College Ministry Named Best Christian Workplace

May 07, 2004 06:49 PM EDT

Coalition for Christian Outreach (CCO) was named the best place to work among large missions and parachurch organizations according to Christianity Today’s “50 Best Christian Workplaces Survey”.

The survey, conducted by Best Christian Workplaces Institute (BCWI), polled more than 10,000 people from 107 organizations and finalists in 12 categories were awarded at the Christian Management Association’s convention on April 26 in Grapevine, Texas.

CCO is an interdenominational college ministry organization that operates on campuses in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The mission of the CCO is “transforming college students to transform the world,” and the organization currently employs 152 staff people on 60 campuses.

“Everything that we've done to this point is about creating a really mission-focused, really healthy, really fun organization,” said CCO President, Dan Dupee. “I expect us to get an awful lot better at every part of what we do. I expect the skill with which each of us comes at what we do to increase significantly over the next number of years.”

Last year, CCO also won first place among large missions and parachurch organizations.

“We commissioned the survey in order to affirm and foster the attitude of servant leadership among Christian workplaces,” says associate editor Agnieszka Tennant of Christianity Today.

The organizations that made the top list had workers has relationships of trust which helped the work be more satisfying and fruitful.

"Successful leaders know that the quality of an organization's ministry and the quality of internal trust are directly related," says BCWI executive director Al Lopus. "When people trust one another, they are fully engaged in the ministry and good things happen. But when trust is never established or broken, relationships suffer and employees can become disengaged from their work, discouraged, or even fearful. As a result, employee satisfaction nosedives."

There is no mystery why CCO has made the two years in a row.

"It is a privilege to come to work each day, surrounded on every side by such capable, committed people,” Dan Dupee adds. “There is no place like the CCO, and I am grateful that I get to work here.”