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Hello, I'm Elaine Kung. I'm excited to start a new series to learn about workplace communication. I'm sharing with you based on my 33 years of corporate America experience and a lot of executive education training in ministry, and most importantly, based on my Bible study and biblical teaching, on how we can integrate the biblical principle into our workplace communication and our workplace value.
So I'm excited that we're gonna start a new journey to learn how to communicate in the workplace. We call this series, SHINE Your Talk! How do you make your talk shine using biblical and practical principles and tools that we can excel in our communication in a way that we can build up our relationship with people and our leadership in the workplace. Because it's really good communication that we can demonstrate our influence and leadership at work and through our communication that we can build trusted relationships with our managers, our coworkers, subordinates, customers, and suppliers.
And through our communication, we learn how to speak out with confidence, with persuasion and to earn respect. We learn how to use the best strategy to resolve conflicts and gain agreements. We'll learn how to overcome frustration at work when sometimes you're not being seen or not being heard. Have you experienced that? I have. And then how do we deal with some very sticky situations and learn how to use some wise communication tools? So that's what the series will help us. And the SHINE Your Talk! represents 5 sets of big topics and each topic includes many tools.
So we're gonna take a long time, little by little learn each of the tools. The SHINE, it's an acrostic for S – Speak with SINCERE, 7C, PREPARE to Lead Up your manager and one-on-one meetings. H is to hear and reflect what is the reason and how to relate with other diverse inputs. I is inquire with good questions towards a solution. And what is 7B, to help us ask good questions. N is to nurture assertive attitude, an approach to persuade others especially in conflict resolution and integrate non-violent communication principles. And E is to have empathy, especially in our ABCDE communication skill, building trusted relationship and even demonstrate the Art of 8Q leadership.
So you can see a lot of contents that we're gonna learn through SHINE Your Talk! Not shine your shoes, but to SHINE Your Talk! So that we can shine as Christians in the workplace. We are to shine and also in very sticky situations like these listed here, how can we be shrewed like a snake and still be innocent as doves as in Matthew 10:16? These are some sticky situations that we're gonna come back and learn from each one of them. Very practical. Before we get into the communication tools. I want to set a stage and help us have the right mindset to understand what does work have to do with my Christian faith? Only if we understand how work ties so closely with our Christian faith that we understand our value at work that would help us to really communicate effectively.
So if you ask someone, what does what work mean to you? The gentleman on the right, he says “my work is a nightmare”. With that kind of attitude, your communication is not gonna work. And, the second gentleman in the middle says, “my work is an investment. I have good returns”. That is a better attitude. The best attitude is the third person, the lady on the left. She says, “my work is my calling”. I have a calling from God that I am called to work. And that's also the name of our ministry Called to Work. God didn't just call the pastor to be a pastor or the missionary to be a missionary. God has called every one of us to work whether working at home as a homemaker, or working as an engineer, a doctor, and accountant. All different works. We have a unique calling, so that's an important and correct mindset.
And then you explain the story further. If you ask three people who stood the same work, you see these three great workers, they are all laying bricks. Their work nature and the action are all the same for the three brick workers.
And yet, they have a very different mindset. You ask the first brick worker on the left, he says, “I'm laying brick by brick. That's what I'm doing, so boring. I can't wait ‘til 5 o'clock. I will just leave”. So he works on the clock and doing work that he hates. Not a good attitude. The middle brick worker, he says, “Well, I'm building a wall. That's good. The wall can provide protection. I'm doing it as a career”. If they're paid, it's an investment. And then the right brick worker, number three, he has the best attitude and mindset. He says, “As i'm laying the brick, I'm actually building a cathedral so that people can worship God in this cathedral. So work is my calling. I'm doing work that Im made.” What a big difference, not doing work he hates, not just doing what he's paid, but he's doing work in His name. So he really sees it not as workers by the clock, or just as a career, but as a calling. How powerful, what a difference!
As a result, the brick worker number one, just care about pay and possession very basic and you’ll never get satisfied. If you're only doing work for the sake of pay and possession, they're not bad, it's good, it's neutral. And yet that is not enough to give us a joy in our work. And the middle person said they also get position, power and prime. Position is good, we can always do better. And yet if you think about just power and prime, then you become more selfish, then you’ll have the wrong mindset. Again, you won't be satisfied with your work and you'll get disappointed.
