American Home Shield 2002 Annual Report Download - page 27

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To me, being faith-friendly means creating an inclusive environment
that recognizes the spiritual side of humanity, respects all individuals
as created uniquely in the image of God, provides an ultimate source for
ethical guidance, gives meaning and purpose to our work by reminding
us of the common good, and honors the diversity of approaches we have
in understanding God.
There is a growing body of evidence that indicates that striving to be a
faith-friendly company is beneficial for employees, management and
shareholders. Notably, these findings are both biblically grounded and
supported by cutting-edge economic and business research. Of course,
like all great leadership insights, making your company faith-friendly
has its challenges, given the complexity of corporate life, cultural
differences and the diversity of humankind.
In light of these challenges, I offer here a few brief suggestions for
building a faith-friendly workplace:
• First, leaders have to lead. They need to cross the barrier and raise the
issue of faith at work. This gives employees permission to engage the
topic safely.
• Second, finding the right language is important. People will need to
learn how to talk about religious and spiritual questions in the
workplace in ways that are authentic to who they are and what they
believe, but are also respectful of others who hold different views.
• Third, businesses need a conceptual framework to help think through
and discuss what it means to integrate faith and work. Toward that
end, we’ve developed some tools to help people and companies identify
and respect different manifestations of integrating faith and work.
As I saw at Ground Zero, there is no barrier that God cannot cross, no evil
that God cannot conquer, no prejudice God cannot overcome, no pain that
God cannot heal, and indeed, no workplace that God cannot transform.
You may not have yellow barricade tape at your office or place of work to
remind you, but God is at Work. With God’s help, you too can cross what
seem to be uncrossable barriers to make your workplace faith-friendly.
Essay by David Miller
President of The Avodah Institute
David W. Miller is a former investment banker and
sales & marketing professional. He is currently
President of The Avodah Institute and a Ph.D.
candidate at Princeton Theological Seminary.