Vocation & Purpose

Are you looking for a sense of purpose? Does it feel like you’ve lost your way? Purpose is a vital part of our spiritual health. We know we need it, but for some of us, it can be so hard to find. Psychologist Belle Liang helps us navigate and thrive holistically through an understanding of our own journey and the stories that shape us. She names four essential elements of purpose: (1) character strengths, (2) skills and expertise, (3) deeply held values, and (4) a sense of contribution to the world. Includes a real-time practical exercise for aligning with our purpose and explore how it can help us navigate the journey of life.

How does where you’ve been contribute to where you’re going? How does your story shape your sense of purpose? Developmental psychologist William Damon (Stanford University) has spent his career studying the human lifespan, and has found both in his research and personal experience, that by courageously exploring our personal histories, we’ll stay on a path toward purpose and peace.

What serves to ground, connect, and direct towards joy? Dr. Pam King asks this question as a guide for Mothers and others.

These questions are intended to help you examine your life to discover meaning and purpose, no matter where you are in life's journey.

This practice is taken from an interview with Dr. Belle Liang and is adapted from her book, How to Navigate Life.

Download this practice to help you discover more about yourself and your purpose.

Purpose is at the heart of thriving and an outcome of healthy spirituality. Our fall Thrive Book List suggests great guides for discovery.

We all need a purpose.

If you want to train your brain out of anxiety and/or discover more about yourself, find a trusted friend or small group and work through these questions

When we know that finding purpose is so important for our spiritual health and wellbeing, why is it sometimes so hard?

What is purpose and why is it important?

  Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results by James Clear Why we like this book: James Clear offers concrete steps we all can take to change our habits for more purposeful living. If you have trouble making changes in your life and have goals you want to achieve, this book provides a framework for how to get results. The trick is to think in baby steps. My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem Why we like this book: Menakem describes how pain and trauma are embodied. The body holds our deepest wounds, and this book offers a healing process for recovery from the harms of racism, and a process for purposeful change.

Psychology and theology come together to provide a vision for the good life

Dr. Pamela King discusses how tapping into our faith and contributing to a flourishing world can help us thrive through difficulty.

As the world continues to languish, Dr. Pamela King emphasizes the need for spirituality as a source of personal and societal transformation.

Dr. Pamela King invites leaders to reimagine and lead in new ways in order to enable all people and communities to thrive.

This article is from the Peer Magazine issued in September, 2021.

Researcher, Dr. Susan Mangan offers summer activities to help us discover our purpose in this changing world.

A college student reflects on the importance of finding a sense of purpose as the key to thriving in college.

Dr. Pam King discusses how spirituality can help us stay grounded, connected, and directed throughout difficult challenges.

Summary Developmental psychologist, Benjamin Houltberg traces the intersections of research and ministry in his work, as well as his desire to integrate his research with understanding people’s pain and representing God’s love with them. He was interviewed by Evelyn and Frank Freed Professor of Marital and Family Therapy at Fuller Theological Seminary, Terry Hargrave. Author’s Note This presentation was originally published on FULLER Studio. About the Author Benjamin Houltberg was the former associate professor of human development at the Thrive Center. As a developmental scientist, his research centers on relational factors that impact emotional health within high-stress environments. Much of his work is on the role of identity development and character virtues in sport as they relate to emotional health and athletic performance. He currently serves as the president and CEO of the Search Institute.  …

Benjamin Houltberg discusses the impact performance and success have on emotional wellbeing on the I Love Success Podcast.

Benjamin Houltberg defines thriving, sharing the key ways anyone can live a flourishing and purposeful life on the Converge Podcast.

Summary Pamela Ebstyne King, executive director of the Thrive Center, provides her definition of telos and explains the important role it plays in youth development inn this interview with Yale Youth Ministry Institute.   Author’s Note This interview was originally published on Yale Youth Ministry Institute.   About the Author Pamela Ebstyne King Pamela Ebstyne King is the executive director of the Thrive Center and serves as the Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller Theological Seminary. Her primary academic interests are applied research at the intersection of human thriving and spiritual development. Dr. King’s work combines theology, empirical research, and community engagement to further understand what contexts and settings enable all people to thrive.

