It was at a Kingdom Business Leaders conference in Dallas, Texas in 2018 when our visionary, J.W. Oliver, held a “little conversation” with a gentleman during a break. It was a simple question. “What do you do?” and the gentleman’s response inspired the birth of Pastoral Care at ZimWorX in Zimbabwe. We are now motivated and determined to share this vision with other companies in Zimbabwe. At a breakfast meeting held in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, we shared this story with influential business leaders and shared the Pastoral Care model as a significant driver of wellness in the workplace.
Today, more than ever, companies need to invest more in the wellness of their team members in a holistic manner. The Covid-19 pandemic continues to exert spiritual and emotional pressure on us, individually and as organizations. We need to create safe-spaces in our companies where people can accompany each other and help each other to navigate through life’s complications. We need to create safe spaces in our companies where people help each other turn the bitter valleys into places of springs by counting their blessings, naming them one by one. We need to create a safe working environment where people hold little conversations; little conversations leading to great transformations. Pastoral Care offers such safe spaces.
Counselling, open-door guidance, guiding, reconciling, peer support, and mentoring are all examples of pastoral care in the workplace. Employees are sometimes exposed to a variety of scenarios at work or at home, which might have an impact on how they operate. Sometimes they can’t communicate to anyone and have to keep it all bottled up inside, which can lead to stress or depression. Having a pastoral care team to assist employees in such circumstances would allow them to discuss their difficulties with a pastor who will not judge them and will assist them in overcoming the problem.
If we claim to love God but do not love one another, our love is worthless.
