Denver Institute for Faith & Work began with a disconnect.

Its founder, Jeff Haanen, saw that many Christians cared deeply about their faith and spent much of their lives working, yet struggled to understand how the two belonged together. The world of Scripture and the world of Monday morning often felt strangely separate. Denver Institute was created in 2013 to help close that gap.

The organization starts with a larger vision than helping people find personal fulfillment in their jobs. It believes work is one of the primary ways people participate in God’s work of renewal: serving neighbors, creating useful things, strengthening institutions, and contributing to the flourishing of a city.

In Denver Institute’s words, its hope is that every person’s work would bring “hope and life” to their city. Its mission is to prepare people to serve God and others through their daily work so that workplaces, professions, industries, and communities are transformed.

That requires more than telling people to work hard, behave ethically, or occasionally talk about their faith. Denver Institute wants to expand the Christian imagination for work itself.

Through gatherings, educational resources, professional communities, and programs such as the 5280 Fellowship, it helps people explore how theology, spiritual formation, leadership, and professional practice belong together. The goal is not simply to help someone become a better Christian at work. It is to help them recognize that the work itself can become an expression of love, stewardship, creativity, justice, and service.

That vision also moves beyond the individual worker.

Denver Institute convenes people across sectors and professions, creating relationships that can lead to business partnerships, new ventures, and collaboration around the needs of the city. Its CityLabs initiative, for example, brings private- and social-sector leaders together around shared civic challenges. Through the CityGate Network, it is also helping connect faith-and-work organizations across the country around vocational discipleship and city flourishing.

At the center of all this is a conviction about the future.

As work is reshaped by technology, cultural fragmentation, and unprecedented change, workers will need more than new technical skills. They will need a deeper understanding of what it means to be human, the resilience to remain grounded through uncertainty, and a hope strong enough to guide how they lead, build, and serve.

Denver Institute is helping recover that vision: work not merely as a means of earning a living, but as one of the places where people help create a world in which others can flourish.