're here.” My purpose and call to bi-vocational ministry was set in motion that day.

The 1990s had been a very turbulent time for our airline and our industry. Many carriers were already struggling before 9/11, but after that day the struggles quickly intensified to an unhealthy, unsafe level, and there was no end in sight. That’s when I suddenly found God using me more and more pastorally in my workplace than in my church. In the very challenging months that followed, the need for a spiritual presence continued to grow, and it fed my desire to serve God in a more profound capacity.

Although we received health care benefits, we were not provided the spiritual care we so desperately needed at that time. I saw this as a divinely appointed opportunity to bring a holistic healthcare component to my struggling coworkers and our company. After much prayer, I approached senior management and asked if I could teach a Bible study on my own time, and then I asked if they could provide me with a room to gather. To my surprise, they wholeheartedly agreed that a spiritual presence was needed, and I was allowed to use a vacant conference room.

On January 7, 2002 the “Monday Ministry” was planted in the Flight Operations Center of US Airways. I knew the ministry would have to prove fruitful if it was to last. By God’s grace, it did, and it is still impacting lives today in the new American Airlines IOC Flight Center in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas.

Almost immediately the Monday Ministry proved fruitful. It drew coworkers from across denominational lines together who were desperately seeking fellowship and renewed hope around God’s word. Our executive leadership quickly noticed a change in our office. Employees were more focused on their jobs, and there seemed to be a newfound peace in our stress-filled environment. Soon we had managers joining us, and instantly, all our working relationships began to improve.

What I had envisioned as a Bible study was far from what God had in mind. Eventually, I began offering Holy Communion, and it wasn’t long before God’s divine plan, as well as my identity and ministry, were fully revealed to me and everyone around me. I soon found myself being sought out for counsel as an intercessor between the flight control floor and management. As a coworker once told me, “Your collar has become a visible reminder to us all that God is with us always, even in this dark, spiritually-void place.”

After many years in aviation and bi-vocational ministry, I thought I would never live to see anything surpass the challenges we overcame after 9/11. Yet this pandemic has far exceeded those challenges in every way to reaffirm the ever-growing need for spiritual first responders in the workplace to provide the ministry of presence.

As people of faith, we know this pandemic is part of God’s divine plan, and it will last only as long as it takes for Him to accomplish His will. God’s will is to be among us wherever we are, which includes the place we spend most of our lives, the workplace. This pandemic can be an obstacle or an opportunity for those called to serve the Lord in the workplace. I see it as a divine opportunity.

Unlike 9/11, which polarized faith groups, this global crisis is an opportunity to unite people. The virus indiscriminately affects us all, and we are all in this together, like it or not. We may not all be in the same boat, but we are certainly all in the same storm.This global storm has provided a unique opportunity to model our faith and “love others as we love ourselves,” including coworkers and neighbors who are different from us.

In years past, our faith at work had to remain behind closed doors. Today there are many workplace ministry opportunities in corporate America supported by a growing acceptance of faith-based Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) in the workspace. This growing faith-based ERG movement provides employees the opportunity to bring their whole self – “clerical collar” and all – to work, and it is blessing lives and businesses. I have been busy sending out weekly encouragement devotionals to all our American Airlines Christian ERG members worldwide. I have been leading a Monday Morning Prayer Convocation, sending coworker care updates, assisting with fundraisers, doing pastoral visits in the workplace, and offering virtual and in-person counseling sessions.

I was recently inspired by an Interfaith Prayer Event hosted by the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, which gathered people from different faith-based ERGs to pray together. It wasn’t an attempt to blend our beliefs, but a respectful gathering of people from different faith groups united by prayer to the God of their understanding for strength, support, and comfort--all of which creates a better workplace environment.

The highlight of my entire aviation career was being recognized and presented with the coveted American Airlines “Chairman’s Award” by Senior Executives in 2018. I was honored and recognized, not for the four decades of dedicated service in Flight Operations, but instead, for the years of kingdom work God called me to do among our coworkers and their family members over the last twenty years.

In these uncertain days, I am certain that workplace fears and anxieties will exist far beyond the current crisis. My prayer is that someone will be encouraged by my story. And I pray that someone who did not get the call to serve in that church they dreamed of will see it as a redeployment to the most robust mission field in the world today, corporate America. If you find yourself today trying to discern “God’s still soft voice,” I encourage you to consider bi-vocational ministry in the workplace where “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

The Rev. Greg McBrayer has worked and served in the aviation industry over 40 years. Fr. Greg is the Chief Flight Controller and Chaplain at American Airlines (IOC) Integrated Flight Operations Control Center in Dallas-Fort Worth Texas, and Chairman and Director of DFW Airport Interfaith Chaplaincy. He studied at Nashotah House in the summer of 2012. As a bi-vocational priest, Fr. Greg currently serves as the Assisting Priest/Pastor at Saint Barnabas Anglican Church in Fort Worth Texas. For additional information, email Fr. Greg at gsmcbrsayer@aol.com.