Leading from below - how younger Christians can shape their workplaces
From a video by Stronger Network
Sam Brown, who works for the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC), gave a talk at Stronger about young Christians leading from below and shaping their workplaces. Here is an abridged version of the first half of the talk:
Starting with a story. Young Zoe sits down at her desk to start her day. She works in communications for an environmental charity. Opening her laptop, she clicks through the unread emails in her inbox and then goes to Instagram to check on how their post that went up in the small hours was performing. Then bang! She slams a frustrated fist down on the table. The copy that she had painstakingly crafted and even agreed with her line manager the day before has been without her knowledge completely changed. Its message is now confused and ineffective. In essence, it's now rubbish. This experience, this feeling is not unique to Zoe. Up and down the country, capable young adults are being frustrated in ways like this in the workplace. So what can Zoe do as a follower of Jesus?
She wants to do a good job and be a team player but it's feeling like those things can't go together. Even in spite of her line manager edit, she likes her and she likes working with her generally, so can she challenge her? How can she challenge her? How can she try and mould the culture of the organization so this way of working, that has frustrated her so much, is swept away, making it a better place, not just for her to work but for everyone? As a junior employee with no one underneath her how can she help lead her team to be something different?
Our research shows that young Christians are already doing this in workplaces up and down the country - leading from below. But what we want to do is take it another step and say young Christians shaping their workplaces should be considered a vital part of the work of the Church today.
Looking at Jeremiah's letter to the exiles in Chapter 29. This chapter is like a small instruction manual for living as strangers in a strange land, surrounded by people who do not share their culture, their religion, their way of life. Instructions to build houses, plant gardens, settle down, marry, have children and then, also seek the peace and the prosperity of the place you find yourself and pray for it because if the place prospers then you too will prosper.
There's real wisdom in it for us today. So Zoe can be confident in the biblical imperative to work for the prosperity of her charity similarly for other young Christians in their businesses, hospitals, schools, etc. Wherever they are, wherever they work there's a Biblical imperative to work for the prosperity of that place.
I also want to talk about a chap called Captain David Marquet who was a submarine captain in the United States Navy. He took over the worst performing submarine in the Navy and with a strong crew turned it into the highest performing submarine in the Navy. He adapted his leadership style as the captain of that submarine to emphasize how critical it was for all members of the sub to show initiative. A place where everyone engages and contributes their full intellectual capacity, a place where people are healthier and happier because they have more control over their work.
Orders were being followed blindly despite people knowing things would not work and David realised fear was was holding his sub crew back in sharing what they actually thought. He had to address the culture of fear across the whole crew. Zoe could view her job solely within the parameters of her job description. She wouldn't get in any trouble if she turned up to work every day and just did the things on it and then clocked out again. But there's more to being effective in a job than merely what you can find in a job description.
David thought everyone in a company or organization has a responsibility to be someone who is ready to offer their insight and opinion and, in so doing, nurture that environment where all feel like they can say something when they notice something. They feel safe enough to share it even if it's different than what everyone else thinks. Teams act their way into new thinking rather than a leader demanding actions from the top down.
That's going to be a really important concept for us as we think about young Christians leading from below in their workplaces. Ultimately this has to start with one person and my contention today is, why can't that person be young Christians in workplaces all over the country? Why can't Zoe begin to act in her workplace, in her work, in such a way that leads to organizational cultural change for the sake of prosperity as instructed in Jeremiah?
If the team has to act its way into new thinking, they need people at all levels to take that brave step of faith and say what it is they're noticing. If Zoe voices to her line manager things she notices about communication output, she is starting the process of a team acting its way in to new thinking. It's on Zoe to be the change that she wants to see at her charity. If she does these things, a more prosperous vision for the charity for the managers and for those working under them including Zoe herself is a possibility. This is leadership from below in action - that people who are not in charge in a traditional sense have more agency than they realize to shape their work place's values and shape that workplace into a place where all feel like they have that opportunity to flourish.
Watch the 21 minute talk here:
See also the following articles:
It takes one person to change a company
Servant leadership
Five ways church leaders can teach that work matters
Commissioning people for the workplace
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From a video by Stronger Network, 18/06/2025