(South Hamilton, Massachusetts)----Dr. Haddon Robinson, President and Co-Chair of the Theology of Work Project, Inc., announced the receipt of a one million dollar gift for the international research and writing project. The gift pushes the project past the halfway mark in its efforts to raise nearly $2 million needed for the five-year effort, and assures the Project can now move forward aggressively in its effort to build the first comprehensive database of work/faith theology in history. 

     Launched in January, 2007, the Project first started by soliciting input from over 130 organizations and individuals, including representatives from across geographic, denominational, gender and career boundaries.  Among those polled were many of Christianity's leading thinkers and theologians, but the list also included workplace professionals, pastors, parachurch ministries, and academicians. Stunned by nearly a 100% response, the message sent back was that this field "is one of the most important areas of research necessary for this generation of the Body of Christ."

     The Project originally intended to assign research teams to work through each book of the Bible, and to record the results in both print and electronic venues that made them immediately accessible to audiences around the globe.  It quickly became apparent, however, that the hunger for answers to how work and faith bisect required the Project consider also tackling some of the key topics workers face regularly.  From the 130+ responses, which contained both suggested topics AND suggested names for members of the Project's Steering Committee, over 400 topics were received. Remarkably, these fell into twenty areas, and these became the basis for the 20 Key Topic research projects which are now a part of the research assignments for TOW.

     Over a dozen projects are already in various stages of production, with an additional batch being launched with today's announcement by Dr. Robinson. The Project's Steering Committee, which meets twice annually, will hold its next session in Boston in late August of this year. One of the 2010 sessions will be held in Capetown, South Africa, enabling team members to participate in (as invited delegates), or witness (as guests and observers), the next session of the Lausanne Covenant.  Steering Committee members from around the globe include men and women who are retired CEO's, seminary professors, workplace professionals, academicians from varied fields, workplace ministry professionals, and many other fields, with advisory committee members drawn from equally diverse segments of the population.