These chaplain groups get plenty of resumes

By CHRISTINA REXRODE
Published January 8, 2007

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At a time when the military is begging for chaplains, and pulpits across the country are empty, the workplace chaplain groups have no trouble filling their ranks.

Dwayne Reece, a vice president at Corporate Chaplains of America in Raleigh, N.C., said that CCA gets 35 applicants for every position, and has an employee-retention rate of 93 percent.

It's a different story for some branches of the military, including the Army National Guard. It has authorizations for 767 chaplains nationwide, but nearly half of those spots are empty.

Reece said the lack of administrative work is appealing to workplace chaplains, many of whom came from pastoral jobs that were heavy in administrative requirements.

CCA chaplain Ken Atkinson, educated at a Baptist seminary and a former pastor, agrees. But he also likes how his job lets him work with a wide cross-section of people, instead of just those who are sick, at church on Sundays, or about to go to war.

He knew he'd be comfortable in a business setting. Before seminary, he was a branch manager at a financial services company in South Carolina.

Chaplains in the workplace might seem like a lawsuit waiting to happen, but neither CCA nor Marketplace has ever been sued.

Gil Stricklin, president of Marketplace, said his company avoids lawsuits by knowing the law and following it.

He's careful to keep his chaplains program voluntary: No employee is obligated to even say hello. The chaplains do not carry Bibles during workplace visits, and they'll help anyone regardless of creed.

"I'm not there to push religion on you," Stricklin said. "What we're known as is a designated helper."

Marketplace's 2,000-strong staff is composed of evangelical Christians, but it also has a resource staff of priests and rabbis.

It recently contracted with a Buddhist priest to perform a funeral, Stricklin said.