Reflections
SOME WONDERFUL NORTH AMERICAN STIRRINGS: PART 1
By Pete Hammond, Summer 2002
Part 1 of 2
Something is changing in the American church scene. Baby-boomers Jonathon and Ashley have started coming to church activities again as their children grow and their careers demand more of them. Meanwhile, middle-aged Harry and Sally long for more than just a Sunday-faith after years of loyal worship attendance since the 1950s and 60s. Baby-Busters Lynn and Mark are experimenting with connecting their inner life with external responsibilities and exploring "spirituality." Three generations of adults are probing the connection between faith and the daily grind of family life and jobs. Some American church-folk and non-church spiritual seekers are getting bullish about faith while news headlines chronicle the sharp decline in mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic worship attendance, clergy and budgets. Men and women of faith are wondering what Jesus has to do with their jobs. There is lots of experimentation and testing as they try to connect Sunday faith with Monday realities. Meanwhile, many religious professionals are clinging to old institutional church patterns and wringing their hands over the decaying structures of traditional church life, while either not noticing this grass roots movement, or finding themselves resisting it.
A repeated comment is "Spirituality is in. Church is out." I sense this is a contemporary version of the old story about "new wine in old wineskins." 1
In our InterVarsity Marketplace/Ministry In Daily Life team, we celebrate this widespread stirring or disease about as usual. But we are concerned about the growing gap between the pew and pulpit. Both groups need to develop deeper biblical and theological roots if long-term change is to achieved. We also desire to connect all three generations of Christians (whom some identify as builders, boomers & busters) so they can learn from each other while growing in practical faith. Yesterday's workers (retired "builders" who were born before World War II) have much to offer today's employees and employers. Both of these generations can become mentors to tomorrow's workforce who are still in school. In InterVarsity we want to serve the church by focusing our energies and resources on encouraging and equipping Christians in college for ministry-in-daily-life for the rest of their lives. We long for a much broader commitment to the ministry of all baptized believers when this generation enters the workforce.
The current grassroots activity among believers is awkwardly encouraging, but sadly, it is still basically an Anglo-Saxon work. The so-called minority churches (Asian, Black and Hispanic) are still primarily focused on the gathered and pastor-led life, not the scattered everyday believer being a minister in the world. Many Christians, old and new, are probing new dimensions of serving Jesus Christ in all of lifenot just in congregational programs and volunteer roles. This integration of faith in everyday living could be a source of new vitality in our congregations and provide new hope for our struggling western culture.
After twenty years of involvement, resourcing and consulting many of these initiatives, I want to build connections and synergies between them. What follows in this article is a "tip of the iceberg" survey of this movement - not unlike what TV channel surfers do with their remote controls when they are curious about the big menu of offerings, or bored with familiar stuff. This overview reflects our monitoring of recent (1960s to today) initiatives in North America that focus on connecting the Christian faith with workplace responsibilities.2 Go with me now in a ride through this modern stirring among spiritually hungry everyday folk in our culture as we look at various dimensions of a very broad movement. In this survey, I'll help you see new products (pages 2-5), diverse ministry organizations (pages 5-8), a growing collection of events (pages 8-10), educational offerings (pages 10-13), and some intriguing changes in old structures and leadership (pages 13-15).
[But first, a word of caution to my readers: This survey reflects my twenty-plus year personal journey across the North American marketplace movement. I want to apologize to readers who do not find their favorite cause herein. I am seeking to encourage by illustration rather than exhaust my subject or the reader. Secondly, my Christian tradition has been primarily in the Evangelical stream, hence my perspective is rooted within that particular context. I am aware of the minimal coverage give to brothers and sisters in the Orthodox, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic traditions.]
Now join me in celebrating some work of God's Spirit among us!
Products
Almost every new American initiative includes the offer of new products to be sold in the emerging market. That process is the engine of our economy. The connection between faith and work is no exception. New books, videos, CDs, manuals, curricula and periodicals are flowing out of this movement as leaders and learners tell their experience and convert what they are discovering into deliverable forms.
