standing for Jesus

Being a man of faith in business is tricky. For one thing, if I offend another employee with my faith, then that person can make a case that I create a hostile work environment by judging his or her lifestyle. I’ve been warned that even the simple fact of having a Bible and a religious plaque in my office could be challenged, and if they ever were I’d be asked to remove them. Most of the managers and all of the owners at my company are Christians, but the law tends to be applied in sympathy with plaintiffs in cases like these.

That’s one problem. Another is that we depend on good relationships with a lot of different people. We can’t afford to alienate customers, obviously. And vendors, the people we buy from, have a lot of influence over our success. Sometimes these people are simply profane in their language and choices. Sometimes, assuming all rational people must agree, they openly mock Christianity. In those cases keeping my mouth shut is seen as a better choice than speaking up.

What this amounts to in my mind is going along to get along, and I don’t like it. One of the reasons I don’t is what Jesus said in Matthew 10:32-33: “‘Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.’”

What’s the balance between acknowledging Jesus and not getting my company in trouble with a hostile work environment complaint? When I let customers and vendors assume I agree with their disparagement of Jesus and his followers, how is that different than disowning him?

I don’t know, and I’m sure that too often I make the wrong choice. There are a lot of mines in this minefield, and I’m always conscious that my words and actions have consequences for my employers.

But here’s what else I know: I’ve had the chance to help a lot of people at work because I refuse to be a stealth Christian. That Bible and plaque are still in my office, and I pray over my meals. I talk about church when we discuss our weekends. And I’m free to tell people, when they ask why I act different than other managers, who I’m really trying to please and how he values people.

You know what happens when you do those things? People who don’t know what to do about their messed-up lives, or how to handle the consequences of their bad choices, see you as someone who might help. They seem to recognize that God has answers for life’s hardest questions. And some of them come to ask. 

I never looked at work as a mission field and I don’t now. But over the years I’ve helped marriages hold together, walked a man through the death of a child, and encouraged a number of addicted people as they fought substance abuse. One time, I even helped bring an non-believer to Jesus (I think - you can’t ever know for sure but the right signs were there) as he was dying of cancer, and he asked me to preach at his funeral.

Those things happened because in my own way I’m trying to visibly stand for Jesus - not that I’m so effective, but Jesus will always use men and women who make themselves available. It might get me in trouble some day, but at least I don’t think Jesus will disown me when the time comes.