About
The mission of the Mockler Center for Faith and Ethics in the Public Square is to explore and promote biblical ethics, values, and insights for today’s workplaces and bring helpful knowledge and experiences from workplace laity to the church and its leadership. Through its programs and resources the Mockler Center is a bridge serving seminary and university, community and marketplace, church and public square.
At the Mockler Center we value work of all types and in all fields, whether compensated financially or volunteer, whether for-profit or non-profit, whether in large-scale corporations or sole proprietor businesses. We are interested in church and community-based entrepreneurship of new endeavors, and in salting and lighting older, established businesses. We care about individual workers and their callings and careers, about ethical organizations and companies, and their impacts on the larger economy. We want to heed the warnings of the apostles and prophets about workplace temptation and sin — but still more, we want to light a candle with creative, redemptive positive ideas and not be content with “cursing the darkness.”
The Mockler Center pursues its mission and purpose primarily by means of three initiatives:
Seminars & Conferences
From two hours to a week in length, the Center’s seminars and conferences bring together international thought-leaders and practitioners from a broad range of disciplines to explore what the Bible has to say about business ethics, health and well-being, civics, economics, education, law, and social justice. These events are meant to be intellectually stimulating, spiritually refreshing, and immanently practical.
Seminary Courses & Programs
Semester length or intensive, group or individualized, we offer accredited courses in workplace theology, business and professional ethics, leadership, economic justice, Christian apologetics, and other topics consistent with our re-defined mission and the expertise of our Fellows. We will also be developing online “Master Classes” on a wide variety of issues relating to faith and ethics in the public square, including those devoted particularly to the unique role of pastors as “ambassadors” of the gospel in society.
Graduate Certificate
We are pleased to announce the new Graduate Certificate in Workplace Theology & Ethical Leadership, which prepares Christians for faithful leadership in the marketplace. The six courses in this certificate are intended to foster a thoughtful, loving, Christ-centered approach to issues of faith, work, and economics. The Certificate in WTEL also provides a foundation for further theological study.
DMin
Perhaps the cornerstone academic offering is the Doctor of Ministry (DMin) track in Workplace Theology and Ethical Leadership, co-taught by Australian scholar and researcher, Dr. Lindsay McMillan. This unique program focuses on the technical, biblical/theological, moral/ethical, and pastoral issues associated with the future of work, the future of finance, and the future of globalization. In partnership with our personal and professional contacts at Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Cambridge, The House of Lords, the Church of England, Melbourne Business School and others, the program is the only one of its kind in the world.
Watch a short video to hear more about the DMin program.
Livestreams
As mentioned, we have hosted several online events on a wide variety of topics to equip people with the resources to respond to current events with facts and faith. We invite you to view our previous livestreams and to preview upcoming events.
To receive notifications about these events, sign up for our Mockler Center events newsletter.
Meet the Center's Leadership
Ken Barnes
Director
C. Sara Minard
Associate Director
Jeffrey Hanson
Senior Research Fellow
Natt Gantt, II
Visiting Fellow
Peter Heslam
Visiting Fellow
Jim Longhurst
Senior Fellow
Robert Gough
Chairman of the Board of Advisors
Kara Martin
Visiting Fellow
For more information about the Mockler Center, its programs
and resources, or to schedule a conversation, meeting, or event, please
e-mail [email protected] or leave us message at 978-646-4098.
Dr. Ken Barnes is the Mockler-Phillips Professor of Workplace Theology & Business Ethics and the Director of the Mockler Center for Faith & Ethics in the Public Square at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Barnes spent many years as a senior international executive for several multi-billion dollar companies doing business on six continents. In addition to his corporate work, Ken has also worked with SME’s (Small and Medium-Size Enterprises) and start-ups and continues to serve as a company director and mentor to young executives.
Dr. Barnes holds a B.A. in Political Science and Theatre from the State University of New York, an M.A.T.S. from Gordon-Conwell, an M.Div. from New Brunswick Theological Seminary, M.Phil. from Kings College, University of London in Church History and Doctrine, and D.Min. from Reformed Theological Seminary in Chaplaincy and Apologetics.
