If location and personal relationships matter when it comes
to evangelism in the workplace, what do the survey responses suggest about how
we could use our time at work?
First, work socials help
to build important bridges. Social time with our colleagues helps to
establishing the sorts of bonds that make gospel conversations easier. Many of
us may be uncomfortable with much of the socialising that our work teams do,
because they’re often heavily reliant on alcohol. We’re right to be cautious.
But we have to be careful not to automatically withdraw from work socials
because they’re not as wholesome as we’d like them to be. Sharing more than
just our professional life with our colleagues sets a platform that makes
conversations about Christ easier in the long-run.
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| The paddle boarding social may not have looked quite like this... |
If you really aren’t comfortable with your current team socials,
why not organise something you would like to attend? I recently heard about a
member of Emmanuel who organised an after-work social that involved paddle
boarding! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it was the Christians in the office who became known for organising creative
and fun work socials?
Second, try to use your
lunch-times well. Once work finishes in the evening, many of our colleagues
head home. So after-work socialising can be difficult. That makes lunch a useful
opportunity to spend time with colleagues outside of the office.
Yes, it’s true
that pressure or culture to work through lunch is often there. But, can you
plan to protect one or two lunchtimes each week? If you can, use that time to
get out of the office with a colleague: go for a run, go for a coffee, go for a
walk. These are the times when it seems easier to speak about Jesus.
Third, make much of
common interests. Whether it’s Bake-Offs, Kick-Offs or Dance-Offs, there’s
nothing like being able to enthuse over an interest or hobby to draw people
together. Just before leaving work at my law-firm, I started going fly-fishing
with a colleague. I’m a novice and we’ve only been out to Chew Valley Lake a
few times. It hasn’t automatically made it easy to talk about Jesus, but it has
made it easier. And, helpfully, it’s
been lots of fun along the way.
Of course, these are just some examples. They’ll work for
some, not everyone. Really, the key seems to be intentionality. With life at
work being busy, we need to think carefully about how we can make the most of
the opportunities that are around us. More of that in my next post.
