Called to Character post #2: The Need
Yesterday I shared the origin story and basic ideas of a new higher-education initiative, “Called to Character.” But do students really need something like this?
First, a brief story. Then some evidences that in fact we do need something like C2C:
Carried downstream
A businessman addresses the student body at a Christian college’s chapel service. “Don’t do what I did,” he says. He describes graduating from that same college to a job on Wall Street, then being carried downstream by the assumptions and practices of that career—not all of them good.
He talks about seeing public trust in his whole sector eroding and wondering what he—a cog in the machine—could do about it. He had tried to work ethically and treat his customers well, but competitive and profit imperatives had always loomed. And he had become a different person at work than at church or at home.
Sadly, this religiously affiliated college had not really prepared the businessman with the character strengths he would need as a Christ-follower caught up in the worldly, day-to-day realities of his chosen occupation.
Hearing the man’s story, the students wondered: “Am I getting that preparation here either?” For while they did hear some generalities about vocation or calling at their career center or in their classrooms, it was pretty high-level stuff. Stuff about “meaning” and “purpose.”
But surely the faith tradition represented at this college had some concrete, practical wisdom to offer them—some wisdom that could help them work faithfully, thrive fully, and contribute well in response to the day-to-day realities and demands of their post-graduation jobs? Who would show them how to “bring their whole selves to work”?
The irony is clear: College education – faith-based or not – is becoming more and more a program of technical knowledge leading to career certification. But at the same time, our schools are struggling to provide the whole-person education for life that was the focus of the old liberal arts model.
The need
1. Divided lives
American churches and Christian colleges speak of “spiritual formation” without connecting such formation to the realities of the marketplace and the public square. We end up not knowing how to bring our whole, faith-formed selves to work.
2. Irrelevant faith
Since we spend so many of our hours working, our faith thus seems to lack relevance to our lives. Generalizations (“God cares about our work”) don’t help. And many, seeing this irrelevance of faith to life, are voting with their feet, leaving church altogether.
3. Absent contributions
When we work without a well-grounded vocational vision and the practical wisdom to back it up, we fail to contribute what we should as people of faith. We deprive our clients, coworkers, organizations, and industries of the excellence that comes from faith-grounded character.
4. Incomplete formation
Like our churches, our universities provide incomplete formation. Career training increasingly dominates, eclipsing formation in practical wisdom for life and work. Religiously affiliated universities, too, struggle to transcend careerism and provide faith-informed, practical formation for vocation.
5. Plummeting trust
Given this incomplete formation, all public institutions (with the sole exception of the military) have seen levels of public trust nosedive over the past few decades. Cultural analysts identify careerism, self-platforming, and the erosion of professional codes as factors in this plummeting trust.