Integrity Ideas are specific actions a leader can consider during the RE-ALIGN step of Integriosity^®—actions that will begin to RE-ALIGN the organization with Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities.  You can find more Integrity Ideas at Integrous | Integrity Ideas (integriosity.com)

INTEGRITY IDEA: Take Off Your Shoes

We don’t mean literally, although there may be times when that is appropriate. “Take Off Your Shoes” is about a faithful leader prayerfully treating their workplace as sacred ground where God is already present, rather than a secular environment that should be kept free of God or a Godless environment onto which they must sprinkle faith.

We have talked much about the sacred nature of work. “Take Off Your Shoes” emphasizes the sacred nature of workplaces.

Integrity Ideas are practical actions toward implementing a bigger WHY for the organization.  Some are helpful ideas to consider as a faithful leader prayerfully discerns how best to steward the organization. Others may be important steps in the RENEW/RE-IMAGINE/RE-ALIGN/RESTORE process.

“Take Off Your Shoes” falls into the “necessary” category as part of faithful stewardship, because it is a critical piece of crossing the Sacred/Secular Gap and aligning a workplace culture with God’s design so that people can more fully recognize and live out the sacred nature of work—an activity through which they can live out Imago Dei, fulfill the Creation Mandate, practice the Golden Rule, love their neighbors, and glorify God.

Workplaces Are Not “Secular”

“Take Off Your Shoes” recognizes that God owns everything, which means that no place on earth is inherently “secular” in the sense of being outside God’s ownership and sovereign authority. The Bible is full of passages reminding us that God owns everything. For example, Psalm 50:12 (“For the world and its fullness are mine“) and Deuteronomy 10:14 (“Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it“). Perhaps the most direct when it comes to wealth is Haggai 2:8: “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.”

Although God owns it all, he calls his image-bearers to steward his creation on his behalf. That stewardship responsibility comes from God’s command in the Creation Mandate:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  (Genesis 1:28)

We believe organizations and their workplaces are part of God’s creation because they are formed by his image-bearers through the exercise of their God-given capacities, whether or not those image-bearers have even heard of the Creation Mandate.   The Creation Mandate extends beyond merely putting together raw physical materials.  It includes “subduing” through the creation of culture and social structures such as organizations that establish workplaces.

An organization is simply a collection of people working together toward a common purpose, and a workplace is where they do that work.  In God’s design, an organization’s ultimate purpose, and the purpose of the workplaces it creates, must be derived from the purpose of its people—organizations and workplaces are vehicles for people to live out the purpose of work!

By our nature as creations in the image of God, we are given gifts of creativity and productivity through specific skills and physical and mental abilities. The Bible tells us two important things about how we are to use our gifts.  1 Peter 4:10-11 declares that we are to use these gifts–the basis of our work and stewardship–to serve others in order to glorify God.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace…in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

Glorifying God is ultimately the reason and purpose God made us.  Isaiah 43:7 makes clear that glorifying God is WHY we were created (“everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made“).   That simple and paramount truth is something that Christian traditions have recognized for ages, from the Westminster Larger Catechism (“Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever“) to the Catholic Catechism (“Scripture and Tradition never cease to teach and celebrate this fundamental truth: The world was made for the glory of God.”)

As we emphasized in post #056 (Nature of Business), organizations such as businesses and the workplaces they establish have intrinsic Kingdom value because they are creations of God’s image-bearers. They provide platforms and opportunities for humans to come together in relationship to express and fulfill their humanity through work by producing and promoting flourishing and “building for the Kingdom” in ways that could not be accomplished by people working alone.

Workplaces Are Not “Godless”

“Take Off Your Shoes” also recognizes that God is everywhere, all the time, which means that a workplace is not a “Godless” environment requiring God to be brought in by a faithful leader. It might be an embodiment of the toxicity of business as usual, feel Godless, and be far from God’s design for work and workplaces, but God is there and knows the heart of every person in the workplace.

Solomon declared in 1 Kings 8:39 that God knows “the hearts of all the children of mankind,” and in Isaiah 45:4-5 God says to Cyrus, “I name you, though you do not know me” and “I equip you, though you do not know me.”