We have several hundred new books on this topic published in the last forty years.3 A few of the best in the 1980s include Lutheran steel executive Bill Diehl's Thank God: It's Monday [Fortress] written after working as a manager in his industry for thirty-five years. A favorite of mine is Simon Steer & John Bernbaum's Why Work: Careers and Employment in a Biblical Perspective [Baker]. Both men worked with collegians who were preparing for public service careers in Washington, DC. Robert Tamasay, the former publications director for the Christian Businessmen's Committee, wrote Jesus Works Here [Broadman/Holman] which has a collection of pieces from a variety of conservative Christians in various work fields. Richard Chewning, the chaired professor of Business at Baylor University, produced a four volume series on Biblical Principles and Business & Economics [NavPress] resulting from a series of consultations between theologians, business and government leaders. Lee Hardy, who teaches at Michigan's Calvin College, produced the very thoughtful All The Fabric of Life [Eerdmans]. Bill Hybels', founding pastor of Chicago's famous Willowcreek Church, first book was Christians In The Marketplace [Victor]. One of the early signs of this new interest among Christians was captured in Howard E. Butt's At the Edge of Hope: Christian Laity in Paradox, published in 1978 [Seabury Press]. Butt tells the story of a major national gathering of leaders wrestling with faith in public life. And the list goes on and on.
In the 1990s we saw many more books written, and more of them were by practioners rather than observers and analysts like clergy or professors. As they reflected on their careers, these marketplace Christians wrote from long personal struggles in this area. Some of my favorites are Helzberg Jewelry executive Jeffrey Comment's Ministry in the Marketplace [MTM]; Servicemaster CEO Bill Pollard's Soul of the Firm [Harper Books], and Leadership is an Art and Leadership Jazz by Max DePree, who retired as the CEO of Herman Miller office furniture company. Mary Whelchel is a business consultant in Chicago. She wrote The Christian Working Woman [Revell] and started a ministry organization with the same name. One of the most popular recent titles is Jesus CEO [Hyperion] by Laurie Beth Jones. Possibly the most probing contemporary author is Dr. Robert Banks who served as the Professor of Laity and founding director of the new De Pree Center for Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary. Two of his latest titles are God the Worker [Judson Press] and Faith Goes To Work [Alban Institute]. He teamed up with another leading author in the field, R. Paul Stevens of Regent College-Vancouver, to produce one of the top five volumes in the whole field, The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity [InterVarsity Press].
The flow of new books continues.4 One of the best publishing houses on this topic is the Roman Catholic ACTA press in Chicago with their Spirituality of Work series which includes individual books on law-enforcement, farming, education and the introductory volume Of Human Hands by Gregory Pierce. ACTA also publishes a small booklet series addressing faith in vocations such as lawyers, nurses, teachers, homemakers, business people, visual arts, the military and the unemployed. Each includes the stories and insights of folks in these experiences. Another whole spate of related books on the issues of faith, success, materialism and money are being released as we adjust to a new millennium. One of the best sources here is InterVarsity Press. Another genre of work emerging on these topics are the textbook level research works by scholars. Robert Banks, Os Guiness, Lee Hardy, Nathan Hatch, Laura Nash, Calvin Redekop, Anne Rowthorn, Leland Ryken, Jim Sire, Lewis Smedes, Paul Stevens, John Stott and others are paving the way for this much needed depth to the movement.5
Another very helpful product is video and CDs dedicated to this theme. There is a diverse flow of these products on workplace faith into the market now. These are very important for those who are more attuned to visual learning or group viewing and discussion. I have collected a couple of dozen videos. One of my favorites is "March 25th: A Day in the Life of Catholic Laity in America" [United States Catholic Conference in Washington, DC]. Several individual's work is presented with on-the-scene coverage. This lends itself to very good group discussion of issues. The Episcopal Church has released "Faith On A Tightrope: Ministry in Daily Life" featuring professor and social critic Robert Bellah who wrote the widely read Habits of the Heart [Perennial of Harper & Row] and religious historian Martin Marty in a spirited discussion of core issues. A foundational biblical discussion is presented by veteran African-American public school teacher Verna Dozer in "The Authority of the Laity" [Alban Institute]. Several videos focus on ethics and values like "Christian Values in the Business World" [Seraphim Communications in St. Paul, MN]. One of the oldest work and faith organizations produced "There's More To It Than Sunday" [The Center For the Ministry of the Laity at Andover Newton Seminary in Boston]. A 1989 video conference wrestled with the gap between faith and work resulting in a ninety minute summary called "Linking Faith and Work: An Adult Education Agenda" [National Pastoral Life Center in New York City]. Here at InterVarsity Marketplace, we co-produced a four part video set "Called to the Marketplace" [2100 Productions] that engaged more than a dozen men and women from Atlanta to Los Angeles discussing their faith and work on location at their job environments (no preachy 'talking heads' here!).6
