At Dayspring Technologies, Chi-Ming Chien has implemented many company-wide policies based on biblical principles. Biblical management practices include a pay curve based on Isaiah 40:4 and an expectation that all employees will take Sabbath rest. In this video, Chien talks about what sort of sacrifices companies and employees need to make to for a Bible-based workplace, and how they benefit in the end.

Transcript:

One of the things that we put in place for Dayspring is what we call our Isaiah 40 Curve. We benchmark salaries, but then we boost salaries on the low end and we reduce salaries on the high end. What that comes out of is a passage that John the Baptist refers to (Isaiah 40:4). When John the Baptist is announcing the kingdom of God, he cites the prophet Isaiah in saying, “Every valley will be lifted up, and every hill will be brought low.” The interesting thing is that he follows that with very clear economic implications. If you have two coats, give one to somebody who has none. Soldiers be content with your pay. These are very economic things.

Our sense is: if you look at the way that pay is distributed generally, it’s not always in the most just kind of way of free operation of the market. So we try to implement this in a very modest way. We agree mutually that this way of structuring salary provides for a more healthy community as a company.

That does mean that some of our folks, especially those that have 15-20 years of experience, could work somewhere else and get significantly more. I think part of what accounts for the longevity of their tenure with Dayspring is a lot of them are making a tradeoff. They’re saying, “We don’t actually want the life that comes with the high salary. We want to be able to practice Sabbath. We want to be able to nurture life in community.” The other thing is the quality of relationships within Dayspring that they’ve found and that they enjoy.

We live in a milieu that’s 24/7, always on, faster is better. There are ways in which God has made us and gifted us to have rest. Sabbath rest is one of the ten commandments. One of the ways that has taken shape in Dayspring is an expectation that Sabbath is a normal thing. Staff aren’t reachable on weekends and in the evenings. Rest is normal. Part of the way that we work towards that is scheduling in a way that’s sane, not over-promising, declining work if it doesn’t fit the schedule. I think that’s in contrast to always pursuing more work and more revenue.

Watch the full film Dayspring (Monastery 2.0) from the Faith & Co. film series from Seattle Pacific University.

This video serves as an illustration to the TOW Key Topic article Is a Weekly Sabbath Observance Expected of Christians?