One of TGR’s bloggers, Jonathan Malesic, has a provocative essay over at Inside Higher Ed, where he diagnoses the recent well-publicized problems at Duke Divinity School as stemming, in part, from what might be called an over-adequate doctrine of vocation: Judging from his emails, Griffiths seems to think of academic work as an exceptionally high calling, a vocation. He is hardly…
These questions and answers have been used in discussing vocation with college students as part of the Opus: The Art of Work program at Wheaton, and are presented here as a resource for others involved in similar work in colleges or churches. Do I Have Just One Vocation – and Is that My Career? The traditional Christian (or at least,…
Young millennials want to keep their options open. They might avoid decisions as a result or feel relief when someone else makes a decision for them—then they don’t have to carry the responsibility for the risk of discovering later that the decision was the wrong one. This relates closely to the “fear of missing out” often described when talking about…
This long-form essay is reprinted from The Rabbit Room. By Jennifer Trafton Let me say right off the bat that this post is full of spoilers. It oozes spoilers. Spoilaphobic reader, beware. I want to talk about La La Land and that perplexing, polarizing, absolutely perfect ending. To set the scene: I went into the movie cold, soon after it…
In a previous post I argued that the most important titles we hold at work are not the ones bestowed on us by the company or organization that employs us, but rather the ones given to us by God. Scripture gives God’s people several names, among them: salt, light, servant, prophet, priest, and king. Living into these identities is what can…
We recently ran into this article from the Catholic Herald in Britain, interviewing Martin Scorsese, director of the new film Silence. In it Scorsese talks about how getting ejected from seminary led him to realize that clergy are not the only ones with vocations. It raises some interesting thoughts about the Catholic theology of vocation and how Scorsese has exercised his vocation…
“You don’t just have a job, you have a vocation!” Really? It feels more like I need a vacation. “Come to the Discover Your Calling class at church!” they told me. I was hoping to get career advice. Instead, I guess my calling was to be a greeter on Sunday morning. “Some people have a calling,” my father said to…
The most important title you hold in your workplace is not the one given to you by the company or organization for which you work. The most important title—actually, titles—are those bestowed on you by God’s Word. God has given His people some special names. In the scriptures we are called: Salt Light Servants Prophets Priests Kings Living into these…
In 2012, two friends and I launched an initiative called the Vocation Infusion Learning Community (VILC). The aim was to gather congregational leaders from around the country in a series of four retreats focused on faith and work. Over the next few years we took over 40 church teams through the program. Today, a similar initiative continues through Made to…
One topic that continually comes up among faith and work leaders is this: should we create more vocation-specific materials? That is, instead of creating resources broadly about, say, work, Sabbath, calling, or caring for the poor, should we create experiences, books or small group studies specifically for those in, say, law, business, architecture or nursing? The topic came up at…
The Green Room 