Historic Background

The faith at work movement traces its roots to the Garden of Eden, where God commissioned humanity to join Him in cultivating and protecting creation. This divine partnership gave work a sacred purpose. However, humanity’s rebellion fractured both our relationship with God and our experience of work. Ever since, we’ve struggled to reunite what was never meant to be separated: our labor from our Lord God.

The misguided distinction between “sacred” work—serving religious interests—and “secular” work—centered on practical concerns—continues to hinder Christian discipleship.

Yet, throughout history, there have been a few faithful believers who refused to follow this broken view of life. Reformation leaders like Martin Luther and John Calvin spoke with clarity in their day about the sacredness of the secular work of magistrates, merchants, tradesmen, and peasant workers alike.

Over the past 150 years, multiple efforts by faith at work pioneers have emerged to recover a holistic view of serving God, the reformers reclaimed. The most recent wave began as a ripple in the mid-1980s and swelled into a flood in the 21st century. Since then, thousands of workplace ministries have been launched, hundreds of books published, businesses transformed, and many churches awakened to the call to equip believers for vocational discipleship. Increasingly, Christians realize that serving God through their daily work is as vital to God’s kingdom as the ministry of their pastor.

The Launch of the Summit

Despite encouraging progress, the future of the Faith at Work Movement remains uncertain, with efforts often fragmented and lacking cohesion. To address these challenges, a group of leaders,¹ led by David Gill, convened the first Faith at Work Summit in Boston in 2014, bringing together trailblazers—many of whom had never crossed each other’s paths. With a goal to be inclusive, participants spanned a wide range of workplace sectors—from business and medicine to government, education, service, agriculture, and homemaking—joining leaders from academia, the church, and parachurch organizations for this first Faith at Work Summit.

Since then, three additional Faith at Work Summits have been held: Dallas (2016), Chicago (2018), and Dallas again (2024), each continuing the legacy of collaboration and a shared vision to grow the Faith at Work Movement and engage workplace practitioners with church, seminary, university, and workplace ministry leaders.

The Purpose of the Summit

The Faith at Work Summit brings together a broad array of Christ-followers who seek to glorify God in their own work, help others become whole-life disciples, and advance the Kingdom of God through every vocational sphere.

While each Summit reflects unique themes and emphases, its foundational goals remain constant:

• To listen, learn, collaborate, and pray

• To highlight the Spirit’s work across diverse workplace sectors and global contexts

• To accelerate the Faith at Work Movement across lines of age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, geography, and denominational tradition

• To acknowledge and honor pioneers who have gone before us and championed the importance of work to God’s kingdom

What Is Distinctive about the Summit?

As conceived by its founders, each Summit is built on five foundational norms that serve as guiding standards for Summit hosts as they plan each Summit gathering.

Biblical: The Summit is grounded in Scripture, the centrality of the Church, and the Lordship of Christ over all of life. It aligns with the theology expressed in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds and recognizes the central interdependence of the Cultural Mandate, the Great Commandment, and the Great Commission.

Collegial: The Summit seeks to expand and deepen the impact of the global Faith at Work Movement without elevating any single group, denomination, or organization. Summit hosts and leaders commit to welcoming and serving all participants in the movement, including workers and communities historically underrepresented in these conversations.

Collaborative: To date, four organizations have hosted Faith at Work Summits, with over fifty organizations providing funding and thought leadership, with hundreds more individuals contributing to each event’s success. At each Summit, a diverse organizing committee stewards the vision and fosters broad-based collaboration. This shared ownership discourages domination by any one group and keeps Christ at the center.

Inclusive: While there are other gatherings of workplace Christians, the Summit is uniquely committed to cross-sector connection so that individuals and organizations can listen and learn from each other and take practical insights and applications back to their respective spheres of influence. In addition to traditional employment sectors, the Summit also seeks to be relevant to the work of parents, volunteers, the unemployed, retirees, and those in career transition.

Independent: No one organization owns the Faith at Work Summit, and Summit hosts act as servants to the movement, providing administrative and technical services for the event without advancing their brand above other sponsors, participants, and attendee organizations. In addition, host organizations do not retain or use any participant contact information or Summit revenues for purposes unrelated to the Summit but pass these resources on to the next Summit host.

What Is Ahead for the Summit?

Though originally North American-centric, the Summit has embraced voices from around the world from its inception. However, the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism, which met in September of 2024, confirmed what many had already sensed: the Faith at Work Movement is truly global.

Of the 5,000 attendees from 202 countries at this landmark event, over one-third, representing 156 countries, gathered daily to meet one another and exchange insights on workplace discipleship and evangelism. United, they declared that the workplace has become the most strategic arena for both spiritual growth and sharing the gospel.

This global awareness will mark all future Faith at Work Summits, marking it as a global event.

When Will the Next Summit Meet?

On June 17-19, 2026, the Global Faith at Work Summit will convene in Cincinnati, Ohio, hosted by At Work on Purpose, under the leadership of Chuck Proudfit, and gather leaders from around the world. Consensus thought is for the Summit to be convened every two years.

1 David Gill, Mockler Center at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; Al Erisman, Center for Integrity and Business at Seattle Pacific University.; Bill Peel, Center for Faith & Work at LeTourneau University.