Thursday, December 11, 2008

FAITH-FOCUSED

I was reading Robert Grossman, who is a lawyer and professor of management studies at Marist College. He was talking about how many employers across the country are weaving religion and spirituality into company cultures.

'Most business leaders are faith-frosty, convinced that the less religious expression there is at work, the better. The U.S. educational system and other organizations say you should "compartmentalize faith ... folks who are willing to live out their faith and talk about it Monday thru Friday are often viewed as fanatical. Someone can go to a football game and scream and holler ... but at work, if you mention you should love one another and live right every day, it's like, 'What's wrong with you?'"

And then, there's the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. They are a faith-focused company. Did you know that? Organizations like Coca-Cola proactively conduct business in a way that embraces the faiths of its leaders/owners.

In addition, there are companies called faith-friendly companies. They value inclusion and promote diversity and religious self-expression. They don't align with any one religion, but rather invite workers to bring all manners of religious expressions to the workplace. Ford Motor Company is one such organization. Workers' religious groups have access to facilities after hours for meetings and/or communicate thru newsletters.

No real data is available, but many experts say the number of companies that promote or encourage religious expression is trending up. David Miller says, 'We've reached a tipping point where the conventional wisdom that you keep your spiritual side at home is about to collapse.''

According to a recent Barna survey, 55% of believers said they had shared their faith with unbelievers during the past year in at least one of the following ways:

* Offered to pray with someone in need of encouragement or support
* Engaged in 'lifestyle evangelism,' descsribed as living in ways that would impress unbelievers and cause them to raise questions about the believer's lifestyle
* Engaged in 'Socratic evangelism,' intentionally asking unbelievers what they believed concerning a particular moral or spiritual matter - without telling them they were wrong, but challenging them to explain their thinking and its implications.

Some good news there.

And be blessed.

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