For many Christians, sharing our faith with others intimidates, if not frightens, us and can spark questions and insecurities.
“What if I offend someone?” “What if they think I’m ignorant or naïve?” “What if they ask me a question I can’t answer?”
Regardless of where we are—whether at home, at school, or at our local coffee shop—telling others about the hope we have in Jesus and the difference he makes in our lives can be challenging. And there may be no place more challenging to share Jesus than at work.
Yet as uncomfortable as sharing our faith at work can be, our workplaces offer unparalleled opportunities for telling others the good news about Jesus. And the holiday season is a unique time when our coworkers may be open to what we have to say about our faith—and it doesn’t have to be awkward or uncomfortable. As you think about bringing your faith to the workplace this holiday season, consider these three ways to share the love of God with your team members.
We spend more waking hours with our coworkers than almost anyone else. For many of us, some of our closest friendships are with the people we spend those forty hours (or more) with every week. If we’re not invested in the people around us at work, we’re forfeiting a prime opportunity to establish deep, meaningful relationships and to share the love of God with Christians and non-Christians alike.
This holiday season, what could it look like for you to view your workplace not just as a place where you clock in and out, but a place to invest in deep relationships? How could you approach your job site with the goal of sharing God’s love with people who don’t know him, and doing it through the act of friendship? Here are a few ideas:
Friendship is one of God’s sweetest graces to us in this life. Make it your ambition to be a great friend at work and extend God’s kindness to those you work with.
The holiday season is a time when giving takes center stage, whether we’re giving thanks or giving gifts. As Christians, generosity should be a regular feature of our lives, and this time of year gives us even more reason to give above and beyond to our coworkers in thoughtful, meaningful, and surprising ways.
And generosity isn’t only about giving money. Sure, we can help a coworker financially, but we can also lend them our time, talent, or even a kind word. Here are some questions to ask as you consider how to be generous with those you work with:
Generosity is one of many ways to display our faith to our coworkers. How could you imitate God’s generosity by being generous to the people you work with?
Prayer is one of the non-negotiables of the Christian life. It colors everything we do, from exercising wisdom to renouncing sin to sharing our faith with our coworkers. In all these things (and more), we need God’s help. And prayer is where we ask God for the help we need.
Are you eager to impact your workplace with the gospel? Pray. Do you long to see a particular coworker soften to the good news? Pray. Are you curious how to make inroads with a team member you tend to butt heads with? Pray. Begin each morning in prayer—maybe right upon waking, on your drive to work, or when you first set foot into your office—asking God to help you be a light in your place of business. Not sure how to pray? Consider these ideas:
God is a prayer-hearing God. And an amazing thing happens when we pray: God hears us, and he answers. So, pray. And pray expectantly.
Our workplaces are ripe for the gospel. Jesus himself, in Matthew 9:37–38, tells us “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (NIV). When we clock in at work each day, we aren’t merely putting in our time to create a product, perform a service, or make a buck; we are workers being sent into the harvest.
That doesn’t mean we should see our coworkers as a project or that all our work relationships should be contingent upon them receiving the gospel. But it does mean we have an opportunity to do a kind of work that supersedes the work our companies hired us to do. Namely, we work to cultivate genuine relationships with our coworkers, serving them and sacrificing for them; we do all we can to be generous to them with our time, talent, and finances; and we bow in prayer before the Father on their behalf, asking him to help them, bless them, and soften their hearts to the gospel.
Wherever you work, God has sent you there as a worker in his harvest. This holiday season, consider how you can take up that work by sharing your faith with your coworkers.
Developing collegial relationships with coworkers and excelling in our work requires us to build habits—regular practices that govern our everyday behavior and which influence our potential to meet our objectives.
We all already have workplace habits. Some of us walk into the office every morning with a cup of coffee in hand, fueled for the day. Some of us work more isolated, with our headphones on, while others keep a more open posture to interruptions. There’s also the regular, mid-morning break we take at the same time every day to say hello to colleagues down the hall.
Not all habits, of course, prove helpful. Mid-afternoon gossip sessions erode relational trust, as will complaining without seeking solutions.
In his book Habits, author and speaker Marcus Goodloe highlights three relational habits that will bring us more fulfillment in our work. The better coworkers we become, the sooner we can improve our work lives and relationships for the better.
I was eleven years old when I first decided to follow Jesus. One of the first changes I made after becoming a Christian was deciding to believe the best about people until proven otherwise. The toughest test for my resolution was the little third-grade neighbor boy who tormented me at the bus stop. I walked to the bus stop reminding myself to not expect him to annoy me. Maybe he would, but I would begin the day by giving him the benefit of the doubt. When we expect people to disappoint us or react negatively, we set them up for failure and ourselves for frustration. We’ve judged them based on their past, or on our assumptions, neither of which encourages a positive interaction in the present.
