Taking Faith to Work

The Bible teaches us to do whatever work that the Lord has given to us with all that is in us and that we are to glorify God in all things. That is our purpose and should be our ambition. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 states:
7 Go, eat your bread with joy, And drink your wine with a merry heart; For God has already accepted your works.
8 Let your garments always be white, And let your head lack no oil.
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun.
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.

This paints a picture of how we are to regard the temporal blessings of this life and the glorious riches we will inherit in the life to come. While there is much to enjoy on earth, there is far greater awaiting us in heaven.  But, while we are here, we are to seek and fulfill God's purpose; that includes walking in Christ's joy, loving our mates, and doing our work with all "your might," as verse 10 says.  Our motivation should be to please God, and we can certainly do that in the workplace.

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The believer in Christ is called and empowered to honor God in all he or she does, and Colossians 3 describes that proper attitude:
23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men,
24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
25 But he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.

One of the challenges that Christians can face is how to demonstrate their faith in the workplace. This is especially important in corporate cultures that do not welcome faith perspectives and even where Christians might feel ostracized.

I spoke with Jeremy Tedesco of Alliance Defending Freedom at the recent National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando. You will hear from him on an upcoming Meeting House program.  He oversees what is called the Viewpoint Diversity Score, which last month released its second annual Viewpoint Diversity index.  The ADF website notes:

The Business Index is the first comprehensive benchmark designed to measure corporate respect for free speech and religious freedom. It scored 75 publicly traded corporations in its year-two edition across forty-two performance indicators.

Eight companies increased their scores year-over-year. That includes large jumps by Fidelity Information Services (50% vs. 18% last year) and M&T Bank (25% vs. 14% last year) largely because they participated in the survey portion of the Business Index.

Unfortunately, this year’s results also underscore that policies and practices at JPMorgan Chase, PayPal, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta threaten the fundamental freedoms of every American. Of the 75 major corporations evaluated in this year’s Business Index, only two scored over 25% out of 100% possible in their respect for speech and religion. That means millions of everyday Americans are at risk of cancelation or punishment for their views.

Recently, a conference called the Faith@Work Conference occurred; it was sponsored by an organization called the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation, According to an article at ReligionNews.com, foundation President Brian Grim "said its conference drew more than 250 people, with 50 companies represented — more than half of them Fortune 500 firms, such as Dell Technologies, American Airlines and professional services company Accenture."

The article referred to faith-based small groups, called, "employee resource groups," or ERG's. It says: "The conference brought together Christian chaplain networks, human resources staffers and members of ERGs that can include people of faith and no faith."

Religion News noted:

In a breakout session, Mark Whitacre, an executive at Coca-Cola Consolidated, touted the hundreds of people who annually had become new or recommitted Christians after meeting with corporate chaplains or attending prayer groups at the bottler’s distribution and production sites.

In an interview, Whitacre said that he usually attends conferences of Christian groups focused on religious inclusion in the workplace. But he also appreciates the range of perspectives expressed at the Faith@Work gatherings.

Also speaking at the Faith@Work conference was Tim Schabel, described as "a human resources contractor for metal-coating company AZZ..." According to the article, "he said the use of spiritual advisers from the Marketplace Chaplains organization was 'one of the biggest tools in the toolbox' to help employees when they needed a listening ear, including during the pandemic."

Union University, a Southern Baptist-affiliated school in Jackson, TN, held a Faith in the Marketplace conference recently featuring another representative from Coca-Cola Consolidated: its CEO, Frank Harrison, according to the school's website.  The article relates that Harrison is a "fourth-generation family leader" of that bottling company, and relates:

Soon after coming into leadership at Coca-Cola Consolidated, Harrison realized that he would one day be held accountable for the influence that the company has had for God.

As he began to pray about this legacy, a man mentioned the influence of chaplain ministries within secular workplaces. After this, Harrison placed the company’s first chaplain at a plant in Nashville, and he soon realized the great benefit of these chaplain ministries.

“A few months later, we got a call from our HR people that said, ‘Frank it’s incredible what’s happening here,’” Harrison said. “Today, we have about 80 chaplains working with 17,000 employees and their family members.”

The article says, "Harrison finished the lecture by describing the purpose statement of Coca-Cola Consolidated, which states its purpose is to honor God in all they do, to serve others, to pursue excellence and to grow profitably."

This topic area provides some reminders; one is: as you sow, you shall reap - business leaders should care not only about profitable companies, but profitable lives of their employees.  Unfortunately, we live in an age where those who want to integrate faith into their life and work, specifically Christians, may find themselves ostracized, while points of view that are offensive to that faith perspective are championed.  

Faith ideally should be a key element of workplace culture - companies should reinforce employees who desire to glorify God, because they put Him first, will put others (customers) first, do their work with excellence (as unto the Lord), and are concerned about being morally upright. If a Christian is living according to the principles of the Scriptures, who wouldn't want that type of employee?  Unfortunately, when companies go to great lengths to emphasize "inclusion," people of faith may find themselves coming up short, but it's important to recognize that the faith piece has many benefits, because it is related to a person's core beliefs, purpose, and I would dare say, performance.