Many Christian leaders wrestle with whether or not they should hire only Christians in their workplace. The answer is usually, “It depends.”

Jesus taught in Matthew 5, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Some Christian leaders might use this verse to build a case for making sure that their organization is only represented by Christian employees. God may lead you to try that approach if you are more discipleship oriented than evangelistic and each of your employees interact with customers, but it’s more likely that you’ll have a mixture of believers and unbelievers alike.

In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul wrote, “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.  But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.”

By Paul’s writing it’s evident that you could hire someone who professes to be a brother or sister in Christ yet their lifestyle is such that Paul is urging us not to associate with them. On the other hand he tells us that we cannot escape immoral people.

In hiring a team of people we need to consider their role and the current mix of our workplace. If we want to be a light to our customers, yet the majority of our people are not Christians and do not model Christian values, then we are going to fail at our desired result.

As Christians we are called to both evangelism and discipleship, but most of us are better at one over the other. If you are more evangelistic you may lean towards hiring non believers with enough believers sprinkled in to help influence them. If you are more discipleship oriented you may want Christians in your workplace that need to grow and mature in their faith.

The goal is to prayerfully consider God’s desire for your particular workplace and your personal gifting and then choose people accordingly. Whichever direction you select it’s important to note that legally you cannot discriminate based on religion, but you can share the values and beliefs of your organization and select the best people who can help you meet your objectives.