Find& Follow Your Calling
Table of Contents 01 02 03 Transforming Cities by Transforming Work Bring Marketplace Leaders to the Table in Your City Marketplace Leaders are Vital to Gospel Movements
04 05 Transforming Cities by Transforming Work LEAD.NYC s Voca Center brings the transforming power of God s wisdom and grace to the work lives of thousands of professionals in and beyond New York ity. We see local and global change flo ing fro individuals ho have been e uipped to find and follo their workplace calling. Our work includes four program areas. 01 VOCA Professional If you are a professional, we empower you to work called: to enter your career world with a clear sense of God s purpose and plan through: - Assessments - Teaching - Coaching - Workshops VOCA Executive If you are an executive, we walk alongside to enhance your clarity, impact and lasting legacy through: - Executive Discipleship - Courageous Conversation Forums - The Executive Summit - Curated Connections VOCA Corporate If you lead a business, department, or team, we help you build resilient leaders, effective teams, and empowering employee growth plans for your company through: - Assessments - Consulting - Training - Coaching VOCA Church If you are a pastor, we empower you to invest in the vocational work of your congregation to enhance spiritual formation and missional impact through: - Church Work-life Assessment - Pastoral Vocational Coaching - Pastoral Learning Communities - Consultation - Teaching
06 07 Bring Marketplace Leaders to the Table in Your City Movement Day was birthed in New York City in 2010 as a way to catalyze Christian leaders to impact their cities. The gathering is differentiated from other unity initiatives by bringing together leaders from 3 sectors: he hurch onprofit Ministries and the Marketplace. The VOCA Center is the name of our marketplace facing work. We offer a menu of experiences and resources that empower believers in positions of professional leadership to impact their cities for the kingdom. 02 EVENTS & SERVICES The Executive Summit A Gathering of senior marketplace believers to connect and learn together. Held each year at Movement Day NYC, scalable to your location. Courageous Conversation Forum A guided interaction to help pastors, ministry leaders, and business leaders better understand each other. Live Panel Facilitation/Interview Ministry Focus & Strategy Consultation Speaking/Teaching SPEAKING TOPICS Calling efining finding and follo ing one s vocation. Dr. Chip Roper is the Executive Director of VOCA. He has extensive experience curating executive level events, facilitating interactions across sector lines (pastors, business leaders nonprofit leaders together and speaking to audiences large and small. Dr. Roper is available to assist you as you enlist marketplace leaders in the Gospel movement in your city. Collaboration What, how and when we should work together. Work The Biblical dignity and purposes for daily work. Networking An Ancient, Biblical Art that is essential for professional success today.
08 09 Marketplace Leaders Are Vital to Gospel Movements Believers in the workplace are essential drivers of Gospel movements in cities. Only when Marketplace, church and non profit leaders ork together can e find the unity and synergy re uired to overco e the deep spiritual and social challenges of urban life. Below are ten vital ways that Marketplace Leaders contribute to the Gospel Movement in their City. 03 01 They Shape the World of Work Action Items 02 They Bring a Sense of Legitimacy Action Items - People spend more time at work than in any other single activity in their lives. - Work is where we take resources and shape them into cultural goods we make culture at work. - Work is a top-of-mind concern for the majority of the global population. Gallup has consistently found it at the top of the list as the most important contributor to one s sense of wellbeing. - City centers are centers for work. By living the Gospel in the world of work, Marketplace Leaders intensify the influence of the ospel on the city. - Expose the marketplace leaders in your city to the stories of peers who approach their work with a robust sense of calling (seeing God at work in their actual work, not just seeing work as a platform for more overt faith activities like prayer or evangelism). - Create a book club that will read a book on the importance of work 1x a quarter. Suggested resources can be found at: www.patheos.com Marketplace Leaders bring a sense of legitimacy to the causes and organizations in which they invest. Pop culture admires successful professionals. By leveraging their networks, they increase the connectivity between leaders in the body of Christ. By leveraging their platform, they bring o entu creating influence that galvanizes the body of Christ to impact a city. - Coach Marketplace Leaders in Your City to identify the causes for which they have the most passion and then connect them with organizations that are addressing those needs in exemplary ways. - Brainstorm with Marketplace Leaders regarding webs of relationships and skills resources that they could leverage to assist churches and NGOs in better kingdom effectiveness.
