Choosing a Career

Gary D. Badcock, "Choosing," in Leading Lives That Matter: What We Should Do and Who We Should Be, eds. Mark R. Schwehn and Dorothy C. Bass. (Grand Rapids, MI. : Eerdmans, 2006), 101-107.

Badcock discusses the idea of career choice from a theological perspective. Badcock does not believe God's will extends "down to details of career choice." He thinks he is fitted to work in multiple occupations. He reserves calling for religious vocations.

Badcock thinks career choices "must be capable of being integrated into the overall mission of Christ" (103). He insists the question on career leads to the question on what kind of person I need to be. The idea is that God is more concern over the type of person we are becoming than on what we do. The question of career choice can be given multiple answers. The second question leads to "clearer" answers. Badcock states, "I ought to be a person for whom love, service, and obedience to God are major priorities" (103). The author illustrates this point by autobiographical information on three different paths he could have taken. First, he could have been a fisherman like his ancestors. A second option would have been to go into business. The third option which was chosen by him was to become a Christian scholar. The author believes that any of these options would have been in God's will. In all of them he still could have been involved in the "mission of Christ." Badcock states, "The calling to be faithful and loving is one that extends to any and all walks of life and that cannot be identified with any one of them. And it is this calling to faithfulness and love which Christian vocation is really concerned . . ." (105).