Latest / Gospel Talks Podcast / #61 - HR Nightmare? Sharing Your Faith at Work
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome everybody to Gospel Talks podcast where we help Christians all over the world become more effective in relational evangelism and discipleship.
- 0:07My name is George Bonoka and with me today is Pastor Joel Mosier from the Texas, the Houston area in Texas.
- 0:14And so we're so uh glad and encouraged to have him with us.
- 0:17And so thank you brother for making time in your busy schedule.
- 0:20And what I wanted to do today is tackle this topic that you actually wrote an article about and I'm gonna link the article in the show notes below, but
- 0:28know, evangelizing at work is a tough thing these days.
- 0:32It's a hard thing for Christians to share their faith at work.
- 0:35There's several reasons for that we're gonna try to cover here.
- 0:37But let me just start with this and I'll ask you, why do you think the workplace is one of the hardest places for Christians to share their faith?
- 0:44Yeah, I can think of George, just a handful of reasons.
- 0:48First of all, thanks for having me back.
- 0:50I'm glad to be back and I love the exchange.
- 0:53The exchange has absolutely changed me personally, has revolutionized our church as far as how to equip our members for personal evangelism.
- 1:02So I'm glad to be back.
- 1:04But yeah, let me answer that question.
- 1:06Why are people fearful about evangelizing at work?
- 1:10I can think of a handful just off the top of my head.
- 1:13One is very common, right?
- 1:14It's just fear of rejection or conflict, right?
- 1:17I don't want to be known as that person.
- 1:21Another one is workplace policies.
- 1:25Just the explicit, you are to keep religion and politics out of the workplace.
- 1:31the so what if HR finds out?
- 1:33I think, you know, going another one that we all struggle with just a lack of confidence.
- 1:37I don't know what's what's gonna kind of questions are gonna come.
- 1:40respect for diversity like so, for instance, one of our company's values is diversity.
- 1:45And so if I speak, you know, even in a lunch about the exclusivity of the gospel through Christ,
- 1:54Am I gonna be written up or will that somehow find its way back?
- 1:57And then I think the last one that I just off the top of my head is just simply time and context restraints.
- 2:04mean, work is for work.
- 2:05We are getting paid uh to produce and so this isn't a evangelistic crusade.
- 2:13anyways, fear of rejection, workplace policies.
- 2:17Lack of confidence, respect for diversity, time, and just context constraints.
- 2:23That's what immediately comes to my mind.
- 2:24Yeah, and I'd understand most of those.
- 2:28I think the unique one is the HR piece.
- 2:31So if somebody in your church walked up to you tomorrow and said, pastor, there's a person I want to witness to, but I know there are people that would be antagonistic and report me
- 2:42to HR if I witnessed to them.
- 2:45Which is funny to me, how our culture has done this.
- 2:47We believe in diversity, except when it's
- 2:51a worldview that contradicts my worldview of inclusion, right?
- 2:55So uh we're exclusively inclusive.
- 2:59And so because of that, we've created this culture where it's like, well, I can't identify as a Christian, but you could kind of identify as whatever you wanted to because my
- 3:08Christianity, know, offends whatever you're identifying as.
- 3:12All that aside, what would you tell practically?
- 3:15What kind of practical advice would you give to that person who says, what do I do?
- 3:18Do I take the risk?
- 3:19Is there a right way, a wrong way to do it?
- 3:22What are your thoughts?
- 3:23yeah, first of all, I don't think there's a wrong way or let me say this.
- 3:27I don't think there's an out, there's a right answer for every situation.
- 3:31I think every context is going to demand nuance.
- 3:36So let's just admit that let's be, let's be critical thinkers in and let's be like Jesus said, wise as serpents, right?
- 3:44and harmless as doves.
- 3:45So I think we need to think through nuance.
- 3:47So what I'm about to say,
- 3:49isn't going to work and isn't going to work in every context.
- 3:54It's going to be slightly different from nuance to nuance.
