People who think they'll have nothing to do in heaven but sit on a cloud and play the harp might be in for a surprise. A Baylor University professor believes there will be work in heaven, and he thinks that is a good thing.
Work isn't just something people do to earn a living; it is a blessing from God, says Blaine McCormick, assistant professor of management in Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business.
"We are created by a worker, created in a worker's image and created to work," McCormick said.
McCormick said work was cursed in the Fall but isn't a curse in and of itself. Rather, he views it as part of the creation of which God said, "It is good."
McCormick said heaven holds the promise not of freedom from work, but of eternity spent in meaningful labor that is free from the curse of original sin. "Why go to heaven? Because the work is so good there," he quipped.
McCormick, a layman in the Church of Christ, discussed faith in the workplace with both the governing commission and advisory board of consultants for the Baptist General Convention of Texas ethics and public-policy agency.
McCormick said work is a blessing to parents because it teaches children self-discipline, the value of a good reputation, financial responsibility and other life lessons. It is a blessing to communities because it brings security. "The safest places on earth have the strongest industrial bases," he observed.
Christians worship through their work, he said, when they recognize their job as a "celebration of individual gifts" and the opportunity to "feel God's pleasure" as they use their gifts and talents.
Most Christians see vocational church work as ministry, but McCormick said every honorable vocation is a potential place of ministry.
He noted that Jesus called two tax collectors -- Matthew and Zacchaeus. One, Matthew, he told to leave his tax tables. But he called Zacchaeus to return to work and perform his duties justly. "The calling to stay can be really holy, just as the calling to go can be," McCormick said.
McCormick criticized popular entertainment for often portraying businessmen as villains. "A manager, by definition, is a minority," McCormick said. He said society would not allow Hollywood to scapegoat and stereotype other minorities as it does business leaders.
He said business can be an honorable ministry when a Christian recognizes opportunities to create jobs, improve lives and help people change their behavior. For instance, McCormick cited drug screening as an opportunity for Christian employers to offer meaningful intervention for substance abusers.
"I know some businessmen who are quitting committee involvement at church because they think they can get more good done at work," he said.
Preachers and Bible teachers should challenge Christian business leaders to "leaven" the workplace with Christ-like traits that move beyond other principle-centered businesses, McCormick said.
For example, a business leader, while holding to productivity as the standard, might commit the workplace to a Sabbath rest, he said. While rewarding talent as a general hiring practice, a manager might also employ a person with mental disabilities.
Recognizing that "spiritual values complicate matters," businesses traditionally have tried to build a wall of separation between faith and the workplace, according to attorney John Castle, who responded to McCormick's presentation.
"One of the characteristics of our culture has been the way we divide our lives into separate sectors. The way we organize work is the way we tend to organize our lives. So we have fragmented lives -- disconnected lives," observed Castle, a former top executive at EDS.
But that attitude is changing, he added. "We are organizing work differently. Life is coming into the workplace."
For example, during Castle's tenure at EDS, the company began allowing workers to gather for a prayer service on the National Day of Prayer, and the language of prayer and spirituality has become much more common in the workplace.
Castle also noted that many employers are encouraging and modeling volunteerism. "People want to connect," he said. "To live disconnected lives is not what God intended."
George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, responded to McCormick by focusing on the church's role in the matter of daily work.
"We need to learn to talk of faith as full-life experience in the world," he noted.
A pastor who wants to call church members to be good and faithful workers must model a good personal work ethic, Mason said. Church leaders demonstrate workplace ethics by treating employees with respect, dealing redemptively with personnel problems that arise. And vocational church workers can demonstrate what it means to be responsible managers by the way they relate to volunteers on committees.
Churches also teach about workplace ethics by the example of how they handle job crises in their membership. And the appearance of facilities teaches what the church believes about "the God of creativity and beauty," he said.
Mason encouraged churches to "celebrate various vocations as gifts for life in the world."
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