Helping Students Discover Their Vocational Calling
- Categories Motivational
- Date 04/10/2024
Helping Students Discover Their Vocational Calling
ACSI Global
“What do you want to do when you grow up?”
Folks of my generation remember this question being asked of us. I was raised by parents who valued hard and noble work. My mother and father were wonderful people, but they never talked to me and my brother about honouring the Lord Jesus Christ with our work.
One day, when I was a junior in high school, my mother, a kindergarten teacher, said to me, “Bob, you should really think about becoming an attorney. An English degree would be good undergraduate preparation for law school.” She knew I had been a high school debater. She knew I loved words. Her logic made sense. I responded immediately: “Mom, I could do that, but I’d be miserable as a lawyer. I want to have the same influence on young people that my teachers, coaches, you, and Dad [an elementary principal] have had on so many students throughout the years.” Apparently, she wanted to make sure that I was not choosing my profession because so many other family members had been teachers. My great-great grandmother, great grandparents, grandmothers, and parents had been teachers.
Of course, I was influenced professionally by seeing such great examples of educators. A case can certainly be made that being a teacher was coded on my genes and chromosomes. The nature-nurture combination truly did influence my decision-making.
However, the more I have thought about my own life and the lives of the many students whom I shepherded for 43 years as an English teacher, coach, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent, the more I think that we educators have not concentrated intentionally or intensely enough in helping students to determine their vocational calling unto the LORD.
I believe this extremely important life decision should be discussed as early as pre-school and revisited annually in developmentally appropriate ways throughout a student’s EE-12 experience. No student should have to make a premature commitment about vocation, but students should at least be thinking of how they will serve God for 40, 50, 60, or more hours a week.
I like to say that our vocational choice is in the “crosshairs” of passion and ability. Every year, we educators should ourselves be paying attention to our students’ passions and abilities, speaking belief into these young people. We must intentionally ask students to explore their own beliefs about themselves.
In particular, we should start focusing students in the 7th and 8th grades, so they can be more clear about their futures, since their preparation in high school will, in large measure, determine the course of their post-secondary education when matriculating to a gap year program, the military, a community college, an apprenticeship, a university, or perhaps immediately into the workforce.
Our vocational work is an act of worship unto the LORD. The Hebrew word, avodah, is the same root for the word “work” and “worship.” We worship God through our work. As always, Jesus is our example – THE example. Just prior to his death on the cross, in the High Priestly Prayer, He proclaimed to His Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4, NIV). Just before He died on the cross, He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30, ESV). His statement is translated as His act on the cross as “completely complete.”
You might say that I cannot really draw an equivalence between Christ’s work on the cross and a student’s service in the workplace, but I would respectfully disagree. While it’s true that Jesus accomplished a “work” which is greater than any other work we can imagine, He still expects us to be in the same vertical heart relationship with God when we are working. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, not for men. . . .” (ESV).
The question is not “What do you want to do or be when you grow up?” The question is “What passions and abilities point you toward service to honouring the Lord Jesus Christ in the workplace when you graduate from our school?” In partnership, students, parents, and educators should be seriously discussing that question every year of a student’s school experience..
Personally, I look back on my career as an educator with zero regrets. Yes, there is no perfect job, but I am grateful for the numerous opportunities to interact so positively with people throughout my career as an educator. And, after retirement from full-time ministry, I continue to work part-time at Christian universities to positively influence the next generation of teachers and administrators.
Dr Bob Stouffer worked in public schools for the first 20 years of his career, and he now continues to advocate zealously for Christ-centred education and high-quality education for all students in his 25th year as a Christian school educator, currently residing in Greenville, South Carolina. He currently works for the School of Continuing, Online, and Professional Education (SCOPE, bju.scope.edu).
Folks of my generation remember this question being asked of us. I was raised by parents who valued hard and noble work. My mother and father were wonderful people, but they never talked to me and my brother about honouring the Lord Jesus Christ with our work.
One day, when I was a junior in high school, my mother, a kindergarten teacher, said to me, “Bob, you should really think about becoming an attorney. An English degree would be good undergraduate preparation for law school.” She knew I had been a high school debater. She knew I loved words. Her logic made sense. I responded immediately: “Mom, I could do that, but I’d be miserable as a lawyer. I want to have the same influence on young people that my teachers, coaches, you, and Dad [an elementary principal] have had on so many students throughout the years.” Apparently, she wanted to make sure that I was not choosing my profession because so many other family members had been teachers. My great-great grandmother, great grandparents, grandmothers, and parents had been teachers.
Of course, I was influenced professionally by seeing such great examples of educators. A case can certainly be made that being a teacher was coded on my genes and chromosomes. The nature-nurture combination truly did influence my decision-making.
However, the more I have thought about my own life and the lives of the many students whom I shepherded for 43 years as an English teacher, coach, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent, the more I think that we educators have not concentrated intentionally or intensely enough in helping students to determine their vocational calling unto the LORD.
I believe this extremely important life decision should be discussed as early as pre-school and revisited annually in developmentally appropriate ways throughout a student’s EE-12 experience. No student should have to make a premature commitment about vocation, but students should at least be thinking of how they will serve God for 40, 50, 60, or more hours a week.
I like to say that our vocational choice is in the “crosshairs” of passion and ability. Every year, we educators should ourselves be paying attention to our students’ passions and abilities, speaking belief into these young people. We must intentionally ask students to explore their own beliefs about themselves.
In particular, we should start focusing students in the 7th and 8th grades, so they can be more clear about their futures, since their preparation in high school will, in large measure, determine the course of their post-secondary education when matriculating to a gap year program, the military, a community college, an apprenticeship, a university, or perhaps immediately into the workforce.
Our vocational work is an act of worship unto the LORD. The Hebrew word, avodah, is the same root for the word “work” and “worship.” We worship God through our work. As always, Jesus is our example – THE example. Just prior to his death on the cross, in the High Priestly Prayer, He proclaimed to His Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4, NIV). Just before He died on the cross, He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30, ESV). His statement is translated as His act on the cross as “completely complete.”
You might say that I cannot really draw an equivalence between Christ’s work on the cross and a student’s service in the workplace, but I would respectfully disagree. While it’s true that Jesus accomplished a “work” which is greater than any other work we can imagine, He still expects us to be in the same vertical heart relationship with God when we are working. Paul wrote in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord, not for men. . . .” (ESV).
The question is not “What do you want to do or be when you grow up?” The question is “What passions and abilities point you toward service to honouring the Lord Jesus Christ in the workplace when you graduate from our school?” In partnership, students, parents, and educators should be seriously discussing that question every year of a student’s school experience..
Personally, I look back on my career as an educator with zero regrets. Yes, there is no perfect job, but I am grateful for the numerous opportunities to interact so positively with people throughout my career as an educator. And, after retirement from full-time ministry, I continue to work part-time at Christian universities to positively influence the next generation of teachers and administrators.
Dr Bob Stouffer worked in public schools for the first 20 years of his career, and he now continues to advocate zealously for Christ-centred education and high-quality education for all students in his 25th year as a Christian school educator, currently residing in Greenville, South Carolina. He currently works for the School of Continuing, Online, and Professional Education (SCOPE, bju.scope.edu).