The Mission and Work of VOCA
Mission: Turn secular work into sacred calling.
Vision: Change the world by changing the way Christians work. We envision ripples of impact starting with individuals and extending out to cities and culture.
- We Impact Individuals as we reframe their work as a place where God is present, where what they do matters, and where they grow spiritually.
- We Influence Workplaces as “called” workers approach their peers and work with kingdom wisdom, power, and integrity.
- We Impact Life beyond the workplace as the skills, social capital, and resources generated at work fuel broader reach beyond the job context.
- We Shape Generations as one generation learns to do work differently, they pass down a better way to their children and grandchildren.
Distinctives
1. We serve multiple sectors. (Emerging professionals and executives, church and marketplace, individuals and organizations)
2. We use first-hand research and feedback from our paid clients to create custom content that serves the needs of our audience.
3. We are building a business engine to bring real-world validation and a measure of sustainability to the enterprise.
4. We are working to extend the gold-standard career assessment tools we use with our paying clients to the under-resourced and under-served in New York City.
Why Work on Work?
1. 100,000 Hours: Most of us will spend 100,000 hours or more at work over the course of our careers.
2. Faith Challenges: Christian workers are struggling with surviving a demanding, stressful work culture, and they are struggling with how to express their faith at work. (VOCA research)
3. Loneliness: Harvard Business Review reports that loneliness at work is at epidemic levels.
4. Spiritual Warfare: The ethics, relationships, values, habits, and reasons behind much of contemporary work are opposed to the ways of Christ.
Why New York City?
1. Work is king in New York. If we can change it here, we can change it anywhere.
2. There is a vibrant, accomplished Christian professional community in NYC; a base from which to scale influence.
3. There is a high concentration of up-and-coming knowledge workers in NYC, the majority of VOCA’s clientele. Impacting them means impacting business for years to come.
Why Dr. Chip Roper?
1. Chip has proven himself as a leader in business, church, and nonprofit work.
2. Chip is the "pastor who understands business.”
3. Chip’s experience in starting and scaling enterprises is complemented by decades of advising others and training in coaching, counseling, leadership, and administration.
Forward
With a proven track record, VOCA is poised to launch as a national (and international) influence by: 1) building market awareness, 2) scaling simple, proprietary models, and 3) expanding our team. To do so, we are raising $775,000 for the VOCA Launch Fund, giving us the three-year runway that is essential to continue our impact and embed a sustainable business in the VOCA program menu that will fund the majority of our work going forward.
