Businesses worldwide are asking: What does it look like to have Christ in the workplace?
While we’ve talked about the different ways this question can be answered from business to business, one common question is how the size of a company can affect the implementation of Christ at work. To answer this, we can go directly to Scripture.
3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:3-7
The parable of the lost sheep is a beautiful example of Jesus chasing after even one lost person when they go astray. Yet we often don’t consider the joy that comes afterward when that lost sheep discovers the new family it now gets to walk with and be encouraged by. Jesus celebrates the repentance of the one, along with the rest of his people.
You may work in a business with very few people or thousands of employees. Each of these size companies faces different challenges when bringing Christ into their workplace. Before we look at a couple of companies that have successfully implemented faith into their workplace, remember that even impacting a single person in your business brings much rejoicing in heaven. God moves in incredible ways. He may move in the lives of your entire staff or just part of it, but your call is simply to remain faithful.
At Christ at Work, we’ve spoken to many businesses, some of which are huge corporations. For example, Tyson Foods has over 130,000 employees across 25 states. This offers an obvious challenge: how do you effectively show the love of Christ to over 130,000 people?
Tyson has gone about this by investing in full-time Chaplains to minister to more than 150 Tyson Food facilities. The Chaplaincy program at Tyson Foods has been an effective ministry for over 20 years. They realized that part of ministering to their people meant bringing in others to help grow their reach.
Chaplaincy is an excellent solution for businesses with employees spread across the country. It allows employees to interact face-to-face with someone who can follow up on what’s happening in their lives. However, this doesn’t mean you should sit back and let chaplains do all the work. On the contrary, Christ calls each of us to live out our faith every chance we get. So even if you can’t personally reach 100,000 employees, you can at least reach one.
Cornerstone Engineering is a team of nine people. They are a structural engineering consulting company that has put Christ at the center of everything they do. They face a similar challenge, yet one that is also very different from Tyson Foods: how do you effectively show the love of Christ to a team of nine? They intentionally bring God into the workspace, and they refer to themselves as Christians who happen to be engineers. At the start of each day, they pray for each other and encourage one another throughout the day.
In a small business, you don’t have long gaps between encounters with your coworkers. These people work together in a single space where they interact daily. More patience may be required when sharing your faith with a smaller team. These are relationships that need to be fostered over time. While it may require fewer people to incorporate your faith into your business, it still carries a unique challenge. Their practice of prayer and encouragement is a great start that any other small businesses can take and use themselves.
If you watch through the stories on our website, you’ll see that businesses of all sizes are finding creative ways to bring Christ into their workplace. You may find that you can take exactly what one company does and implement it in your own company. However, chances are that you’ll need to do some tweaking to make it fit the culture you’ve built.
Whether you have a team of 2 or a team of 300,000, God is faithful to move in the lives of His people. All that He asks is you be faithful to Him as well.
