God could have chosen to have His son born in a palace. He could have been born to wealth and privilege, never needing to struggle or work hard to put food on the table.

But that wasn't the plan He pursued. Rather, Jesus was born to a working family. He grew up and pursued a trade. He labored and earned His keep by the sweat of His brow. So did his disciples and apostles.

Jesus was a carpenter.

Peter was a fisherman.

Paul was a tentmaker.

Matthew was a tax collector.

Luke was a physician.

See a pattern?

Work is important, so important in fact that people are frequently known by what they do, even long after they are gone. As are even the Apostles to this day.

Many of us spend at least a third of our lives, and sometimes much more, trying to feed and clothe our families through work. Jesus did the same thing, as did the Fathers of our faith. Work is the way in which many of us interact most often with the world.

Our neighbor is in the next cube. Our greatest moral dilemmas are faced in the office, or at client sites. Our faith is more tested in the marketplace, then in almost any other place we go. We know more about our area expertise than we do about almost any other subject.

Work defines us and challenges us. It provides a creative outlet for us to express our faith, or the means by which we can betray it.

Yet, despite the fact that even our Monastics have to work to support themselves, the workplace is sorely neglected as a topic in Orthodoxy.

Just Google, if you will, the topic "Orthodox business."

The pickings are slim. Mighty slim.

You can find all kinds of articles on the Internet written about various topics from an Orthodox perspective, but for a discussion of Orthodoxy and business you will look a long, long time. They do exist, but they are hard to find.

From another perspective, where do Orthodox Christians go to get advice about insurance? Or about marketing their businesses? Or about the best shipping company to use?

These things are important, but where do we go to share that information with each other? Orthodox sites are dedicated to Theology, the teachings of the Fathers, to ethics, etc. Where is the site where you can get advice from an Orthodox homebuilder?

In fact, how do you even go about finding an Orthodox homebuilder?

Which brings us to Orthodox Biz. It is a site dedicated to exploring the intersection of Orthodoxy and modern business.

Orthodox Biz is run by Orthodox business professionals for the benefit of the Orthodox community. Together, we can learn how to more effectively run our businesses, our careers, and our lives in a Godly fashion.

Share what you know. Learn from others. Market your business. Build your own brand. And give glory to God the whole while.

Together, we can learn to appreciate the sanctity of work as God has ordained it, and the role it can play in showing our faith.

Let's get started!

Glen Chancy is CIO for corfun.com and publisher of Orthodox Biz. You can contact him here .

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