Churches and Church Leaders Making Headlines

MORAL DILEMMAS IN THE COPY ROOM
Ever wonder how employees are really using the copier?

ATLANTA, Ga.—Two out of three workers copy personal items at the company’s expense—and the vast majority (81.9 percent) don’t feel guilty about it. In fact, nearly the same number (76.7 percent) believe that using the copier for nonwork activities is a valuable job perk. And of those copying personal materials, only one in 20 are duplicating documents for the church. These findings are only some of those generated by a national survey commissioned by Lanier Worldwide, the Atlanta-based document-management solutions provider. Lanier’s goal was to gain a micro-level understanding of the real-world issues that affect copier productivity, information security and ease-of-use in today’s workplace.

Although attitudes about “perk” vs. “theft” did not significantly vary among respondents of different genders, ages or job titles, one interesting gap appeared:

Of those who viewed personal copying as theft, 28.5 percent were executives. Yet the percentage of executives who felt guilty about their own personal copying was significantly lower at just 17.6 percent.

Although most employees copied nonwork items at some point, the overall frequency was low. The vast majority of respondents copied five or fewer nonwork items per week.

GREAT PIZZA, GREATER MESSAGE SERVED DAILY

SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—No doubt about it, the patrons of Incredible Pizza Company come for 16 types of pizza, more than 100 salad and pastas and all the homemade desserts they can eat for less than $6 per person. But as full as their bellies might be when they leave, many of them go home spiritually fed as well.

Owners Rick and Cheryl Barsness are Christians who say they choose to operate their business according to God’s principles. “We consider it our ministry,” Rick says, and the evidence of his belief is, literally, all over the place. Free Bible tracts are available as customers leave the family entertainment center, and kids can win cross-shaped suckers and necklaces. Even the smoke- and alcohol-free restaurant’s design theme, “a time when family was cool,” echoes Christian sentiment. There is a 50’s diner, Star-Lite drive-in movie theater, “Leave It to Beaver” Family Room and sock-hop gymnasium, all of which Rick says were created to give customers “those wonderful warm fuzzies of days gone by.”

Still, you might wonder how meaningful the message can be among the go-karts, miniature golf, bumper cars and video games that make Incredible Pizza Company such a popular spot. According to Rick, the answer came knocking on his door one night.

“A young lady was holding a baby,” he says. “She wanted to thank us for having the tracts on a baby’s first 30 days. She’d planned to have an abortion the next day!

“We all had a good cry,” he adds. “Cheryl and I said, ‘This is what it’s all about.’”

When the Barsnesses aren’t serving nearly 12,000 customers per week, they teach the young marriage class at nearby James River Assembly of God.

E-mail the editor at rslaybaugh@vpico, or write to: Church Business • 3300 N. Central Ave. Suite 2500 • Phoenix, AZ 85012