- 3:56I think just generally, I would say if you're fearful about, you know, stuff getting back to HR, we believe in evangelism, the gospel in the context of relationships.
- 4:09That doesn't mean we never get to the gospel, but it does mean that there is some semblance of trust
- 4:16between myself and the person that I'm speaking to.
- 4:19So I think if you're, you know, I don't think wisdom is having that conversation over the cubicle.
- 4:25Let's say that someone across the cubicle or two cubicles over says something that's kind of provocative, but you have a relationship enough with them to bring it up.
- 4:34I don't think that exact moment is the time to address it.
- 4:39when you are, when you take a lunch break and you go off site and you're eating at Chipotle or you know you're specifically saying, next week let's get together and eat.
- 4:48And you sit down, you could say something like, hey, do you remember when?
- 4:52And bring up some of those things.
- 4:53So that's my initial thought, George, is that we do need to think strategically and think nuanced in how to.
- 5:03not get fired, number one, and number two, not put our coworkers in a situation where they feel like they have to report us, but where we've established trust enough where they know
- 5:13where we're coming from.
- 5:15And if this is the first time, like if they never even knew that we went to church on a Sunday, so I would just tell folks within our assembly, our church family, a regular piece
- 5:25of your conversation when somebody says to you, how was your weekend?
- 5:29Besides talking about your kids' soccer games on Saturday, soon thereafter needs to be, and we had a wonderful time at our church yesterday.
- 5:37So that it's part of the fabric of who you are as a person.
- 5:41Yeah, man, I couldn't agree with you more.
- 5:44think that's number one is, and I guess we could talk about this in a second, but who you are at work and character communicates a lot just by itself.
- 5:55It's not going to get you there all the way.
- 5:57You've got to be able to wear your faith, your worldview on your shirt sleeve, like Pastor Jeff says, confidently without
- 6:05cramming it down people's throats at work.
- 6:06I think the other piece is just practical and you kind of made reference to it.
- 6:09Basically, you could put yourself in a situation where you're stealing from your boss time wise, labor wise, by deciding I'm going to be evangelistic when I need to be working.
- 6:20But it's actually the opportunities to do things off site together.
- 6:23mean, work is work is the reason you might have met that person.
- 6:27But it's not working in proximity alone that
- 6:29that ought to be the main driver of the relationship.
- 6:32You should find those launch opportunities.
- 6:33Hey man, let's go grab lunch at the cafeteria.
- 6:35Or hey, let's go to Chipotle, you know, my treat.
- 6:38Or hey, how'd you like to come over our house, play board games with our family, whatever.
- 6:42Then it's like, work is just a springboard.
- 6:45I don't foresee you saying, let's turn off our phones, know, or let's turn off our work for an hour and just sit in this cubicle and do the exchange.
- 6:53mean, you're setting yourself up for disaster.
- 6:55doing the right thing the wrong way, you know, kind of situation.
- 6:59George, I'll say this.
- 7:00It is mind boggling to me how Christian people can be lazy people.
- 7:07And if there ought to be anyone that has a work ethic in their office, at the job site, behind a screen, if there's anyone, it ought to be
- 7:18Christian people, because God has redeemed us, not just to save us from this world to get us to heaven, but he's redeemed everything that we do.
- 7:25He's redeemed my marriage, he's redeemed my parenting, and he has redeemed how I labor.
- 7:31And so I don't see, know, there was this phrase, right, we used to talk about the Protestant work ethic, and Martin Luther redeemed the value of work in the context that we
- 7:44do it for the glory of God.
- 7:45And so,
- 7:46I think that when we're, as Christian people, if we have not modeled just plain hard work, get things done on time with a measure of excellence, it's those types of activities,
- 7:59responsibilities that actually afford us then opportunities to speak into situations and extend a measure of grace, if we will, from
- 8:13people around us because they know our work for excellence.
- 8:16Exactly.
- 8:17And I think on that level as well as character, you know, it's the broader thing behind the excellence, the work ethic.
