Suggested Readings

Here I Am: Now What On Earth Should I Be Doing?
Author: Quentin Schultze
Publication Data: Baker Books, 2005.
Easy read. The author is a communications professor at Calvin College who received funding from Calvin’s Lilly Endowment, Inc., program to write this book.

Live Your Calling: A Practical Guide to Finding and Fulfilling Your Mission in Life
Authors: Kevin and Kay Marie Brennfleck (APU alumni)
Publication Data: Jossey-Bass Publishing, 2005.
Three biblical principles serve as the “compass” for their presentation. The book contains a number of useful inventories and worksheets; highly recommended by Lynn Pearson, director of Career Services at APU.

Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
Author: Parker Palmer
Publication Data: Jossey-Bass Publishing, 2000.
Palmer suggests that our concern for vocation should focus first on who we are, rather than primarily on what we do.

Answering Your Call: A Guide for Living Your Deepest Purpose
Author: John P. Schuster
Publication Data: Berrett-Koehler Publishing, 2003.
The author is a corporate consultant and coach; because his target audience is very broad, his understanding of vocation draws from many sources, including the Bible.

The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life
Author: Os Guinness
Publication Data: W Publishing Group, 2003.
Uses a specifically biblical definition of vocation and discusses the implications of that definition.

Each of these authors approaches the subject of vocation and calling from a theological perspective.

The Way of Life: A Theology of Christian Vocation
Author: Gary D. Badcock
Publication Data: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2002. Originally published by Eerdmans in 1998.

The Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice, and the Design of Human Work
Author: Lee Hardy
Publication Data: Eerdmans, 1990

Vocation: Discerning Our Callings in Life
Author: Douglas J. Schuurman
Publication Data: Eerdmans, 2004