FAITH AT WORK--
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE
It's worth hearing what Doug has to say about balancing our priorities between work and family. Often when we clock out from work, it's tempting to clock out from all of our responsibilities—including those we have to our relationships and our families. As Doug says, work can be such "a demanding mistress" that we feel like there's not much left to give at the end of the day.
But aren't our families a large part of what we're working for in the first place? If we don't invest in our family lives, we're cutting ourselves off from the relationships that sustain us, not only through the work day, but every day.
Transcript: Balancing work life and family life is a real challenge. So, how do you balance it? Very intentionally. We book tickets to go somewhere on a trip, and once they're booked you can't get out of it. We book a date night every week. We book time around meals to be together. We're one of the few families that actually eats at home, probably more meals than we eat out. You just have to program it in; you have to schedule it in, because it's important. If you're intentional about it you can make it work.
Work is a demanding mistress, it really is a demanding mistress, and the way to get out of that is to recognize you're not just the title. You're not just the CEO. There is life after Goodwill. There's life before it and there's going to be life after it and there's life during it. Fortunately, I'm married to someone who helps me with that.
But aren't our families a large part of what we're working for in the first place? If we don't invest in our family lives, we're cutting ourselves off from the relationships that sustain us, not only through the work day, but every day.
Transcript: Balancing work life and family life is a real challenge. So, how do you balance it? Very intentionally. We book tickets to go somewhere on a trip, and once they're booked you can't get out of it. We book a date night every week. We book time around meals to be together. We're one of the few families that actually eats at home, probably more meals than we eat out. You just have to program it in; you have to schedule it in, because it's important. If you're intentional about it you can make it work.
Work is a demanding mistress, it really is a demanding mistress, and the way to get out of that is to recognize you're not just the title. You're not just the CEO. There is life after Goodwill. There's life before it and there's going to be life after it and there's life during it. Fortunately, I'm married to someone who helps me with that.
Recently, Doug Barr, CEO, Goodwill of Southern California, spoke about how we've bought the false idea that our work and church life are two separate worlds.
Transcript: One of the reasons that it's difficult to connect spiritual values to our work is we've bought the idea that they're two separate worlds and that you can't be a nice person at work. You've got to be an SOB and push people and treat them the way you wouldn't treat your family at home or your friends at church, because it's a different world. It's a dog eat dog world out there. This isn't the Church. I've found that to be absolutely false; it's a false dichotomy. It makes no sense. You can hold people responsible for performance. You can discipline them in a fair and respectful way and get good performance out of them, without belittling them or bullying them or really making them embarrassed.
People have made it a false dichotomy. They think they're two different worlds and they're not. They're God's world. He's wherever you are, and He's giving you an opportunity to be the person you can be with people, whether they're at home or whether it's a work.
Transcript: One of the reasons that it's difficult to connect spiritual values to our work is we've bought the idea that they're two separate worlds and that you can't be a nice person at work. You've got to be an SOB and push people and treat them the way you wouldn't treat your family at home or your friends at church, because it's a different world. It's a dog eat dog world out there. This isn't the Church. I've found that to be absolutely false; it's a false dichotomy. It makes no sense. You can hold people responsible for performance. You can discipline them in a fair and respectful way and get good performance out of them, without belittling them or bullying them or really making them embarrassed.
People have made it a false dichotomy. They think they're two different worlds and they're not. They're God's world. He's wherever you are, and He's giving you an opportunity to be the person you can be with people, whether they're at home or whether it's a work.
Doug Barr, CEO, Goodwill of Southern California, speaks about the satisfaction of doing a job in an excellent manner and making a difference with your co-workers.
Transcript: Doing any job in an excellent manner is very satisfying. I mean Martin Luther King used to talk about the street sweeper. He needs to be the best street sweeper of any. So, excellence is really an important thing, the quality of what you do. The other thing is that we all, in whatever line we're in, interact with people. You can make a difference in the lives of your clients, your customers, and your co-workers.
