Becoming a Witness in the Workplace

Akira Endo // Celebration 2021.09.04

Endo-san shares with our English breakout room about his experience being a Christian witness in various workplaces.

Japanese Discussion Group Notes (translated to English)

Ken: Right now, I’m working as a businessmen at a company where I’m the only Christian. My boss is Korean and has a Catholic background. I’ve talked with him about Christianity, and it seems that he has a fear of church, especially more dramatic Christian worship. How can I help to alleviate that fear? How can I help bridge the gap?

Endo: It’s a great question. Some people we meet will have had good experiences with Christians, and others will have had bad experiences with Christians. Unfortunately, no church is perfect, because each church is full of sinners, but often nonChristians will look at Christians and expect perfection. First, I think it would be helpful to ask your boss, “What specifically are you afraid of when it comes to church?”

Second, I would tell your boss that just “going to church” is not the most important thing. Of course, if he becomes a Christian, it will be important. But now, what he thinks about Jesus is more important. So for you, introducing your boss to Jesus becomes the most important thing. It takes courage to come to church in the face of that fear. Especially when people don’t come from a Christian home, it feels like a big risk to come to church for the first time—it feels scary—because they aren’t sure what it will be like. Ken, you can share with your boss why you believe in God, what your faith has to do with work.

Sometimes a CEO is in the position where he has to make tough decisions, and even if he makes the right decision, he’ll be criticized. So he can easily become isolated and lonely with no one to ask for advice. As an HR person, I had to fire people during a merger. I’d explain to them that they are wonderful people, but that this company isn’t the best fit for them. In that instance, all I could do as a Christian was to speak honestly knowing that God has given me wisdom. Regardless of being liked or not, my responsibility was to speak truthfully, but in a way that is loving, even if the truth is hard to hear. The way we speak truth is important.

I’ll talk about this next month too, but something you can do, Ken, is to start to pray. Pray that, the next meeting you have with your boss, you might be given a chance to talk about personal things. Pray for wisdom in preparation to meet your boss. When I worked at DHL, I would pray for 23 coworkers by name every day. For you, Ken, you are Jesus’ ambassador to your company, so you should see your coworkers not just as coworkers, but as souls in need of Jesus’ salvation.

English Discussion Group Notes

Kevin: I especially enjoyed Endo-san’s point about being a competent employee. If you are good at your job, you can be a more effective witness for Jesus. However, you shouldn’t strive to be good at you job for the sake of being good at it—you should strive to be good at your job for the sake of His name.

Mark R: I my experience, I have seen both sides—both Christians who don’t exemplify Jesus in the way they work and also those who do. Yes, we want to be applying ourselves to our work as though we are doing work for God. But at the same time, we often have the tendency to make the work itself an idol we are worshipping. So do your work well for God’s glory, but don’t let “good work” itself become the ultimate goal.

Poppy: I was encouraged by Endo-san asking us to let people watch us in our biblical work ethic and doing our job well. Often we are told to constantly be going around sharing the gospel with people directly, which of course is also important, but sometimes it’s good to remember we don’t have to constantly be having more direct, forceful conversations with them.

Sarah: I like the idea that my whole life should be attractive to nonbelievers. I had a coworker in the US who was a practicing Buddhist, and I was the first Christian who actually was a nice person to her. I listened to her share about her Buddhist beliefs before sharing anything about my own beliefs.

Mark and Renee V: That relational aspect is so important. We have a different role by being placed in CAJ where most people are Christians. However, even at CAJ, there are many students who aren’t Christians, so it can also be a mission field. We adults doing our jobs well is so important because the kids are always watching. They are learning how a mature Christian behaves and works. So many kids sent Mark thank you notes at the end of the year for playing with them on the playground, for giving chapel messages, etc. Kids notice—the smallest things are important!