While many people are used to seeing chaplains in hospitals, jails and certain other industries, a recent business trend led by Dallas-based Marketplace Chaplains has proven chaplain care is successful in all types of businesses. Chaplains are now being used in companies as diverse as law firms, colleges, and gourmet candy companies, all with the strategic business initiative of helping their employees and family members.

“The fact we are here today talking about people and eternal things is only because of God’s grace,” said Mike Bassett, Co-Partner of The Bassett Law Firm with his wife Liz, which employs 8 attorneys and 20 employees in Dallas.

Mike said his growing firm has been helped by having chaplains in a variety of ways, from “higher morale,” to an “outside resource for helping and encouraging the staff,” to “undergirding a moral and ethical tone for practicing law.”

Ghyslain Maurais came to America from Québec, Canada, with a much different practice in mind. He moved to Indiana to open a French cooking school and later settled in Union City, Indiana, where he and his wife, Susan, turned to crafting world class chocolates after the culinary school hit a snag.

He first heard about chaplains several years ago through his mother-in-law who is an owner of a lumber mill in Union City and uses the service, and discovered that workplace chaplains were the right fit for his specialized company.

“The employees didn’t know what we were doing at first and they didn’t know they needed it (chaplains),” he said. “It’s being used so that has been very good, and it’s something we wanted to do,” said Maurais.

Ghyslain Chocolatier Inc. supplies its individually hand-crafted and designed chocolates to fine restaurants all over the Midwest and ships throughout the U.S.; as many as 5,000 boxes a week during the holiday season.

“It can be very stressful during the holidays, and that’s why it’s good to have someone you can talk to,” he said.

The President of Central Penn College, Todd Milano, knows all too well that everyday life can be stressful. As the first institution of higher learning anywhere in the U.S. to use Marketplace Chaplains, he sees the value of the service and knows firsthand that chaplains have really helped his stress level as well as that of his staff.

Milano said while listening to millionaire and Texas business entrepreneur Paul Meyer give a speech about utilizing chaplains for his large number of companies convinced him he could do the same for his hundreds of staff members and teachers.

“If Paul Meyer could do that for his employees and their families, why couldn’t I do the same?” Milano said. “I am sure I have people on campus who need to be supported, encouraged and uplifted.”

“Our chaplains are doing us a great service and we have seen many benefits to their work,” added Central Penn Organizational Development Director Ric Trevino.

Marketplace Chaplains provides more than 2,700 professionally trained chaplains to companies in 2,789 locations across 44 states, in 925 cities, and in 4 other countries and 1 commonwealth.

“The pressures and stresses of the workplace affect us all no matter what type of business or industry, which is why these innovative CEOs have chosen to provide this unique employee benefit service,” said Marketplace Chaplains’ President and COO Dick De Witt.