Transforming Workplace Ministry in Silicon Valley

Introduction

This article is an interview with 'Andy', a software developer who has worked in Google, Slack, and Airbnb. The conversation unpacks how his Christian faith shapes not only his desire to share Jesus with his colleagues, but changing his approach to building products.

Summary notes

Christians get to be “a light among their colleagues”, but that’s not where being a Christian at work stops.
As a Christian building products, does what we are working on, or who we are building it for come into our prayer life?
Believers should prayerfully think about the responsibility and influence they have; and that includes building technology products! Where can you “invite the Holy Spirit into the design and decision making process?”
If this is the case what does that look like when you are considering another role or another company– where might God want you to serve him?

Commentary

[Andy] wants to see believers working in these companies because they have a big responsibility in shaping the way people live.

I love this line. What would it look like if more designers, product managers, or developers in big tech companies paused for a minute or two each day to pray and ask God to shape them as they shape the products they are working on?

It’s easy to get caught up in a world of thinking that Christian ministry is working for a church, or a faith based charity, or volunteering in Sunday School, etc. This line turns that kind of thinking on it’s head. Ministry is right where God has put you, making the most of the responsibility and influence that God has given you, even as a technologist working in-front of a screen.

For Andy this particular perspective has shaped his decision making when looking for his next role to look specifically at emerging technologies. The church is typically painted as being late adopters of technology; but in this case Andy wants to ensure that Christian influence is present in technologies that are bleeding edge:

I want my kids to enter the working world knowing there were believers who shaped how this technology was developed and adopted, and they put safety and security guardrails to protect people and society.

I don’t think that means that all Christians need to jump on the next piece of technology that hits the hype cycle. It’s very easy to become sniffy about technology we’re not interested in ourselves, but we should be encouraging, discipling, and praying for Christians who are working in those areas whether it be Quantum Computing like Andy, Web3, AI, space exploration, etc so that they might shape and influence it based on our shared Christian faith.

Introduction

Summary notes

Commentary

Further reading