Moses was tending sheep—working—when God told him to take off his sandals because he was standing on “holy ground”—ground that was holy not because it was a special piece of land but because God was revealing his presence there.

Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3:5)

Joshua was similarly told to take of his sandals by the commander of the Lord’s army when they were near Jericho.

And the commander of the Lord‘s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:15)

Taking off their sandals was an act of reverence—a posture faithful leaders can bring to their workplaces.

Scripture emphasizes in several places the omnipresence of God. In Psalm 139, David exclaims that there is nowhere he can flee from God’s presence.  In Acts 17, Paul says in verses 24-27 that God does not live in temples made by man and is not far from any person. In Jeremiah 23:23-24, God himself declares that he fills heaven and earth:

Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.

When a faithful leader believes a workplace is secular territory devoid of God, the temptation will be to sprinkle faith symbols and practices over the workplace to bring their faith into the workplace. It can lead to the type of faith as usual Side Roads we detailed in post #181 (The “Side Road” Detours of “Faith as Usual”)—detours like Cosmeticizing.

It can also lead to “religious stewardship” rather than “faithful stewardship.” We explained recently in post #350 (Surrender Rewind: Stewardship) that religious stewardship is incorporating faith activities into work and making positive cultural changes but not changing the heart of the organization.

A faithful leader practicing “Take Off Your Shoes” will not be wondering how to bring God into the workplace they steward but will be prayerfully discerning how to meet God there and join him in what he is already doing in the hearts of his image-bearers and on the “holy ground” entrusted to their stewardship.  This discernment lies at the heart of faithful stewardship and requires a commitment to surrender to God’s will.

CONTINUUM: Prayer

The Integriosity model organizes “heart change” along six Covert-Overt Continuums.  There is nothing inherently magical about these categories, but we believe they are helpful in thinking about practical execution of a Re-Imagined Purpose, Re-Imagined Values, and a Re-Imagined Culture.  The Continuums are Prayer, Proclamation, Policies, Practices, Products, People.

Each Continuum represents an area in which leaders can begin to think about, plan, and institute Re-Alignment changes to the heart of the organization.

“Take Off Your Shoes” is on the Prayer Continuum. The Prayer Continuum should also be the very first one addressed by faithful leaders pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, because prayer will facilitate the heart-change in leaders needed to RENEW their understanding of God’s purpose for work and business, it will guide how those leaders RE-IMAGINE the Purpose, Values and Culture of the organization, and it will guide how they address and implement RE-ALIGNMENT along the other five Continuums. 

COVERT-OVERT RATING: Very Covert

The Integriosity model breaks the Covert-Overt Continuums into six gradations—from Highly Covert to Highly Overt—that we believe are helpful in beginning to pray and think about what is most appropriate for an organization at a particular moment in time.

Most Integrity Ideas have one place on the scale.  Some can vary depending on how they are implemented.  We identify “Take Off Your Shoes” as Very Covert (an overtly faith-based action known only to the faithful leader), because it begins with a faithful leader privately and prayerfully discerning how to join what God is doing in the workplace.

“Take Off Your Shoes” can also be Covert (an overtly faith-based action known only to a select group) if it involves a few leaders privately praying together or Overt (an overtly faith-based action known generally within the organization) if it involves a prayer group open to employees or a prayer meeting of leaders that is known about generally within the organization.

STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Kingdom

When we categorize faith-based actions, we also consider the stakeholders principally impacted by the action: Employees, Customers/Clients, Owners, Suppliers/Vendors, Community, and Kingdom.

“Take Off Your Shoes” is a posture that serves the Kingdom by reverently recognizing God’s sovereignty over all and his presence everywhere, all the time.  As a faithful leader leads faithfully through prayer, aligning the organization’s culture and conduct with God’s design and guidance serves his Kingdom and sets an example for others.

IMPLEMENTATION

A faithful leader prayerfully practicing “Take Off Your Shoes” will understand the importance of aligning the culture of the workplace they steward with God’s purpose for work and organizations so that people can more fully recognize and live out the sacred nature of work—an activity through which they can fulfill the Creation Mandate, practice the Golden Rule, love their neighbors, and glorify God.