Professor Barnes’s fellowships include: the Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture (Regent’s Park College, Oxford), IFES (Leuven, Belgium), Ridley College (Melbourne, Australia), and the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA).
Professor Barnes’s main areas of research and teaching are the intersections of theology and economics and faith at work. He has published numerous papers in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. His recent book projects include Light From the Dreaming Spires: Reflections on Ministry to Gen Y (Resource Publishing, 2017), Redeeming Capitalism(Eerdmans, 2018), and “Religion and Business Ethics: Religious Perspectives on Business” in Routledge Companion to Business Ethics (Routledge, 2018).
Learn more about Dr. Barnes or view his CV.
Svatia Mueller is currently working with Dr. Barnes as Program Manager.
Dr. C. Sara Minard is the Founder and CEO of Manarine, LLC, an international consulting firm working at the intersection of impact investing, design thinking, economics, social enterprise, and sustainable development. She is the Associate Director of the Mockler Center for Faith and Ethics in the Public Square at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, teaches an award-winning course (Aspen Institute) on impact investing and social finance, coaches social entrepreneurs at all stages of their business, and serves on several Boards.
Dr. Minard earned a PhD in Economics (highest honors) from Sciences Po, Paris under the tutelage of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen for her research on social entrepreneurship and the informal economy in Senegal, West Africa, where she served as a small business volunteer with the Peace Corps (1998-2000). As a trained socio-economist, educator, facilitator, policy advisor, and development practitioner, her multidisciplinary and boundary spanning expertise supports universities, multinational companies, social impact startups, impact funds, governments, and communities in the US and abroad.
She lives on a multi-generational family farm in northern New Jersey.
Jeffrey Hanson, Ph.D., is a senior philosopher for the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. from Fordham University in 2005. He was an adjunct assistant professor of philosophy at Boston College from 2005 to 2010. From 2010 to 2015 he was a research fellow at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. He remains an honorary fellow of their Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry. He is the editor of Kierkegaard as Phenomenologist: An Experiment (Northwestern University Press) and co-editor with Michael R. Kelly of Michel Henry: The Affects of Thought (Bloomsbury). His first monograph, Kierkegaard and the Life of Faith: The Aesthetic, the Ethical, and the Religious in “Fear and Trembling” was published by Indiana University Press in 2017. Dr. Hanson’s research focuses on issues in philosophy of religion, phenomenology, aesthetics, and ethics. His writings on Kierkegaard, French phenomenology of religion, and the arts are motivated by an ongoing interest in the practical value of philosophy for human flourishing, and he draws on the whole history of philosophy and theology for both his scholarly work and popular publications on literature, music, film, and popular culture.
L.O. Natt Gantt, II, is Professor of Law and the inaugural Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at High Point University School of Law. He previously served as Executive Director of the Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, and as Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Regent University School of Law, where he also served as co-director of Regent’s Center for Ethical Formation and Legal Education Reform. Professor Gantt received his A.B. in psychology and political science, summa cum laude, from Duke University; his Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Harvard Law School; and his Master of Divinity, summa cum laude, from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Before joining Regent in 2000, he served as a law clerk to the late Honorable Donald S. Russell of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; as an associate at Wiley, Rein & Fielding in Washington, D.C.; and as a proxy analyst at Fidelity Investments in Boston, Massachusetts.
Professor Gantt’s scholarship has focused on two primary areas: (1) law school academic support and legal education reform and (2) legal ethics and professional identity formation. He has been active on committees and in meetings related to the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), the Academic Support Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), the Association of Academic Support Educators (AASE), Educating Tomorrow’s Lawyers (ETL), and the American Bar Association (ABA). He has authored or co-authored a book chapter and numerous articles related to legal ethics and legal education and has spoken in various venues related to those topics, ranging from speaking at the 2015 African Christian Legal Education Summit to serving from 2010 to 2013 as a faculty member for the Virginia State Bar Harry L. Carrico Professionalism Course. He has also devoted his efforts to enhancing law student and lawyer well-being and currently serves as a member of the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP) Advisory Commission and chairs CoLAP’s Well-Being Committee.
