About Us
This website, SpiritualAdvising.org, provides free tools and a theological framework for being a spiritual advisor. We may be able to identify a spiritual advisor for you.
Origin Story
Mentoring MBAs
Dr. Mark Washington had been mentoring and advising Christian MBA students at top-tier institutions for over two decades. Two of his alumni, whom he had introduced, were excited to share with him the custom face mask company they were founding during COVID. Mark loved what they were doing and didn't hesitate to ask them hard questions in addition to providing encouragement. They soon realized they needed someone like Mark on the team, so they asked him to join their startup as their "spiritual advisor." Realizing that this was new territory for him, Mark asked a friend who was a seasoned mentor and Wall Street finance professional, Elmer Huh, to co-mentor the leadership team of five.
Encouraged to Proceed
The experience was so fruitful for the founders that they encouraged Mark to continue doing this with other companies. At the time, he was finishing his Doctor of Ministry in Faith, Work, Economics, and Vocation at Fuller Theological Seminary and was searching for a final capstone project. That project is the basis of the framework and resources found on this website. After consulting with former students and friends, interviewing multiple Christian coaches and entrepreneurs, and reviewing a wide spectrum of academic practical research on the challenges faced by entrepreneurs, Mark developed a theological framework for being a spiritual advisor and curated a set of tools around four main themes.
Framework
A New Model
The themes around which this framework was built are:
- Identity
- Motivation
- Discernment
- Resiliency
For eight months, Mark prototyped this model as a contractor with startups and four founders. The results were astounding. The founders reported life-changing transformation and rated the experience a 9.25 out of 10 Net Promoter Score. For the full dissertation, please feel free to contact us using the contact page.
Supporting Leaders
We are a collection of executive coaches, spiritual directors, and mentors committed to helping leaders flourish and helping their organizations achieve their God-given goals.
About Mark Washington
As the convener, Dr. Mark Washington has been mentoring and coaching various audiences since he graduated from college. Initially, mentoring delinquent teenagers in a wilderness therapy program and later being a supervisor in a boys' group home taught him about healthy conflict and started his own inner journey of growth. Later, he did vocational counseling with prospective seminary students and completed a master's degree thesis on how people make vocational decisions.
In the early 2000s, he joined InterVarsity Christian Fellowship to disciple and partner with MBA students at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2007, he was promoted to lead the national MBA Ministry, impacting approximately 1000 MBA's a year. With over two decades of mentoring MBA students and alumni and having been a spiritual advisor for several companies, Mark completed a doctor of ministry dissertation on being a spiritual advisor.
