11/19/25 - 2121: Cincinnati 2026 - Three (or More) Reasons You'll Want to Be There

Jim: You've tuned into iWork4Him, the Voice of Collaboration for the Faith and Work Movement.

Martha: And we are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. And our mission is to inspire every workplace believer to recognize their workplace as their ministry place, where they work with God every day. What can that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: For about 10 years now, we've known that Cincinnati, Ohio, is one of the most collaborative cities in the United States portion of the Kingdom on Earth. For over two decades, hundreds of churches and ministries have partnered to reach the vast Cincinnati area for Christ on Sunday at church and Monday through Friday in the marketplace.

I dunno what happens on Saturday. We'll talk about that with our guest. (chuckling)

Back in 2015, we first interviewed Chuck Proudfit. Then in 2017 we finally met Chuck face to face. Our friendship has grown ever since. We thought it was time to get an update from Chuck on his leading the At Work on Purpose Movement in Cincinnati, as well as its leadership on the upcoming National Faith and Work Summit in June of 2026. Chuck Profit, welcome back to iWork4Him.

Chuck Proudfit: It's a pleasure to be back. Thank you for having me.

Jim: Chuck, let's start off with talking about Jesus. What kind of miracles have you seen in the marketplace movement in Cincinnati recently?

Chuck Proudfit: We've spent a good deal of time just training people to see God's supernatural movement in everyday work. And I could tell you all kinds of stories, but the biggest story that's coming to mind as you ask that question was actually a large city scale miracle. You'd mentioned collaboration in Cincinnati, and we've come a long way with that. And having said that, as you guys know, the Big C Church really struggles to collaborate with itself.

And in Cincinnati, even though we had local churches learning to work better with each other and para churches to do the same, we discovered that there were breaches between local church and parachurch, between Parachurch and local church and the workplace at large. And all of this led to a couple decades where there were a series of city reaching or city transformation initiatives, all of which were operating simultaneously in our city, all of which were preaching unity to work together, and none of which were working with each other.

And the huge miracle that has happened this year is that for the first time in over 20 years, we finally got the leaders of all of those initiatives together around one table and have launched something that together we are calling For Cincinnati. This is a breakthrough for our city.

Martha: That's so powerful and I hope that people really sit on that for a minute because you said a lot and this doesn't come without sweat and tears and turmoil and probably some trials, and victories all along the way.

But the end, where you're seeing yourself now is such a thing to celebrate and that truly is a miracle of God. A lot of people might say, yeah, our hard work, God is there. No, you're giving the right credit to where credit is due.

Jim: And when you say it's a miracle, it's because Jesus said this almost 2000 years ago. They'll know you're my followers when you walk in Unity. That's a Jim paraphrase.

Chuck Proudfit: That's a great paraphrase.

Jim: John 17:20.

Chuck Proudfit: That's exactly what we're talking about, Jim.

Martha: That's so good. So tell us how Cincinnati is being impacted by the believers that are actually living out their faith at work.

Chuck Proudfit: What we're finding in Cincinnati is that there are several levels of development that are taking place, and we're getting better and better at understanding each one of them and how they connect with each other. The first part of that answer, Martha, would be that we are seeing more and more working Christians connecting the dots between their everyday work and their ongoing faith. Most Christians don't.

They go to church on Sunday, work on Monday, but when you start to understand that your work is a form of worship, that your job is actually a platform for ministry, and that the workplace at large is one of the most amazing arenas for spiritual formation and contribution, it changes everything.

So we are seeing more and more of what we call the purposefully employed. And I would even suggest to you deployed instead of employed. Deployed for the Kingdom using the platform of our work to advance God's kingdom. So that's the first part of the answer. The second part is that we're getting better and better at what we like to call contextualized discipleship.

What I mean by that is understanding that the best way to learn about our faith at work and live out our faith at work is to contextualize it to the place where we work. If we're working in a public school system that looks a lot different than if I'm the owner of a privately held business.

Faith expression has to be learned and lived in a contextual way, in a very pluralistic workplace. We're getting much better at that. The third thing I would say, just to finish answering your question, is that when we get really good in relationship with each other, we start sharing our ideas, our best practices, our encouragement, and we start creating what we like to call replicable ministry. People learn what works and they do more of it, and they share it with others.

