Yesterday we had a day long faculty meeting discussing vocation, mission, etc. when I hear the word vocation, it does cause me to go blank. Yes, I know what the word means, but it sounds so much like “calling” which also gives me the same reaction. I know some have a deep abiding sense of what they are to be about. I, on the other hand, enjoy so many different things, that it feels like I can do any number of jobs within the psychology/pastoral care world. Our consultant upped the ante by calling us doctors of the church. He’s a Lutheran and maybe they have more mystery and pomp (and therefore titles) than do us free-floating evangelical congregationalists.
Our consultant did leave us with an interesting problem to chew on. Do we have the attitude of Jesus in Phil. 2, where we see ourselves as slaves to those we serve in teaching? If we did, how might that change our ways of teaching students who seem resistant to our ideas at first? Do we teach them the way we think they should learn? Or, do we teach them the way they do learn?
Musings on Faith and Psychology 