Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “...thy will be done, on earth as in
heaven...”
He also instructed them to be “salt, light, and leaven” in their public
spheres of influence.
What does that mean for the engineering profession and its Christian
members?
The Affiliation of Christian Engineers (ACE) is intended to serve as an
organizational vehicle to facilitate Christian engineers and others in body of
Christ intentionally and collectively seeking God’s will for the engineering
profession and its Christian members, documenting the results, and then
collectively and intentionally influencing the engineering profession
accordingly.
Whether/to what degree Christian engineers should intentionally and
collectively influence their profession are unexamined theological questions
(see the associated Christian Engineer blog for more information about
this).
Status quo is that Christian engineers do not collectively and intentionally
influence their profession. So, by joining ACE, you are making a
theological statement - that you are open to the possibility that Christian
engineers should collectively and intentionally influence their profession as
part of their Christian’s duty to ascertain and advance God’s will in their
lives.
Here are some other contentions about engineers and engineering:
- Engineering is arguably mankind's largest and most global secular
profession - there are about 20 million degreed engineers, around the world
today.
- Engineering, as a profession, arguably has the most "moral" code of ethics
of mankind's professions, with its "paramount" emphasis on public health,
safety, and welfare.
- Engineers are essential to the design, construction, and operation of
mankind's "built" environment, which is, now and for the foreseeable future,
crucial to mankind's collective well-being.
- Christian engineers, as a necessary outworking of their faith, should
model and advocate, individually and collectively, the trustworthy - ethical,
competent, and accountable - practice of engineering.
- A most intentional decision by most engineers was the decision to join
profession and practice engineering for a livelihood - a decision that took
years of work and study to implement.
- Most Christian engineers have great influence and the great opportunity to
exhibit love of God - through stewardship of His Creation and love of neighbor
- in and through their practice of engineering and in their individual and
collective actions to uplift and advance the engineering profession,
particularly through active membership in one or more existing engineering
professional societies.
ACE is intended to be a low-cost, high-value added, interdenominational,
international, virtual, auxiliary engineering professional society for Christian
engineers. It is an internet-based social/spiritual/professional network -
a voluntary, self-selecting membership organization whose members seek to know
and be known by the information they freely provide about themselves.
ACE hopes to establish a "virtuous circle" with numerous Christian
denominations and their leaders by becoming a source of funding and volunteers
for the engineering-related ministries, projects, scholarship, programs, etc.
Who should give ACE membership a free trial?
- A degreed engineer (or engineering student) who believes his/her faith is
relevant to his standing as a member of the engineering profession and one who
wants to intentionally and collectively uphold and advance their profession as
an outworking of that faith.
- An engineer who wants to know and be known to other Christian engineers,
based on a variety of searchable parameters including (as desired): 1) college
attended, 2) denomination, 3) church membership, 4) location, 5) professional
society membership, 6) employer, 7) charities supported, 8) hobbies and other
interests, 9) travel to upcoming engineering conferences, 10) travel to
out-of-town work assignments, etc
- An engineer who is currently an active member of one or more engineering
professional societies, in part, because she/he believes it an appropriate
outworking of their faith and wants to "add-value" to the dues and time he is
giving to that society(s) by finding and interacting with others who think
similarly.
In keeping with our technical professional focus, ACE is committed to using
the best of today's technology to bring value to its members. Stated
simply, we believe that ACE should add value - to its members, to the
engineering profession, to society at large, and to the Body of Christ -
ultimately for the greater glory of God.
For the record, ACE is incorporated as a non-profit, membership, organization
in the state of Tennessee.
There is no technical, political, or financial reason preventing ACE from
having 500,000+ members, from around the world, by 2010. Together, we can
uplift our profession, for the good of all, as a witness and in obedience to our
call to be responsible stewards of God's creation and to love our neighbor as
part of loving God.
We invite you to join us, for a free trial, and share your gifts and ideas
with us.
If you are interested in any aspect of ACE, including wanting a free trial
membership when the necessary software is obtained, contact ACE at info@christianengineer.org.
Visit the new ACE blog
Joseph P. Carson, P.E.
President and Co-founder
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