God in the Workplace: A Labor of Love

"Avodah," a Hebrew word, means both "work" and "worship." Yet for most of the secular world, and even for some Christians, the two are at opposite ends of the dictionary. According to the latest issue of "Across the Board," a business leaders' magazine, "After 200 years, the nation continues to see religion and commerce as fundamentally incompatible."

In the article, writer Laura Nash says, "Business people who claim to love their churches have difficulty identifying any ways in which their religion is a positive resource for them in their working lives."

Nash is a senior research fellow at Harvard Business School. Prior to that she was a visiting lecturer and program director on business and religion at Harvard Divinity School's Center for the Study of Values in Public Life.

According to Nash, the split between commerce and church can be attributed to Christianity's long-standing dismissal of business as "a legitimate focus of religious expression," and "deep ideological hostility toward capitalism and the modern corporation."

The result for many business people, she says, "is a form of schizophrenia. "[They] assume one worldview and identity on Sunday, but another on Monday morning. They cannot see how a single, church-based faith can be an ethical resource for leadership in a postmodern world."

Yet in the July 9, 2001, issue of Fortune Magazine, Nash is quoted as saying: "Spirituality in the workplace is exploding."

That issue of Fortune, devoted to "God and Business," profiles a group of executives who belong to Business Leaders for Excellence, Ethics, and Justice (BEEJ). For more than a decade, said Fortune, these people have wrestled with big questions: How can business promote family life? What is a just wage? When are layoffs justified?

The executives say the struggle to integrate faith with work is never-ending. Lately they find their numbers have grown a lot.

"Why would we want to look for God in our work?" asks BEEJ co-founder Gregory F.A. Pierce, a publishing executive and the author of a new book called "Spirituality@Work." "The simple answer is most of us spend so much time working, it would be a shame if we couldn't find God there. A more complex answer is that there is a creative energy in work that is somehow tied to God's creative energy. If we can understand that connection, perhaps we can use it to transform the workplace into something remarkable."

According to Fortune, these executives are in the vanguard of a diverse, mostly unorganized mass of believers - a counterculture bubbling up all over corporate America - who want to bridge the traditional divide between spirituality and work. Historically, says Fortune, "such folk operated below the radar, on their own or in small workplace groups where they prayed or studied the Bible." But now they are becoming more organized.

"Employees don't leave their problems at the door when they punch in," says Gil Stricklin, founder and president of Marketplace Ministries. Stricklin heads an effort to place chaplains in work places.

His vision for the ministry started while he was serving as an army chaplain. "I saw that the people I took care of would call me when they were not on active duty. Whatever the problem was, they didn't have a pastor, and they would call me to ask for help."

Since 1984, Marketplace Ministries has been providing chaplains that can offer advice, encouragement, and spiritual counsel to employees 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Today, more than 230 companies have seen the value of hiring a chaplain from the organization.

What makes a company want to hire the services of a Christian chaplain? Well, for one thing, it's good for business. "It saves us a lot of time," comments a CEO of a printing company. "The chaplains help to handle the personal issues the employees have - and the chaplains are the first ones to arrive when an employee's family faces a tragedy."

Other benefits include improved employee morale, increased productivity, and the meeting of employees' spiritual needs.

The chaplains are already trained in ministry, but Marketplace Ministries prepares them for the needs that appear at almost every job site. "We see families hurting, marriages breaking up, and racial tension," comments Stricklin. "And if these workers don't go to church, they can feel as if they have nowhere to turn."

Henry Blackaby, author of "Experiencing God," agrees that God is moving in a major way in today's workplace. "I'm hearing a heart-cry from the CEOs in the business world," writes Blackaby in "Leadership Network Explorer Lite #5."

According to Blackaby, "There is an avalanche of CEOs from major companies - the movers and shakers across the nation - who want to be involved. They want to know, 'How do I relate my relationship to God as a Christian CEO to the workplace?'

"When we talk with them about the fact that, in the Bible, most all of the activity of God that changed society was done in the workplace and not in the church, suddenly the lights come on and they say, 'How can I then make decisions in the workplace that make a radical difference?'"

Meanwhile the secular world remains wary. "As much as Americans say they believe in God, most also believe in religious freedom, and hence in the separation of church and boardroom," claims Fortune. "And considering all the crimes committed in the name of one god or another, it's only natural to imagine zealous executives doing more harm than good. So while the business world has found ways to talk about race, gender equity, sexuality, disability, and even mental illness, religion has remained the last taboo."