I was teaching an online course this summer, and one student responded to a question that I posed about the moral and spiritual values in the workplace. She was being honest, but I am sure that she did not see the inherent conflict in her answer, and I’m going to paraphrase it to avoid a long quote. She wrote that she was having a serious battle with values as a Christian in her workplace, and that she had been unable to find a church to attend that “met her needs.”
Look closely at the two parts of the answer. I don’t have any difficulty understanding conflicts of values in the workplace. If you have ever had a job (and I hope you are happily and gainfully employed!) you know that sooner or later your values of honesty, integrity, or morality have been challenged by coworkers or supervisors.
Photo by andalusia
That is simply the way life is in a fallen world.
The second part, however, establishes a troubling context for the first part. If this student is not participating in a church community, what resources does she have to deal with the conflict at work? If she is waiting to find a church that “meets her needs,” she may be looking in all the wrong places. Or, perhaps, she is not really looking at all, just using what she thinks would be a problem to cover the busyness of her life and the low priority that she has attached to linking to a spiritual community.
This young woman was caught in a really serious bind, and she had no idea where to find a solution. She faced what all Christians face, yet she unknowingly was alienated from her energy source. Remember two fundamental principles that I have addressed in other posts: We become like the people we choose as our formative friendships, and God very often speaks to us through these companions. Principle One–this woman is confronting a losing struggle, because she will inevitably adopt the ethical values of those in the work place in time and by default, because those are the only voices she is listening to. Principle Two–she is missing the wisdom and comfort and encouragement of God because she is alienated from those who would be Jesus to her. God does speak to us individually through his Word, through radio or TV preachers–but I doubt that she is reading the Bible or listening to those broadcasts. She may have already assumed a defensive posture that leaves her believing that she is alone against the dness.
Now, before you say it, I’ll write it down: I am well aware of the dismal conditions that exist in many Christian churches. She might not find formative, grace-filled relationships in the first church she visits. Maybe not the second or third. Nor will she find them quickly. But she could begin to ask friends and neighbors for recommendations–just as she might find a dentist or a pediatrician. There are thousands of healthy congregations, small and large, in our cities, suburbs, and rural areas.
Conclusion: a healthy spiritual community is absolutely essential for vibrant spiritual life in this world today (it has always been this way). If you are in the situation of this young woman, run–don’t walk–to a healthy church in your community. Without that support structure, you will not be able to stand against the pressure to conform to the moral erosion you face.
PS: I would love to correspond with you, but should you choose to reply to this blog, you must make some clear reference to specific content in this post, or in some of the other posts on this site. General comments are filtered out by my spam filters.
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