- 8:25you know, I remember my first job as a busser at Red Lobster.
- 8:30so bus and table 16 year old.
- 8:32You'd not believe how many times people in your workplace will invite you to go and do something with them that's wrong.
- 8:40That's counter to what the Bible teaches.
- 8:42that would be compromising your faith.
- 8:44And so at first, I think what could happen to us as Christians in the workplace is we'll seem very odd.
- 8:51We're gonna seem very odd, it's gonna be different.
- 8:53That guy, I mean, it's not that we're total stiffs and we're people, have personalities, we laugh, we joke, all those things are great.
- 8:59But people are gonna notice he doesn't come drinking with us, he doesn't come in hungover the next morning.
- 9:04He's not getting into trouble with HR because he's on his laptop or she's on her laptop doing bad things on the internet or whatever.
- 9:12It's like there are a number of things that are gonna make you stand out just because you're following Jesus Christ and trying to live life his way.
- 9:20But I think there also comes with that, and this is something that sometimes we don't, maybe we're insecure about as Christians, there comes with that level of respect other
- 9:29people have for those people who
- 9:31who really do what they say they believe.
- 9:34And I think, and I've heard this from people in the military who are chaplains, that the moment you capitulate and say, all right, well, I'm just gonna cuss because they cuss.
- 9:41I'm just gonna go drinking at the bar because they go drinking at the bar and it's gonna be a way for me to relate to them.
- 9:46You can relate to people in the wrong ways, in the wrong areas of life.
- 9:50And so you wanna be careful that you maintain that integrity and...
- 9:54uh
- 9:54And at first people may make fun of you for it, but I think deep down people respect that because they you're not a hypocrite.
- 9:59So I think that's important.
- 10:01Would you have any different thought on that?
- 10:03No, I mean, I really just kind of highlighting or underlining the exact same thing you said.
- 10:07I just recently heard of a story of a guy who a Christian man, a Christian young man in his twenties who works here in the city of Houston and uh had all of his coworkers and
- 10:19their significant others, girlfriend, wife, whatever, over for a football game into his home.
- 10:25And he said, this is going to be different because, you know, they don't drink.
- 10:29And so he told his buddies up ahead of time, but they still came and they still had fun.
- 10:34Did he preach the gospel to him?
- 10:36No, he did not preach the gospel to them.
- 10:38They were watching, you know, whatever game it was.
- 10:42the point is, is that brother is establishing relationship.
- 10:46And when the time comes for those individuals, when they have a sole need, they're going to go to the person where there is authenticity.
- 10:56genuineness and where they've been into that person's home.
- 11:01And so that point of character specifically is essential to our Christian witness.
- 11:08Amen.
- 11:09Amen.
- 11:09Yeah, and I don't think it's hard.
- 11:11People at work are going to talk about their hobbies.
- 11:13They're going to talk about the things they like.
- 11:14And so you just find one of those things to do with them or you find an excuse to bring them over to your house and show them some hospitality.
- 11:20It's going to make a huge, huge difference in that life.
- 11:23One of the things you say in the article is, the first step is just as you start to build that relationship with somebody that you work with is simply love Jesus and his gospel.
- 11:32What does that look like in a work context?
- 11:35day to day.
- 11:36mean, work sometimes people's, certain people's work can be pretty monotonous or you know, so what is, what does loving Jesus and his gospel look like for an accountant or you know,
- 11:46for somebody that has a job where it's like, all right, I'm on a factory line or whatever you're doing.
- 11:51Yeah, that yeah, let me let me kind of try to unpack this as best I can.
- 11:55I hope I give a good answer here.
- 11:57What I'm getting at is this.
- 11:58Theologically conservative Christians, people who are or theologically orthodox, we love our theology.
- 12:06We love our our hymns.
- 12:08We love the nuanced arguments of this theological position and this theological position here, and we we want to kind of
- 12:15Run that out.
- 12:17And what I'm getting at is this is those things are all well and fine and good and we need people to be thinking like that.