The older I get, the truth be told, the older I get the more I want to make a difference with individuals, just stepping alongside someone saying thank you. Letting them know, "You're in a tough position, but we're here for you. You made a difference the way you treated that customer." And, those people are what God gives you to work with that day and if you work with them and you treat them with respect and you have integrity--- you say what you mean and you mean what you say and people count on your word---if you're there to serve them and you do it with excellence, you'll make an impact. You'll make an impact.
Transcript: Doing any job in an excellent manner is very satisfying. I mean Martin Luther King used to talk about the street sweeper. He needs to be the best street sweeper of any. So, excellence is really an important thing, the quality of what you do. The other thing is that we all, in whatever line we're in, interact with people. You can make a difference in the lives of your clients, your customers, and your co-workers.
The older I get, the truth be told, the older I get the more I want to make a difference with individuals, just stepping alongside someone saying thank you. Letting them know, "You're in a tough position, but we're here for you. You made a difference the way you treated that customer." And, those people are what God gives you to work with that day and if you work with them and you treat them with respect and you have integrity--- you say what you mean and you mean what you say and people count on your word---if you're there to serve them and you do it with excellence, you'll make an impact. You'll make an impact.
Doug Barr, CEO, Goodwill of Southern California, talks about how our worth goes far beyond our job titles and the awareness to not make our title an idol.
Transcript: What's the second thing you say to a person you've never met before? First is, "What's your name?" Second is, "What do you do?" And unconscientiously you do an evaluation of that individual on the basis of what they do. One of the joys of this men's group that I'm involved with is someone's in charge of a music department, another person is a banker, and another person is an ex-DA. We've learned, because we get to know each other well, that the titles don't mean anything. And you can get an insight from God from somebody that doesn't have a lot of degrees behind their name, but they're in touch with their faith and they communicate that. Wisdom can come from a lot of places you don't expect it and often from people that don't have titles.
But speaking also in terms of the challenge of that, one of my prayers every day is I need not to think of my job in an idolatrous manner---that because I've been a CEO that makes me special or more special than someone else. That can be a false god.
Transcript: What's the second thing you say to a person you've never met before? First is, "What's your name?" Second is, "What do you do?" And unconscientiously you do an evaluation of that individual on the basis of what they do. One of the joys of this men's group that I'm involved with is someone's in charge of a music department, another person is a banker, and another person is an ex-DA. We've learned, because we get to know each other well, that the titles don't mean anything. And you can get an insight from God from somebody that doesn't have a lot of degrees behind their name, but they're in touch with their faith and they communicate that. Wisdom can come from a lot of places you don't expect it and often from people that don't have titles.
But speaking also in terms of the challenge of that, one of my prayers every day is I need not to think of my job in an idolatrous manner---that because I've been a CEO that makes me special or more special than someone else. That can be a false god.
Steven Charleston's Facebook Status Update
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 8:35pm
I had a brief lesson in advanced spirituality yesterday from two of the best teachers I have encountered in a long time. They were plumbers who had come to my house to work in my bathroom. They were honest, hard-working people who saw their vocation as a calling to serve others, to mend what is broken, to treat people fairly, to speak kindly to all they met. I was grateful, not only for their help, but for their lesson. They reminded me how faith looks when it is working. They reminded me that truth is best taught by those who live it.
Who is Steven Charleston
Steven Charleston is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. He comes from a family with a long history of service in the Native American community. His great-grandfather and grandfather were both ordained pastors who preached in their native language in rural communities throughout the state. Following in their footsteps, Steven was ordained at Wakpala, South Dakota on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
Steven was the national director for Native American ministries in the Episcopal Church, a tenured professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary, the Bishop of Alaska, and the President and Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Currently he teaches at the Saint Paul School of Theology at Oklahoma City University.
Steven was the national director for Native American ministries in the Episcopal Church, a tenured professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary, the Bishop of Alaska, and the President and Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Currently he teaches at the Saint Paul School of Theology at Oklahoma City University.