Summary Executive director of the Thrive Center, Pamela Ebstyne King shares the meaningful ways youth practitioners, ministers, and mentors can help advance a sense of telos or purpose in adolescents. Author’s Note This interview was originally published on Yale Youth Ministry Institute.   About the Author Pamela Ebstyne King Pamela Ebstyne King is the executive director of the Thrive Center and serves as the Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller Theological Seminary. Her primary academic interests are applied research at the intersection of human thriving and spiritual development. Dr. King’s work combines theology, empirical research, and community engagement to further understand what contexts and settings enable all people to thrive.

Summary Why is purpose so important to joy? Executive director of the Thrive Center, Pamela Ebstyne King discusses how pursuing purpose can help adolescents discover true joy in this interview. Author’s Note This interview was originally published on Yale Youth Ministry Institute.   About the Author Pamela Ebstyne King Pamela Ebstyne King is the executive director of the Thrive Center and serves as the Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller Theological Seminary. Her primary academic interests are applied research at the intersection of human thriving and spiritual development. Dr. King’s work combines theology, empirical research, and community engagement to further understand what contexts and settings enable all people to thrive.  …

Summary In this interview, Pamela Ebstyne King, executive director of the Thrive Center, argues that vocation stems from three simultaneous processes: becoming like Christ, forming a unique sense of self, and establishing a healthy community.     Author’s Note This interview was originally published on FULLER Studio.   About the Author Pamela Ebstyne King Pamela Ebstyne King is the executive director of the Thrive Center and serves as the Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller Theological Seminary. Her primary academic interests are applied research at the intersection of human thriving and spiritual development. Dr. King’s work combines theology, empirical research, and community engagement to further understand what contexts and settings enable all people to thrive.  …

A Thrive Fellow reflects on her experience of building a home for a family in Mexico, and the power serving others can have on purpose.

Summary Founding member of Hope Sports, Benjamin Houltberg offers psychological insights on what it means for young athletes to have a purpose-based identity, and how to help them move from a performance-based identity to purpose in sports.   Author’s Note This presentation was originally published by Hope Sports. About the Author Benjamin Houltberg Benjamin Houltberg was the former associate professor of human development at the Thrive Center. As a developmental scientist, his research centers on relational factors that impact emotional health within high-stress environments. Much of his work is on the role of identity development and character virtues in sport as they relate to emotional health and athletic performance. He currently serves as the president and CEO of the Search Institute.

Author: King, P. E., & Mangan, S. Abstract: Positive youth development (PYD) started as a field of practice before it became a field of study. With a heightened awareness of the necessity of a framework for the thriving of all youth and all societies, the chapter considers the purpose of PYD and consequently revisits the concept of teleology, offering a revised understanding of telos, or the ultimate goal of a given construct—in this case, of PYD. It refines and updates the current notion of thriving to not only emphasize adaptivity and relationality as central to thriving but also identify the significance of considering the purpose of PYD. A teleological perspective insists on a long-term view of the thriving of all youth. The next wave of PYD scholarship requires a developmental contextualized telos such as the reciprocating self to provide a useful and dynamic…

Author: Pamela Ebstyne King, Rebecca Ann Baer Abstract: In this article, we aim to explain how Miroslav Volf’s theology of flourishing provides a new vision for psychologists. As the Henry B. Wright Professor and Founder and Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Volf is recognized as one of the most influential living theologians. His recent work offers a theology of human flourishing based in an eschatological vision of God’s homecoming, the unification of the Creator with His created. For Volf, the end provides a telos, a purpose, and direction, for current human life. He asserts that although proleptic, flourishing occurs simultaneously within the two eschatological “already” and “not yet” realities through the inbreaking of the Holy Spirit in the context of love. The true life is a life led well, going well, and feeling as God intends and is characterized by love, peace, and joy. In this…

Abstract To grasp human flourishing and thriving, we must understand joy. However, no theoretical models explain the complexity of joy as a fruit of the Spirit, nor fully account for its impact on human life. We suggest that joy is best conceptualized as a virtue, a psychological habit, comprised of characteristic adaptations and given meaning by transcendent narrative identity. Thus joy involves knowing, feeling, and enacting what matters most. Developmental science and Christian theological approaches to teleology inform the ultimate ends to which joy is aimed. They suggest that telos, the purpose or goal of development, may be understood as a dynamic process that perpetuates human and social thriving and involves (1) the growing self, (2) mutually beneficial relationships, and (3) evolving moral guidelines that ensure an ongoing fit and flourishing of self and society. We synthesize developmental psychology, virtue science, and theology to propose a definition and framework for understanding…