Again, the third brick walker has the right mindset in the purpose-driven work, purpose-driven life, and that you'll be satisfied. And you would find meaning and purpose in your work. So I want to set the right stage so that we know we are called to work. And when doing work, that we are made using our God-given talent. So our work matters to God because God himself is the first worker. And work was His own idea because he started working from the very beginning of time. He used 6 days to create this beautiful universe as you know and created Adam and Eve, the beginning of human race. That's how we came about. And then He rested up on the 7th day.
So it's the same model that God expects for all of us to follow that we enjoy the work as God did creating this beautiful universe. And both in the Old Testament and the New Testament we see God’s work in the same way Jesus works. And Jesus said in the book of John chapter 5, He said, “My Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working”. So Jesus was working in the New Testament, healing people, teaching, strengthening people and encouraging people, and doing life with His disciples and the people. So even today, God is at work, Jesus is at work, the Holy Spirit is at work. So when we go to work, we actually partner with God and co labor with God. That's so exciting. So when you communicate, when you prepare how to interact with your coworkers, remember taking Jesus to work and that He partners with us and helps us in knowing what to say, how to interact and how to ask questions and how to answer questions.
So to be specific in the New Testament, you'll see the main characters, Jesus and Paul in the whole New Testament, in their public appearance, the parables that Jesus told, the miracles in the book of Acts, over 90 % were taken place in the marketplace, not in the synagogue. You see these numbers over 90 % of all these teaching parables and miracles were in the marketplace, not in the synagogue. In the same way, today as we go to work, compared to the time that we go to church, majority of our time in our life are spent in the workplace. So how we communicate, how we interact in the relationship with people, it’s so important that we take Jesus to work, the way Jesus did. When God gave us three mandates through the Bible, you can see how these three mandates all connect to our call to work. The first one from the beginning in Genesis, Chapter 1, God said to Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it”. So we have the culture mandate to multiply our talent and manage all the work that God has given us, so that we have an effect of the salt and add flavor to what we do and having the culture influence with our Christian values that we can be fruitful and increase in number to manage the work that we're given, the culture mandate.
And the second mandate is the great commandment. Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 22: Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, your mind and your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. So in the same way in work we learn to express and share the love of God in the workplace.
And then finally, the third mandate is the great commission. We know very well. Matthew 28 said: therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of Jesus and teaching them everything I've taught you and obey. So at work, we can shine for Jesus using our testimony and be the light. So these three mandates are totally tied to our workplace. So how we communicate would express our culture mandate, having that salt positive flavor, and expressing love and grace. And then we'd like to SHINE our talk. So our three mandates are fully at work in the workplace. So all that really help us to understand who do we work for? God is our big boss. He's our CEO. Why do we work? Because God’s the first worker. And we use work to experience God and to shine for God. What do we do? When do we do work? And where do we change job? All these, we have courses to learn about it, but we won't go into in detail, but all that are based on the three mandates. And how do we work are taught in the Bible and we can put that into practice.
So when God created all the heaven and earth, the birds in the air, the fish in the sea, and all the living things on the ground, he gave Adam and Eve, all these redeemed creation and through human race all these years, we now have the seven mountains- A to G. The Art and Entertainment, Business and Technology, Church, Distribution and Media, Education, Family and Government. All these already encompass the different fields that we can work in. And these are God-given gifts that we can contribute in all these different 7 mountains, 7 fields. And they are all redeemed like how we have been saved as well. Ultimately, we work for God, he’s our CEO. In the United States, fortune magazine is a well-known magazine. Near 2000, the cover story was God is our CEO and there were many successful Christians interviewed to explain why God is our CEO. When we know we ultimately work for God, like Colossians 3:23 says, whatever you do, work at it with all your hearts as working for the Lord, not for human masters.
We don't just do work like when our boss is looking at us, because we know our big boss is our God. He is our ultimate CEO. So in my 33 years at work, my two goals are to glorify God, He’s my big boss, my CEO and to bless others, to receive God’s blessing, he helped me how to communicate, how to solve problems, how to build relationship with people, how to handle politics, and also how to be a blessing to others. So we're gonna learn those communication skills. And then I learnt to be a servant leader of integrity. That's how I communicate, how I influence the people and have the 360 ° leadership, that we don't just lead down to our subordinates. We also lead across and even lead up. So we can learn how do we lead up to all types of different bosses in the coming sessions. When God is our CEO we have the right mindset and know how we can communicate as God is with us. And that what we say will glorify God and bless others. Now see you next time.
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