On the curriculum front there are many new attempts to develop learning packages for small groups at work, home or Sunday School use. We have such diverse helps as the Alban Institute's Linking Faith & Daily Life workbook, The Southern Baptist's Marketplace Evangelism manual for churches, and the very recent and very good Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's Working: Making a Difference in God's World. The ELCA also has released a directory to work and faith resources entitled The Whole Ministry Catalogue: Resources for Transforming Ministry. It is the best collection available right now. A helpful study book is The Kingdom Agenda: Experiencing God in Your Workplace [Saratoga Press in Tennessee] by two Southern Baptist leaders. Another insightful curriculum is Boston's Marketplace Network Inc recent release of founder Dan Smick's 30 Moments Christians Face in the Workplace . They have several other study guides on the way too. Many people are now working to develop user-friendly curriculum that takes workplace realities seriously.
One of the major challenges in this whole venture is recovering the daily-life application of the Bible. Veteran Christians, newcomers and seekers need to see the men and women of Scripture as companions who live and work in contexts very similar to ours, rather than the all-to-popular but erroneous perception of persons in the Bible as religious professionals and great saints whom we can only admire, not emulate. I have invested seven years in this challenge and it resulted in the Word In Life Study Bible [Thomas Nelson]. It is a unique study Bible that TIME magazine called "...the USA Today Bible " for its very contemporary communications technology and format. It has over 7,000 helps that connect the then-and-there of biblical days with the here-and-now of daily life. For the first time ever a Bible includes a "want-ad" style section listing over 250 jobs held by people in Bible times. Today's workers can find friends in the Bible who live and work in similar contexts. The New Testament version was released in 1993 selling over 300,000 copies before the complete Bible was issued in the early 1995. One other new version was released in 1997, The Contemporary English Version.7
There is also a surge of new periodicals that reflect the breadth and diversity of this stirring among lay believers. They range from general magazines on the issues of the movement to in-house publications for various ministries to newsletters for many of the new guilds of Christians in various industries. The Christian Businessmen's Committee's former quarterly Contact Magazine was an early entry into the movement. Now the Mennonites' bi-monthly Marketplace Magazine (which is still the best in my opinion) serves its Mennonites for Economic Development Association constituency but deserves a much broader circulation! The new Christians In Business is an attempt to cut across the various pockets and organizations with a general magazine. One of the most information-rich newsletters in the field is Initiatives which comes from the Roman Catholic Center for Ministry of the Laity in Chicago. Another favorite of mine was Salt: for justice hungry Christians published by the Claretians in Chicago until its recent demise. The Ministry of Money is a small newsletter from the Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC which tackles the power of money in our culture. One of the newest and very professional publications is Life@Work for business people, which at this writing is "on hold" due to a shortage of money. All of these publications add to the fine work of the longstanding Faith At Work magazine from Washington, DC.8
Another new part of this movement is on the web. There are probably a hundred or more sites now delivering content or networking opportunities. Most sites are rooted in non-for-profit organizations led by religious or educational professionals. A refreshing growth area is websites rooted within workplace contexts such as www.avodahinstitute.com, which is led by former Wall Street banker David Miller. In the medical field we have www.ivcf/ncf focusing on nurses and another from the Christian Medical and Dental Society. Another in this mode is www.wowi.net. Wowi led by "techies" from the automotive industry in Detroit. From the NPO world there are scores of sites. A few to mention include www.christian_working_woman.org. Mike McLoughlin in British Columbia Canada developed an extensive collection of organizational information for his www.scruples.org site, but it has been dormant since 1999. A newer and growing site was launched by advertising veteran Os Hillman - www.marketplaceleaders.org. In Boston the pioneering work of Dan Smick, now deceased, is being carried on by Kent Kusel and his team at www.marketplace-network.org. One of my favorites is based in London England growing out of the long-term work of John Stott. The London Institute of Contemporary Christianity has added a site to its cluster of programs and services with a new leader, Mark Greene who is a veteran of the advertising business - www.licc.org.uk. Another recent addition comes from the long journey of marketplace faith of grocery executive Howard E. Butt who founded Laity Lodge. The staff there are busy with www.the-highcalling.org. Many others are available including Christian colleges and seminaries. Another source are sites originating in the various guilds of believers in various industries. Some of these are maintained by retired volunteers which often means low maintenance, but they do provide connections for individuals across the continent. A new venue are intranet sites within major corporations that allow the Christians to connect with each other and explore how to better serve the company while developing their faith. I have connected with groups within AT&T and the Ford Motor Company.