- 12:24And I think Christian people need to be thinking like that.
- 12:26But what what I'm concerned about is he's been as a pastor and as a Christian.
- 12:31Do I love the Jesus of my theology?
- 12:35Do I love the Jesus of my music?
- 12:38Do I love or do I just love the intellectual exercise?
- 12:42Or do I just love the rhythm and cadence of my preacher's voice or that radio preacher's voice or that podcaster?
- 12:50Or do I actually, have I made that actually part of my idol's worship system?
- 12:57Or do I actually love Jesus?
- 12:59And part of the reason why I'm bringing this up is because I am convicted myself.
- 13:03Is the aroma of Jesus Christ
- 13:06of who I am as a Christian.
- 13:08Like take me out of the pulpit, take me out of sermon preparation.
- 13:13Do I just say, do I just sing about Jesus because I love Jesus?
- 13:19Does the name Jesus ever come across my lips to my children simply because I love my savior?
- 13:25And so I think that it is gonna be a challenge, right?
- 13:29mean, you know.
- 13:31You're working on a spreadsheet and you can't just start singing, how I love Jesus.
- 13:35Like I get that or whatever anthem, right?
- 13:39So I get that, but I think there has to be something about us.
- 13:44And maybe that's where we talk about, however many Sundays we talk about, or Mondays we talk about, had a great time at church, the follow-up at the appropriate time is.
- 13:56But why did you have a great time at church?
- 14:00And it's in there trying to bring in because Jesus has rescued me.
- 14:06So I'll be honest, I don't know how you would, while typing at a keyboard, say that.
- 14:10But there is the aroma of Christ that we exude by walking with Christ day in and day out.
- 14:18And I'll say this too, I think if I feel my brain,
- 14:20with political podcasts on the way into work.
- 14:23I don't think I'm gonna have the aroma of Christ.
- 14:25I'll have the aroma of political podcaster.
- 14:28And so I think that's part of how I need to shepherd my own heart.
- 14:33I think you're right.
- 14:34I think at work, we all talk about what we love.
- 14:37We do it very naturally.
- 14:38You know, people talk about, they choose to talk about the things they love in a certain way, they portray them in a certain light, they talk about them whenever they get a
- 14:48chance.
- 14:49And I think as Christians, we ought not to be ashamed of the person we love.
- 14:53And Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
- 14:55You know, in Romans chapter one, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
- 14:58And so,
- 14:59It is the power of God unto salvation.
- 15:00So I think we have, as Christians, to be admitting to our co-workers in the appropriate times and the appropriate ways that who we love is, his name is Jesus Christ.
- 15:12And so, and unashamedly do that.
- 15:14Just like somebody at work talked about they love the Dallas Cowboys.
- 15:18Terrible team, but some people love them.
- 15:20It's like in the same way, why wouldn't I say I love Jesus?
- 15:24Why wouldn't people know that about me?
- 15:25Why wouldn't they know that I'm cheering?
- 15:27You know, I'm on his team, you know, that's the one I'm following.
- 15:32um And so I think it comes out, and I think you're right, it's subtle.
- 15:36It's like aroma, it's subtle.
- 15:38And people will get the idea.
- 15:40You may not even have to say anything.
- 15:41They might just take one look at your cubicle or desk or whatever and get the idea of, oh,
- 15:46They love Jesus and they might even derogatorily say they're a Jesus lover or whatever.
- 15:51But I think that aroma that you're talking about and it exudes because of that relationship, our daily walk with Christ, our love for him.
- 15:59Either you love him or you don't.
- 16:01And that comes out.
- 16:02People can tell.
- 16:03Yeah, it's like when my wife is baking bread or baking cookies.
- 16:09It's just there, right?
- 16:11You can't get rid of it.
- 16:13Or like literally right down the hallway right now, one of my staff members, our staff members is burning the candle and it smells really good.
- 16:20It's just there.
- 16:22And I think that if we spend time with Christ, we're going to have, there's gonna be joy, there's gonna be calm.
