Anne Quattlebaum (standing), coordinator of Furman's Lilly Center for Theological Exploration of Vocation, and co-directors Dr. David Bost (standing) and Dr. Elaine Nocks (seated, right) discuss theological studies with students.

In October 2000, Furman University was awarded a five-year, $2 million grant by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., to establish a Center for Theological Exploration of Vocation. One of the nation's top 40 liberal arts universities, and an institution with a longstanding Christian heritage, Furman was one of the first 20 colleges and universities to receive a Lilly grant for the creation or enhancement of theologically based vocational exploration programs. In September 2005, Furman was awarded a $455,364 sustainability grant to continue the program through 2009.

Furman's rigorous liberal arts curriculum provides an extraordinary context for critical reflection across disciplines. Moreover, the academic study of religion plays an important, positive role in the general education of Furman's students. The Lilly Endowment grant builds upon this strong educational foundation by encouraging faculty and students to examine critically and then apply their own core religious values when making the curricular and extracurricular choices that lead to significant career and life decisions. Ultimately, these faculty-guided nonsectarian reflections will enable more young people to discover their true vocations in life, instead of making academic, career and personal choices solely on the bases of economic criteria, peer or family pressure and other factors.

The Center's focus will be upon college students, especially sophomores. Students in this transitional year often face immediate, pressing educational and extracurricular choices with long-term vocational implications. Faculty as well as student development is emphasized, out of a recognition that those placed in an optimal position to engage in a directed dialogue about faith and vocation often lack the skills and the confidence to engage in it. Faculty offered the opportunity to reflect upon their own vocational decisions and to explore the theological underpinnings of their life choices are better able to assist and guide undergraduates through thoughtful, critical analyses of the students' values and goals.

The Center's programming includes both academic and experiential forms of learning. Serious theological reading and study provides the framework for meaningful individual exploration and group discussion regarding fundamental life choices. Exposure to selected works of art, films, and literature along with directed discussions encourage participants to visualize their lives in new ways. There are opportunities for individuals to learn about their own strengths and limitations through standardized assessments of spiritual gifts and personality traits. The connection between faith and action is made concrete through community-building and service-oriented extracurricular activities. Emphasis is placed on deepening each person's understanding of the integrity of his or her calling through a mutually reinforcing interplay of experience and knowledge. Through community service, participants also come to comprehend vocation in communal as well as personal terms, thereby creating a vital link between each person's sense of personal validation and his or her active membership in a broader culture.

Often the most challenging questions regarding vocation and calling are raised within novel contexts. The Center has therefore formed a partnership with the Chaplain's Office to create a new pilot program that combines features of service learning and international travel-study, two of the traditional strengths of the Furman curriculum. Capitalizing on the youthful spirit of adventure and a growing enthusiasm for mission work, this program immerses students for a short period of time in a culture (Cuba) that is economically impoverished but rich in faith and community values.

The Center also provides opportunities for vocational reflection by high school students and older adults, especially those engaged in mid-career or retirement-related transitions. High school seniors may participate in a two-week summer residential theology institute, offered as part of the Furman Summer Scholars program. Alumni seminars, congregational workshops and courses offered through Furman's Division of Continuing Education have been designed to facilitate vocational reflection by, and theological discourse among, older adults.

A wider dissemination of information on theological reflection about vocation is being achieved through annual public lectures and colloquia, as well as through the planned publication of a resource book. Dr. Shirley C. Guthrie, Jr., professor emeritus of systematic theology at Atlanta's Columbia Theological Seminary, presented the first of the Lilly Lecture Series, "Christian Calling in the Modern World," on Jan. 15, 2002. Future speakers will include Dr. Parker Palmer, author of The Courage To Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life and Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation. The colloquia planned for 2003 and 2004 will also be used to stimulate initiatives among faculty, students and members of the community who have participated in previous Center programs for the purpose to organize community action teams. These teams will design and implement a series of community action projects, which together will constitute the culminating achievement of the Center and its programs.

Furman's Lilly Center for Theological Exploration of Vocation anticipates having the following far-reaching impacts upon faculty and students, lifelong learners, the university, and the surrounding community:

*  At the individual level, the Center's programs will enhance participants' abilities, motivation and confidence to make life decisions upon the basis of meaningful theological explorations of vocation. Success in this area will be reflected in improved abilities to converse, write or act on the basis of theologically rooted values, as well as in more positive attitudes toward citizenship and community service.
*  The Center's programs will progressively transform university culture by infusing both curricular and extracurricular activities with opportunities for students and faculty to explore life choices, especially those related to vocation or calling, within a theological context.
*  Community action projects involving students, faculty, adult learners and other community members will deepen the commitment of program participants to community service and fuel future, broader community-oriented partnerships between Furman and the Greater Greenville area.

Leadership
This project was designed by Dr. Elaine C. Nocks, professor and former chair of Psychology, and Dr. Jeffrey S. Rogers, former associate academic dean and Dana associate professor of Religion. Following Dr. Rogers' transition to parish ministry, Dr. David Bost, chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, was named co-director of the project. Ann Quattlebaum, a Furman alumna and clinical social worker, serves as program coordinator of the Center, which is located in Furman Hall 138.