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After five years, his general education non-Bible majors are showing stronger learning outcomes, he said.

Next the CBM, “intentionally built in touchpoints to facilitate integration of selves,” primarily through piloting a portfolio system that required students to submit assignments that would carry over into their next class, said Bonner.

The concept, now being implemented through the CVD, is that in each of the three Bible classes and the freshman Lipscomb Experience course, students are assigned to write a personal reflection, with each assignment building on the last as they progress through the coursework.

In the Story of Israel, students are asked to select a character in the Old Testament, consider his or her purpose, their vocation as God intended and their response to God’s purposes for his or her life. Then students are asked to draw appropriate conclusions on how this character’s biblical journey pertains to their own identity, vocation and purpose, thus answering the question, “How do I see myself in the world?”

In the Story of Jesus course, students are asked to select three passages from Luke that

“challenge or motivate you to live in a way that you flourish.” While explaining the basic teachings of the three passages, the students must also explain in their papers, “what would it mean to pattern your life after Jesus who died on a cross to show us how to find true meaning in life?”

Through the CVD, Lavender hopes the future will bring more spiritual touchpoints and continuity of learning to the entire student body throughout the university, not just in curriculum but through student services, chapel, academics and global travel. “They have to hear the same things they hear in Bible class in chapel as well, and in their management class as well. If you provide just a curriculum, but don’t pull it into a unified experience, they forget. You have to give them an idea they can hold onto,” he said.

Meanwhile another scholar heads toward Lipscomb on his own path…

While Lavender was watching students’ changing views on faith over 30 years, another now-Lipscomb scholar was busy pioneering academic thought and programs to promote the idea of “vocation,” more often understood in the Christian world as the response to a “calling.”

In 1999, the Lilly Endowment, a private philanthropic foundation supporting the causes of religion, education and community development, announced a national initiative in theological exploration of vocation, God’s calling to meaningful work. They invited 138 church-related colleges to propose projects to help students think more about vocation and less about career.

Dr. Richard Hughes, then at Pepperdine University, answered the call with a proposal noting that “we can’t encourage students to think about vocation if we don’t help our faculty think about it first.”

Over the past 30 years, Hughes has secured more than $3.5 million in grant money to carry out vocation-based initiatives including weeklong faculty retreats, seminars for new faculty and other theological exploration of vocation.

Since coming to Lipscomb as a scholar-in-residence in 2015, Hughes has instilled the idea of Christian vocation— that life in any career is a sacred journey— into the faculty through seminars and new faculty orientations. As the paths began to converge, the CVD faculty say they drew more from Hughes’ deep knowledge of vocation and how it plays out on Christian colleges nationwide than any other resource.

Today, the CVD defines vocation as a student’s chosen engagement in the world as an expression of their identity and purpose. It is the context through which students pursue their calling.

Paths converge in the Center for Vocational Discovery

The CVD was established in 2022 as an outcome of the Impact 360 strategic planning process, and Lavender along with Dr. Hope Nordstrom, special counsel to the president for strategy, were installed by McQueen as co-leaders for strategy and development of the center.

The first cohort to embark on the program’s four-year journey was the 2022 freshman class. They began with the theme of identity and will progress annually to focus on purpose, vocation and location.

When it came time to find a director to run day-to-day operations of the center and interact with students on a daily basis, the team turned to a faculty member who had already been focused on integrating faith and work since coming to Lipscomb in 2015.

Rob Touchstone (BA ’97, MDiv ’12) has two degrees in Bible, but made his name in Nashville as an entrepreneur in 2012, when he created the vision for and co-founded The Well Coffeehouse as a social enterprise. Now with multiple locations around the city, his coffee shops turn profits into clean water for those in need.

As the the creator and director of the Lipscomb College of Business’ Center for Business As Mission (BAM), Touchstone created curriculum for Integrating Work and Faith courses in both business and health care majors, created a BAM fellowship program and taught all his students to think missionally about business, economics and entrepreneurship. “I believe every student, on some level, has a longing to know themselves deeply and to live into a bigger story with an authentic sense of purpose. Many students desire to explore the intersection of their faith and their work and how their careers can matter beyond earning a paycheck,” said Touchstone.

Brent Roe-Hall, assistant dean of vocation and spiritual formation, serves as assistant director, bringing the CVD a crucial link to carry out its work in daily student life, including weekly chapel services.

Drawing from a cohort model that Bonner developed for Bible majors, one of the first things the CVD implemented in the 2022-23 school year was a freshman-only chapel, allowing freshmen to build stronger relationships within their own class and allowing the chapel coordinators to focus on the same message provided to students through the CVD’s workshops on spiritual gifts and career exploration: the 34 qualities outlined in a strengths assessment.

In the spring semester, the CVD began holding workshops on resilience, gifts, strengths and genograms and held a listening retreat to help students discern the voice of God in their lives.

“We are at a critical moment where students are searching for meaning beyond rigid religious systems,” said Lavender. “So we need to make sure the Biblical story becomes a livable narrative for life, to all, for the glory of God.

“The Bible shouldn’t just be a separate curriculum to the side of the main course. It should be integrated into the entire way of life at Lipscomb,” Lavender said. “The continual message should be that we are all producing value in our lives, no matter what we choose to do in the world.”

This approach ties directly into how intentional McQueen desires this work to be at Lipscomb. “Our founders always desired Lipscomb to be a place where we learn to live as a Christian in all walks of life—including work,” she said, at the dedication ceremony. “The CVD is ensuring we make this much more intentional from the moment each new student walks on campus.”

Learn more about the center at lipscomb.edu/CVD

28 DEPARTMENTS 58 PRESENTATIONS

95 POSTERS 18 POETRY READINGS AND PERFORMANCES

AT THE 2023 STUDENT SCHOLARS SYMPOSIUM

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