1/17/23 - PowerPod: Bible Study at Work?

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to the iWork4Him PowerPod. I'm Michael Miracle producer for iWork4Him, the voice of the faith and work movement. We are on mission to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. Each quick listening PowerPod is designed with you in mind and jam packed with Kingdom resources to help you connect your faith and work. How will this impact your work? Let's find out right now.

Jim: You know, we spend eight or nine hours a day with the people at work. If you're a boss, supervisor, manager, owner, the people that work with you are trusting you for their livelihood. They're trusting you to pay them, to train them, to reward their hard earned efforts and send them home a better person every day.

We train people to work and do it well, but how often do we take time to minister to their souls to help them become healthy inside and out? We have the opportunity to invest in our people in light of eternity. How often do we take advantage of that? [00:01:00] Not every employee would want to participate, but today I'm asking you all to think of ways to open up topics of faith and Jesus to those around you.

Well, one set of companies in Austin, Texas is doing just this. Tony Dale. Tony Dale is here to talk to us about the Ka Bible study being held at the Karis Group and Sedera Health, and he has a bunch of participants who are gonna share their experience too. Tony Dale, welcome back to iWork4Him.

Why don't you tell us about the Wisdom Journey Bible studies that you're holding at the Karis Group and Sedera?

Tony Dale: Well, you know, the first thing to say would be I didn't come up with the term, the Wisdom Journey. That was our, our former sort of sales and marketing director who came up with that language. But I love it.

Not because I have you know, any particular wisdom to add to the mix, but when you really start to base your life upon, what does the word of God say? So, you know, from my early days [00:02:00] as a medical student, you know, through many years in medical practice, moving here to the states, finding that everything was gonna change, that you know, God had all sorts of surprises for us.

At every step the reality that Jesus is become to us our wisdom and our righteousness, our sanctification and redemption, which is what Paul wrote in one Corinthians one, has been a living reality. And so I've always loved the opportunity to find a way to try and help others be as eager to glean from the wisdom of God's word as I found it for myself on my journey.

Jim: So you bring that experience into the work environment. So is this a study that every employee has to go to?

Tony Dale: No. I can't even get every employee to do what they are supposed to do.

Jim: Wow. There's a throw down. That was good.

Tony Dale: No, of course not. You. I am a really strong believer in that [00:03:00] we should be absolutely open about our faith. And that it should never be offensive.

When we learn to be consistent. I'm not sure I've ever had anyone tell me that they've been offended at how open I am about my faith because they know I literally bring it into everything. It's who I am. And, and so, you know, we learn to love and respect each other for who we are and for what God has done.

So yeah, we have this Wisdom Journey. It's a Wednesday morning thing at the moment. It might be, you know, in any time or place. We do it on company time so people are allowed to come. That means for most people in their departments, because the department still needs to be covered, you know, they can perhaps only get there e every other week, and we're looking at things we might do to help that. But it's totally voluntary.

Jim: Awesome, and we're talking about this today for a couple reasons. Number one, for you to know that you can offer an optional Bible study for your employees and make it available to them. Doesn't have to be there, [00:04:00] but you can feed into the spiritual lives of your people at the same time as you're feeding into them great talents and feeding into their whole gifts, talents, and abilities set as an employee. This is part of who they are, their spiritual side.

So, Tony Dale, you've brought some of those participants, the Wisdom Journey participants to the show today. Why don't you introduce guest number one?

Tony Dale: Okay, well number one is Justine. And I'm going to let her explain why she got here.

Martha: So tell us, first of all, why don't you just tell us your position there at the Karis Group so we kind of get an idea.

Justine: Absolutely. So my position is a patient advocate. Essentially what my job is, is to no negotiate on individual's medical bills and try to get them down to a fair and reasonable price.

Martha: Gotta love that. So, and that really is the, a lot of the nuts and bolts of what the Karis Group does. So if people, if this is intriguing to them, stay tuned. There's more to come. So you've been [00:05:00] participating in the Wisdom Journey Bible study. Why? Why do you participate?

Justine: That's a great question. You know, what really attracted me to the Wisdom Journey was just the concept of being in a work environment and being able to openly discuss your faith and not only discuss your faith, but also just get everyone's perspective and, and interpretations on whatever it is that we're going over on that given week.

That isn't something that I was necessarily comfortable with in the past, but it just seemed so inviting whenever it was offered once a week. Everyone's just so open and inviting about going to it. So one day I just decided that I would go over and see what it was about, and I've just been going every week ever since.

Jim: So were you forced to go?

Staff: Oh, absolutely not. Not at all. It's all definitely free will to go there. I will say it's very enticing to go too, cuz there's always breakfast provided, but I mean outside of that it's just very welcoming and warm and it's just such a neat way to [00:06:00] start off your morning before, you know, you do what's God's work, which is helping others.

Jim: Well, and what's really, you know, Tony mentioned this in the last segment that you actually, you decide to go and participate in this Bible study, but you're actually getting paid to go to this Bible study and get fed. So there's some personal incentives there.

Justine: Yeah, absolutely. And although that is a perk, it still doesn't deter what, you know, important work that is and, and what an opportunity it is to be able to go openly discuss your faith with your coworkers.

Martha: That's so neat. So you said yet you discuss your faith. Tell us something specific that you've learned by attending the Wisdom Journey.

Justine: Yeah, I think one thing that I have learned is that however you interpret whatever it is that you're reading, there's always a lot more depth to it. And the reason being behind that is because I remember in one of our Bible study discussions, we were discussing how Jesus and Nicodemus, who was a man that was very well [00:07:00] versed in the Bible, we're talking about essentially how Nicodemus knew next to nothing about the Bible, and it was only because he took it so literally. And by discussing that with Tony, he's just asked a lot of thought provoking questions such as, you know, how would you explain to someone what it means to be born again?