Here you have a taste of the many products emerging to serve this movement. This compliments the rise of new service organizations on the scene.
New Ministries
When people begin to discover new dimensions of faith, they find each other and collaborate. Wherever common interests, struggles and joys are shared, new experiences and applications of faith are developed and advanced. Many refer to this as "networking" and it is happening quite fast in this movement. There are many new organizations coming to life include industry-specific guilds, service ministries, city-specific groups and urban coalitions wrestling with faith and the challenges to the church in large cities.
Since WW II, several professions have been served by a small set of work and faith guilds. Early versions like the Christian Medical & Dental Society, Christian Legal Society, Nurses Christian Fellowship, Teachers Christian Fellowship and the Armed Forces Officers Christian Fellowship all began in the 1940 and 50s. Like all organizations, they have gone through various phases of good and bad times. Now each of these is established and providing excellent services and publications for their members and friends. But in recent years, we have seen a major explosion of new guilds. This can be illustrated by a selection of a few very diverse ones. The Christian Nuclear Scientist's Fellowship is a national association of workers in this industry. They have a newsletter and gatherings at their jobs and professional conventions for mutual encouragement and biblical studies. By the way, this is the most serious guild I have met, and appropriately so in that industry. Cops for Christ sprang out of the Los Angeles Police Department as the men and women in law enforcement wrestled with their work and its challenges to healthy family life and self-worth. The North American Association of Christians in Social Work serves the care givers who tend to enter this profession and then find their time dominated by having to tell their clients what they cannot qualify for. It is heartbreaking and that really tests people of faith who want to serve the needy. The Christians in Photo-Journalism is a national network of professional photographers in secular newspapers and media who wrestle with how to portray life realistically while honoring values like truth, privacy and hope. I love their quarterly newsletter which is filled with great images from their work. The New York Arts Group is one of several entertainment guilds for actors, musicians, painters and writers from there to Hollywood who work in an industry that seldom respects Christian faith even though some of the greatest art in history originated among Christians. Models For Christ serves believers who desire to be more than just glamorous clothes-horses and seek to share their faith among peers. There are scores of similar initiatives of believers in various industries. The rise of "Christian guilds" is a widespread dynamic reaching from entertainment to government service, construction, engineering & manufacturing, education, healthcare, science &, technology, agriculture and real estate. The people of God are finding ways to connect and collaborate in the practice of being agents of the kingdom of God in their work contexts.
Frankly, I long for this kind of connecting of faith and work to happen inside our existing congregations and Sunday schools where believers already gather every week. Unfortunately they seldom feel served by their churches in their jobs and careers on issues of faith and biblical ethics. I would love to see classes and study groups built around all the public school teachers or the government workers or the health-care providers or plumbers in any one church! How about commissioning liturgies on Sunday morning that are tied to the jobs and industries that the people of the pew live in week after week? I was delighted to discover a series of liturgies from a Hispanic congregation in Holland, Michigan of all places. I also just found some artistic sketches of Jesus at various job sites with workers that could be used on worship services (see them at http://Members.aol.com/jesusimages/artist.htm ). Faith development in the public sector of our society does not always have to be an extra-curricular activity outside our regular congregational gatherings. Let's reconnect Sunday and Monday!
