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Institute Programs
Connecting Calling, Colleges and Congregations
With funding from the Lilly Endowment, this effort grows out of their several-year long grant, Programs in the Theological Exploration of Vocation, which offered support to scores of universities and colleges across the United States. Our relationship with the Endowment grew out of common concerns for the renewal of the church and the world through a revitalized understanding of vocation, and seeing the undergraduate and post-undergraduate years as critical to this vision. Our program focuses upon recent graduates of universities and colleges throughout the U.S. and the world who desire to understand more fully the meaning of vocation. 12 years ago The Falls Church, a 300 year-old Anglican congregation in Virginia, opened itself to a group of young men and women, offering them hospitality and an opportunity to explore their passions and gifts in the context of the dynamic relation between the church and the world. The idea has grown, and there are now congregations across the country that are developing similar programs, and have come together as The Fellows Initiative. While they will be differently embodied, with cities and congregations bringing unique mixes in the formation of their respective curricula, each will be marked by a commitment to historic Christian orthodoxy, a workplace experience, and graduate-level study—all toward the end of growing a generation of servant leaders for both the ministry and the marketplace. Over the next few years we will give substantive attention to this program of “connecting calling, colleges, and congregations.” For more information, please contact The Washington Institute.
Renewal of Culture
Why is it that Bono has to come to Washington to plead for Africa? What has happened, historically and culturally, that the most visible pop icon in the world is taken seriously at the White House and the World Bank? At the dawn of the 21st-century popular culture—film, music, theater –have a profound effect on what we see and hear, especially so for the generation of people under 30. For many years we have been actively engaged in an effort to constructively engage people whose vocations are in the arts and entertainment arenas, believing that they are “upstream” culturally from the city of Washington, DC, but also from the society at large. To care about the way the world is and isn’t, about the way things ought to be, means that Washington as a city must see itself as a place with true responsibility for history, but also that cities like New York, Nashville, and Los Angeles are incredibly important.
The storytellers and stories that come from those places shape our society—but they also echo around the world, which means that there is a global stewardship with far-reaching consequences. What might it mean for artists of all sorts to understand their gifts as vocations from God, with a deep sense of responsibility for telling stories that show forth the both the glory and the ruin of the human condition, avoiding both sentimentalism and cynicism? Cursing the darkness is never an adequate response. Our question is rather: what would it look like if the lights were turned on?
Our effort here is one of periodically convening what we have called “conversations of consequence” for people whose vocations are in the middle of this mix of popular culture and political culture, of the world of the arts and the world of business, working together to “invest in the culture.” For more information, please contact The Washington Institute.
Vocare: Conversations about Calling
We long to do work that matters. Young people hope and dream for vocations that require their best, that somehow make money and make meaning at the same time. Those who have spent years at work still hunger for career to be a calling, for their labor to be about something that matters to them, to others, to the world—and sometime, of course, even to God. We believe that work is a gift, even in a fallen world. But we also believe that most people stumble along the way in finding their work meaningful; longing for coherence, many settle for a fragmented, compartmentalized life. On Vocation is a means of addressing that disparity. Over a good meal, these conversations about calling bring people from various vocations around a common table to think through the challenge of a coherent life, viz . what is my life all about, anyway? why do I get up in the morning? what do I do? and why? why is it so difficult to connect what I believe with the work I do, personally as well as publicly? Or to hear it in Walker Percy’s inimitable image: how do I avoid being someone who gets all A’s and still flunks life? Whether one’s vocation is the law, medicine, journalism, business, education, government, the arts, or the ministry, that danger lurks around the corner of everyone’s life. Learning to listen to one’s own life in the context of serious conversation with others is a time-tested way of finding out what matters. These gatherings are an embodiment of our vision, offering face-to-face interaction with kindred spirits about the “stuff” of our lives. To hold onto one’s vocation over life, seeing it deepen over time, it is critical to find people of like heart and mind who will walk along with us, seeing themselves on a similar pilgrimage. For more information, please contact The Washington Institute.
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