B.1. Service Delivery:
It is a factual statement that we spend more hours in the workplace than in any other place. Christians in the workplace are confronted by perplexities and challenges arising on new horizons in modern society. The question is, how do we navigate through current workplace services using biblical principles as our guide? The answer is embedded in Matt. 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
There are five fundamental questions to be asked of an employee:
- Who are you in Christ? Your identity in Christ.
- Why did God position you in your workplace?
- What motivates you to get up in the morning and go off to work each day?
- What practical steps can you take to serve Christ in your everyday work?
- Once you know God’s strategic reasons for sending you into your workplace, how can you intentionally cooperate with him in carrying out his various purposes for you?
B.2 Health
The workplace has a significant impact on people’s health and wellbeing. Poor workplace management can lead to work-related ill health and high levels of sickness absence. It gives real cause for concern and impacts service delivery with consequences for individual staff. Absence related to sickness is a crucial indicator of how well an organization is managed. Universities, Seminaries, and Colleges need healthy and well-motivated workers to deliver high-quality services. Some critical criteria to improve service delivery[1] are ‘To’:
- Create a workplace where health, safety, and wellbeing is protected and promoted
- Ensure staff have access to competent occupational health advice and support;
- Improve access to preventative care and treatment for everyday health problems; and
- Enable people to remain in work while health problems are investigated and treated.
Good health encourages and promotes good Service delivery.
C. Workplace Ethics:
“To conform to accepted and especially professional and Godly standards of conduct.”
Ethics is putting principles into action; consistency between what we say we value and what our actions say we value is a matter of Integrity. “A key component to workplace ethics is integrity, or being honest and doing the right thing at all times, especially those who manage and work primarily with money.” When hiring an employee, all organizations specify what is acceptable behavior and what is not. Workers who do not follow codes of conduct may receive written and verbal warnings and ultimately be fired. Ethics is about ‘self-restraint.’
The Key Components of ‘Workplace Ethics’ include:
1. Integrity
The dictionary defines Integrity as: “Soundness of moral principles and character; uprightness, honesty.” Integrity means living by the laws—both God’s laws and those of the society, and Integrity presupposes a standard and a desire to live by it. A person who lives by Integrity will aim to do right and wrong no one, and his conscience will be apparent both toward God and man.
Paul’s Example:
Paul was imprisoned at the end of his life in Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders were accusing Paul because of his ministry to the Gentiles. When Paul was allowed to speak to Felix, the governor, he said, “And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men.” – Acts 24:16 (KJV). This passage perhaps best describes the meaning and application of the concept of Integrity. In this verse, Paul says that he can look both God and man squarely in the eye and know in his heart of hearts that he has dealt with them in Integrity (Honesty and fairness). Let us look at the passage more closely to see how Paul accomplished this.
“Herein do I exercise myself….”
• Exercise means Practice—we need to exercise like an athlete, practicing consistently and daily until it becomes second nature.
• Exercise means Discipline—it takes determination and steadfastness to exercise oneself in Integrity. When everyone else is following his sinful desires, it takes excellent Commitment to obey God and His commands.
• Exercise means Courage—we must learn to face our sin and call it to sin. So often, people call sin by other names—like, “little white lies” or “stretching the truth” when God views it as dishonesty, bearing false witness, and lying. If we refuse to face ourselves, God will one day force us to face up to our lack of Integrity. It can be excruciating. King David, for example, had to be confronted personally and harshly by Nathan, the prophet, before he faced his lack of Integrity and sin with Bathsheba. Today all who know Biblical history know of this painful confrontation and David’s terrible sin (2 Samuel 12). Refusing to face sin now only postpones the inevitable revealing of it by God. If a man is to walk in Integrity, he must listen to the Spirit of God at work in his conscience.
Conscience Is Basic To Integrity:
Since conscience is fundamental to a walk of Integrity, let us examine what the Bible tells us about conscience: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the LORD, I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” – Jeremiah 31:33
God has placed his law in our hearts. Our conscience is God’s programming us to know His will.
For down inside, they (the heathen) know right from wrong. God’s laws are written within them, their conscience accuses them, or sometimes excuses them – Romans 2:15 (LB)
Even non-Christians have conscience, which God has programmed to respond to right and wrong. So many people today suffer from guilt complexes because they are operating against what their consciences tell them is correct. “Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman was standing in the midst.” – John 8:9
In the story of Jesus dealing with the adulterous woman, we can see vividly how conscience convicts guilty hearts. The people were quick to condemn the woman for her sin, but Jesus knew that each man’s conscience would convict him of his sin and that none could honestly condemn the woman. Conscience causes us to remember our sins and be convicted by them speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron… 1 Timothy 4:2. Some people act against what their conscience tells them for so long that eventually, their conscience becomes numb—seared—no longer sensitive to right and wrong. Conscience is a God-given safeguard against sin, and we must care for it well by listening to it and heeding it. Otherwise, it may become inoperative in our lives. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrews 9:14
2. Accountability: Taking responsibility for your actions; that means showing up on scheduled workdays, as well as arriving on time and putting in an honest effort while on the job.
3. Teamwork: A vital aspect of the workplace is working well with others, from peers to supervisors to students who are the customers in this Seminary. Though some employees might not like each other, they need to set aside personal or work-related differences to be “team players.”
4. Commitment: Dedication is essential. Despite possessing the necessary qualifications or skills, you must possess a positive attitude toward the job to move the organization forward.
