AGI’s stated purpose is “To honor God by excelling in what we do, how we do it and by treating our employees, customers, vendors, and community as we would treat ourselves.”
The branding and architectural design company is not a Christian company. But AGI, which brings in about $400 million in revenue and has 1,100 employees and 5,000 contractors, operates under Christian leadership and has developed a ministry and chaplaincy program for employees across its nine locations.
Craig Rohde, AGI’s president and CEO, is a ruling elder at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He said that if you think about a retail brand like a fast food establishment or a car dealership, the company communicates the brand with its signage, but it’s more than that.
“Their brand is physically represented in their signage on and around the building, unique architectural elements like fascia and entrance elements, standard and brand unique lighting, and interior elements like graphics, millwork and digital displays,” Rohde said.
AGI is one of the few companies that designs, builds, installs, maintains, and updates all of those branding elements. Their clients are major brands throughout North America.
Chaplaincy as Neighbor Care
Rohde, who took over AGI in the early 2000s, began AGI’s chaplaincy program in the 2010s with his son-in-law Bryan Fowler, now the senior chaplain and director of ministries at AGI. After college, Fowler wanted to pursue work in ministry, but Rohde encouraged Fowler to consider working at AGI in Virginia Beach.
Fowler explained that he had a “moment of crisis” before he felt a call toward Virginia Beach to become involved with starting a ministry at AGI. He began in a human resources role, but over the next decade, he attended seminary and began transitioning from HR into full-time chaplaincy. Meanwhile, AGI grew from 400 to 1,100 employees and expanded to locations across the Southeast and Midwest.
As AGI grew under Rohde’s leadership, Rohde wrestled with how he could glorify God at AGI. He came back to Jesus’ explanation of the greatest commandments – to love God and neighbor – in Matthew 22.
Rohde continued, “That’s what built the ministry into what it is today. There is no more obvious neighbor than the people you work with 40 to 50 hours a week, whether they are with you for a short time or their career.”
Rohde wanted employees at AGI to have access at work to daily devotions and Bible study opportunities. He had a vision for supporting his employees during a financial, emotional, or physical crisis, and he wanted that support to extend to their families..
“We decided the most impactful way we could do that for over 1,000 employees and their families was to create a formal chaplains ministry staffed with trained pastors who felt called to the business community as their place of ministry,” Rohde said.
Chaplains across AGI’s locations facilitate AGI’s ministry. Fowler describes chaplaincy as a “ministry of presence,” which involves “being there for people in difficult life situations, praying for them, helping to just be a light to them in any way.”
About 150 of AGI’s employees are involved in chaplain-led Bible studies. AGI chaplains provide counseling for employees who need it and often lead community outreach events. Fowler sends employees regular devotional emails that include a reflection on Scripture.
As AGI has expanded, the company has also expanded its team of chaplains across the country. “We are a ministry team that’s working within AGI. We’re fully ingrained within the company; we’re employees of the company,” Fowler explained. Fowler directs the team of chaplains and oversees Bible studies at all locations.
AGI was founded 50 years ago by Christians who wanted their secular company to operate with Christian values. “When they founded the organization, they wanted the organization to be an extension of their faith,” Fowler maintained.
From the beginning, employees at AGI have facilitated prayer meetings with their co-workers. Fowler administers an AGI loan program that offers interest-free loans to employees struggling with finances.
“We’ve had a long history of being very charitable, very loving, and really wanting to live out the mission of loving our neighbors as part of the way we think about our employees,” Fowler explained.
The ministry and chaplaincy program has streamlined and expanded these efforts across the growing organization.
“[The chaplaincy] has taken a lot of efforts that we did as a small organization like helping employees, being involved in the community, loving our neighbors, teaching the Word… and it really organized them to meet and engage with all our employees,” Fowler said. “As a company that’s really growing into a corporation… we now have the ability to really engage with all our employees, not by way of the CEO or the CEO’s desire, but by the ministry we have with our employees.”
Bringing Ministry Into the Workplace
Michael Stewart, associate endorser of civilian chaplains for the Presbyterian and Reformed Commission on Chaplains and Military Personnel, believes “corporate chaplains bring the gospel message into the workplace and often are able to minister to individuals who a local pastor may never be able to reach.”
