Marketplace Chaplaincy:
Sharing the Good News Everyday

Chaplain Jerrold Lake first began his ministry as a Nazarene pastor. Now he serves in Marketplace Chaplaincy, overseeing 90 different full and parttime chaplains serving in 38 different locations. In this article from Chaplaincy Director Dwight Jennings, learn how these marketplace chaplains are impacting lives on a daily basis in local industry and places of business.

After a number of years in pastoral ministry, Jerrold Lake decided to become a chaplain. As a teenager he had witnessed his father ministering to those in the workplace as a corporate chaplain. When a chaplain from Hudson Foods came by and asked the question, “Jerrold, do you know anybody in town who might be interested in serving as a chaplain at the local processing plant?” he offered two other names. The Hudson Foods chaplain replied, “Well, what about you?” Application was made and he began his chaplain ministry at a chicken processing plant.

Over the years, Chaplain Lake has served as a volunteer chaplain at several hospitals, hospice organizations, and workplace settings while continuing as a full-time pastor. As he looked at his future he asked, “What do I want to do now? Do I want to relocate? Do I want to go to another church?” In exploring the possibilities, Chaplain Lake contacted Marketplace Ministries, where he was hired as a full-time chaplain.

In this official capacity, Jerrold became a Division Director with a title of Account Manager. He maintains good relationships with the corporation leadership by making sure the chaplain team is properly staffed. This includes management and oversight of the corporate chaplain account, and the recruitment and training of all 90 staff chaplains at 38 separate facilities. Chaplains in his division provide Bible studies during the week, offer counseling services, and lead a number of Sunday worship experiences.

Chaplain Lake shared several examples of the difference a workplace chaplain can make in the lives of a corporate employee. “Just within the last month,” he said, “I had a chaplain call me. I had known that at that location we had got off to a rocky start. We had some incidents occur that built walls rather than bridges, and there was still a lot of tension, particularly between the chaplaincy program and some of the residents.

“Then a resident passed away and this chaplain was asked to do the funeral. At the close of the funeral, she said she felt impressed to say to them, ‘I have shared with you what it means to serve Christ and I’d like to give you an opportunity to make this decision. This is a very personal time. I want everybody’s heads bowed and eyes closed. If you’d like to make a decision or if you did pray a prayer to accept Christ I want you to look up and make eye contact with me.’ She said, ‘I lost count after eight.’

“Part of what distracted me and caused me to lose count was the resident who had been the most antagonistic towards the chaplaincy program made eye contact with me,” she explained. “Anytime a Bible study started he would say, ‘Don’t go to her Bible study. She’ll try to convert you.’ He had also built quite a base around him. But he looked up and made eye contact; and, in that eye contact, she saw a lot of sincerity.”

When she shared with other chaplains, she said, “Let’s watch and see if there’s a change.” Later on, she reported, ‘The last few weeks have been as different as daylight and dark. Today I sat next to this resident and shared a prayer concern and it was met with a unity that only God could bring.’ So that was a changed life in a resident up in his senior years.”

“Another report came from another chaplain, who tells me about 90 year old Jim, the son of a Catholic who had not attended church in over thirty years. He accepted Christ, and the chaplain had an opportunity to baptize him on a Sunday afternoon and help him make contact with an evangelical church pastor who is going to help continue the discipleship process. Almost every month something like this takes place. I checked the records this morning. Last year our chaplains reported leading 60 people to the Lord.”

Chaplain Lake continues to share there are more stories than he can give. “On one occasion, a dying mother was deeply concerned about her handicapped daughter. With the mother’s health failing, the chaplain had an opportunity to lead the daughter into a relationship with Christ and that brought peace to the mom. And although she died before her daughter, she felt a peace, because she knew that her daughter had reached that place where she had accepted Christ.

“Workplace chaplains plant many seeds. One day, while eating lunch in the employee’s break room, a discussion about forgiveness ensued. A lady from India was struggling with a lot of issues. She opened up and said, ‘I need to learn about forgiveness.’ The chaplain had the opportunity to share the wonderful forgiveness that Christ gives. ‘I don’t know if this person ever came to faith,’ said Chaplain Lake, ‘but we planted a seed that God can bring to fruition.’ The lady continues to keep in contact with the chaplain.”

Many corporations have learned that chaplaincy is one of the most effective Employee Assistance Programs (EAP). If, for example, a chaplain can help workers with their personal issues, then they will bring fewer problems into the workplace and will perform more effectively. This type of cost effectiveness, while not always measurable, is still acknowledged by many forward-looking corporations.

“Recently,” shared Chaplain Lake, “I listened to a client leader share his thoughts on the corporation’s chaplaincy program. His company was one that hired many minimum-wage employees. In this setting, ‘business shrinking,’ the business word for employee theft, is a huge problem. At almost the precise time that the chaplaincy program was instituted, the ‘shrinking’ of employees began to dramatically decrease. While I can’t prove that the chaplaincy program was directly responsible for the ‘shrinkage’ the statistics show that employees want to work for an employer who cares for them. And, chaplains care for the employees and their families.”

As a final note, Chaplain Jerrold Lake gave guidance as to how a full-time minister could be involved in marketplace or workplace ministry. An available website is www.marketplacechaplains.com. On their website are regional directors listed for the United States who can help with information and supply an application form, only available through them.

In conclusion, Chaplain Lake says, “It has been a ministry I thoroughly enjoy. I count myself blessed in the fact that I had wonderful years of pastoral ministry. I enjoyed my pastoral ministry and have no regrets from that. I think I did about everything a pastor could do. But almost weekly I share with my wife how blessed I am to have this opportunity to continue to minister—to be involved in the lives of others, to be touching people and do it in a way that is beneficial to everybody.”