What’s missing from marketplace ministry?

Written by David Kim

1200 organizations doing marketplace ministry

I was astounded to hear, that there are 1,200 marketplace ministries in the U.S. alone. 1200! I am sure all these organizations have great purposes, missions, visions and focus. So it isn’t for lack of effort. Good organizations are really trying to minister to people in the marketplace. Each of these organizations may not necessarily be marketing focused to create a brand for its ministry or to be made aware for recognition sake, but, I was wondering whether their reach could be more broadly known to increase their visibility. Many Christians attend training workshops conducted by these marketplace ministry organizations; I have attended a few myself. Many likely have workshop graduation certificates hanging on their office walls with lots of good information in their workshop binder on their bookshelves; I have in fact have many such binders. Good discussions are being held on the topic of being more effective in the marketplace.

So what’s missing?

Some of these ministries have a budget that is modest and cannot support a larger staff and do not have sufficient resources to scale their ministry. For some, there is a lack of a core value proposition that allows its ministry to stand out from the others. A unique offering is often missing. Some are narrowly focused and reach only a select, target audience: a CEO ministry, a ministry focused on leadership development, an ethnic focused ministry and so forth. Additionally, what I think is missing is probably proper equipping of people who are actually doing ministry in the marketplace. It could be a lack of suitable equipping in how to lead a bible study, if that’s the focus of the marketplace ministry. Does the training enhance the ability of a Christian to teach the Bible to fellow workers so that they learn and apply biblical principles? Or if it’s one of a prayer related ministry, the real challenge is helping people you’re training to truly understand what it really means to be a prayerful person on behalf of your co-workers. Do the trainees of your program become regular intercessors for their colleagues after a few weeks? Is changed behavior resulting from these 2-hour seminars? Or if it’s an apologetics focus area of marketplace ministry, are the people adequately equipped to answer and debate difficult questions of the day with a biblical perspective? A good competency in apologetics is important these days, because most people in the marketplace are very well read. But I think the Church has probably fallen short in properly equipping the body of the Church on how to engage in thoughtful questions and debate around apologetics in the marketplace.

Headlines as Opportunities

Take, for example, the recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on gay marriage. It’s a great conversation to be held in the marketplace. But many Christians don’t know how to understand, let’s say the other side, or how to answer from a Christian perspective what this ruling means. You can have 1,200 marketplace ministries out there, but it falls flat in its efficacy if we’re not properly equipped to have conversations that are topical, timely and particularly for the non-church community, of interest to them.

Effectiveness in the Marketplace

So I think what’s missing in the marketplace isn’t the lack of a marketplace ministry itself. It’s really to have the saints be properly equipped to be truly effective in their marketplace. This is the metric of good marketplace ministry—effectiveness in the workplace. Where are the measurable results these days? If we were doing this well, I assert that we would see a stronger witness in the workplace than we are seeing. And in my opinion, ineffective practical training is where we are lacking today. If you consider your own workplace, what kind of training would be helpful as you try to be effective there? What kind of areas would you seek to be better equipped? I’d love to hear what you have to say.

David Kim

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David D. Kim is faculty member and advisor for A3.business and a fomer board member. In the marketplace, he is Servant, Mobilizer, Founder of Telos Ventures.