Faith, Work, and Marketplace Ministry Cohort

Faith, Work, and Marketplace Ministry Cohort

Early Application Deadline: July 25, 2025
Early Decisions Sent: August 15, 2025
Application Deadline: October 31, 2025
Final Decisions Sent: November 15, 2025

Overview

The average person spends about one-third of their life at work. Whether in an office, on the factory floor, or in an apple orchard, the demands of modern-day work are seemingly omnipresent. Despite work’s prominence in our lives, Christian churches often overlook the marketplace as a critically important space for Christian service, advocacy, formation, and mission. Who will help the laity wisely discern their vocations and callings in the marketplace? Who will help them apply Biblical texts, theological wisdom, and spiritual practices to the circumstances they face every day at work? Who will equip them to be salt, light, and leaven in a global marketplace that is increasingly complex and dynamic?

The Doctor of Ministry Faith, Work, and Marketplace Ministry cohort will give you the knowledge, skills, and insights you need to nurture and lead people into a gospel-centered imagination for their diverse careers and callings. This cohort is designed to serve pastors and marketplace ministry leaders who care deeply about the diverse vocations of God’s people in the world. This program will help you:

Think biblically and theologically about work, vocation, and the marketplace
Listen, connect, and empathize with the lived experiences of workers in your context
Learn from cutting-edge marketplace ministry leaders from around the world
Develop transformative connections between work and worship in your community
Formulate a compelling biblical theology of vocation for your sphere of influence
Lead organizational and congregational change on issues of faith, work, and vocation

Schedule

Year One

Foundations and Provocations (16 units)

Winter (Jan–Mar) 2026: Reading and Seminar (6 units, online and in-person Feb 23-27, Houston, TX)
Spring (Mar–Jun) 2026: Research and Writing (4 units, online)
Summer (Jun–Sep) 2026: Reading and Writing (6 units, online)

Students will develop a biblical and theological foundation for thinking about vocation, work, and the marketplace. They will read key texts that will orient them to historical and theological conversations about work and calling, and learn to think critically about the complex state of work in the modern world by attending to diverse, global voices on the topic. Students will also learn to listen deeply to the lived experiences of people’s work in their respective contexts. Finally, students will begin to develop a series of research questions and problems that will guide their studies and the development of their final doctoral project.

Year Two

Exploration and Imagination (16 units)

Winter (Jan–Mar) 2027: Reading and Seminar (6 units, online and in-person Feb 22-26, Houston, TX)
Spring (Mar–Jun) 2027: Research and Writing (4 units, online)
Summer (Jun–Sep) 2027: Reading and Writing (6 units, online)

Students will build and expand upon topics presented in the first year, with more opportunities to tailor their learning to their unique interests and contexts and to explore ideas that are resonant with their research problem. Faculty will introduce students to diverse models of marketplace ministry and congregational transformation from around the country and the world. During this year, students will also begin to imagine how they might lead organizational and congregational change in their unique context on issues related to faith, work, and vocation. By the end of year two, students will begin to work on their final doctoral projects.

Year Three

Iteration and Reflection (16 units)

Winter (Jan–Mar) 2028: Reading and Seminar (6 units, online and in-person Feb 21-25, Houston, TX)
Spring (Mar–Jun) 2028: Research and Writing (4 units, online)
Summer (Jun–Sep) 2028: Reading and Writing (6 units, online)

Students will further develop their doctoral projects through reading and writing, giving and receiving feedback, and reflecting on their work. With the help of professors and classmates, students will refine the components of their doctoral proposal and project such as their research problem, description of the context, research questions, and methodology, and the biblical and theological frameworks undergirding their studies. Throughout the Fall and Winter quarters, they’ll engage in reflection exercises that will reinforce what they’ve learned in the previous two years, as well as enhance their ultimate doctoral projects.

Instructor

Matthew Kaemingk is the Richard John Mouw Associate Professor of Faith and Public Life at Fuller Theological Seminary where he also serves as the director of the Richard John Mouw Institute of Faith and Public Life. His research and teaching focus on marketplace theology, Islam and political ethics, and public theology. His books include Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear (2018), Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy (coauthor Cory Willson, 2020), and Reformed Public Theology (2021). In 2018 his book on Muslim immigration was named among the best of the year by Christianity Today and in 2019 Dr. Kaemingk was named the “Emerging Public Intellectual of the Year” by the Redeemer Centre for Christian Scholarship. Kaemingk serves as a fellow at the Center for Public Justice and a scholar in residence at the Max De Pree Center for Christian Leadership.

Before taking the Mouw Chair, Kaemingk served as assistant professor of Christian ethics and associate dean of Fuller Texas. Kaemingk earned his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and holds doctoral degrees in systematic theology from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and in Christian ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary. In 2011 he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study political theology and the European conflict over Muslim immigration in Amsterdam. An ordained minister in the Christian Reformed Church, Kaemingk lives near St. Louis with his wife, Heather, and their three sons, Calvin, Kees, and Caedmon.

Wayne Park (DMin ’21) serves as chancellor of Fuller Texas. As a longtime resident of the Houston area, he brings to the role both on-the-ground experience and social research on the trends, economics, drivers, and spirituality that shape his great city. The son of a Korean-American immigrant entrepreneur, Dr. Park grew up learning to love both the marketplace and the church. Today, he is most comfortable straddling both worlds, seeking to connect Houston’s church leaders and marketplace professionals for the common good.

Before his appointment to the chancellorship, Park served as program director for Fuller’s De Pree Center (2020–2022) and as director of operations for Kingdom City Houston (2019–2022), a collective of more than a dozen churches and ministries that meet collaboratively in Houston’s Energy Corridor. He received his Doctor of Ministry from Fuller, where he focused on Faith, Work, Economics, and Vocation under Dr. Mark D. Roberts. He is ordained in the Evangelical Covenant Church and has served in leadership positions for local, state, and national boards, commissions, and associations.

Dr. Park is married to Ashley and together they have two teenagers, Austin and Zoe. He enjoys long runs after church on Sunday with his Lab-Viszla, Bailey, along Houston’s bayou trails (yes, even in the heat and humidity).

Learn More and Connect with an Admissions Counselor