1. Personal Stories of Calling Among University Professors Don Thompson & Cindy Miller-Perrin Pepperdine University “Cultivating a Culture of Calling: Mennonite Perspectives on Vocation” Goshen College October 21, 2005

2. Purpose of the Present Study
To examine university faculty members’ concepts of vocation, personal experiences of discerning vocation, and personal bridges and barriers experienced while pursuing one’s vocation, along with potential gender differences in these areas

3. Research Methodology Quantitative Approach Qualitative Approach
Vocation Survey Responses
Qualitative Approach
Vocational Autobiographies

4. Vocation Survey The assessment included a 75-item survey
Definitions of vocation
Personal experiences of vocation
Barriers to vocational discernment and action
Sacrifices associated with living out one’s vocation

5. Survey Sample
Recruited faculty from two private, Christian liberal arts institutions
Sample size = 108
Response rates of 52% and 100%

6. Demographic Characteristics of Survey Sample
Gender
32% female
68% male
Mean age = 48 years
Majority are Caucasian (82%)
Religious Denomination
51% Church of Christ
19% Presbyterian
8% Roman Catholic
3% Non-Denominational

7. Vocational Autobiography Approach
Faculty were recruited from:
Faith and Learning Seminars
Faith and Vocation Workshop
76 faculty completed autobiographies
Response rates ranged from 65%-67%
Demographics are similar to survey respondents
Provided autobiography prompts

8. Vocational Autobiography Prompts Most Theology is essentially autobiography - Frederick Buechner
Reflect on your past and how you have become who you are
Describe major “turning points” along your vocational journey.
Discuss moments of crisis or confusion as well as moments of joy and clarity along your past vocational journey (e.g., experiences that have affirmed or shaken your sense of calling).
Write about friends or mentors who have contributed to your vocational development.
Include distractions, tensions, or barriers that have hindered the pursuit of your vocational calling.
Focus on your present calling and your role as a mentor to students
Describe evidence you have that you are living your call now
Explain how you practice ongoing discernment to your call
Identify what you do to mentor &/or facilitate a sense of vocation within your students

9. Survey and Autobiography Results
Definition and Scope
Discernment
Turning Points
Mentoring
Barriers and Obstacles
Gender Specific Findings

10. Definition and Scope of Vocation Highlights from the Literature
Secular View
Work, Career, Occupation
Christian View
“a holy calling” 2 Timothy 1:9
Any human activity that gives meaning, purpose, and direction to life: lifework
Public and Private Dimensions
Work, ministry, community, relationships

11. Definition and Scope Survey Responses – Agree A Lot or Very Much
Vocation Refers To
Life purpose – 94%
God’s will for one’s life – 87%
Job/Career/Profession – 81%
Personal interests or skills – 66%
Formal ministry – 48%
Gender – 8%

12. Definition and Scope Survey Responses – Agree A Lot or Very Much
Lifework Aspects of Vocation
Service toward others – 77%
Parenthood – 70%
Marriage – 66%
Church – 65%
Community – 57%
Friendship – 44%
No Personal Aspects – 4%

13. Definition and Scope
Vocation always involves service/benefit to others
Not at all 9%
A little or somewhat 26%
A lot or very much 63%
My vocation includes serving those in need
Not at all 1%
A little or somewhat 17%
A lot or very much 82%

14. Definition and Scope Essay Summary
Our commission from God to identity, lifestyle, ministry, and service
Every decision, every relationship, every work
Discipleship, becoming like Jesus, loving God
Living from the outside in, rather than inside out
Seeking God’s will
The journey itself
Using God’s gifts

15. Definition and Scope Essay Responses
Both my spiritual heritage and my professional identity as a scholar lead me to cast my personal sense of vocation in terms of a biblical text. Specifically, I find myself called by Deuteronomy 6:4-5, known as the shema: “Listen, Israel: There is no god except the Lord your God. Love the Lord your God with your entire heart, your entire self, and your entire ‘muchness’ (my translation). Thus the most concise expression of my calling is that I am called to love God with everything I am and have. Loving God is my vocation.

