Steve Graves along with Tom Addington co-founded Cornerstone Group, Wellspring Partners and The Life@Work Co. These organizations are committed to providing leadership to people integrating faith and work by exploring ideas, connecting people, and using biblical principles to help organizations grow through biblical wisdom and marketplace excellence. Part of Steve's mission is to continue to do best-in-class business consulting, broad writing, and speaking. Steve and Tom have authored many books including most recently "Behind the Bottom Line" and "Clout" both published by Jossey Bass. Steve recently spoke to SmallGroups.com director Dan Lentz about developing small Christian communities in the workplace.
SmallGroups.com: From your experience or research, how widespread are the occurrence of intentional Christian small groups that meet in the context of the workplace?
Steve: We have seen great interest and participation in workplace small groups. In fact, there is a hockey stick curve reflecting the need for information about creating Christian community in the workplace. Today, people in the workplace are personally engaged in realizing their most basic needs: information, inspiration, and community. These three elements are core to what everyone needs and searches for. More and more I see people being open to faith-based solutions to these needs. I see it everywhere. So much so, that I am willing to label the integration of faith-based community in the marketplace a serious God-movement that is going on right now. I believe there are five signs of a spiritual movement. One of the signs is that spiritual entrepreneurship begins to run rampant. There are so many "pop-corn" initiatives of spiritual entrepreneurship happening all over the country. We have seen this through countless clusters of folks who are getting together to talk about matters of faith over lunch, or on work-breaks. As we travel around the U.S. we have been amazed at the number of small group gatherings popping up everywhere. Sometimes it is church or para-church sponsored gatherings, or sometimes it is just a few people who sense a prompting to be intentional about offering Christian community to co-workers.
SmallGroups.com: Who is most likely to attend a workplace small group, already committed Christians … Nominal Christians … or non-believers?
Steve: All of the above—depends on the sponsor group/person and their approach. Some that are attracting only committed Christians are more of a role-over Sunday School class that happens to meet outside the church building, but many workplace small groups are outreach oriented. Let me give you an example: there's a high-tech ministry based out of the Atlanta, Georgia area that is launching lots of workplace small groups and want non-believing seekers to be involved, and so, the small group gatherings are structured accordingly. They are not doing a detailed study of the book of Romans. Rather, they are primarily discussion oriented and topical—scripture is used, but it's much more of a Bible discussion, not a Bible study. As far as the growth of workplace small groups, focusing on the last two buckets (nominal Christians and non-believers) is where the most growth is happening.
SmallGroups.com: Does the workplace small group have more potential to reach non-believers than the local church?
Steve: No question! It's not even a discussion. Salt and light works better on Monday than Sunday because it wasn't designed to work on Sunday alone. Salt is tasteless when your designing it for use on Sunday only.
SmallGroups.com: What has been the most effective agenda/format for workplace small groups that are effectively introducing Christ into the workplace?
Steve: I would say most small groups are free flowing rather than being tied to a curriculum. Curriculums that are in use are probably sponsor driven (local church, Promise Keepers, etc.). I don't think there's been one curriculum that has dominated workplace small groups on a National level yet. The more common pattern is to use a format that facilitates a faith-based conversation. We have tried to help folks facilitate a faith-dialogue in the workplace. Let me give you an example. Just this morning I had one of those dialogues. I had been invited to talk with a group of Wal-Mart vendors about the topic of balance in life. Half the managers in attendance had a Bible, half didn't, but we brought Biblical principles into the discussion about achieving balance in life and work.
SmallGroups.com: With so much emphasis on team-based approaches to business, are Christians going to be just as effective in changing lives by "living out" Christian community within the existing framework of business teams, or are "lunch-time Bible study groups," still going to be the strategy of choice?
Steve: We have to plan. The water cooler role of influence is legitimate, but we need to be intentional when planning our faith-based influence. The question is, what does that influence look like? Are you implementing Bible-pounding preaching style influence? Or, are you creating safe places that add value to people's lives in authentic ways. People and employers are resistant sometimes to faith-based influences, but if it's adding value to people's lives, and incorporates the upgrade of moral conduct, then employers are generally open. Three things that help make your message persuasive are: is my message meaningful, is my audience receptive, and my life believable? When your message is appropriate and persuasive, most employers are OK with that. Sure, sometimes in the public work environment, if Christianity is made available then we may have to make other faiths accessible as well, say for instance open the way for a Moslem-led group, but I'm not bothered by that because I've always been a believer that open competition always leans to the one who has the true value.
SmallGroups.com: Without the workplace small group leader having a "pastor" or "overseer" to continually equip and encourage them, how successful have these small groups been at sustaining true Biblical relational community in the workplace?
Steve: To be sustainable, the workplace small group leader needs to develop a support network. This network includes modeling both up, down, and laterally with others who are doing the same thing in order to discover what's working or not working. Sometimes the people who might be included in that network are a church pastor, para-church representative (e.g. Promise Keepers), and other workplace small group leaders in other companies/cities.
SmallGroups.com: Are there ministry organizations that are particularly helpful to Christians who want to influence their workplace for Christ?
Steve: Most workplace ministries are locally-based "mom and pop" organizations. There has not been a great deal of Kingdom-wide integration yet. Many are trying to figure out the code of small groups in the workplace. Campus Crusade for Christ's Priority Associates, John Maxwell's Injoy ministries, Os Hillman's work and others are leading the way when Life@Work trailed off. Any ministry focused on the workplace, needs to be working on the small group community angle of it!
SmallGroups.com: What other insights would you have for Christians in the workplace?
Steve: I've watched the intersection of faith and work for 20 years. The thing I've noticed is that when a Christ-follower's character goes up, many times their skills go down. It's not right that we should follow a God of excellence and not continue to be wrapped up in excellence ourselves, both in character and skills. I would urge workplace small groups to focus on both character and skills when presenting Christ's message. Ultimately that's how we are going to change lives and reach more people for Jesus in our workplace environments. That will create the kind of good clout that we talk about in our new book Clout from Jossey Bass.
