Marketplace Chaplains USA provides Chaplain Care Teams in corporate workplaces. They serve both public and private companies. The company was started in Dallas, Texas, in 1984, with one Chaplain, the Founder and CEO, Gil A. Stricklin. He began his work servicing just one company of one hundred and fifty employees. The home office of Marketplace Chaplains USA is now located in Plano, Texas.
Today Marketplace Chaplains USA has a team of 2,500 male, female and ethnically diverse Chaplains. They work with hundreds of companies representing many different industries as diverse as banks, automobile dealerships, food processors, real estate firms, construction and trucking companies, law firms, restaurants, manufacturers and wholesale companies. Their work takes them to more than two thousand locations, located in forty-four states as well as two dozen international cities in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Europe and Canada. They work with companies that have only one employee as well as those that have several thousand employees. Marketplace Chaplains USA provides services to over 500,000 employees and family members.
Their mission statement says:
“Marketplace Chaplains USA exists to share God’s love through corporate chaplains in the workplace by an Employee Care Service for our corporate client companies, both in the United States of America and abroad.”
The chaplains visit the worksite on a regular basis, usually weekly. This helps to build a trusting relationship with the employees. Visits are on a voluntary basis. Contact can be as brief as a greeting and a handshake, to a more lengthy conversation about a family or health problem, a wedding, funeral, etc. An appointment can be made for discussion off site and off company time if necessary or desired.
Chaplains are on call 24/7, so they are available for emergencies even during the middle of the night. They provide visits to hospitals, nursing homes, funeral homes or jails. They are certified to perform weddings and conduct funerals. When deemed necessary, the chaplains may refer employees to other agencies and organizations to help with a specific need. All of the services provided to employees are available to family members of employees as well.
God makes His Word available even in the workplace!