The role of the church in career guidance and development

In the last ten years, professional and popular literature focused on the relat-edness of spirituality and career. The field of career guidance and develop-ment is beginning to integrate individuals ’ religious and spiritual beliefs. Likewise, it seems the Church would be a source of career assistance. This paper reviews professional literature, from 1960-early 2000s, regarding the role of the Church in the United States in career guidance and development. The focus is on vocational themes in relation to the Church, Church involve-ment in career guidance and development programs, and recommendations for the role of the Church in career guidance and development. The review concludes that over the past 40 years, the professional literature on this topic has declined. The Church has made grassroots efforts at providing career guidance, but only through improved communication of ideas and program results will the Church provide effective career programming on a larger scale. KEY WORDS: Church; religion; career; vocational; programming. Recent popular literature has begun to look at the importance o