Mission Statement
Equipping pastors and business leaders to help people find greater meaning and act ethically in their work through a Biblically informed understanding of the economic, moral, and spiritual significance of work for human flourishing.
The FaithWorks Center at Concordia University Irvine (CUI) expands the Faith, Work, and Economics activities already being conducted by Christ College in partnership with Concordia’s other schools. The center helps pastors and professionals understand the economic, moral, and spiritual significance of work by showing how it contributes to the flourishing of other people and society as a whole. As a result, professionals will find greater meaning in their work, cultivate good character to act ethically, and help other people do the same. The center will pursue these objectives using four strategies.
First, it is developing an ongoing series of interactive seminars on topics related to vocation (work as service to neighbor), the economic ripple effect of work, the moral context of economic activity, etc. The seminars will be developed and presented jointly by faculty from the School of Business and Economics and Christ College. They will be aimed at pastors and working professionals in the greater Los Angeles area. The first seminars will be offered in Fall 2019.
Second, the center will integrate the seminars into the Christians and ethics course (Thl 565) required for students in the Center for Church Leadership.
Third, the center plans is producing a book on Faith, Work and Economics for use in the Center for Church Leadership’s Christians and Ethics course; the book will be suitable for use in seminaries and in master’s level professional programs at Christian universities. The book will include contributions by theologians, philosophers, business/economics professors, and working professionals.
Fourth, the center will advocate for a required Vocation and Ethics component in every graduate-level professional program at CUI. Ideally, this will consist of a class like those already required in the nursing and the healthcare administration programs.