Interview with Marcus Goodyear - Part 1

By the Evangelical Portal team Introduction: Over the past month, the Evangelical Portal has conducted a "Consultation" on the challenges of being a person of faith in the secular workplace. On the basis of our interactions with readers, we identified the five most pressing issues confronting Christian professionals. Recently we interviewed Marcus Goodyear, the editor for TheHighCalling.org (a program of the H. E. Butt Foundation ) as well as Christianity Today's section on Faith in the Workplace. We asked Mr. Goodyear to address each of the five issues that formed the center of our Consultation. Below are his responses. 1. Especially given the pressures of the current economic environment, how do we balance our family and church commitments with our work commitments? This is a complicated question because it's based on a metaphor of balance. Balance is a great metaphor if you are talking about limited resources. When I talk about balancing work and family, I'm really talking about the issue of time: how do I deal with the fact that both my work and my family expect time of me? There can be times when I need to do 80-hour weeks. If I were a farmer, for instance, and it were harvest season, then I would work a very long day. Yet the Hebrews were still called to take Sabbaths even in the time of harvest. So we are always called to take times of rest, but there can be seasons of hard work, as long as we go on into seasons where we work less. The trend in contemporary society is to work until we burn out. I don't think that's healthy for us as a society and it's certainly not healthy for us as individuals. So I advise that we try to schedule some relaxation at the end of a difficult season, a vacation or at least a period in which we have fewer obligations at work. Yet the balance metaphor isn't entirely accurate. It implies that we have to balance our faith, as though we have three pieces to our lives: work, family, and God. This makes it seem as though we have even more things to juggle. But there can be overlap. For instance, I can bring my family along on my work trip. That's even more true with God. It's not so much that we have God-time in the morning before work, then we work, and then we have time for our family again. No, God should be fully present throughout all of that. Of course, we're limited, and we may not always be able to pray without ceasing. Yet the idea is that we should be integrated people, whole people, not different people in different times and places, but one person in all times and places. So there are competing metaphors here of balance and integration. We cannot throw out the balance metaphor entirely, because we are dealing with the limited resource of time. But we shouldn't be afraid to look for creative ways in which we can bring the different spheres of our lives together. Some of the executives who come to Laity Lodge [another ministry operated by the H. E. Butt foundation, related to TheHighCalling.org ] are burnt out. We tell people: we have a schedule for this weekend, but you need to feel free to do what you have to do. God called you here with a specific plan for you. That may involve attending everything, but it may not. Yet some are so burnt out that they attend the first and second sessions and then they simply sleep. They shut down -- or even break down. Finally they've gotten to a place where they can rest, and they need it desperately. We as a society have forgotten how to rest. Even the way we treat the Sabbath sometimes feels like we're more busy on Sundays doing church stuff than resting. I don't mean to step on any toes, but there are certain denominations that conduct all of their business meetings on Sundays. At my previous church I taught regularly, and I had a bad habit of not preparing until early Sunday morning, and that ruined the Sabbath for me. The church never came alongside me and said, "You really ought not to do that. If you're not ready by Sunday, do something liturgical like lectio divina." I would have appreciated some guidance on how properly to prepare as a volunteer, so that I could still assist on Sunday yet do so in a way that is restful. Honestly, sometimes church can feel like a three-ring circus or a worship show. At times that is very exciting -- but it isn't restful. The church we attend now is more counter-cultural. What happens on Sundays is traditional and mellow. Sometimes I just want churches to be more restful. Assuming we're going to treat Sunday like a Sabbath, too many churches open the Sabbath day with this busy craziness. 2. What does it mean to be a witness for Christ in the secular workplace? The answer is very different depending on your workplace environment. Some secular workplaces will be open, and some will be very much business- and productivity-focused. One of the most interesting things on this point that I've read in a while was actually something I saw on Patheos, where the author [see the article in two pieces here and here ] wrote about the ethics of firing somebody when your organization is structurally against firing someone well. I would rephrase that: How do you witness in that situation when the system of your workplace is functioning against you? To some degree you have to make a choice about the organization you work for. There will always be things that are not in line with our values, but if the entire organization contradicts your values, you should take a close look at that. That's something we don't talk about often enough. As Christians, sometimes that may mean that we're not called to work in certain areas. For me, that's more about the culture of the workplace than the product the workplace produces. I don't mean that Christians cannot work in bars; that's too simplistic. But if you have an institution that is ethically corrupt, you're not going to be able to combat that all by yourself. I was a teacher in public school for years, and I think that's a good example. As a teacher, I was in a position of authority over the students. Personally I felt that it was very problematic to do a lot of witnessing because of my authority position. It was not a balanced relationship; there was undue pressure from me toward them no matter what I was presenting. That's something to keep in mind in the workplace; if you're a boss, you're in an uneven relationship. Witnessing works best when it is between equals. And often that means that it's because a relationship has developed. Witness in the sense of evangelizing is always closely tied to relationships for me. There were instances when students approached me, and I certainly didn't hide my faith. When we were dealing with The Scarlet Letter , I would give insights into marriage by discussing my own marriage and insights into church by discussing my experience in church. So if I was in a situation where it was appropriate to talk about how much I loved my wife and what that relationship means, then it could also be appropriate for me to talk about how much I loved God. But in the same way that you don't burst into the lunchroom and talk about how much you love your wife -- that would be weird -- we don't have to act weird about our faith. In other words, I didn't hide my faith but I shared it in such a way that the conversation was not about witnessing exactly, but about sharing myself. If students approached me, legally I was allowed to share with them -- just as, if I were a boss and someone approached me for personal spiritual advice, it would be absolutely appropriate in that situation to share. And in order to open yourself up for that kind of conversation, you have to be open about your life. Finally, none of the above would have had any credibility if I were not a good teacher. This is where excellence comes in. I think sometimes we can use the excellence idea as a crutch to avoid taking a stand. That is a real mistake. At some point we have to say that we believe in excellence because we are called to create by the creator; his creation is excellent and therefore our creation should be excellent. The excellence of our creation gives glory to him. But you have to admit that you're Christian in order for anyone to see it that way. The excellence is really about credibility -- nobody cares what my personal life is like if I am a lousy teacher. But the credibility is a precondition for being an effective witness; it is not necessarily a witness all by itself. Read the second part of the interview buy clicking here. This appears as a part of the Faith@Work Consultation. See also: Peter Collins, The Ethics of Firing, Part 1 and Part 2. Galen C. Dalrymple, The Curse of Busyness , What Are You Building? , Timothy Dalrymple, The Holy Ghost in the Machine , and first and second articles on the Moral Dimensions of the Financial Crisis. Mary DeMuth, Marketing Without Manipulation. Jonathan Dodson, Do Worldly Honors Matter?. John Hoyt on Courage in a Time of Darkness. William Miller, On Building Trust. Mark D. Roberts, Remembering the Sabbath David Rupert, Wipe Your Feet Nolan Sharp, When Work Teaches Faith Tim Stafford, Believe in Your Calling. John Terrill, Reframing Business Education. Photo by C. C. License courtesy of kwerfeldein at Flickr: