Director of CMU's latest innitative shares how faith and work intersect

Canadian Mennonite University is opening a new career-minded centre to help students explore God's plans for them.

Dr. Christine Kampen Robinson is the director of Canadian Mennonite University's newest initiative, the Centre for Career and Vocation. She says the new centre will bring together things already being done at CMU like practicum work that she herself leads, and sharing practical job-searching skills.

She says the centre will help with fundamental job search skills, resume writing and interviews while helping people answer questions like "what does having a calling even mean?" and "how does my faith play into that?"

While having a space like this is not unique to universities, their faith-filled approach is one of the centre's stand-out features.

"How do I think about God as I am considering what I might do with the rest of my life?"

Specializing in linguistics, Kampen Robinson says the wording of Jeremiah 29:11 stands out to her, particularly the mention of God having multiple plans.

"When you dig into what was actually happening when God was saying that, it is about the collective, even though it is often used as an individual encouragement."

The director says understanding and using God-given talents are important, noting that people often have more than one.

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"I think sometimes in our Christian context we get it confused, that there is only one plan and that somehow if I miss the plan that I am doing something wrong. That I am not faithful enough that I am not praying enough, (or) that I am not doing something enough."

Kampen Robinson is CMU's Director of Practicum. (Supplied)

She says God's imagination is bigger than one plan, and there are many ways to "live into" God's calling.

"I do definitely believe that God gives us gifts and God gives us talents and also that God has this amazing imagination for different ways that we can live into our calling."

Kampen Robinson wants the centre to help people understand they might have many plans and gifts, and how to find ways to use them. She says there is no "clear, one right answer" to choosing a career.