Jim: Replicable ministry. Yeah. That's why we do what we do on iWork4Him for the last 12 and a half years. We cover the stories of people living out their faith at work so that we can all be inspired. Somebody's been inspired by every one of the stories that we've covered.

We've had people from around the world make comments and has nothing to do with us. It has to do with replicable - people's, " if that works for Chuck and Cincinnati, it took them 20 years. But that means it'll work in iowa City, that means it'll work in Atlanta. That means it could work in springfield, Missouri."

Martha: Or even asking yourself the question, if God can do that, what can he do where I am? Just taking that and seeing, being inspired by the miracles that God is doing, the way he's working in people's lives and truly living that out, which I think is such a, such an inspiration to hear that you're seeing that goal, moving closer to that goal.

And we can never reach that goal 'cause there's still gonna be people that need to know about Jesus. I just am curious, I love that you are such a visionary. Chuck, one of the things that I love the most about you is the way that you can see what God might be doing and head that way and formulate and ask the Lord for that direction.

So what is your vision for the next 10 years for Greater Cincinnati, as the Lord moves in that super great area that you live in?

Chuck Proudfit: I'm encouraged by the progress that we're making, but I'm more inspired by the big, holy, audacious goal that we set a long time ago, which was that a day would come when every working Christian in Greater Cincinnati would be faith active at work because we knew when that day comes, we won't just transform the work lives of those individuals. We will transform the entire city where those people are working and living.

Now, for context here, greater Cincinnati is a metropolitan area with about 2 million people, so think of it as a midsize Midwestern city. And of those, about 350,000 are self-identified as working Christians. Here we are as a citywide model for workplace ministry after 22 years, and we have reached about 15,000 of those 350,000 in our connected network.

So one way to look at it is to say 15,000 people is a lot. Another way to look at it. Over the next 10 years, we would like to go from 15,000 to 350,000.

Jim: Amen. And Chuck, I'm gonna quote you, I heard you say these words in July, I think it was July the ninth or 10th. It was the 10th. It was July 10th. You said that the purpose of the faith and work movement, which we're a part of, which this podcast is part of, getting people to live out their faith at work - the purpose is to unleash the complete vocational and cultural contribution of working Christians for the flourishing of the world. And when you said that from the stage that day, I couldn't get my mouth to shut. I'm like, (mimicks open mouth, others chuckling) it was stuck open hanging my jaw.

I'm like, yep, that summarizes everything that I have studied for the last 20 years. Because when you can do that for every working believer to unleash their complete vocational and cultural contribution as a working believer for the flourishing of the world so that everybody around them is benefiting from their faith, whether they believe in Jesus or not, that's the kingdom. I just, I love that. That was so powerful. I wanna make sure I got that on recording with you today. Do you want to comment?

Chuck Proudfit: You did awesome. Yeah, you gave me goosebumps. It's so wonderful to hear that restated by somebody else. Those words were all selected so intentionally, Jim, that first word, unleash. The reality is that only one out of every 20 working Christians consistently brings a Sunday faith to Monday work.

The rest of us feel leashed, constrained, inhibited from faith expression, and the complete contribution. Imagine if we looked in the 21st century, like the first century church, where they were all in. They integrated faith with all of their lives, including their work, and as they were going along, they were making disciples and adding every day to their numbers. I get so inspired by rediscovering the fruits and the roots of our own faith.

Martha: There's so much good, and we'll make sure we put that statement in the show notes for everybody because it's really something to ponder on because you're exactly right. Every word is profound and can give each of us the courage for each day as we work and as we go about.

Chuck, as I said a little bit ago, you are such a great visionary, but even the best of dreams and ideas can become compromised if we get a virus or an intruder on our computers or our phones. So being proactive to protect our data and our work is really critical to staying on mission. So at home and for all of our businesses. We rely on SaferNet to protect us. You can go to safenet.com and learn more about their antivirus protection, their VPN and the 84 filters that help keep the bad guys out and keep us on mission. Let them know that iWork4Him sent you.

Jim: Chuck, At Work on Purpose was founded in Cincinnati over 20 years ago, but people from all over the country can benefit from what you're doing. What are some of the things everyone listening in the United States can benefit from AWOP, as you call it, but At Work on Purpose?

Chuck Proudfit: Few things that I would describe, Jim, as low hanging fruit. The first one is for people in other cities to imagine the idea of a citywide community of working Christians. It doesn't have to be called At Work on Purpose. It doesn't need to look like the model we have. But when we look at the first century church, this is how the church understood itself.

It was the church organized across cities. We see that in the names of the books in the New Testament - Corinthians for Corinth, Ephesians for Ephesus, and so forth. And I just encourage working Christians to think about community in their cities across working Christian constituencies. The hard truth is most of the people that are faith active at work are organized either individually or they're in small communities of a few, or they're operating in silos as workplace ministries in a city, but disconnected from each other across the city. We need to change that. So that's the first thing that I would share.

The second thing is that over the years, one of our most significant initiatives has been what we've come to call collaboratories, Collaborative laboratories for Christian workplace leaders. What we have learned is when we bring together Christian leaders that God has deployed across the private, public, and social sectors, where we gather together and we go through a discipleship experience together, God moves powerfully in that, and these leaders don't just build relationships in a relational network. They start dreaming and scheming - I call it holy mischief - about what we could do together for the city.

And here we are coming up on the holidays. For those who are listening, if you go to gocaroling.com, you'll see just one small example of what I'm talking about, where these leaders came together and they built a citywide initiative and then designed it to scale across cities because they were in an environment that is akin to a collaborative laboratory where we're envisioning new ideas. So that would be the second thing.

The third thing is to encourage people to understand the basic idea that your work really does matter for God no matter where you're working. And in the spirit of Jeremiah 29, to seek the peace and prosperity of the city. Many times, I think just the everyday working Christian can feel like their work isn't substantial enough to make a difference, but God doesn't operate on that kind of a scale, the way the workplace usually thinks about it. You're important if you're a CEO or you're a judge or something like that.

I am staggered over and over again by what I like to call everyday working Christians who take their faith seriously at work, and they make a huge difference in the work environment. So for those listening who may feel like that's you, let me just encourage you that God can work through you in a powerful way if you have the faith of a mustard seed.

Jim: That's right. Wow. Love it. Chuck, usually you have an annual conference called the XL Summit in July of every year where you gather together marketplace believers and ministries together to celebrate Cincinnati, all that God's doing in Cincinnati. The next year's gonna be different. What's gonna take place in Cincinnati in 2026?

Chuck Proudfit: We were blessed with the opportunity in 2026 to host the Faith at Work Summit. This is a summit originally launched in 2014, and every couple years has been held in a different city to bring together all kinds of people from the Faith at Work space, so that together we could imagine what better could look like with faith expression in the workplace.

 In very simple terms, I would almost describe it like a trade show for the faith at work industry. Everybody who cares about Faith at Work has an opportunity to convene and to rub shoulders with so many other people that are passionate and fruitful in this space. In 2026, that community will gather in Cincinnati and we're privileged to host it.

Martha: That's awesome. So talk right now to the listeners and telling them who this is for, because I think it's really critical because a lot of times we get into a niche, but we have some dreams regarding that. Who is this summit for?

Chuck Proudfit: This is such an important question because we all, without realizing and often get tribal, and we tend to self-identify with the people that are the closest fit to who we are or how we work. What we've found though with the Faith at Work Summit is that there are four separate constituencies that all matter, and we're designing the summit to speak to all four of them.

The first is the practitioner. This would be the everyday working Christian who is simply passionate to bring faith to work and wants to learn about how others are doing the same and to grow from other people. The second is Workplace Ministries - At Work on Purpose here in Cincinnati is just one example. There are many of them, but these are initiatives that are collectively organized to serve and support faith at work.

The third constituency is local churches that care about faith at work and recognize it as an area of ministry programming in and through the local church. The fourth constituency is the academy. That would be seminaries, Christian universities, all of the entities that are charged with educating, equipping, raising up a next generation of leaders who recognize the spiritual significance of the workplace.

Jim: And boy can the academy use some help today. Think about your alma mater and how it's slid a little sideways. And just everywhere you go, the colleges and universities, even the Christian ones, are really struggling with, they're just struggling with the reality of faith period. And so many compromises. I'm not sure that 90% of the universities in this country are even safe to send your kids to anymore.

