Episode 44 - Sharing Our Faith at Work

We know that as disciples, we must share our faith.  Doing so at work can offer some challenges.  In this episode I want to discuss this topic and present some ideas and considerations that will help us share our faith at work.  I hope you'll join me as we walk daily with our Master.  

I invite you to follow our podcast and share it with others as together we walk with our Master.

Please contact me if you have questions or you wish to share with me something about your walk with the Master. My email is walkingwithourmaster@gmail.com

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Transcript

Hello friends, I'm your host Dave Laton and welcome to the podcast, Walking With Our Master, an outreach of the Prattville Church of Christ designed to inform, encourage, and teach as we daily walk with our Master. 

In this episode I want to talk just a bit about practicing our faith in the workplace.  We know that we, as faithful disciples, put our Lord ahead of everything.  This includes the workplace.  We know sometimes this can be a challenge.  It is possible that sometimes we are even discouraged from any display of their faith.  So it is a good question to ask.

I’m retired now and it gives me much more freedom to practice my faith.  But I clearly recall times where it was a challenge to do so in the various positions I held in my working career.  There were times where it even presented the possibility of adverse actions if I did.  So being wise and discerning in opportunities is important.

Let’s look now at the idea of practicing our faith at work. 

First, practicing our faith at work means we integrate it into what we do and how we do it while respecting our co-workers, organizational policies, and even legal considerations.  We need to know and stay within boundaries.  This in no way communicates that we must compromise our faith.  We must never do that.  But there are ways, even in stringent, and perhaps discouraging workplaces.  We can always be a positive influence by showing the attributes Paul spoke of as fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22-23).  And we refrain from the things he said to not practice that he described as desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-21). 

But it is still challenging at times to practice our faith.  

Before I get into some ideas about how to practice our faith in the workplace remember that we are commanded by our Lord to plant seeds.  We can always do that.  We are not commanded to convert others.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit working in their life.  We plant the seed of God’s word as best we can, and certainly being a positive example wherever we are is one way of doing so.  Always remember that God will bring the seeker to the teacher so we must be ready to teach as we plant seeds and follow-up during the growth.   

Living our faith at work means we are looking to be a positive influence on others so we can guide them to our Master.  That’s what living for our Lord means. As we declare our discipleship to our Lord others will look to see how we are living that faith.  Some do so to learn but sadly, others do so to find fault.  

Another thing to remember is we must learn to love like Jesus.  This is a foundational element that changes all things.  To love like Jesus especially means putting others before ourselves.  We seek to understand other’s needs and help them with those needs as we can.  Always remember that our Lord puts us first.  He demonstrated that at the cross.

Well let’s look now at some ways we can practice our faith at work.

 First, as I’ve already stated, we must live our faith.  This is a common denominator of all who are faithful to our Lord.

 As a baseline, living our faith involves:

Treating others with respect and kindness: That will result in a positive and receptive response.  

We must be honest and trustworthy: This shows integrity in our actions and relationships at work.

Practice good work ethic is is a minimum of what our boss, customers, and co-workers expect from us.  Good work ethic means demonstrating commitment to job.  I’ve heard it stated as “giving 8 hours of work for 8 hours of pay.”  We agreed to perform our job, so we strive to do so the best of our ability.  Remember Paul’s words in Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men. Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.  You are serving the Lord Christ.”

So those few points are about living our faith at work or in other places.  These are perhaps where sharing our faith starts.  Let’s look now at actually sharing our faith.

We must share our faith respectfully.  There are others who may have different understandings of a relationship with God, or even who God is.  There will likely be others as well that have no interest in God at all.  In any case, we must be respectful.  It can be challenging, especially if it runs contrary to your faith, but we must remember those fruit of the Spirit we mentioned earlier and always be respectful of others as best we can.

We can share faith respectfully by:

 Making faith a part of our daily routine.  We can do this by:

 Start our day with prayer or reflection: Set a positive and intentional tone for the day.

Regularly read and meditate on scripture.  This helps us stay connected to our faith.  

Seek guidance and support from God: We should pray for wisdom and spiritual strength as we deal with challenges at work. 

 We can engage in conversations about faith when appropriate: Sometimes is might not be appropriate to vocalize our witness of the Lord.  Share your beliefs with colleagues who are open to it but avoid forcing your views on others.  We must practice wisdom.  If we stay tuned in there will be opportunities to verbalize our faith.  I don’t mean preach a sermon, but we can mention something about the situation or a situation from a spiritual perspective.  It might be a simple statement such as, “I praise God that such and such happened.”

 We can also offer to pray for other’s needs: This shows we support and care for your coworkers. Remember the old saying, I don’t care what you know until I know you care. Everyone has situations going on in their life that come into the workplace as well.  We don’t leave them at home when we go to work.   We can let folks know they matter to us, and we care about them.  We don’t have to make a big deal out of it.  If we know something is going on, simply state, “Hey, I’m praying for you about that.  By the way, someone might come to you if they know you are a person of faith and ask for prayers.  I had a colleague whose son was being sent to Iraq during the war and wanted me to pray for him.  I did so immediately with her standing there.  It truly touched her.  Me too I might add.  We both shared some liquid emotion in the moment.

We can also be willing to spend time with coworkers outside the office: This is when we can build relationships can help demonstrate our understanding and appreciation for different beliefs. Respond positively to an invitation and be willing to invite them.  

 The last thing I want to mention along this thought is to be willing to accept others.  This doesn’t mean we affirm or agree with them on all things, but we do accept them and seek opportunities to guide them.  

 The last point I want to offer is that we must keep in mind as we share our faith at work is to be aware of legal, organizational policies, and social boundaries.  There are laws, workplace policies, and even social limitations that impact our ability and timing on sharing our faith.  We need to respect those and work within them.  In some cases, violating these has the opposite effect by putting up barriers to showing our faith.  I like to use the mindset that these rules, policies, and norms are there as guidelines to do what we need, so l am careful to consider them in my actions.

Part of these guidelines is to make certain our actions are not creating a hostile or uncomfortable work environment for those who hold different beliefs. We certainly don’t want to create that sort of environment intentionally.

 Let me wrap up by saying we must share our faith.  As we grow in our faith, sharing it is as natural as breathing.  But we must practice wisdom in our efforts.  

 Well friends, I'm your host Dave Laton.  Thank you for joining us in this podcast.  I hope you will continue to do so. If you wish to share with me something from your walk with our Master or you would like to learn more, please email me at:

walkingwithourmaster@gmail.com.

I invite you to follow our podcast and share it with others as together we walk with our Master.  And until next time, remember, we give all glory to God the Father.