Another element of expansion in this religious stirring is several new national or regional marketplace ministry organizations. The Roman Catholic Center for the Ministry of the Laity in Chicago and the Christians in Commerce in Tempe, AZ reflect grassroots determination to probe faith and work issues at the grassroots level. Another interesting symptom is an evangelical version of the significant pre-WW II Roman Catholic industrial chaplaincy. Marketplace Ministries in Dallas, Texas has placed chaplains in businesses in several hundred companies. Other companies are beginning to do this on their own like Interstate Batteries in Dallas, TX. In Chicago Mary Whelchel leads the nationwide Christian Working Woman ministry. They provide conferences, a national daily radio broadcast and a variety of products. Their annual conference in Chicago grows every year.
In the last decade this stirring among the church scattered has created many new activities. One context is that of evangelical youth ministries who are engaging this issue as they minister among tomorrow's workforce. My own InterVarsity Marketplace division is paralleled by faith and work initiatives in Campus Crusade for Christ with the renewal and revision of its longstanding Executive Ministries into the new Priority One division. The Navigators now have three workplace ministry units. Of course The Fellowship of Christian Athletes has served both amateur and professional sports folk for decades. Other new national operations that encourage me include the Fellowship of Companies for Christ which is an association senior executives of small to mid-sized family-owned companies. It is based in Atlanta with membership across the continent of over 800 businesses. Among the young businessmen there is the new Capitol Group ,serving the fast-track twenty-somethings. They focus on faith as a foundation for the difficult transition from campus to corporate life. The old Christian Businessmen's Committee is re-inventing itself under a new executive and testing out new a new format that wrestles with faith-based business ethics which was pioneered by its Chicago chapter under the guidance of former staff member Arnie Bandstra.
Another intriguing growth segment are what I label city-specific marketplace ministries. These initiatives usually work in the central business district and serve local believers with lunch-hour Bible studies, prayer groups, case-study opportunities, help in evangelism and counseling during the workday. Some of the most mature in this category include City In Focus in Vancouver, Canada, the Moody Business Network in Chicago, Needle's Eye Ministry in Richmond, VA, Church Metro in downtown Minneapolis, Heart to Heart Communications in a Catholic parish in Akron, OH, The King-Bay Chaplaincy in Toronto, Canada, the Marketplace Network in Boston, NAEN in San Jose, CA and the Spokane Lay Ministry Center in Washington. Their on-the-job context for reflection, study and application is providing a great seed-bed for increased workplace ministry convictions, confidence and impact. A few years ago I called twenty directors of these organizations together. By definition as single city operations, I knew they would not know each other. For three days and two nights they had a "love-in" as they connected, swapped resources, shared struggles and expressed joy over each other's work.
Another aspect of this movement is the engagement of major issues in the complex challenge of large cities. Economic inequity, racial tensions, unemployment, bad housing, government problems, business failure, rising crime, troubled schools, growth of gangs, and many other agonizing realities invite the best that believers can offer. Scripture says that sin began in a garden and heaven will be an eternal city. The church needs to serve here, not flee as many Anglo-American congregations have in the last thirty years. One of the broadest initiatives regarding faith and city issues is the growing network of Leadership Foundations. These groups now function in over thirty-five major cities. Reid Carpenter of the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation, Art Erickson of Minneapolis's Urban Ventures and Bud Ipema of Chicago's Mid-America Leadership Foundation are national pacesetters in this area. Wilson Goode, former mayor of Philadelphia, is the chair of their new Council of Leadership Foundations. The Mid-America Leadership Foundation in Chicago has a respected track record among city and church leaders as they incubate small businesses, housing improvement and ownership and a charitable building supply company while working hard at connecting suburban and urban churches around these needs. Another very rich resource in the work of Ray Bakke and International Urban Associates now based in Seattle, Washington. He is probably the best Christian urbanologist in the world and has held consultations of Christians in many of the one hundred world-class cities.
