Pat Gelsinger on faith, work, and family priorities
Pat Gelsinger reflects on what employers should expect from employees, how Christians can live out their faith at a secular company, and why integrity at work matters for Christian witness. He also shares practical counsel for keeping God, family, and work in the right order, and for building relationships that support spiritual discipline and accountability.
- Christian witness at work begins with excellent work, ethics, and integrity.
- Technology can increase flexibility—and expectations—making work-life balance more challenging.
- Healthy priorities and trusted relationships help sustain faith and family life amid busy schedules.
By Brad Dupray
As senior vice president of the Digital Enterprise Group at Intel, Pat Gelsinger oversees 13,000 employees who account for 60 percent of the company’s revenue (approximately $20 billion). He was the design manager or chief architect of many of Intel’s microprocessors and was the youngest vice president in company history. More importantly, Pat is a dedicated Christian. He has outlined principles for a successful career, a busy family, and a vibrant faith in his book, Balancing Your Faith, Family & Work. Pat and his wife of 25 years, Linda, are the proud parents of four children and are actively involved at Singing Hills Christian Church in Hillsboro, Oregon.
Faith and witness in the workplace
What is the responsibility of an employee to his or her employer?
Employees are given both general and specific responsibilities. Generally they are asked to do good work with ethics and dedication. The specific responsibilities associate with their individual assignment. Their job is to do a great job, whether they like their current assignment or boss or employer. Colossians 3:23, 24 says that while we may be working at a job, we’re also working for the Lord.
Will technology change that relationship in the coming years?
Clearly technology enables things like working at home. With a cell phone and a laptop PC, I can work pretty much anywhere. This creates certain flexibility, and certain expectations. With telepresence and telecommunication it’s hard to get away from work sometimes. So issues of work and life balance can increasingly come into play because of technology.
How does a person who works for a secular company reflect their faith in his work?
A person must realize he works for the Lord Jesus. We’re all called to full-time ministry as Christians, with only a few called as full-time vocational ministers. We need to be great employees doing a great job, and we have to demonstrate ethics and work habits that are above reproach. Doing that creates our Christian witness in the workplace. If you’re a lousy employee with questionable ethics, you’re a lousy witness in the workplace. If you’re a great employee, people are attracted to you. That creates a platform and opens the door for your witness to others.
How does a Christian witness on the job without drawing the wrath of his or her superiors?
I have a very simple rule. I don’t witness or speak to anyone about my faith unless they go to a personal level in a discussion. So if you’re interacting with someone on a professional level, your witness is how you live and who you are. If they talk about ball games and family or a sick friend, they’ve moved to the personal level. So when they move to the personal level, you can, too. A good example would be when someone tells you about a sick family member, you ask if you can pray for him or her. By that you have established your Christian witness and you can go from there.
Have you ever been in a position where you thought your job was at risk because of your faith?
Yes, I have been. On different occasions my Christian witness has been challenged in the workplace. I’ve been asked not to be as visible in Christian faith in some circumstances.
How have you responded?
It’s a matter of prayer and introspection. I think carefully and deeply about those things. In some cases you have to humbly and contritely say, “That’s who I am.” In some cases I was wrong and I have asked forgiveness. Proverbs 24:6 says, “For by wise guidance you will wage war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.” When you get in those situations it’s good to find someone to help talk you through it. It’s important that you remain an integrated person, including your faith. Your work is not paying you to be a Christian witness, but while you’re there you need to be who you are, a Christian who happens to be an employee.
Priorities, family, and church involvement
How does a Christian strike the right balance between work and family?
Our challenge is to live by God-ordained priorities, which are God first, family second and work third. Most of us live work first, family second, and God last. The challenge of a balanced life is, in your daily living, to reinforce those God-given priorities—God, family, and work.
Is “God” church involvement?
It’s mostly not about church. When you think about God it’s about relationship. It’s about personal devotion time. It’s about your daily witness. Church is a part of that. The church is the platform that reinforces and prepares you to do other things. If your relationship with God is only about the hour on Sunday morning, you’ve missed it.
Can a person overdo their church involvement?
Absolutely. People can be overdosed and out of balance with church work just as much as they can with “work” work.
Mission, mentorship, and accountability
You have championed the “personal mission statement.” What is that?
I have structured it with three elements. Your mission is the highest level. It’s what you would want your epitaph to say. The second element is values. If someone would say, “who is Pat?” my values would be how they would hopefully respond. Third are the lifelong goals you are working daily to achieve.
How do you develop a personal mission statement?
It’s a period of deep introspection. Every individual needs to personally say, “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?” Write it down and iterate upon it, which is hard work. Share it with people you trust and value. When you have done that it should define what you want to do, or be, for the next 20 or 30 years.
What are some practical things you have done to enrich your family life?
There are a number of specific things like dating your kids, dating your wife. Every week spend one-on-one time with each one of them. Family vacations are important. Leave work at work and change your schedule to be at home in the precious evening hours. Sometimes that means saying “no” at work.
How does someone with an intense schedule stay connected to God?
I’ve committed that before I read the businessman’s bible (The Wall Street Journal) every day I read God’s Bible. You can use drive time as prayer time. Have a daily devotion time. Pray and fast one day a week. Thursday is my prayer and fasting time. I pray with guys each Thursday. Personal accountability reinforces that daily contact with God.
How have you developed personal relationships to help make that happen?
By having a mentor who is interested in making me better and is willing to challenge and confront me, and is not so impressed with me that he’s afraid to tell me where to improve.
An accountability partner would be someone walking side by side with you praying with you, fasting with you, asking if you’re in God’s Word, asking if you’re doing the things you said you would do (that is, in your personal mission statement). You mentor others to invest in someone else’s life that same way. You can equate these relationships to Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy—mentor, accountability partner, and one being mentored.
How does a person find (and secure) a mentor?
Look for people who are strong in the areas you want to grow in. Then with humility ask if they would invest some of their wisdom into your life.
Brad Dupray is senior vice president, investor development, with Church Development Fund, Irvine, California.