Stewart’s comments certainly ring true at AGI. As Jody Stancil, a part-time chaplain with AGI in Cartersville, Georgia, and pastor at Riverside Community Church (PCA), shared, “I’ve seen a couple people who were not going to church regularly, who were not interacting with the Scriptures very much, who are now interested in the Scriptures.”
Stancil is grateful that he has been able to answer their questions about God, church, and Scripture.
Stancil works with AGI’s Cartersville manufacturing branch every Wednesday and has been – apart from a break during the COVID-19 pandemic – since 2019. During the employees’ lunch break, Stancil leads a Bible study, while AGI provides lunch to those who attend the study. Stancil teaches a lesson from Scripture for about 30 minutes and then talks with the employees.
Stancil said he tries to arrive early to catch up with as many people as he can. He tries to learn how they are doing, asks about their families, and inquires how he can be praying for them. Through these efforts, Stancil can “pastor them right where they are,” he said.
Stancil’s insights highlight a unique strength of chaplaincy. Everyone who attends church on Sunday will spend at least 40 hours each week at work. Chaplaincy gives ministers access to workers regardless of whether those workers would ever show up at church.
“Chaplaincy is this unique role to minister in all those other places, and so we have a ton of access to people,” Fowler said.
He recounted a story of a man in his 60s who attended a Bible study on Jesus’ parables. When Fowler announced that he would be teaching on the parable of the prodigal son, the man approached Fowler to tell him how eager he was to hear about the prodigal son.
“You said that’s one of the most famous parables in the Bible, and I’ve never heard that story in my whole life,” the man said.
Fowler was stunned to find a man in his 60s living in Virginia Beach who was so unfamiliar with Jesus’ life and teaching. AGI’s chaplains have since decided to spend two years going through the whole Bible in their studies.
“They don’t know the story of the Bible, and we have an opportunity to teach them,” Fowler said.
While some of those that AGI’s chaplains interact with have a church background, few attend church. Rohde estimated that only 15% of all AGI’s employees are regular churchgoers. Fowler estimated that 80% of those involved in Bible studies do not regularly attend church. Both Fowler and Stancil told of employees who have come to their churches after attending Bible studies at work.
Fowler believes God was working at AGI. He’s involved with a local church plant and remains committed to the church as the center for ministry. Still, he can’t deny the unique opportunity the Lord has provided him.
“I realized [10 years ago] that God had put me in a place where I was surrounded by both believers and unbelievers… these people were right in front of me. These are the people who are filling my company and companies all across the country,” he said.
Rohde likewise maintained that God has called him to serve his employees as his neighbors: “We’re all, as believers, scattered somewhere in this world at some point in time. And God’s put us at that place in time to honor and glorify him wherever we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves…I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to run this company and have the ownership controls such that we can take a look at our employee base and our families as neighbors.”
Ministering to employees through corporate chaplaincy can be challenging. Fowler considers loneliness to be one of his biggest challenges, though he is grateful to now work with a team of other ministers. “It’s lonely in the sense that you’re not the only Christian person within the workplace, but you’re a Christian minister in an environment that is not geared around ministry,” Fowler explained.
He said the PCA seems to have trouble categorizing his work, and laypeople often misunderstand it. Though PCA members generally understand the work of traditional pastors, RUF ministers, and youth ministers, they often do not understand or value the work of corporate chaplains. Stancil likewise reflected that corporate chaplaincy is “something that a lot of people don’t know a lot about.”
Rohde has begun working with a faith and work program at Reformed Theological Seminary – where several of AGI’s chaplains completed their seminary studies – to help pastors better understand how to interact with people in the workplace. Additionally, Fowler is working on a doctorate in practical theology having to do with faith and neurodivergence, which has and will allow him to contribute to institutions and initiatives that have to do with faith and work.
“My hope is that other Christian businessmen and especially Christian employers will see the need for this and desire to do something about it,” Stancil said. “To maybe be creative with some of the resources God has given them and steward their resources to impact more people for the kingdom.”