Is the Workplace the New Church?: A Response

This morning I came across an article by Alice Weightman from Hanson Search - drawing parallels about the Workplace gradually taking over the place of the Church.

 So are workplaces becoming our new community – our new Church – in the sense that they are where we now form friendships and seek support? Are businesses tapping into this trend to attract and keep top talent?

As a member of both a Church and a Workplace I can see where you are coming from Alice.

The millennial generation has been used to a schooling and education system that has provided far more pastoral care and focus on wellbeing not just education in the past 3 decades, and this leads them (myself included) to expect this same level of interest in the person, not just the skills.

Not all businesses have woken up to this change. Whilst many of the big silicon valley techs have more clubs, societies and ping pong tables than the average University campus - many still haven't woken up to the emotional, not just functional needs of their people.

The workplace however isn't the same as a Church for many reasons. The Church, when lived out as Jesus modeled to the disciples in Acts is one in which;

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.

The workplace for most people is still a place of competition, teamwork and flat organizational structures aside - but great workplaces can also learn a lot from the Church.

To be in a great work place means to strive together for a common cause, to serve one another in respect and honor and where our yes means yes and our no means no.

So to answer Alice's question - are businesses tapping into the trend? - with a question. Is this a trend at all?

I would argue no. The desire to know and be known is a universal human one, which we will seek for an answer to until we find one. Businesses and workplaces may provide some of that, but it's not where I find my answer.

When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Peter, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”  Peter answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. [Luke 5:4-7]        -

See more at: http://www.ambassadors2020.org/blog/work-transformed/#sthash.s0SWHoqs.dpuf