On January 1, 1984 almost everyone said developing a business model of corporate chaplains caring for workers, as well as their families in the secular work place was impossible. There was no way that goal could be achieved in America or anywhere else.

 

Today, Gil A. Stricklin, a Colonel retired from the Army Chaplains Corps, has proved all of them wrong. Stricklin believes God in His Divine Providence founded Marketplace Ministries and he was the first employee, the first chaplain. Today, this Employee Care provider is thought to be the largest, most experienced and oldest chaplain service in the world today, with the exception of the military chaplains’ corps.

 

In 1984, Stricklin was the lone chaplain, serving one client company with 150 employees in Dallas, Texas. Today, the organization has 429 client companies with nearly 2,500 chaplains caring for 119,000 workers, and 330,000 family members. These individuals who have a chaplain to uplift them, support them and care for them are spread out in 826 cities across 43 states, from California to Maine. Our chaplains visit over 2,150 work sites every 168 hours to interface with workers on a voluntary basis, and visit briefly, asking about a sick family member or possibly about a young daughter who is preparing for a wedding. They make an appointment for a later discussion off site and off the clock.