A Note from David Murray

The Faith and Work Project is an initiative which I first commenced in 1992 within my management consulting business, Maine Consulting Services. This was a small specialist consultancy working in many parts of both the developed and developing world, and based until 2003 in Blackburn, Lancashire in the North West of England. From early 2003 we were based in Newark-on-Trent until I closed the office in March 2007.

Even though the consulting business in its old form is now closed, I continue to do small pieces of advisory work and also am building several strands of online activity including development of The Faith and Work Project in ways that were not possible when I was repeatedly travelling around the world.

Purpose
The aim of the project is to research and to promote practical approaches to the application of Biblical Christian ethics within business and professional life.

These must be morally and spiritually challenging, and also meaningful in language and style to people wrestling from day to day with the down-to-earth realities of the business world with all its uncertainties and dilemmas. Practitioners do not usually want materials full of high-sounding theological or philosophical jargon. I try therefore to use plain English, and hope gradually to upload more of the study modules produced within the project, plus texts of speeches and papers from past years.

Partnership
The Project commenced (and has continued) as a personal ministry but early in its development the question arose as to whether or not to grow it to include more than myself. I felt then that it would be more productive to work in partnership alongside others, rather than to create yet another organization. I believe that to have been the right course.

An important partnership involvement for many years has been my role as Chairman of Faith in Business (formerly known as the Ridley Hall Foundation) based at the Ridley Hall Theological College (Evangelical Anglican) in Cambridge, England, working with Dr. Richard Higginson who has served as Director since its inception in 1989. The links here will take you to information about “Faith in Business” and the journal, Faith in Business Quarterly.

Personal
Although Faith in Business is an Anglican college initiative, I should say that I am myself not an Anglican but an elder with responsibilities for preaching and teaching in Newark Evangelical Church (NEC) - an independent congregation affiliated to the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC).

Professional
As to my business background I started in manufacturing industry as a research chemist, moved into quality assurance, then manufacturing management before in 1979 leaving industry to work as a consultant. For more than twelve years I was with a large international consulting firm in which I eventually became a partner, and focused primarily on strategy and organisation change, working in many different sectors of the economy.

On starting Maine Consulting Services in 1991 it became possible to concentrate for many years on a subject that I had come to see as increasingly important - business ethics. This eventually led into work around the world (both commercial and voluntary) on anti-corruption. Now retired from the globe-trotting I am continuing to work in this field but without the intensity of travel that has characterised the past few years.

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Much, if not most, of this ongoing work on ethical and anti-corruption issues is intended to be accessible and practically useful to all who want to see standards of business and professional practice improved, regardless of religious faith (see the Business Ethics For Us All site).

This present site, The Faith and Work Project, will inevitably have some similarities but is designed chiefly for people of Christian conviction who wish to think Biblically about working life - although hopefully others will also find it helpful.

- David Murray -
June 2008