As the year progressed, he didn’t bother me as much. Was he the one who changed, or did I? Very possibly, my new attitude somehow communicated itself to him, and we both changed for the better. My husband, a public school administrator who constantly interacts with parents, teachers, and other school employees, calls it “positive presupposition.” When we enter an encounter at work assuming the best, we offer the other person an open mind, a measure of trust, and dignity. If we can put our biases behind us and interact with others from a clean slate, we honor them.
Will some people disappoint us? Of course. But we will know that we gave them a fair shake. And don’t we all appreciate it when others approach us with positive presupposition? When we get into the habit of assuming the best, our work relationships will become healthier and more effective.
One of the reasons we are to assume the best in others is that every person is made in the image of God. Everyone is sacred, or holy. The dignity inherent in each individual demands that we treat them with the respect and honor we all deserve.
Think about what makes you feel valued. Do you appreciate having people make eye contact with you when you are speaking with them? What does it do to you inside when you realize someone is actually listening as you share your concerns, ideas, or dreams? How do you feel when your supervisor asks about your family, remembers a significant day in your life, or assigns you a project that lines up with your passion? Small gestures carry a big weight because they tell us that we are seen and matter.
If you’ve ever played sports, you know the power of teamwork. Each player performs his or her role while depending on teammates to do theirs. Only together do they have a chance of winning. Even athletes in solitary sports like tennis or swimming will admit they cannot win without their coaches, trainers, family, and fellow athletes. We cannot succeed alone. Working in community is an exercise in humility, as we admit we lack certain abilities or talents. But that humility leads to thriving.
We think more creatively, more expansively, and more honestly when we are bouncing ideas off other people. We need each other for inspiration, support, and fine-tuning.
Let’s get in the habit of consulting others, encouraging colleagues, and creating a team that can rely on one another.
The essence of a workplace is the people, not the product. The better we treat one another, the more fulfilling we’ll find our work and the more excellent our work will become. When we assume the best, relate to each other with dignity, and actively seek to work in community, we will make our workplace a place to flourish.
To learn more habits that will improve your work experience and lead you to greater success, check out Marcus Goodloe’s new RightNow Media @ Work series, “Habits.”
It’s no overstatement to say that we are more distracted now than we’ve ever been. The “chaos machine” in our pockets constantly diverts our attention away from what matters, gluing our eyes to the things that don’t. And with our attention goes our focus.
Addressing this very topic, New York Times bestselling author and speaker Jon Acuff recently filmed a new series with our team entitled Focus: In a World of Bottomless Distractions and Endless Opportunities. We caught up with Jon to hear what he learned while preparing this series and his hope for those who go through it.
Jon: One thing I learned is how distracted we all are. I like to say that our distraction technology has outpaced our ability to focus. Think about how fast distraction has scaled. I mean, twenty years ago the only distraction I had on my phone was a game called snake. I don’t know if you’re my age, but it just was a line that went “doot, doot, doot, doot, doot.” Now, you have every movie ever made, every book ever written, and every podcast ever recorded in your pocket. You have a chaos machine in your pocket. So, it was really interesting to learn—that’s part of why it’s challenging. You shouldn’t feel bad that it’s hard to focus; the odds are stacked against you because of our technology. But there are some really simple things you can do, and that’s what was so fun about filming this series.
Jon: I want viewers to walk away with the idea that you can learn how to focus. It’s not a personality trait. It’s not something that some people are good at and others are bad. When you talk to people about, “Is it easy for you to focus?” or “Do you ever get distracted?” sometimes they make identity statements. They say, “I’m a really distracted person. I can never focus,” as if they can’t learn. But the one thing I want you to walk away with is you can learn, and there’s some very practical things you can do that are actually really fun. And you get to see pretty quick progress. So I want you to walk away with the idea that you can do it and that there’s things you can do.
Jon: My most memorable moment of any series—we’ve done because we’ve done three together (so, I know I’m talking about Focus, but we’ve done Soundtracks and Finish)—my most memorable moment was where I got to the shoot and there was a cliff. They had set up the shoot on the edge of a cliff that was three-hundred feet high, overlooking a river, and there was a rock that was, in my opinion, very close to the edge of the cliff. And they said, “Hey, we just want you to stand on this rock, it’ll be an amazing shot.” And I said, “What’s your second idea?” Because I talk with my hands, I move around a lot, I’m very animated. So, I said, “There’s no way I’m getting on that rock.” So, if you watch that video, I’m perched on the rock. I’m sitting on the rock, that was our compromise, but I’m kind of looking over my shoulder. That was the most memorable. The second was, we filmed in Nissan Titan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, where I live. And it was an amazing shot, and they had a drone, and it was just gorgeous. So, I love partnering with RightNow because they always do such beautifully well-thought-out work.
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