One evening, as I lumbered clumsily from my car into my house after a long day of work, a thought struck me. Jesus got to choose His dad. The eternal God had a plan, looked down on little old earth, and pointed to Joseph—a simple, hard-working, blue-collar guy—and said: “him.” Jesus didn’t want a priest, scribe, rabbi, merchant, or scholar. No worldly or religious esteem suited Him. He wanted a dad that came home tired with callouses every night.

Jesus knew by choosing His own dad, He was also choosing His own trade. The custom at the time was for a child to take on his father's trade. This means Jesus wanted to be a carpenter. Out of a world of possibilities, He chose a blue-collar job. Philippians 2:6-7 clarifies that Jesus let go of being God and held on to us by being a carpenter.

Yet I’ve never heard the blue-collar Christ preached from the pulpit. I grew up in church, first baptized at the age of five by Pastor Stevens at Northside Baptist Church in Charleston, South Carolina . My whole childhood, my family attended church every Sunday and Wednesday as we moved all over America. I went to Central Christian College of the Bible in Moberly, Missouri. There, we had chapel twice a week and I still went to church on Sundays. Later, I started a family, and eventually dropped out of Bible College. I found my calling as an electrician and have been taking my own family to church every Sunday and Wednesday. On top of that, I have been listening to a variety of Christian radio preachers nearly every time I sit in a car. I’m sharing this so you understand I have listened to a lifetime of sermons. When I say I’ve never heard the blue-collar Christ preached from the pulpit, I hope it carries some weight.

It’s important that Jesus chose to become a carpenter when presented with a world of options. Briefly for now: Christ showed using manual labor to support a family was a worthy calling, redeemed the trade of carpentry from idol makers, and extensively used blue-collar teachings and ministers to change the world.

I’ve never heard a pastor explain what Christ being a carpenter means for the modern believer. The more time I spend working on construction sites, the more I notice how little I feel the modern Evangelical media speaks to me. Every book, sermon, and radio interview seems to be speaking to someone else, somewhere else. I can’t help but wonder how many other blue-collar guys are awake at 3 am, on the road by 4 am to be at work by 5 am every day, just to hear a pastor say, “How many of you know God’s not awake at 3 in the morning?” like it’s a hilarious joke.

I’ve heard preachers and churchgoers alike repeat the world’s lie, “Suits are better than boots.” Many pastors would think nothing of saying things like, “Go to college and get a good job,” but are jobs that don’t require college really “bad jobs”? Are “good jobs” only on the other side of a college degree? Plumbers don’t need college, yet you can ask any lawyer who’s had a backed-up toilet about the value of a good plumber. Should we judge all jobs based solely on their lifetime earnings potential?

Preachers often extol the virtues of higher learning and passively scorn the manual trades. Now, I’m certain, if asked, any one of these men would gladly assert all occupations are equal before the Lord. The problem is they very rarely volunteer such a commentary. They almost never say so from a pulpit. The preponderance of sermons, books, and study tools target white-collar work environments, often failing to address the unique challenges blue-collar work environments present. It feels like there’s a blue-collar blindspot in the modern Evangelical media.

If this interested you, read more in my book, The Blue-Collar Blindspot