Faith in the Workplace: Faith is not something you do
Faith at work is who you are, showing up in the place where you spend most of your waking hours.
Last time we took our cue from Jesus' prayer in John 17. This time, two chapters earlier, in the vineyard. Across all three evenings, one idea kept surfacing in different words. Faith at work is not a set of behaviours you add on top of your job. It is who you are, showing up in the place where you spend most of your waking hours. "Faith is not something I do, it's who I am. It should shape the way I approach both life and work." - Ipelegeng (Ipi) Thibedi (Pretoria event)
That reframes the question most of us are actually asking. We want to know how to be a Christian at work: whether to pray before a meeting, how to talk about Sunday on a Monday, when to speak up and when to keep quiet.
Those questions matter, but they sit downstream of a deeper one. Who are you becoming? Because that is what the people around you will experience of your faith, long before they hear you say anything about it.
Which is where the vine comes in.
Abide in me, and I in you. - John 15:4
Apart from Him, He says, we can do nothing. Not less. Nothing. Which leads to the second thread from the evenings, and the more uncomfortable one.
To be effective in the workplace, your faith must first be cultivated outside the workplace. Spend time in God's Word, spend time in prayer, and let that shape who you are. - Nthabiseng Legoete (Potchefstroom event)
You cannot bring to the office a faith you have not tended anywhere else. The pressure of a hard quarter, a difficult colleague, a decision with no clean answer: none of that builds character, it reveals it.
The forming happens earlier and quieter, in the ordinary hours nobody sees and nobody claps for.
Mark tells us that Jesus got up long before sunrise and went out to a solitary place to pray, and that the crowds and the work were waiting for Him when He came back.
He had every reason to skip it.
He had a three-year window and a queue outside the door.
He went anyway.
So if your faith at work feels thin at the moment, the fix is probably not at work.
Three more lines we are still sitting with:
"Do everything with excellence, as unto the Lord. The company benefits, but your work is ultimately an act of worship." - Boshoff Grobler (Pretoria Event)
"You can't microwave your miracles. Sometimes God needs to prepare you before He promotes you." - Regan Adams (Stellenbosch Event)
"Success is good, but significance comes when you use your position to make an impact in the lives of others." - Michelle Harding (Stellenbosch Event)
