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Tuesday, June 25, 2002 Finding God on the Job "Companies that wear religion on their sleeves say a growing number of workers are looking for spiritual involvement on the job," the Wall Street Journal reported today.
Kokou Komlan, a Pentecostal Christian who works for Covenant Transport Inc., said, "I have been praying to find a Christian company to work for."
Covenant offers voluntary prayer meetings and Bible study at its Tennessee headquarters, and biblical scroll and an anti-abortion message on its truck trailers.
For nonbelieving outsiders who are in a tizzy that people might actually dare to - gasp - share their faith in God with others, Covenant driver John Johnson has a response. "I don't profess their religion, or go to their church," he told the Journal. "But their reputation is that it's an honest company, and I found it to be absolutely true."
A rising number of roadside chapels provide spiritual comfort to hardworking truckers. Truckstop Ministries Inc. has 57 chapels across the nation, up from 15 in 1995.
Keith Richardson, founder and president of Sierra Trading Post, a Christian outdoors mail-order company in Cheyenne, Wyo., is getting applicants who "have had issues with the lack of integrity they see in the workplace, and they're looking for someone who operates his company according to principles."
Other companies are less involved but offer such amenities as a conference room for meditation and prayer, said David Miller, a former business executive and investment banker who leads Avodah Institute, a Princeton, N.J., group that researches work-and-worship issues.
Factory closings, layoffs and corporate scandals have jolted employees' faith in business, he told the Journal.
"People are realizing that they can only have a limited amount of faith in their employers, even wonderful employers," Miller observed. "Many are beginning to ask the God question."
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