- 16:30there's gonna be peace even in the midst of turbulence when companies are downsizing or when families are going through difficult situations.
- 16:38I think one of the ways that we share Jesus, George, is not being afraid to talk or to talk about trials that we're experiencing.
- 16:47um Whether it's a health issue with a spouse or children.
- 16:53whether it's, you know, my spouse lost her job and so we're trying to figure out how we're gonna make ends meet.
- 17:00I think all these types of ways are life that we can show Christ through the highs and through the lows.
- 17:09And I think those are ways we can show the love.
- 17:12So one of the things that I'm burdened about sometimes is where we as pastors tell people to be different and where the Bible tells us to be different, we accidentally read in
- 17:23weird.
- 17:25And so how do you make sure that you're being different, but you're not being weird?
- 17:30How do you make sure you're being appropriately aggressive as a Christian should be in their witness without being
- 17:35and overbearing.
- 17:38man.
- 17:38I wish, man, that is a wonderful question, George.
- 17:42And I don't know, I'm trying to, like, sometimes you just know when people are weird.
- 17:47that's really, you know, I
- 17:50You don't know what you can't describe it, but you know it when you see it.
- 17:53Yeah, it's like, why would you I think one is just awkward transitions.
- 17:58Like we were talking about the Houston Texans and you just asked me, you know, about if I died today where I'd go is like, wait a second, we're we're still talking about the game.
- 18:10We've never even had.
- 18:12I've never even opened up at that level to for you to to
- 18:16to talk at that level of depth of relationship.
- 18:20So I think one is, has that friend, when I say opened up, I don't mean that they've divulged every difficulty that they've walked through.
- 18:29I'm talking about as simple as them talking about, man, it's just really hard being a step-parent, right?
- 18:37Or it's just,
- 18:38you know, my in-laws, my in-law is in the hospital and my wife's having to spend a lot of time over there.
- 18:45And so one of the ways that we can avoid weirdness is listening to what people are telling us and asking more questions around that topic.
- 19:00Mm-hmm.
- 19:01Yeah, I don't know if that's helpful, George.
- 19:03Yeah, I mean, I, one of the hardest things for me is had street evangelism, and there are awesome people that do it.
- 19:10And when they do it, it's not, it's not awkward.
- 19:13mean, it just fits them so naturally.
- 19:15So I'm not, I'm not boohooing or poo-pooing any, any, any approach here, because I think that, you know, you, kind of need both approaches in certain instances.
- 19:24But, um but I would say in our context here in America that
- 19:27having that confrontation right on the street is pretty weird and awkward.
- 19:32I think we could do the same thing in our workplace.
- 19:33know, like for instance, you've been praying about a certain coworker, but you have zero relationship.
- 19:38And the first time they ever say hi to you, you go right into, hey, if you were to die tomorrow, where would you go?
- 19:45And the weirdest I felt, most awkward I've ever felt in a social interaction was with questions like that.
- 19:52I remember one time,
- 19:53I was with a dear, friend.
- 19:54love him so much.
- 19:55And we were at the mall and he was witnessing this young lady and he asked her, he was starting to go through the 10 Commandment thing, you know, where he's like, have you ever
- 20:02done this?
- 20:02Have you ever done that?
- 20:03And, you know, I think this question is okay if two guys are asking it to each other, but if you're asking it to a girl and you say, have you ever lusted in your heart and there's
- 20:11two old guys looking at you, this young girl, and you're just thinking, oh this is...
- 20:18This just got awkward.
- 20:19But he's such a bold guy.
- 20:21he didn't flinch at all.
- 20:22But, know, again, I love him dearly.
- 20:24I love him to death.
- 20:25there are some things that I see us do sometimes in evangelism that I'm like, man, that's the weirdest way you could have done that.
- 20:31You know, let's back up.
- 20:33Let's slow down.
- 20:34Let's do the relationship intentionally.
- 20:36Let's trust in God's providence and sovereignty that he will open this door.