Implementing “Take Off Your Shoes” is about a posture of prayer and faithful leadership more than it is about particular policies or practices. It is about how a leader approaches the pursuit of faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing.  It is a posture of seeking to find and join God in a sacred place rather than looking for ways to bring God into a secular place.

A faithful leader might begin the workday by prayerfully asking: “God, what are you already doing here, and how can I join you? What in our culture helps—or hinders—people in recognizing and living out the sacred nature of their work?”

It is about prayerfully discerning how to recognize and nurture what God has written on the hearts of his image-bearers—what pastor and theologian Tim Keller called “first-order beliefs:”

People have innate consciences that are preloaded with senses of honesty, justice, love, the Golden Rule, and so on. . . . This universal knowledge of God and of good—this aspect of natural revelation—has been called “first-order beliefs.” All people hold these beliefs at some level, even if their conscious, intellectual, culturally conditioned “second-order beliefs” deny them utterly.

That said, one very concrete and very overt action that could be taken in implementing “Take Off Your Shoes” is dedicating or even consecrating a workplace to God, acknowledging that it is already sacred ground and committing to steward it accordingly.

Mostly, however, “Take Off Your Shoes” is about prayerfully discerning ways to align the culture of the workplace with God’s design for work, pushing out the dehumanizing assumptions and characteristics of business as usual in favor of the life-giving characteristics of business a better way, and substituting the bigger WHYs of Humanizing People, Beautifying the World, and Glorifying God for the business as usual WHY of Profit as Purpose.

It is about prayerfully discerning ways to join God in the pursuit of the flourishing envisioned by Jesus’ declaration in John 10:10 that he came “that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM):  The first time I took my shoes off in reverence for God’s presence on sacred ground was at a ministry called We Want More.  They held retreats at a home in Bridgeport, CT. In the lower floor was a prayer room, and over the door was a sign asking attendees to remove their shoes as they entered sacred ground.  When the New Canaan Society still met in the home of co-founder Jim Lane, everyone was required to leave their shoes outside. Although it was ostensibly because Jim’s wife Susie didn’t want dirt tracked onto their light-colored carpets, I wonder whether God recognized it as more.

ESSENCE:  Integrity Ideas are specific practical actions a faithful leader can consider in leading faithfully through business a better way.

INTEGRITY IDEA: Take Off Your Shoes

We don’t mean literally, although there may be times when that is appropriate. “Take Off Your Shoes” is about a faithful leader prayerfully treating their workplace as sacred ground where God is already present, rather than a secular environment that should be kept free of God or a Godless environment onto which they must sprinkle faith. It recognizes that God owns everything, which means that no place on earth is inherently “secular” in the sense of being outside God’s ownership and sovereign authority.  It also recognizes that God is everywhere, all the time, which means that a workplace is not a “Godless” environment requiring God to be brought in by a faithful leader. Moses was tending sheep—working—when God told him to take off his sandals because he was standing on “holy ground”—ground that was holy not because it was a special piece of land but because God was revealing his presence there. Taking off his sandals was an act of reverence—a posture faithful leaders can bring to their workplaces. We have talked much about the sacred nature of work. “Take Off Your Shoes” emphasizes the sacred nature of workplaces. A faithful leader prayerfully practicing “Take Off Your Shoes” will understand the importance of aligning the culture of the workplace they steward with God’s purpose for work and organizations so that people can more fully recognize and live out the sacred nature of work—an activity through which they can fulfill the Creation Mandate, practice the Golden Rule, love their neighbors, and glorify God. A faithful leader practicing “Take Off Your Shoes” will not be wondering how to bring God into the workplace they steward but will be prayerfully discerning how to meet God there and join him in what he is already doing in the hearts of his image-bearers and on the “holy ground” entrusted to their stewardship.

COVERT-OVERT CONTINUUM (six Continuums for action): Prayer

COVERT-OVERT RATING (several levels from Highly Covert to Highly Overt): Very Covert

STAKEHOLDERS SERVED: Kingdom

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Photo credit: Original image by Vitor Monthay on Unsplash
(photo cropped)