Please excuse a brief professional/promotional interruption on a personal blog – think of this as one of those Viking River Cruise “not a commercial because this is public television but who the heck are are we kidding” commercials that PBS stations play before Downton Abbey starts.

Nine months ago, I joined a boutique sales strategy consulting firm as a solution principal, to help my family deal with the financial insanity that is Silicon Valley living. My firm helps B2B companies execute on their business growth strategies through designing and deploying digital sales playbooks and training. (Apologies for the business-y gobbledygook. If you happen to know what that that’s about, and even better, you’re in sales or marketing leadership for a company who might be in need of our services, let me know!)

The list of reasons this company has been a remarkable providence starts with the fact that it’s lead by committed Christians. It’s been a remarkable and rare blessing to work for a company who strives to manifest the goodness of the Christian faith through the quality of its work and the integrity of its people, and actually does it so well.  It’s also a privilege to be permitted, and even encouraged, to incorporate my other Christian vocations and passions into my work. (I don’t subscribe to the argument that Christians in Silicon Valley experience really overt discrimination yet, but there is a constant subtle pressure to keep your work front and center, and your faith hidden out of the way.)

One of my many passions (because yes,I have a lot of them) is for Christians in business leadership, and especially those in Silicon Valley, to remember and re-center the doctrine of imago dei in how they lead their companies. The dominant ethos of my city and its world-dominating and world-shaping industry is that people are iPhone apps – useful tools to be installed, used, updated as needed, and then deleted when not. The practical expressions of that ethos are everywhere, from the demand to be always-connected to email and always available for meetings or travel, to the “it’s not personal, it’s business” human resources policies which in effect treat people as resources, but not as people.

People struggling under the weight of the oppressive consequences of these values are often the least free to advocate for change, but also the most in need of others to do it on their behalf.

So I’ve started a page on Medium to write about it.

I have 3 goals for the project, and 3 requests of you, my dear readers:

Goals:

1. To call attention to different implications of imago dei thinking for contemporary American work issues in a way that is not overtly about the gospel, but is deeply informed and motivated by it.
2. To promote the success of our company and its people as a case study in how faithfulness to imago values (and the God who is at their heart), while its own reward, also inevitably leads to personal and corporate success.
3. To raise awareness about my company,what we do, and how we do it, to help build its brand, and extend its visibility with prospective client companies.

Requests:

1. Go here to check out the page and  read/share/like/forward/etc.as it’s helpful, particularly on professional network channels like LinkedIn.

2. Speaking of which, please connect with me there. I’m blessed to be in a business that connects me with a lot of great companies looking for great people. If  someone you know is in any of the industries with which we work, and is looking for a job, there’s a possibility I can deploy my spiritual gift of networking to serve you. Conversely, if I happen to see that you’re connected with a company with which we’re working, or hoping to work, I might send a one-time message to you asking for a relevant introduction. I will NOT harass you with multiple requests, nor fill your email or LinkedIn messages with spam. I hate that when it happens to me with a holy hatred; I wouldn’t dare do that to you.

3. Please pray that God would bless this endeavor, for the good of my city, and my company, and well, my family.

Thanks so much!
And now, on to our regularly scheduled programming.