The Integration of Spirituality and Professionalism

Franky Schaeffer's book Addicted to Mediocrity has occupied prominent space on my bookshelf for years not so much because of its stellar critical quality (ironically), but as a reminder that I, as a professed follower of a leader named Jesus Christ, am called to excellence in my chosen vocation--leadership. Having been born into, held membership in, worked for, and led in Christian organizations for my entire life, I had experienced less than excellence and had become increasingly callous to anything defined as Christian. Christian music, Christian organizations, Christian schools, Christians--I immediately found myself considering these as less excellent then their secular counterparts.

However, for three years in my current Christian workplace, I've experienced excellence that is validated by industry benchmarks, and it's also the most spiritual environment where I've worked. Intrigued, I've read various research studies connecting workplace spirituality to organizational effectiveness that have reinforced my current experience. So was my prior experience abnormal, or is there another explanation?

I think that the answer can be explored through the increasingly validated theory of spiritual leadership conceived by Fry (2003), in part because of the his distinction between religion and spirituality (see prior post). I've realized that religion was the focal point of organizational culture for most of my life, but my current workplace, while calling itself Christian, is more concerned with supporting its employees' relationship with God and that they embrace the company's values, which are based on Truth that's contained in Scripture and validated by science. It's through the foundation of these values, I hypothesize, that they feel a sense of membership and calling, which are two variables that lead to organizational effectiveness in Fry's model.

Fry, L. W. (2003). Toward a theory of spiritual leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 14, 693-727.

Schaeffer, Franky. (1981). Addicted to Mediocrity. Crossway Books.