Peter S Heslam is Director of Faith in Business (Cambridge). Peter’s research, writing and speaking is wide ranging within the general field of whole-life Christianity. Some of it is focused on the interface of business, faith and development. Although largely overlooked, he believes greater understanding of this interface will help deliver practical change that increases human and environmental well-being. He also has a research focus on the social entrepreneur, statesman and theologian Abraham Kuyper and is inspired by Kuyper’s vision for whole-life discipleship.
Peter has a broad academic background that includes various positions at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Before them, he was on the faculty of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC), the Cambridge Theological Federation, and Ridley Hall. In his work as a doctoral supervisor at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies and as a Research Associate of the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide, he seeks to increase knowledge and understanding of whole-life mission.
In directing an international research project on Christian entrepreneurs, Peter has interviewed scores of business leaders in many different countries. He previously directed Transforming Business (a cross-disciplinary project based at Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity but with close ties to its Judge Business School) and the Oxford and Cambridge Symposium on Enterprise, Ethics and Development (SEED), and has held various visiting professorships at universities and business schools around the world.
Peter writes an article for every edition of Faith in Business Quarterly and is a frequent contributor to LICC’s Connecting with Culture blogs. He is involved in parish work in an honorary capacity as an ordained minister in the Church of England and provides regular reflections to help people live out their faith in ordinary everyday life. These include his God on Monday series on ‘purpose’, published online on Mondays by Faith in Business (sign up here).
Rev. Dr. Jim Longhurst is Executive Director of Clapham Servants, a global non-profit organization that seeks to serve humanity, in and through, the person and work of Jesus Christ. His main areas of interest are “conversations of consequence” in the public square, the intersection of faith and work, mentoring, discipleship and congregational well-being. As senior pastor of an international congregation in Geneva, Switzerland, and pastor of churches large and small in the United States, he has seen first-hand, the transformative power of the Gospel for individuals, organizations and cultures.
Dr. Robert Gough is the Managing Director of Chatham Hill, a data and predictive analytics firm that advises companies from early-stage to Fortune 500. He is a Senior Lecturer at Gordon College, and a Senior Lecturer at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at UNH where he teaches strategic management and investment banking.
In a career that spans over 30 years, he has consulted with senior decision makers at some of the world’s largest Fortune 500 companies including Bank of America, Microsoft, and Raytheon. He has also worked with leading government policy makers, including the Office of the Chancellor of the Exchequer (UK), the Japanese External Trade Organization, the Bundesbank, and the U.S. Department of Defense. Dr. Gough also led the forecasting team supporting President Ronald Reagan’s Grace Commission.
Dr. Gough has served on numerous boards such as the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bates College, Duke University, and Covenant Christian Academy.
He has appeared on nationally televised programs such as the Today Show, Good Morning America, the CBS Evening News, and the PBS News Hour. Dr. Gough was previously the economics editor at WBZ-TV, the Boston NBC (now CBS) affiliate, has hosted interactive radio shows on National Public Radio (NPR) and syndicated AM stations, and provided economic commentary for CBS radio on WBZ 1030.
He has lectured at leading colleges and universities including Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Duke, UCLA, Berkeley and Wellesley, where he taught economics and predictive analytics for ten years. Dr. Gough is renowned for his public speaking in both this country and abroad on the effects of the economy, technology and government policies on investment opportunities and growth strategies. His expertise in helping companies understand the impact and opportunities of market shaping trends make him an invaluable resource for current and aspiring market leaders around the world.
Kara Martin is a lecturer with Alphacrucis College (Sydney), and an Adjunct Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where she lectures on Christian Leadership. She is also on the Advisory Council for the Global Lausanne Movement (workplace ministry), as well as on the Board of the Karam Fellowship (U.S.A.). Previously, Kara served as Associate Dean of the Ridley College Marketplace Institute (Melbourne), and has worked in media and communications, human resources, business analysis and policy development roles, in a variety of organizations.
She is a leading light in the Faith at Work movement, having authored two highly acclaimed books: Workship: How to Use your Work to Worship God (Graceworks, 2017), and Workship 2: How to Flourish at Work (Graceworks, 2018). She is currently researching the variables for effective faith–work integration for workplace Christians. Kara is also a sought-after public speaker who has presented, taught, and run workshops in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the United States, New Zealand and throughout Australia.