Martha: But one of the encouraging things about this conversation is the fact that those that will be there see the light, they see the need, or they are encouraged by "ah, that college, that university, that institution sees the value of teaching our students and our faculty about our faith being an integral part of everyday life."

Jim: Well said. I'm sorry.

 (laughter)

Martha: So the purpose of the summit, part of that is to really help each other go forward and see what more can be done for the kingdom, because we are in a dark world and God has given us the ability to be that light. And sometimes we just need a cheerleader. And it may be one story, one person that you meet. I can tell you somebody I met at a round table at the Faith and Work Summit in 20 18 when we were in Dallas, that he probably doesn't remember meeting me, but I was impacted by the conversation of meeting a pastor who brought a bunch of his congregation and leaders with him for this very purpose. And that was profound for me.

And so I, I get a little excited and we're gonna keep talking about the summit, that's just a little bit about the, who it's for. What should we talk quick about what the listeners could expect if they were to come?

Chuck Proudfit: Sure. In my way of thinking, there are three really important aspects of the experience for somebody who chooses to come. The first one is inspiration. It's the path of more resistance to bring faith to work. The world at large and to be honest, through its absent voice, the church at large, often communicates that work is secular and off limits to faith. And so for most of us when we go to work, our work environments are at best indifferent to faith expression, but often they're hostile.

This is an environment to inspire and encourage each other. That this is not just a responsibility but this is an opportunity to build a better world and to do it together as the big C Church. The second thing from my vantage point is connection. There are gonna be so many people here that are fantastic connections for those who care about the Faith at Work space, and there are across all four of those constituencies I just mentioned.

The third thing is about multiplication. If we can multiply the impact of those connections so that we start sharing ideas and best practices, instead of just having a summit every two years, if we get better organized to share with each other on an ongoing basis and take the good ideas that are already out there and multiply them.

Jim: Because when we hear other people share what God has been doing through them on a day-to-day basis, it is so inspiring. And again, like I said, if God can use Chuck to do that in Cincinnati, he can use Jim to do that and Martha to do that in Marionville, Missouri. Martha and I are super excited to work with you, Chuck, on the Faith and Work Summit for 2026.

And to everybody listening, this is your personal invitation to join us all in Cincinnati next June. I believe today show's gonna pique the interest of a lot of people about what is this summit all about. All the details can be found at the website faithatworksummit2026.com.

Yes, Martha will have that link in the notes, but we'd love to have you join us in Cincinnati in June of next year, the 17th through the 19th of June. It's gonna be gorgeous. What a great time to be in Ohio. It's all always beautiful, right? It'll be 80, 75 and 80 in June, right, Chuck?

Chuck Proudfit: That's right. And as we say in the Buckeye state, it's the heart of it all.

Martha: It's the heart of it all. That's awesome.

Jim: I don't get it.

Martha: That's all right. Chuck will explain it to you later.

So this gathering, we're hoping there's gonna be people from all across the country and all the different spheres of influence like you talked about, and that's really significant. How is this gathering gonna be different than maybe other more churchy summits that some of our listeners have attended in the past?

Chuck Proudfit: There's gonna be a strong emphasis on practicality. Although it's important to understand the theology behind Faith at Work, what's most important for those of us who are out in the workaday world is how do we actually do something? And this summit is going to be very geared for practical application.

The people from whom we'll hear are doing things that have great merit and are ripe for multiplication, like I mentioned a minute ago, and they're all expressing that heart from God in, in the Book of John. For God so loved the world. So to take that heart, that passion, and then latch it onto the practicality of initiatives that can be shared and distributed broadly.

Jim: I don't know what your comment about the theology is difficult to grasp because in simplest terms, the simplest Jim Brangenberg terms, when Jesus saved you, he saved you for all of life. When the Holy Spirit invaded your life at your invitation, he invaded it for all of everything you do, especially your work, where you interact with people who need to meet him. There's the theology for the day, without a single five syllable word.

Martha: It just goes back to full circle where we talked about earlier being unleashed. For some reason, we have felt very constricted in who we are as believers, and that's why I think a lot of people have compartmentalized it. So imagine going to a place, being challenged and encouraged to be then unleashed to do what it is that God has called you to do.

That is why we want y'all to be there. That's why we're having this conversation today. That's why Chuck is sharing from his heart, all of these great perspectives, so that you can join us next June and get more of that opportunity face to face, which is so valuable. And we encourage everybody to do it.