Authors: Pamela Ebstyne King (Page 185-210) Abstract: This volume represents one set of reflections on issues of vocation, formation, and theological education in the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Each of the contributors to the volume is (or was, in one case) a faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary, an institution that, like many others, has been wrestling seriously with the global transformation of theological education for at least the past decade. With the generous support of Fuller’s Office of Vocation and Formation, the editors of this volume–all of whom at the time of the project’s origins directed the PhD program in their respective schools (Downs in the School of Theology, Houston-Armstrong in the School of Psychology, and Yong in the School of Intercultural Studies)–invited colleagues to participate in an interdisciplinary conversation centered around questions of vocation and formation in our own institutional context. This book is the result…

This paper summarizes a Christological and trinitarian anthropology in order to propose a developmen-tal teleology that offers a vision for being and becoming human. From a Christological perspective, Jesus Christ is the perfect image of God, and becoming like Christ as distinct persons is God’s intention for all of humanity.

Author: King, P. E., & Mangan, S. Abstract: Positive youth development (PYD) started as a field of practice before it became a field of study. With a heightened awareness of the necessity of a framework for the thriving of all youth and all societies, the chapter considers the purpose of PYD and consequently revisits the concept of teleology, offering a revised understanding of telos, or the ultimate goal of a given construct—in this case, of PYD. It refines and updates the current notion of thriving to not only emphasize adaptivity and relationality as central to thriving but also identify the significance of considering the purpose of PYD. A teleological perspective insists on a long-term view of the thriving of all youth. The next wave of PYD scholarship requires a developmental contextualized telos such as the reciprocating self to provide a useful and dynamic…

Author: Pamela Ebstyne King, Rebecca Ann Baer Abstract: In this article, we aim to explain how Miroslav Volf’s theology of flourishing provides a new vision for psychologists. As the Henry B. Wright Professor and Founder and Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Volf is recognized as one of the most influential living theologians. His recent work offers a theology of human flourishing based in an eschatological vision of God’s homecoming, the unification of the Creator with His created. For Volf, the end provides a telos, a purpose, and direction, for current human life. He asserts that although proleptic, flourishing occurs simultaneously within the two eschatological “already” and “not yet” realities through the inbreaking of the Holy Spirit in the context of love. The true life is a life led well, going well, and feeling as God intends and is characterized by love, peace, and joy. In this…

Abstract To grasp human flourishing and thriving, we must understand joy. However, no theoretical models explain the complexity of joy as a fruit of the Spirit, nor fully account for its impact on human life. We suggest that joy is best conceptualized as a virtue, a psychological habit, comprised of characteristic adaptations and given meaning by transcendent narrative identity. Thus joy involves knowing, feeling, and enacting what matters most. Developmental science and Christian theological approaches to teleology inform the ultimate ends to which joy is aimed. They suggest that telos, the purpose or goal of development, may be understood as a dynamic process that perpetuates human and social thriving and involves (1) the growing self, (2) mutually beneficial relationships, and (3) evolving moral guidelines that ensure an ongoing fit and flourishing of self and society. We synthesize developmental psychology, virtue science, and theology to propose a definition and framework for understanding…

Authors: Pamela Ebstyne King (Page 185-210) Abstract: This volume represents one set of reflections on issues of vocation, formation, and theological education in the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Each of the contributors to the volume is (or was, in one case) a faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary, an institution that, like many others, has been wrestling seriously with the global transformation of theological education for at least the past decade. With the generous support of Fuller’s Office of Vocation and Formation, the editors of this volume–all of whom at the time of the project’s origins directed the PhD program in their respective schools (Downs in the School of Theology, Houston-Armstrong in the School of Psychology, and Yong in the School of Intercultural Studies)–invited colleagues to participate in an interdisciplinary conversation centered around questions of vocation and formation in our own institutional context. This book is the result…

This paper summarizes a Christological and trinitarian anthropology in order to propose a developmen-tal teleology that offers a vision for being and becoming human. From a Christological perspective, Jesus Christ is the perfect image of God, and becoming like Christ as distinct persons is God’s intention for all of humanity.