The Christian Community Development Association is a decade old national coalition of justice initiatives with over a thousand participants attending its annual meeting. Hundreds of community development ventures are represented in its membership. John Perkins of Jackson, Mississippi has invested over thirty years in community development work for America's poorest people and that includes the launch of CCDA over ten years ago. One excellent local empowerment effort is the Christian Economic Coalition in Boston focused on the poorest citizens becoming business and home-owning leaders in their various communities. It is shaped around the model mid-nineteenth century European Mondragon Community.9 In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania one of the grand daddies of this part of the movement is Robert LaVelle who created the Dwelling House Savings and Loan financial institution in his African-American neighborhood based on his understanding of biblical teaching about the value of people, economics and citizenship. The Evangelicals for Social Action led by Ron Sider, is a good blend of the evangelicals piety with the mainline Protestants' long-standing concern for justice. ESA's primary publication is Prism magazine.
This is hint at the start-up ventures in this movement. Another aspect are the gatherings, conventions and special meetings focusing on the application of faith to everyday life.
Special Events
Common passions are well served by connecting people who share them. The synergy of finding others who share your convictions, understand your struggles and seek to honor God cannot be played down. Most of the literature in the New Testament was written to groups of believers whether they were in the same city (Ephesus, Corinth or Colossae, etc.) or scattered throughout the Roman Empire (the Gospels, Peter's letters or Hebrews). Our faith is a communal one and we need to know each other to fully develop it and serve the world. This need is being served by all kinds of marketplace ministry gatherings that probe the relation of faith and work, citizenship and society, belief and practice in scores of conferences, congregational gatherings and peer group meetings every year.
Conferences and seminars are popping up all over the map. Most of the new ministries described above serve their clientele with a variety of events. One of the greatest benefits in these gatherings goes beyond the official program when lonely believers find companions who serve in similar contexts and share common struggles. Giving the everyday working disciples the gift of each other is a powerful contribution to the witness of the church in the world. After InterVarsity/USA hosted four national conventions on this theme (Washington '80, San Francisco '83 and two in Chicago at the end of that decade), our Marketplace Ministry group assisted in the design and resourcing of over three hundred weekend, one day or week-long events focused on the application of faith to work, or better said, the integration of work into our faith. Sometimes it was a group within a congregation, while other times it was a city-wide, regional or national gathering. One of the richest dynamics of these meetings is when you connect retirees with mid-career folks in the midst of today's young collegians. The inter-generational mix capitalizes on the reflections of the elders, the agonies and successes of the current workers, and the idealism and hope among the students. Another type event involves helping college seniors make the transition from their campus fellowships to family and work responsibilities after graduation. (See more about this in the "Education" section of this paper.)
A wide variety of congregations and denominations are offering special seminars and workshops with this emphasis. I have participated in congregational programs on faith and job issues from Danville, California to Boston, Massachusetts, Chicago to Dallas, Texas, and Vancouver British Columbia to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.10 The Southern Baptist Convention ran a series of regional "Marketplace Evangelism" conferences in Georgia, Boston and Southern California in the 1990s. This series spawned lots of local and congregational activity. Presbyterians now have an annual conference at its retreat center in Montreat, NC. The denomination with the most invested in this work is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America guided by staff member Sally Simmel of their Chicago office along with US Steel executive and marketplace ministry author Bill Diehl from Pennsylvania.. Together they formed a new interdenominational network leaders and educators which now meets annually around this subject - The Coalition For Ministry in Daily Life. CMDL also has a very helpful quarterly newsletter Laynet. One of the most profound congregational stories is that of old St. Pat's cathedral in downtown Chicago. During the week dozens of affinity groups meet to discuss faith and work. At Tuesday breakfast it might be accountants for small companies while during happy hour on Wednesday it might be corporate executive secretaries. No longer are loyal worshipers strangers to each other. These believers are finding soul-mates around the challenges of faith and work. The Chicago based Crossroads center grew out of this adventure and now publishes The Works magazine.
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