Megan Reed, Campus Carrier News Editor
The Life and Calling program is helping students and faculty discover their callings and explore how their Christian faith influences their lives, particularly their vocations.
The program is organized by the Chaplain’s Office and Thomas Kennedy, Dean of the Evans School. It began last semester after Kennedy applied for a grant from the Council of Independent Colleges Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE). Berry received the grant, and Kennedy and Jonathan Huggins, college chaplain, formed the Life and Calling program.
Students are involved with a weekly book club, which meets every Thursday at 11 a.m. in the Chaplain’s Office. The book club will meet until Nov. 14.
The selection for this semester is “The Shape of Living” by David F. Ford, a professor at the University of Cambridge who has written over twenty books about life as a Christian.
“The Shape of Living” is about prioritizing faith and finding meaning in a hectic life riddled with worries about work, finances and other distractions.
Huggins, who facilitates the book club, said this book was chosen because college students should find its message relatable.
“[The book] addresses how life’s multiple overwhelmings can contribute to a sense of the shape one’s life should take,” Huggins said. “Being overwhelmed is a common feeling in college, so we at least can launch from a starting point that makes sense.”
Huggins said he hopes that the program will give students a “deeper sense of what life is all about” and encourage them to “not simply be thinking about getting a job that gets the most money or just pleasing themselves.”
Sophomore Katie Johnson participated in the program last semester. She said that she believes the program was “really impactful.”
Johnson said she was unsure about her major when she joined the program. The program gave her the “resources” to choose her career path, and she then decided to change her major from communication to psychology.
Johnson said she joined the program because she thought it would be “a good way to combine what my career goals are and then also what the Lord calls me to do.”
Kennedy leads the faculty portion of the program. Last spring, he led a faculty seminar which met every morning for a week to discuss the nature of vocation and encourage faculty to think about their own callings in life. He will also be leading a faculty seminar this semester to continue the discussion.
Kennedy said he hopes students will benefit from the program by learning to reflect on their own lives and discover the difference between a job and their true calling.
