Here come the chaplains ...

Both companies say their commitment to serve people of all faiths is nonnegotiable. They both maintain extensive networks of contacts in faith communities wherever they operate and say they see to it that a worker is put together with a local representative of whatever faith is appropriate. If a Jewish worker needs help, it’s their job to find a rabbi. If a Muslim is in need, they find an imam.

“We don’t go in there to set up church,” insisted Stricklin, 70, who was an Army chaplain for 22 years before retiring to go into business. There’s no need.

“People really do not care what you are,” he said. “They don’t care if you are a Buddhist or a Baptist, because 70 percent of the workforce today does not have a religious faith that they practice. They’re not agnostic, or they’re not even atheist. But they don’t go to the Catholic church or they don’t go to the Methodist church or the synagogue or the Muslim mosque. They don’t go to any place.

“So those people don’t care what you are. You want to know what they want to know? Are you genuine? Are you real? And secondly, can you help me?”

The sound business of good works
Reece said that while CCA was an explicitly evangelical organization, it “stays very focused” on its role as a nondenominational service. Adopting some of the language championed by leading faith-at-work theorists who identify the movement as an element of business success — not the other way around — Reece said CCA placed equal emphasis on its chaplains’ business backgrounds and religious training.

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CCA, which was founded in 1996 by Mark Cress — who built Success Stories, a business that made video productions for local businesses, into one of the fastest-growing private firms in America before selling — remains a small operation. It has 75 chaplains now.

Its stringent requirements give it a very small pool of candidates to choose from: In addition to holding a master of divinity degree, CCA chaplains have to have 10 years of real-world work experience, or seven years in addition to a business degree.

And unlike Marketplace, which sends part-time chaplains into a company, CCA offers a full-time presence, which means its chaplains must commit to the job exclusively, including extensive quarterly continuing education.

“We’re looking for uniquely wired individuals,” Reece said, but still, there is no shortage of candidates — “they come to us.”

A rising tide, floating all boats
Notwithstanding how differently they do business, leaders in the corporate chaplaincy field say they aren’t really competitors, even with corporations that spurn their services to offer chaplains in-house.

“We’re really good friends with Marketplace Ministries,” Reece said.

“Doing chaplaincy is kind of like kissing an old maid. There’s no wrong way to do that, whether they do it in-house or they do it outside with a contract with us,” Stricklin said.

“In this service to people, there is no competition,” he added. “I hope [Tyson] hires 10,000 chaplains. I hope Mark Cress gets 500 more companies and hires a thousand more chaplains. I hope he does. Because if you’re caring for them or I’m caring for them, it doesn’t make any difference. There are so many needs today and so many hurts and so much pain out there that it takes everybody.”

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