Jim: Chuck, do you expect there to be something practical that people can learn, for everyone in attendance?

Chuck Proudfit: Yes, absolutely I do. I think for several reasons, Jim. The first one is that we've identified people bringing great insights and initiatives across all four of those constituencies. Which means that whether you're a practitioner or a workplace ministry or a local church or part of the academy, you're going to hear voices from your area of specialization that you could understand and apply where you work.

That's the first reason. The second one is we're intentional in this summit, not just about sharing content, but building connections. There's going to be a great deal of effort to make sure that when you leave, there's a pile of people that you will have met for the first time that hopefully will become fast friends for the kingdom in years to come.

I think that's going to be huge in terms of practical application. And the third thing is that we're in the midst of developing some additional programming so that it won't anymore just be a summit every two years, but there will be activity happening in between those two years so that people are better connected and contributing to each other and to the world through their work.

Jim: Yeah. A lot of times people go to summits and they're like I'm gonna listen to speaker after speaker. This is not gonna be like that. You're gonna open up with some short ted talk style kind of speeches on Wednesday night after a gathering of just of community.

But during the day on Thursday, we're gonna have lots of people sharing their stories. It's not gonna be a droning on. It is gonna be a celebration of everything that God's been doing and then breakouts, breakout workshops where people can go even deeper. And all of the conversations, it's gonna be exciting.

And the location in Mason, Ohio, which is just outside of Cincinnati, on a big, great big church campus will be phenomenal. Chuck, we're so excited. Is there anything else we need to know?

Chuck Proudfit: Last thing I would share, Jim, is that the theme of the Summit, Frontiers, is very strategically designed to speak to best practices now for a better future tomorrow. It's going to be organized around what I think of as a trinity of opportunity. So you think about creativity. What does it look like for us to be much more creative in the future about the way that we express faith at work? And you can think of that as God the father, right? In Genesis, creating the world, and how do we take on that spirit of co-creation for the kingdom?

Second is the idea of collaboration. There are gonna be some really practical examples of what that looks like in a workplace that often doesn't model collaboration among Christians in the workplace. And you know that echoes, like you said earlier, Jim, the spirit of John 17 and Jesus trying to build a church community, a bride that really reflects one body united in common cause.

The third thing is going to be continuity. What does it look like for us, through the Holy Spirit, through discipleship from one generation to the next, to get much better at avoiding what a friend of mine likes to call sizzle the fizzle. How do we go from one milestone to the next and building momentum, not losing it?

Martha: As you can tell, we are super excited about this opportunity to let our listeners know about the summit to get it on your calendars. We'll put the link in the show notes and hopefully this has intrigued a lot of people.

I think the final thing that I would say is that, because we are, like you said, the four different types of constituents that we're gonna have. We get an opportunity to hear from people that are outside of where we work every day. And so the opportunity there is to see that vantage point and to also be inspired that, there's a lot going on in the universities maybe that we don't know about or in the church. I'm just excited about that and the intentionality behind that.

Jim: It'll be an action packed, three days, June of 2026. Faith at Work Summit 2020 six.com. Chuck Profit, you get the last word.

Chuck Proudfit: Last word is just a word of encouragement to everyone who's listening to this. I have found that when we come together in community, the things that can sometimes seem so difficult become more possible.

Jim and Martha, I think about the work that the two of you have done together where you live, some of it inspired by some projects that you saw here in Cincinnati, but the two of you have been encouraging an entire community first because you were able to hear from the Lord about a vision and build into it, and then you attracted others.

And I, I think at the end of the day when we recognize the power of two or three gathered together, it's that echo of Matthew where the Jesus basically says, where two or three are gathered, there I am in their midst, and that spirit of community is going to be so present in this summit, and I see it so present in your lives with iWork4Him.

Jim: Chuck Profit, thanks for being on iWork4Him today. Thanks for sharing all about the Faith at Work Summit in 2026. We were excited to be a part of it. And everybody listening, please check out the website, get signed up. Come be a part of something amazing. Your life will be transformed by the conversations you have at the Faith at Work Summit in 2026 in Cincinnati. Thank you, Chuck.

Chuck Proudfit: My pleasure.

Jim: You've been listening to iWork4Him with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.