Baptist

Faith Important for Secular Work

 

A new study of more than 1000 Australians has revealed that those who identify as church-going Christians see their faith as a significant factor in their day-to-day work.

The State of Work in Australia study was initiated by Reventure, a new organisation specialising in faith and work research, utilising the Barna Group, a globally recognised polling research firm.

 In contrast to a secular expectation that faith a isa private set of beliefs, most of the Christians (80%) surveyed said their faith helps them to face challenges at work, and that their church (69%) helps them understand how to live out their faith in the workplace.

 “This is an exciting development in the history of faith and work integration in Australia,” explains Reventure Managing Director, Dr Lindsay McMillan. “We are seeing that Christians are seeking to use the transforming power of faith in the workplace.”

 However, it is not all positive. It appears that churches are not providing sufficient teaching or resources to maximise the opportunity of the workplace being a centre of spiritual expression. Only 40% of Christian workers say their churches provide teaching or resources.

 This is borne out by the study’s revelation that most Christians are not open about their beliefs in the workplace, with 63% not feeling very comfortable about talking about their faith.

“We understand the challenges that Christians face in the modern workplace,” says Dr McMillan, “And many feel the pressures on their faith expression.”

The study indicated that Christians are happy to work morally (60%) and ethically (54%), but struggle with temptations (39%) and do not feel confident evangelising in the workplace (22%).

  

Details of the study:

 

• The study was conducted in April 2016 and consisted of a nationally-representative survey of 1,001 Australian employed adults with an oversample of church attenders with 321 identifying as church-going Christians.
• The study was representative of all majordenominations.
• The sample was balanced for gender and age and included fulltime (57%), part-time (33%) and 10% self-employed/independent workers.
• The sample included a representation of workplace settings including 40% professional office workers, 12% working in retail, 11% working from home, 9% in education, 6% in a healthsetting.

How is your church equipping people for mission in their work place? Baptist leaders can utilize findings such as this to inform better teaching, training and equipping of people for mission in the places they live and work. You can also contact our BUV’s Mission Catalyst team for resources and support.

Reventure specailises in faith and life research. This ‘State of Work in Australia’ study is intended tohelp Reventure increase the conversation about applying faith at work, believing this enables transformation not just of individual Christian workers, but also the organisations they work in. For more information contact Dr Lindsay McMillan, Managing Director, Reventure Ltd,  0409 186 322.

Source: BUV News