- 20:40If he allowed this person to warm up to you enough that they start a conversation with you to begin with, then it's no accident that you're there.
- 20:47We call those divine appointments.
- 20:49But the key is, like you said, is having this, the ability to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit at the right times in the right ways.
- 20:57There's no magic answer to that, but that's what the scriptures tell us.
- 21:01People are, I think people, let me kind of riff on what you said about allowing the spirit to lead us.
- 21:07um When a coworker confides in you about an upcoming that they're contemplating divorce.
- 21:18Hmm.
- 21:19That's a Holy Spirit moment.
- 21:21When you're at a lunch table and there's five of them there and someone blurts out like, I'm thinking about getting divorced.
- 21:27I don't know that that's, I don't think that's the same thing, right?
- 21:31I, when,
- 21:32when a, this is hard for type A personalities or people who are like try to get things, we just gotta get things done, we get things done off our checklist.
- 21:40But do you ever look into your coworkers eyes?
- 21:43Like are they tired today?
- 21:45Are those exhausted eyes?
- 21:47And are those exhausted eyes because the football game was too late last night?
- 21:51Or are those exhausted eyes because life is hard?
- 21:54And we don't, people are like, well I never think like that.
- 21:58Well, that's what Jesus, when Jesus looked on people with compassion at the people with compassion, that's what he was seeing.
- 22:07And so I think we we need to be looking and hearing in people's, when people are talking politics and they're angry about something, why are they angry?
- 22:17They're angry because life for them, at least in their mind as they know it is being turned upside down.
- 22:23or they're insecure about a moment.
- 22:26um And so I think when we're hearing these things, try to go to the next level of thinking about what they're communicating with their eyes, with those angry words, with those upset
- 22:39words, with those divulging words about my stepkids or whatever it may be, or what my ex did this past weekend that totally threw me off.
- 22:47and is really going to mess up my finances now because she went back to the judge for the third time.
- 22:52All of those pieces are God's way of opening people's the doors of their heart.
- 22:58And that's where so so weirdness weirdness steps in compassionate compassionate evangelizers listen for where the spirit is at work.
- 23:11hmm.
- 23:12Yeah, it's not forced, you know, and coming from a place of care is key.
- 23:16People can sense it, people respond to it.
- 23:18It's what, you know, we talk about in giving the exchange and we've trained hundreds of churches with this is you got to know when to turn the conversation.
- 23:25You can't go from surface level to soul level, deep conversations just like that on a dime.
- 23:30No, it's you're at the surface level and relationship and trust builds.
- 23:34eventually they reveal a soul need like divorce or hey I'm I'm tired or I'm I'm drinking too much or whatever and then that's the moment to say hey have you ever have you ever
- 23:44thought about getting some answers to that could I could I show you something could we do a Bible study together when people aren't there Lois they're open to that they are open to
- 23:53that but you know in the board meeting with 30 of their colleagues in the room they're not open to it ah
- 24:00With everybody else listening and the cubicles over, it's not the right time.
- 24:03but I think that's key.
- 24:05Well, I mean, hey, this has been an awesome conversation.
- 24:08I hope we could, we were a help to those in the workplace.
- 24:11And though we are pastors, both of us, I know both of us have had experience working in secular environments.
- 24:17so, um and Scripture is the ultimate authority in all these things.
- 24:20So I really couldn't point to anything that we were talking about and say it was unbiblical.
- 24:24So,
- 24:25Follow scripture first and foremost, follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
- 24:28And so we love you guys, we're praying for you, for the laborers in the harvest.
- 24:32The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
- 24:35So pray with us as we pray to the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers.
- 24:39Thank you so much, Pastor Joel, and for joining us on the podcast.
- 24:43Love your heart.
- 24:44And for all of you out there, if this was a blessing, share it with somebody.
- 24:48If it wasn't a blessing, share it with somebody.
- 24:50And so we wanna help.
- 24:53We want to help Christians all over the world.
- 24:55Lord bless you guys.
- 24:56See you next week.