The most common problem encountered in the workplace by Christian employees and employers is how much discussion about the faith is permitted on the job.  The key to being an effective witness at work is to understand exactly what your rights to witness about  your faith in Jesus Christ are in each specific context.

The general rule (although it may vary depending upon the nature of the specific type of workplace) is that when employees are permitted to discuss politics, families, sports, or other matters of a more personal nature on the job, voluntary religious conversations that are agreeable to both parties may not be prohibited.

After religious discussions in the workplace, the second most common call to the Christian Law Association is from Bible-believing Christians who have a sincerely held religious conviction against working on Sunday.  In a society that now operates full tilt 24/7, such convictions often seem out of place in the modern world and some employers are reluctant to respect them.

In our increasingly secularized society, many business owners and managers do not understand Christians who view Sunday as a day of rest and who believe it is unbiblical for them to work on that day.  Other Christians request an accommodation of their work schedule because they believe they should not miss any regularly scheduled church services on Sundays, and sometimes also on Wednesday evenings.

Religious employees may have a Bible, a religious screen saver, or other religious objects in their personal work area if other employees are permitted to have objects of their choosing in their personal workspace.

Prohibitions on some religious displays may be permitted in private work areas where employees meet with clients, patients, vendors, or customers; however, with the possible exception of the government, such prohibitions are not legally required.  Most employers allow their employees to personalize their private workspace or decorate private work areas during a holiday season.  The Christian Law Association sometimes receives calls from Christian employees who have been told they are not permitted to place religious items on their desks or in their private work areas.

An employee must be permitted to keep a Bible in his private work area and read it quietly or with other employees during his free time at work.  There are also times when giving tracts or religious reading material to co-workers is appropriate.

While religious speech is protected in the workplace, courts have ruled that in certain circumstances, when the religious speech affects other governmentally protected classifications, the speech can lose its protection and become workplace harassment.

Christian employees who want to distribute tracts at work must be careful in their selection of the tract so that its message or language is not perceived as assaultive.

It is possible, given the proper safeguards, for a Christian business owner to have a religious testimony in an entirely legal manner both for customers and employees, and many do.  Some business owners even hire chaplains to provide a Biblical ministry for their employees.  This is entirely legal, so long as the business owners follow the laws that protect non-Christian employees.

The image a business owner projects to the general public is entirely his choice.  While business owners are permitted to promote any image they want with customers, employers must be careful not to engage in religious discrimination against employees of a differing faith or of no faith at all.  With the proper safeguards, a Christian supervisor may also have a positive religious impact on those employees he supervises.

Can your church host a Super Bowl fellowship or special event?  Some churches use the NFL's championship game as an opportunity to fellowship and watch the game and many sponsor evangelistic outreach events. For the last two years, the NFL has taken a hard stance against showing the game outside the traditional family living room environment.  Lawyers for the NFL even sent legal demand letters to churches threatening to take legal action if the church events were not cancelled.  While the NFL based it's demands on its copyright ownership of the game's broadcast, many were outraged by the apparent hypocrisy of allowing sports bars to broadcast the event and sponsor parties without any objection whatsoever.  The good news is, the NFL has responded favorably and has adopted new guidelines that will allow church sponsored events to show the championship game.

Looking forward to the 2009 Super Bowl, this informative video by Attorney David Gibbs III outlines the new legal requirements for hosting a church-sponsored Super Bowl fellowship.