16. Discernment Survey Responses – Agree A lot or Very Much
Personal sense of vocation develops from:
God’s will – 87%
Personal Interests/Skills – 81%
Significant Life Experiences – 80%
Influence of others – 73%

17. Discernment Survey Responses
I have a strong sense of my own personal vocation
Somewhat 8%
A lot 37%
Very much 55%

18. Discernment – Process Essay Summary
Intersection of talents, skills, desires and deep need for mankind
Gut feelings - innermost convictions
God’s loud voice speaking through tragedies, disappointments, losses
Ask and be asked questions
Through experience, trial and error, surprises

19. Discernment Process Essay Responses
Knowing the will of God as a life calling occurs through experience itself. We discover what our calling is in the same way an artist paints on a canvas. We learn by trying, by experimenting, by doing. Our calling is inseparable from the journey. It IS the journey.
Listening to God’s voice inside of me.
Discernment is where prayer meets action.

20. Discernment – Evidence Essay Summary
When nothing else matters
Spiritual growth occurs
Deep sense of joy, satisfaction, contentment, peace, excitement, renewed energy
Positive feedback from others
Answered prayer

21. Discernment Evidence Essay Responses
Am I living my call now? I am uncertain. Is it possible that I am living it in one area of my life and not another? Now that God is opening doors and I am reconnecting with my passions. I have a sense of peace about what I am doing and the results are positive. Individuals, families, and students are being helped. Those that I trust have encouraged me in my present pursuits, while providing words of caution about overextending myself. My reward is a deep sense of satisfaction, excitement, and renewed energy.
It is related to whether I would perform certain aspects of my work without pay.

22. Turning Points Essay Summary
Death of family member or close friend
Life’s mistakes & wrong turns
Education
Accepting Jesus
Conflict, tension, growing pains
Helping someone in need
Parenting

23. Turning Points Essay Responses
All of my science courses seemed like work; all the literature courses seemed like play. On Thanksgiving holiday, I had to work through some heavy-duty equilibrium problems for my quantitative analysis chemistry course, and I was to read Thornton Wilder’s Our Town for my American literature course. The power of the play overwhelmed me. I didn’t know it then, but I was feeling the difference between what Thomas De Quincey called the literature of knowledge and the literature of power. And I began to think, “Something is wrong here. Why am I competent in but so unmoved by my major, and why do plays and stories and novels and poems move me so?”

24. Turning Points Essay Responses
I was watching the news when a disturbing story came on. In England, two young boys had kidnapped a toddler and killed him. I couldn’t get over that event. After hearing that story, I began to wonder what would cause someone, particularly children to do such a horrific thing. At that point I changed my major to psychology, transferred to a different school, with a better psychology program, and focused on understanding child development.

25. Mentoring Parks, S. D. (2000). Big questions, worthy dreams
Mentoring Parks, S.D. (2000). Big questions, worthy dreams. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Recognition of their Protégés
Support
Challenge
Inspiration
Dialogue
Mutual Attraction Toward Similar Aims

26. Mentoring – Mentor Essay Summary
Encourage, serve, support, lead, nudge, excite, energize, hear, listen, share inner lives
Learn about self, giftedness, passions, life purpose
Help students navigate faith integration
Build and foster courage

27. Mentoring – Mentor Essay Responses
I need to listen to my students. I need to hear what they are hearing. I need to be able to take their perspective as I decide what and when to share my own vocational journey. Perhaps it is enough that they fully grasp that vocation is a journey; they don’t have to understand it or be able to articulate their own vocation. They just need to accept that if they listen they will eventually find as Buechner says “where their deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger.”

28. Mentoring – Protégé Essay Summary
From Teachers, Professors & Colleagues
Through scripture & inspirational writing
Via spouse, parents, family members, church family & friends

29. Mentoring – Protégé Essay Responses
Throughout my life, my grandmother wrote several letters to me. In almost every one she included the following verse, from II Timothy 2:20: ‘In a large house there are not only articles of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.’ This advice gave me a sense that I was called by God to do important things.

30. Mentoring – Protégé Essay Responses
One of my professors encouraged me to pursue graduate school. He even went so far as to sign out a school car, make appointments for me with faculty, and drive me to the university to consider its program in human development. He encouraged me to consider teaching at the college/university level and helped me find my first academic post.

