How to Glorify God at Work
A great post by John Piper. He gives quick thoughts on 9 areas:
- Dependence
- Integrity
- Skill
- Corporate shaping
- Impact
- Communication
- Love
- Money
- Thanks
One additional word on skill: If you show love by being the first to order the pizza, or drive the van, or do whatever to serve people, but aren’t good at what you do, everything will fall flat. You have to be good at what you do. Good intentions are not enough.
And this usually means, in part, reading about your industry and about the best practices (and unconventional practices!) for your role and about management and about leadership and other such things.
Which likely means reading secular resources as well as Christian. You won’t learn what it means to be a great manager, for example, simply by reading Christian books on management (unfortunately!). Same with leadership. Marketing. And so forth.
And this is acceptable and good. As John Wesley said, “To imagine none can teach you but those who are themselves saved from sin, is a very great and dangerous mistake. Give not place to it for a moment.”
Likewise, the book of Acts points out that Moses (Moses!) was “instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds” (Acts 7:22). And we could go on and talk about Daniel (Daniel 1:4, 17), Paul, Luke, Joseph, the book of Proverbs (most scholars recognize that many of the Proverbs were adapted from the wisdom literature of other civilizations), Jonathan Edwards, and on and on.
The point is: If we want to glorify God in our workplaces, we need to learn from the best thinkers in our fields, whether they are Christians or not. And, this creates a better testimony to the gospel.
Don’t be the guy who volunteers first to go get the pizza, but that everyone groans about because he thinks that’s a substitute for being an expert in his role.
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About Matt Perman
Follower of Christ. Husband of one, father of three. Former director of strategy at Desiring God. This blog exists to help equip Christians in good works, because that's what productivity is really about.
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This is so true. Too often we get caught up in our own little Christian world and we forget that truth is truth, and if it is God-honoring then it is worth our time.
Hybels, Groeshcel and other pastors talk about how they read everything on management and leadership no matter where it comes from. That is the way that I want to be.
[...] Matt Perman’s helpful notes on Piper’s point #3 – Skill [...]
Yes, thank you for this post. I get a fair amount of resistance to secular resources stuff I bring to my Elders. The irony is that the resistance is unbiblical
[...] comments (found here) help me put things in perspective: “One additional word on skill: If you show love by being [...]
I came back to this post because I was looking for some resources on a biblical theology of business practices for Christian organizations. I’m definitely one who would have resisted the “worldly businessification” of the church. BUT, last month our girls’ Christian school hired a new principal to fix what (I’ve since discovered) were some massive weaknesses due to things like lack of clear vision, failure to execute or communicate well, and basic incompetency. I’m having a small epiphany over the sad reality of many Christian organizations’ lack of understanding about the connection between skill (including so-called “secular” ones) and stewardship.
[...] How to Glorify God at Work. First and foremost, by doing your best at your job. If you’re a slacker, no one will respect your message. [...]
[...] HT: Matt Perman [...]