ENGAGE | Masterclass with Michaela O'Donnell Long
As Christians, we believe we have callings from God. Many of us crave to live out these callings through our careers. But that’s often easier said than done. This is partly because our careers can be filled with obstacles that we might not know how to overcome, and partly because the whole idea of calling is sometimes murkier than we’d like to admit.
To further complicate things, the rules for how to succeed seem to be ever shifting in a changing world of work. As more and more people – whether by force or by choice – chart their own way forward in their careers, others are challenged to serve where they are. For some of us, these challenges are exciting. For others of us, it’s daunting and draining.
Either way, it’s a chance for a pilgrimage with Christ—a holy journey with God.
In order to go on this journey, we’ve got to get honest about our own vocational pain, understand what God’s callings really mean, and tap into our God-given capacity to be creative and resilient in whatever space he’s called us to. We do all of this so that we might discover the way forward in our work, honoring God along the way.
This Engage Masterclass covers:
Longings: We start by getting real, naming our own vocational dreams and pain and surfacing our deeper longings. This helps us to calibrate the way forward.
Empathy: This moves us towards empathy. Rather than applying a quick fix to our pain, we link our pain with the needs of our neighbours.
Imagination: Next, we learn to convert empathy into imagination, tapping into our reserve of creativity that too often lies dormant within us.
Risk-taking: Imagination then fuels our risk-taking, drawing on the connection between vocational pain, empathy and imagination.
Reflection: People who reflect after risk-taking regularly develop processes for assessing what works, what doesn't and how God might be leading them in their work.
2019 ADM Visiting Fellow Michaela O'Donnell Long:
Michaela is Senior Director of the De Pree Centre and Adjunct Professor of Practical Theology and Leadership at Fuller Seminary. She is also an entrepreneur who has started several businesses, most notably, she is co-founder and CEO of Long Winter Media, a branding and video production company.
In her role at the De Pree Center, Michaela is the principal leader of the grant-funded, Entrepreneurship, Faith, and Flourishing Initiative. This grant has enabled the De Pree Center to take the research of Michaela’s PhD dissertation, “Adopting an Entrepreneurial Posture: Vocational Formation in a Changing World of Work,” and turn it into practical resources for entrepreneurs and churches that serve them.
Michaela regularly speaks and writes on topics of vocation, entrepreneurship, and women in leadership. Recent publications through the De Pree Center include, “A Seat at the Table,” “Myths of Vocation,” and “She Is.” Her writing is featured widely including at the following outlets Relevant, Fuller Studio, Grit and Virtue, Faith Driven Entrepreneur, Made to Flourish, and Liberty Magazine.