10 11 Marketplace Leaders 03 Bring Needed Expertise & Cultural Savvy Action Items 05 Encourage Christians to Identify as People of Faith Action Items Marketplace Leaders bring needed expertise and cultural savvy to churches and ministry organizations. Whether through board leadership or less formal advisory roles, Marketplace Leaders increase the leadership effectiveness of the broader body of Christ. - Using the passion grid from #2 above and a conversation regarding capacity, identify the top 3 ways each marketplace leader can add value to traditional kingdom enterprise. www.gallup.com - ind on profit and church leaders who actively seek and engage the input of marketplace leaders give them a forum to share their stories. Marketplace Leaders encourage other Christians to identify themselves as people of faith. Whether in informal ways (through example and conversation) or formal approaches (such as workplace fellowships), as Marketplace Leaders gracefully and gently own their faith, they create draft for closet Christians to come out as believers. oing first decreases the sense of spiritual isolation many feel in the workplace, thus increasing the confidence and hope of believers ho ork in the city. - Equip Marketplace leaders to assess the efficacy of their nonverbal itness. n other words, what about their demeanor, work habits, treatment of colleagues, and ethical choices either legitimizes their claims to follow Christ or detracts from them. - Brainstorm low-key ways that each leader can identify as a person of faith without being condescending or using power to force their perspectives on others. - Encourage leaders to pray for God to show them the other believers in their workplace orbit. 04 Contribute Results & Outcomes Orientation Action Items 06 Shape the Next Generation of Christian Leaders Action Items Marketplace Leaders contribute results and outcomes orientation to the broader body of Christ that increases the focus and discipline of organizations working to reach the city. - Provide training, role-playing, and practicums for marketplace leaders to deliver feedback to nonprofit leaders and pastors around the "get it done" orientation. - Use Good to Great: Addendum for the Social Sectors as a quick study for Marketplace leaders to develop a simple assessment grid for evaluating and informing ministry organizations. Marketplace Leaders shape the next generation of Christian leaders who will impact the city. Through avenues that include formal mentorships, speaking at faith and work events, and recruiting interns from Christian colleges, Marketplace Leaders prepare younger leaders to follow them in a marketplace calling, a calling that when followed, shapes a city. - Provide basic training on how to be a mentor. Use Stanley and Clinton s onnecting if you need a guide. - Among your group of Marketplace leaders agree on a fact finding pro ect e.g., each of us will take one younger leader to lunch each month for the next three onths. ur agenda find out their biggest oys and challenges in the areas of work and calling.
12 13 Marketplace Leaders 07 Accelerate the Gospel s Impact on The City Action Items 09 Have a Generative Capacity to Start Organizations Action Item Marketplace Leaders accelerate the Gospel s impact on the city by sharing the Gospel. They are the only exposure to Jesus or the church that their colleagues may ever meet. As good examples, and then with respectful and appropriate words, Marketplace Leaders bring the Gospel into the city. - Find individuals who came to Christ through a workplace colleague bring these win stories to the Marketplace leaders in your city. - Ask your team to quickly summarize the main points of the Gospel in a role-playing exercise. - Read a book together about Evangelism like Bill Hybel s Just Walk Across the Room. Marketplace Leaders have a generative capacity to start organizations and bring business skills, principles, and practice to meet unmet needs and to empower the poor to work their way out of poverty. Their penchant for action and results pulls the body of Christ away from endless talking and towards the pursuit of life-changing action. Startup skills and energy bring more Jesus to more of the city. - Have a step up/step out conversation are the leaders in your circle either able to step up to greater influence in existing organizations and are there some needs or causes which are underserved, thus warranting the launch of something new? - Regularly share prayer requests for 1 or 2 colleagues each group member longs to see come to faith. 08 Accelerate the Gospel s Impact through Volunteering Action Items 10 Provide the Financial Resources to Fuel Activity Action Items Marketplace Leaders accelerate the Gospel s impact on the city through volunteer service in churches and nonprofits that serve the city. Whether the service utilizes their expertise or is an example of humble servanthood, it is a win for the Kingdom. When a heavily scheduled individual reaches out to others and serves with faithfulness and excellence, it sets an example and shows Christ in the city. - Provide training, role-playing, and practicums for marketplace leaders to deliver feedback to nonprofit leaders and pastors around the "get it done" orientation. - Use Good to Great and the Social Sectors as a quick study for Marketplace leaders to develop a simple assessment grid for evaluating and informing ministry organizations. Marketplace Leaders provide the financial resources to fuel ministry activity. Thoughtful, generous, and outcome-oriented giving brings capacity-building resources and accountability to the church and nonprofit community. Financial wherewithal and focus drive spiritual momentum in a city. - Take your group through a generosity experience (Journey to Generosity), that focuses on the practice of giving but is not connected to the funding of any specific entity. - Find role models to share a vision for generosity. Best practices include: - A cap on lifestyle - A family foundation - Sharing the giving process with family members - Going deep with a few entities - Having a "new opportunity" fund for small and novel ideas that arise
14 15 Historically, the Clapham Sect in 18th Century England and Businessman s Prayer Movement of New York City in the 19th Century are examples of Marketplace Leaders driving city movements. Today in places like New York, Dallas, Cincinnati, Oklahoma City, Hong Kong, and Durban South Africa, their irreplaceable impact continues. God s work in every city includes the vital contributions of those who work there each day. Partner in Building the VOCA Center o change the orld by changing ork e seek the follo ing Funding We are pursuing "A-Round" investors, who will sponsor events under resourced beneficiaries and capacity building initiatives. Clients We are seeking individual and corporate clients who will benefit fro our consulting and tea building services. Stories We love sharing the stories of those ho have a keen sense of divine purpose in their daily ork hether in a blog post video intervie or live event you have calling story worth telling. Co-Conspirators We are searching for tea e bers contract coaches and advisory board e bers ho long to see the ork of thousands ove fro a self centered grind to a God-honoring pursuit.
54 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018 E: drchip@vocacenter.com P: 212.256.8468 www.vocacenter.com