Walk into almost any company, and you will hear people described in the language of math. Head count. Full-time equivalents. Resources. Seats to fill. We talk about the bodies we need, the “bench” we are building, and the boxes on the organizational chart. Somewhere in all that accounting, the person disappears. He becomes a line item; a number that climbs when business is good, gets cut when it isn’t.
It happens slowly. You do not decide to stop seeing people. You get busy, the deadlines stack up, and the man who refills the coffee or the woman who runs payroll becomes part of the furniture. You walk past them a hundred times and never once say their name.
The apostle Paul refused to live that way. At the conclusion of his letter to the Romans, in a chapter 16 passage you have probably skimmed, Paul does something strange. He starts naming people. Phoebe. Priscilla and Aquila. Epenetus. Mary. He keeps going until he has greeted 30 people by name, and he hangs little notes on them. This one worked hard. That one risked her neck for him. These two were in Christ before he was.
Thirty names. In a letter that would outlast the Roman Empire.
Why would the Holy Spirit move a man to spend that much ink on a list of names? Because being known matters to God. He built us with a hunger to be seen and known and to count for something to somebody. He understands that hunger because He’s the one who put it in us. He keeps no anonymous people. The God who numbers the hairs on your head knows you by name.
I watched the power of this up close. At our Africa Convention in Zimbabwe in 2024, a brother from South Africa and I worked our way around a room full of young professionals, calling several by name and speaking God’s truth over them. One by one, their eyes filled. They were not weeping under conviction. They wept because somebody saw them and said their name out loud. There is real power in letting a person know they are known.
The person two cubicles down is not occupying a seat. He is a man with a name, and he grew up hearing it from the people who loved him most. The woman at the front desk did not stop mattering the day she clocked in for you. She is still somebody’s daughter. She is still worth knowing, even in a world that keeps trying to shrink her down to a profile, a badge, and a social media handle.
So, here’s your assignment for the week. Learn names. Use them. A salesman drops your name to soften you up and close the deal. But that is not our move. Use a name the way a brother does, because you actually see the person standing in front of you. Greet the cleaning crew. Thank the assistant out loud, by name, in front of the room. Ask the new hire where she is from – and then remember her answer.
It costs you nothing, but it preaches louder than most of the words you will ever say about your faith. People know the difference between being managed and being known. When you treat the lowest-paid person in the building like he carries the image of God, you have shown the room exactly what your Savior is like. You do not need a platform to do ministry at work this week. You need a name. Say it.
© 2026. C.C. Simpson is dedicated to fostering a bold and triumphant Christian faith within the global marketplace.
Before becoming President of CBMC International, Chris dedicated 28 years to a distinguished career in the public
sector – as a Commanding Officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, and serving in the U. S. Secret Service, responsible for
protecting seven American presidents and leading elite teams in complex, high-stakes international missions. With
his wife Ana, Chris resides in Boca Raton, Florida.
Reflection/Discussion Questions
- Listen to how your company talks about people. Head count, resources, FTEs, seats. Where have you started thinking about coworkers that same way – as numbers instead of names?
- Who at your workplace has become part of the furniture to you? Name the person you walk past most often without ever really seeing.
- Paul spent the closing of a letter that would outlast an empire on a list of 30 names. What does that tell you about how God sees the people you work beside every day?
- There is a difference between being managed and being known. Where do you most want to be known right now, and who in your life is waiting on you to do the same for them?
NOTE: If you have a Bible and would like to read more, consider the following passages: Exodus 33:17; Isaiah 43:1, 45:3; Psalm 139:1-6; Matthew 25:40; John 10:3
This Week’s Challenge
Pick three people at work you have been treating like fixtures, the ones whose names you have never bothered to learn or whose names you have forgotten. Learn them this week. Then use them. Greet the cleaning crew by name, thank the assistant out loud in front of the room, ask the new hire one real question, and remember the answer.
Do not announce what you are doing or make it a project. Just see the person in front of you the way God already does. Then, watch and see what it preaches without you saying a word about your faith.