31. Barriers/Obstacles
Various obstacles or barriers may interfere with our ability to discern or act upon our vocational callings
Barriers serve as challenges that either
create struggles that we must overcome
create an impasse that redirects our journey

32. Barriers/Obstacles to Vocational Action
Demographic Barriers/Obstacles
Most faculty responded “not at all”
Age 50%
Gender 64%
Ethnicity 73%
Education 56%
Income 57%

33. Gender as a Vocational Barrier/Obstacle

34. Barriers/Obstacles to Vocational Action
Personal Attitudes or Emotions as Barriers/Obstacles
Variable responses from faculty
Fear
Selfishness
Self-doubt
Need for personal control
Desire for certainty
Need to feel secure/safe
Uncertainty about one’s vocation
Lack of faith

35. Fear as a Vocational Barrier/Obstacle

36. Self-doubt as a Vocational Barrier/Obstacle

37. Barriers/Obstacles to Vocational Action
Interpersonal Relationships as Barriers/Obstacles
Most faculty responded “not at all”
Parent or other family member 51%
Friend %
Boyfriend or girlfriend 77%
Teacher or professor 65%
Spouse 69%
Mentor 79%
Colleague 60%
Supervisor/Boss 54%

38. Parent or Other Family Member as a Vocational Barrier/Obstacle

39. Barriers/Obstacles to Vocational Action
Personal and Social Circumstances as Barriers/Obstacles
Variable responses from faculty
Lack of financial resources
Concerns about supporting standard of living
Unwillingness to sacrifice financially
Feeling pressure or a desire to get married
Gender discrimination
Job-related responsibilities
Raising children
Family responsibilities
Traditions of my church
Physical limitations

40. Lack of Financial Resources as a Vocational Barrier/Obstacle

41. Job-Related Responsibilities as a Vocational Barrier/Obstacle

42. Barriers/Obstacles Essay Summary
Pride, Self-Centeredness, Prejudice
Lack of faith, lack of self-confidence
Struggle with traditional gender roles
Balance between home and profession
Health setbacks
Family conflict, divorce, remarriage
Church culture

43. Barriers and Obstacles to Vocational Action Essay Responses
My first semester was painful. Straight out of graduate school, I embraced my students excited and ready to embark on an intellectual journey. I found, however, that my students responded to my enthusiasm with indifference, sleepiness, and even hostility. I was also disheartened to see racial tensions and divisions in and outside of my class with minority students coming to me to say that they felt depressed and alienated on campus. I felt that I had to be an entertainer instead of a teacher and a radical social activist instead of a private and objective researcher.

44. Gender Specific Findings
The topic of gender differences in vocational calling has not been examined empirically
Research in the areas of faith and identity development suggests the potential impact of gender on vocational development

45. Gender Analysis
Gender differences were examined for the barriers and obstacles that faculty members experienced related to their vocational calling
Gender differences were evident in two areas:
Interpersonal barriers/obstacles
Environmental barriers/obstacles

46. Interpersonal Barriers/Obstacles

47. Specific Interpersonal Barriers/Obstacles
Women reported that the views and opinions of others served as barriers/obstacles with regard to their ability to pursue their vocations
Parent or other family member
Teacher or professor

48. Environmental Barriers/Obstacles

49. Specific Environmental Barriers/Obstacles
Women reported that environmental or social circumstances interfered with their ability to pursue their vocations:
Gender discrimination
Pressure/desire to get married
Raising children
Traditions of church home

50. Gender Barriers/Obstacles Essay Responses
While it may be best that I didn’t end up a youth minister, realizing that I was limited because of my sex was deeply disconcerting and left me a bit confused as to where God was leading me. In fact, I recall thinking that God only called men to positions of ministry and so I resigned myself to that reality.

51. Gender Barriers/Obstacles Essay Responses
The culture of my church indicates that women should stay home with their children and tend to the family. In spite of this there are many women who work outside of the home at my church, but I would not be surprised that many, if not all of us feel guilty. I have attempted on three separate occasions to leave my professional positions to be a “stay at home mom,” but in every instance I was home for a little more than a year and I would return to work part-time and then eventually full time. This struggle has greatly clouded my search for vocation.

52. Conclusions
Contrary to past research, our faculty sample defines vocation more broadly than career
Mentors play an important role in the process of vocational discernment
Turning points play a key role in shaping one’s vocational journey
A significant number of faculty reported experiencing barriers to living out their calling
Barriers manifest differently for men versus women