Faith in the Workplace

Under a God and Business cover story headline, Fortune magazine reported in 2001 that a "groundswell of believers" is breaching "the last taboo in corporate America."

If it's true, if faith is the final unmentionable, then David Miller, executive director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture, is smack in the breach. From his spot in the overlap of academia, business, and the church, he is turning up the talk in all three circles … urging leaders to begin to integrate the claims of faith with the demands of the marketplace—at bare minimum to start to think about it.

David comes to his unusual work well-credentialed. From working for IBM in the U.S., he moved to London to direct European operations of a leading U.S. securities services bank. During his eight years there, he was also a senior executive for a British bank, and later an equity partner in a private bank specialized in international investment management, corporate finance, mergers, and acquisitions. He returned to the U.S. to study theology, where he received his M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA). During his doctoral work, he cofounded The Avodah Institute with Bill Pollard in 1999 to help business and academic leaders integrate faith and work. In 2003, he took the work of Avodah to Yale Divinity School, where as the executive director, he helped to launch the Yale Center for Faith & Culture with renowned theologian Miroslav Volf. In addition, David teaches a course called Business Ethics: Succeeding without Selling Your Soul, which is comprised of both Yale MBA and divinity school students.

David's new book, God at Work (Oxford University Press, 2007), studies the growth, dynamics, and future of the faith-at-work movement.

We spoke with David about this "movement"—where it comes from, what it stands to change, and how he got into it.

David, you refer to the burgeoning discussion of faith at work as a "movement." Is it a bona fide movement?

When I was writing my dissertation, one of my doctoral advisors, Professor Bob Wuthnow of Princeton, one of the great sociologists of religion of our time, said, "David, you keep talking about this thing as a movement, how do you know it's a real movement and not a flash in the pan?" I was dumbstruck by one of those brilliantly simple questions I couldn't answer. I thought of Civil Rights and the women's movement. They had real shape and staying power, and they influenced society. Through empirical and qualitative research, I concluded that what I call the faith-at-work movement does meet the sociological criteria to be one.

What is behind the movement?

A deep desire by men and women no longer to compartmentalize their lives and parts of their days as did our generation and older. For us, work and play were two different worlds: "Work hard, play hard." Baby Boomers have come to see that as an unhealthy way to live. Not only that, but it robs our careers of powerful resources. Generations coming along after us—GenX and the Millennials—won't have it. A guy who wears an earring on the weekend wants to wear it at work too. "Why should I take it off? That's who I am." People are saying,"my faith is part of who I am. Why should I leave it in the parking lot when I go to work? My faith helps me shape, filter, and interpret my world."

Where is the Church in the faith-at-work movement?

The Church generally shies from the topic, and our divinity schools and seminaries are no better. Fewer than 10 percent of regular churchgoers, surveys say, can remember the last time their pastor preached on the topic of work. When he or she did preach on work, inevitably the tone was critical—if not hostile—and painted all business people as greedy and uncaring. Seldom do pastors honor the work world as a place for parishioners to live out their high calling. Whether you're a secretary or a CEO, people in the pews seldom hear from the pulpit that God has a plan that includes your work, and that your faith can help inform how you approach your work.

You left the marketplace to help bridge Sunday and Monday. Would you say that we need business professionals to become spiritual leaders because too few spiritual leaders know the business world?

No, I didn't leave the business world for that reason. In fact, I didn't want to go! I had no repressed childhood desire to be a pastor, no dreams of running a nonprofit. I did have a lengthy wrestling match with God over it. I loved my work. As a senior executive, I had a significant sphere of influence. I felt like I was being pulled out of the game. Then it became clear that God's plan was first to equip me to understand the language of the business world and then to learn "God Talk"—theology—and fluently move in and out of the boardroom and the Bible. I've since discovered a deep passion to help others integrate those very compartmentalized worlds.