And that's something that none of us have ever thought about. I mean, even to this day, I don't know if I could ever really explain what that is, but it's so cool to just open your mind up to a different way of thinking.

Jim: Hmm. So talk about how being involved in a Bible study at work amongst other coworkers, surrounded by friends, people that you're all learning and studying together, how has this impacted your personal life?

Justine: I feel like it's just made my life so much lighter and happier in a way. It's a good way for me also to have a focal point. I feel, you know, it's nice to just come into work and, and be able to discuss that and take a [00:08:00] message from Wisdom Journey and know no matter what God is by my side and I have a family of people who share my values and my faith, and, and they're gonna be there for me as well. So it's been very impacting in that sense. I feel that it's helped me create a family and deeper relationships within my workplace.

Martha: Mm-hmm. And that's really what I was just gonna ask, like, how has it changed at your workplace? You just explained, so how does it changed how you view your workplace?

Justine: You know, it's really a privilege to feel like you're coming, you're not always coming to work, especially when your coworkers feel like you're family. You know, there's not a single person in this office that I couldn't go to, whether it's for personal reasons or for work reasons, and I recognize the how special that is, especially just in an environment where that's not necessarily common in a workplace, I guess you could say.

Jim: So many of us as employers and organizational leaders, we invest in our [00:09:00] employees with cash. We invest our employees with benefits. We invest in our employees with training to do their job well, but how often do we take the opportunity to invest in our employees spiritually?

Tony Dale, you've run organizations. You were a doctor. You ran a doctor's office. At what point in time did you realize, Hey, I'm paying these people, I'm helping them do a good job. I need to be investing in them spiritually, intentionally. I need to do a Bible study. How did you come up to this idea?

Tony Dale: Well Jim, thank you for asking me that, cuz it's really important and fundamental. The Bible is very clear that each of us is a complete person only when we look after not only the body, not only the mind or the soul but also the spirit. Every part of a human being is incredibly important.

And you know, Jesus didn't just heal people of their physical afflictions. You know, he came and he intersected with their relationships and healed marriages and, you know, all of this type of thing. [00:10:00] And of course, he came and he healed our relationship with God, which, you know, the Bible talks about why it is that man has found himself, well, I shouldn't say man, man, in the classic sense, meaning men and women you know, are estranged from God because of the things that have gone wrong in our lives.

And so if we're serious about helping the whole person, which I certainly was as a physician. When I then moved sideways into business, I began to realize it's equally important that we serve every part of the person, whether that's our client, whether it's other vendors, or perhaps most importantly of all, if it's our employees who we spend time with, you know, 40, 50 hours a week. What a wonderful opportunity to really grow together.

Martha: So Myles, we were talking to you about being a part of the Wisdom Journey Bible study at your work there at the Karis Group. You said something very profound. You said that you learned not only to share your faith but to sharpen it. And I would love to hear what is something that [00:11:00]you have learned as a part of being involved in this Bible study at your work.

Myles: Yeah. Well, One of the things that I really have taken away from just Wisdom Journey in general is everyone goes through a different struggle. And a struggle really can't be defined by one person or one definition. So really from taking that struggle and not ever placing judgment and the way judgment can be placed can be different.

So really kind of looking into the way that different people did different things within the Bible and they all had a different way of doing them, but also not placing judgment as long as everyone is doing everything to serve God in the best way they can.

Jim: How has being involved in the Wisdom Journey study, knowing that you have an employer that wants to invest in you spiritually, how has it impacted you personally?

Myles: Well as far as personally, it's really made me be able to grow. To each individual to which I interact with now I really look at, it's a point of view of, Hey, what would God do? What would God want me to say to this individual? [00:12:00] Even sometimes when I feel like, Hey, I might not should give that person advice, or it used to be easy just to walk away if it didn't involve me, but more now, just tell, you know, Hey, let me pray for you and let me interact with you to maybe give you that little bit of positive energy you may need at that time of your life.

Jim: Very cool.

Martha: So do you feel like you are a better employee as a result of some of the things that you've learned in the Bible study?

Myles: Yes. I actually think it's made me grow as a person as well as a manager here because it's allowed me to really look at everyone who works on the team to which I manage like as a person, as well as an employee.

A lot of companies tell you to really leave yourself outside of the door and come in and just work. And here at Karis we really want the whole person. So when you get that whole person being able to give them the love and then the knowledge to help them grow but also the care and really being able to care with them as my brother and sister in Christ.

Jim: I think it's really important to note Martha, that you know, as we're [00:13:00] having this conversation, Tony's made it clear that as a business owner and leader, he has allowed this Bible study to be held during work time to feed into the spiritual lives of his employees, but not made it mandatory.

Right? But everybody that runs an organization, that owns their own business that's listening today, you can do the same thing. There is nothing in the Constitution that says you have to separate your faith and your work. Let me just tell you that to be clear, and more important than anything, the employees that you, that you allow them to grow spiritually, those are employees that you will keep.

Those are employees that will appreciate you, and those are employees that will produce all better results because you're feeding them, the whole person. You've been listening to iWork4Him with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him!

Outro: Thank you for listening to the iWork4Him PowerPod with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. Want more? [00:14:00] Hear the full broadcast at iWork4Him.com. Stay connected and receive power packed content when you sign up for our blog at iWork4Him.com or follow us on social media at iWork4Him. And finally, if today's message inspired you, please subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcast platform.

Your review helps launch more workplace missionaries across the nation that's at iWork4Him and online iWork4Him.com.