The marketplace is where human economic activities take place – the workplace – where people work for earnings towards their livelihoods. Marketplace ministry enables the Christian expression, which is a fulltime vocation, to become part of one’s engagement in the marketplace. Marketplace ministry brings, and activates, the gospel in the marketplace through the witness of the Christians who are already there.
This course explores how the Church can become more marketplace conscious and find its pro-active role in the marketplace through the Christians who are already there. The course therefore looks at the theology of work, inculcating a biblical perspective in which all Christians are called to work not just as a means to a livelihood but more importantly for the glory of God. In so doing, it highlights the themes of mounting poverty as a result of unemployment and underemployment within the marketplace ministry discourse; thus recognising public theology and socio-political advocacy as domains of community life in which Christians need to engage. Consequently the course explores the practical reality of bi-vocational ministry or tentmaking including discourses of holistic mission and business-as-mission. Finally, undergirding all of these, is the critical element of the values and ethics of being a Christian in the marketplace.