If full time workers don’t rate much of a mention in churches, Ridley Melbourne Mission and Ministry College is trying to change that.

With the launch of a ‘Marketplace Institute’ which aims to provide “research, teaching, consulting and engagement” for Christians in the workforce, Ridley is seeking to breathe wisdom into a sphere of Christian life sometimes forgotten.

Says Kara Martin, Associate Dean of the Marketplace Institute, “The difficulties many Christians face in integrating faith and work is often exacerbated when churches inadvertently reinforce the secular‐sacred divide by the selective use of examples in sermons, the honouring of ministry over secular jobs, and the misinterpretation of calling as only applying to paid roles in church.”

Martin says there are three areas the Institute seeks to influence. Firstly, the “marketplace” of business and economics; second, providing support for churches as they support workers in their pews (Martin says that’s about 90 percent of churchgoers); and thirdly, giving a taste of a secular workplace to pastors and ministry leaders who are studying at Ridley.

“God created the world and he saw that as work,” Martin says, “and he commanded us as human beings to work. But we seem to divide work up into spiritual work – which is what we tend to venerate – and other work – which is really common and menial. So there’s this real dualism that often exists … But I don’t think I see that kind of distinction made in the Bible.”

Kara Martin, whose work has included media, communications, and consultancy, joins Dr Ken Barnes, the Dean of the Institute, who has worked in management for multi-billion dollar corporations. He told Eternity, “Frankly I think these issues have been considered peripheral to Christian teaching for far too long.”

Associate Dean Kara Martin and Dean Dr Ken Barnes will head up the Marketplace Institute.

“In the Gospels,” Dr Barnes says, “Jesus has more to say about money and stewardship than just about anything else, yet the church has allowed them to lose their centrality, especially in recent years. The crash of 2008 and the accompanying moral outrage, however, has once again brought these issues to the fore.”

The Institute will eventually have accredited courses, but will offer events and mentoring for workers who desire spiritual input into their professional lives from next year.

The Institute will properly launch in March 2013. Both Kara Martin and Ken Barnes, who have joined the Ridley Melbourne faculty, will begin lecturing, and seeking ways to add research and discussion to the questions of how Christians ought to approach the commercial sector.

Image: flickr_.and+