Is Your Organization Ready for a Corporate Chaplain?
Excerpt from the May 17, 2020 article in The Atlantic, “The Rise of the Chaplains” by Wendy Cage
“The pandemic has thrown into sharp relief a shift in American religious life. Growing numbers of Americans, especially under the age of 30, are not religiously affiliated or involved with spiritual or religious organizations. They do not have local religious leaders to call in a crisis like their grandparents did. Instead, in moments of great need, many are turning to chaplains and spiritual-care providers.
Religious congregations have been slowly yet steadily declining over the past 20 years as the number of people engaging with chaplains and spiritual-care providers is on the rise. In a national survey conducted last year, 21 percent of Americans reported having contact with a chaplain in the previous two years, mostly through health-care organizations. Close to a quarter of theological schools have started degree programs for chaplains in the past two decades. And the number of people completing clinical training for chaplaincy positions is increasing.
In interviews I conducted with 65 chaplains across greater Boston, I discovered that the work they do around death is what most unifies them across sectors and distinguishes them from social workers and others they work alongside. It is not surprising, therefore, to read about chaplains running toward death rather than away from it in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.”
Since the rise of the religiously unaffiliated “nones,” increasing numbers of young adults are facing a dilemma: they don’t want to join a faith community, but sometimes the complexities of life call for someone with spiritual chops. Who do they call when their mom gets a cancer diagnosis or when they want to plan a wedding ceremony? Society has cobbled together secular responses to many of the roles traditionally ascribed to professional clergy, but more and more chaplains are showing up in an unexpected place—at work.
Organizations are hiring corporate chaplains to their payrolls. Only slightly less popular than therapists and yoga programs, corporate chaplains are on staff everywhere from Tyson Foods to Coca-Cola.
According to David Miller, Princeton professor and director of the Faith and Work Initiative, these chaplaincies add value to companies, potentially helping create lower turnover rates, increased levels of focus, and reduction in stress-related illnesses.
“Human beings still have problems in life—we get cancer, we get divorced, we have workplace accidents,” Miller said. “In different situations we seek and heal through different kinds of help and services. Sometimes it’s a medical service, sometimes it’s just a friend to cry on their shoulder, and other times there’s a spiritual dimension to it.”
For many people, particularly in the United States, religious leaders and institutions often offer that support structure. For those who don’t have that kind of independent community, work is a logical place to look for help—and some employers seem to be recognizing that. As Miller put it in a 2013 paper, “Due to people not having sufficient social support networks, whether at church, in the family, or community, it has become necessary for the work organization to become the new community.”
Excerpt from the February 17, 2016 article in The Atlantic, Finding Jesus at Work, by Emma Green
Many organizations choose to fill their need for a corporate chaplain through a professional agency such as Corporate Chaplains for America, and some hire them in house as an employee benefit.
Is your organization ready for a corporate chaplain?
Here at Skull & Bones Society, we have a unique solution for the need to infuse meaning and depth to the humdrum world of the workplace. Our Corporate Chaplaincy Growth Track is designed to satisfy your employees’ thirst for spirituality and provide a resource for spiritual services when the need inevitably arises.
