Christians in the Workplace 1 of 5 (Dr. Rick Sessoms)

How do you feel about your work? completely happy or completely bored or quite possibly someplace in between? We’ll look at that today here on MemCare by Radio.

Hi I’m Scott Hollinger and I would like to welcome you to another edition of MemCare by Radio. Today we’re going to hear some thoughts from Rick Sessoms on Christians in the Workplace. During the past couple of years, I was part of a very creative production team. During our time together we created some really amazing program series, one of which is being translated into many different languages. Our team was composed of many different types of people. We came from different backgrounds and with different abilities. What was fun was to watch how we got to know and respect each others’ abilities. Our team relationship wasn’t perfect, but it worked and much was accomplished. It helped that all of us were Christians but it also helped that the core of the group had known each other for over five years and we brought the new members into the core. However, not all situations work out this way. In fact, I have also been involved in work situations that were not comfortable and where confrontations were very unpleasant. I think all of us would like to have better relationships with those we work with, especially those of us in Christian work. We know that the ability to get along with our co-workers is fundamental to achieving as much as possible for the Lord. Today Rick begins a special series on Christians in the Workplace that I think you will find most helpful.

Now Rick Sessoms begins his series on Christians in the Workplace.

CHRISTIAN IN THE WORKPLACE I

The Apostle Paul wrote these words to the Colossians, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

One very important aspect of what you and I do is our work, and doing our work in the name of the Lord Jesus will affect our work.  Most of us spend 2000 hours a year, about 100,000 hours in our lifetime working.  But many Christians spend their workdays not truly understanding how faith affects their work.  They go to work unchallenged.  They’re bored; they see no lasting value in their work unless it is to witness to their coworkers which they usually feel guilty about, because they don't think they witness enough.  As a result, they feel that the only real meaning in life can be found in leisure or in religious activities.  Deep down they're skeptical about Christianity's relevance in the world of work.  Often they struggle with the cost of integrity - why should I keep my 'ethical edge’? What does it really matter?  They end up compromising the cause of Christ by living an inconsistent lifestyle.  They struggle to put work in its proper perspective.  There is no real sense of dignity in their day-to-day work. They're just not convinced that their work matters to God.  Do you relate to any of these feelings? 

Whether you work in a shop or take care of children or keep the home or run a lathe or teach school, you want to know that somehow, your work matters to God. 

Well, I believe your daily work in and of itself has real purpose and meaning.  So, I want to take the opportunity over these next several weeks to talk about how to live a truly distinctive Christian lifestyle on the job - what it means to do what you do in the Name of the Lord Jesus.  

Have you ever noticed that every job has its clubhouse?  Think about it.  Athletes meet in locker rooms. Teachers gather in lounges.  Surgeons have their scrub rooms.  Shop workers meet in the lunch area.  Secretaries meet in the cubicle where the coffee pot is located.  We have our clubhouses, and in those clubhouses the conversation sometimes centers on the work and sometimes on the lives of the workers.  But the clubhouse is a place that's comfortable --- for those who belong there.

Doug Sherman is a former fighter pilot. Doug said the clubhouse for fighter pilots is the flight room. That's where pilots meet before and after their flight missions.  Pilots gather in the flight room and tell stories to one another about dangerous missions they have flown.  They talk about flying at 600 miles per hour, three feet apart, communicating by hand signals and instinct. These stories in the flight room bring the fighter pilots closer together.

Doug said, “But once in a while, a chaplain would enter our flight room.  And when the chaplain entered, the atmosphere in the room would change.  The talking would stop. Everyone would look up.  The chaplain would face a group of fighter pilots whose stares seemed to

ask, ‘What are you doing here?  What's the matter?  Who got killed?  Why else would a

chaplain be here?’”

Doug said, “Chaplains seemed very out of place in our flight room. Somehow we felt they just didn't understand our world.  Their interests seemed so distant from ours.  Of course, we pilots felt just as out of place when we entered their world - their sanctuaries with the stained-glass windows, their ancient hymns, their creeds, their sermons on God and goodness and love.  Their work seemed on a higher plane, so remote from our dogfights and flight plans. And they seemed to have different heroes.  Among pilots, everybody wants to be the top gun, and if you can't be the top gun, then you envy the person who is the top gun.  But very few of the chaplains ever mentioned the top gun.  Instead, they praised the people who had left the air force to become ministers and missionaries.”

This scene that Doug describes is all too real, isn’t it?  I’ve been a minister and a missionary all my adult life.  And I admit it, we people of the cloth who supposedly speak for God often think so little of the workaday world.  The idea comes through our language that God must not think much of the workaday world either.  So what happens is that many people just dismiss the religious realm as irrelevant. 

Martin Marty once wrote, “As Christians we have over many years allowed a chasm to grow between our faith and our day-to-day work, a chasm God never intended.”

The Apostle Paul is stating to the church at Colosse a radically different message. Paul wrote that there is purpose in what we do every day – in our work.  There is dignity connected to our labor.  The ethical standards that we apply in the workplace are extremely important and the practical results of our work are critical.  So as you do your work, remember that you do it in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and give thanks to God the Father through Him. 

Thank you, Rick, for those encouraging words on how we as Christians are to be in the workplace. Next week Rick continues speaking with us on Christians in the Workplace.

Psalm 37 4-5 says,

“Delight yourself in the LORD
       and He will give you the desires of your heart.

 Commit your way to the LORD;
       trust in Him and He will do this.”

As each of us look to the work week ahead it’s good advice for us to take. If you would like to listen to this program again or check out the other programs offered by MemCare, on the web you can check us out at  www.membercareradio.org  I’m Scott Hollinger and on behalf of Rick Sessoms I would like to thank you for listening and our prayer is that God will bless you in your work for Him.