Barry's Blog

An article in this Monday's USA Today opinion column,"God Goes to the Office," written by Lake Lambert, a Board of Regents Professor in Ethics Wartburg College, raised a number of interesting points about the new "workplace spirituality movement." Lambert observes that:

"According to the workplace spirituality movement, creativity at work is a spiritual process that involves the whole person and not just the intellect or manual skill, and the new class of knowledge workers is devoting more of their time to work because they find deep meaning and a sense of purpose on the job. Today, clergy from various traditions serve as corporate chaplains, and the new faces of spiritual leadership are organizational development consultants who lead employees through creativity-enhancing spiritual practices. Overall, the contemporary workplace is regarded as a community, open to spirituality in the same way that it is hospitable to friendship and love."

Lambert goes on to survey the religious landscape in corporate America, noting how in recent years evangelical Christianity has taken a prominent place in the office boardroom. He mentions founder Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, a growing fast-food enterprise, who has made "glorifying God" one of the corporation's goals. At the local Wal-Mart, Lambert observes, one can pick up books like "Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership," or "What Would Buddha Do at Work?"

And as workplace spirituality has gained prominence in corporate offices, spirituality has become a staple of the business curricula at a number of colleges and universities. And courses that span the spectrum, such as "Spirituality at Work," and "The Business World: Moral and Spiritual Inquiry through Literature," are observed as part of even a new niche within the Academy of Management.

While the majority of the current interest in business spirituality is not connected to specific religious traditions, such as evangelical Christianity, the role of religion and God in the workplace may present a number of challenging issues, both for the CEO and other executives. While a careful distinction should be made, as Lambert argues, between spiritual practices encouraged by the corporation itself versus the spiritual practices initiated by workers and allowed by employees, religious pluralism presents additional issues. Lambert observes:

"Employees may feel awkward or coerced by forms of corporate spirituality that challenge or undermine their own belief system. A Jew will obviously feel uncomfortable if not offended in a business meeting at Chick-fil-A that is opened in prayer to Jesus Christ, and many Christians would feel equally awkward in a business meeting that invoked a spirit that was not named as the God of the Apostles Creed. Authentic practitioners of Native American or Eastern religious tradition may object to the commercialization of their deeply held convictions. Charges of religious discrimination in the workplace have exploded in the past decade, rising faster than any other form of discrimination complaint. More litigation could be in store as additional companies seek to motivate and surround employees with an eclectic collection of spiritual resources even as they struggle to be hospitable to the increasingly diverse religious practices of new immigrants."

Despite the various experiences and opinions we may have about the role of God and religion in the workplace, it is fair to say that on the whole, the role of God, faith, and religion has been virtually absent from the marketplace. Dorothy Sayers, the gifted British mystery writer and playwright, observed that there is a need for a recovery of a Biblical sense of work, and it's sacramental nature. She wrote in her essay, "Why Work?" :

"In nothing has the Church so lost her hold on reality as in her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments, and is astonished to find that, as a result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends, and that the greater part of the world's intelligent workers have become irreligious, or at least, uninterested in religion. But is it astonishing? How can any one remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?"

No, Malcolm Muggeridge, who came to faith in Christianity late in life had it right, as he observed, "Either all of life is sacred, or none of it is." The Apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the Colossians that in our work, the Christian is serving Christ (Colossians 3:23-24). It is in fact an offering to God. Sayers was right. We have lost in our modern culture the inherent dignity and worth of our work. Listen to Martin Luther, the great Reformer, to his words penned in 1520 on the dignity and worth of all work:

"The works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks, but that all works are measured before God by faith alone...Indeed, the menial housework of a manservant or maidservant is often more acceptable to God than all the fastings and other works of monk or priest, because the monk or priest lacks faith."

Do you understand the sacred calling of your work? Do you see your work as as "offering" before God? What should be the role of God and faith in the workplace? Should the role of my faith be only individual, a platform for talking to others about my faith? Or do you believe faith in the workplace should find a corporate expression?

I would enjoy getting your thoughts and experiences posted below on this important subject...