Not A Trip: Vocation as Mission - Dr. Earl Lavender
March 12, 2022
Dr. Earl Lavender serves as the Director of Missional Studies and a Professor in Lipscomb University’s Bible department. The passion of Dr. Lavender’s life is evangelism and he created Lipscomb’s Missions department. Dr. Lavender cares deeply about students finding a vocation that uses their gifts to further the work of the Creator.
Dr. Lavender never envisioned that he would be a professor, much less found the Missions program at Lipscomb. He has always thought of himself as a coach more than anything else. Now, he thinks of himself as a kingdom coach rather than a preacher or teacher. He feels that vocation has to be more than being paid to bring someone to Christ, but it has to be motivated by a deeper sense of purpose.
When Dr. Lavender arrived at Lipscomb, missions looked very different. The Missions program was sporadic and opportunities were only offered to a limited number of students. Missions were also primarily associated with the Bible department. Dr. Lavender’s vision was that mission trips stopped existing within the Bible department and became the heartbeat of the entire school. Lipscomb Missions has come a long way since then. The first Missions employees volunteered to raise their own salaries in order to allow the program to run. The same spirit of volunteerism characterizes Lipscomb Missions today. All of the team leaders are still professor or alumni volunteers. It is their championing and passion that has made Lipscomb Missions unlike any other missions programs.
Building a program that actually helped its partners and impacted students was also a priority for Dr. Lavender when he began to rebuild Lipscomb Missions. He did not want students to think they were just taking a trip, but he desired that students would discover their own vocation and ultimately encounter the Holy Spirit in the process. In this missions model, Dr. Lavender hopes that students are led into a new place to discover that it is not about what they are doing, but who they are doing it for. He loves seeing students change as they realize that their hands are capable of doing the continued work of the Creator. When students use their vocation on a mission trip, they realize that their gifts can be used, their lives have meaning, and that they can wake up everyday and choose to partner with God. The lifeblood of Lipscomb Missions is to create people who meet God with their gifts where the Holy Spirit is already at work and join in. “My hope is that as an institution we can show people that part of growing in the Lord is learning how to live out your vocation and the purposes of God because that's what gives your life meaning so that every vocation that is legit has the possibility of being the continuing work of God in the world,” Dr. Lavender shared.
Not a Trip
Category: Student Life