I am blessed to work in a discipline which has human service at its heart. Because of that I do not find it difficult to connect my discipline with the concepts of faith and ministry. To me, these are naturally integrated, and should be. To begin with, it is not a difficult stretch to point out the ministry aspects of speech-language pathology—which I highlight in each course by including the following paragraph in each syllabus:
I want students to know and enjoy the spiritual benefits of a service-oriented profession from the outset. As God gives us openings into the lives of clients and families, I want students to be prepared to serve in ways that will help people grow closer to Him, and therefore develop in their own faith. In order to truly be effective in ministering in this manner, students and professionals need the highest level of skill; a sketchy assessment or poorly designed speech therapy program will not bring blessing to a family. Therefore, I am motivated, and intend that my students will also be motivated, to seek excellence in scholarship and practice so that God may be glorified in our service to persons with communication disorders.
As the semester progresses, I find it natural to pause and talk about seeing the fingerprints of God in prenatal development and in the miracle of language acquisition. When we are discussing various developmental disabilities, it seems appropriate to talk about the challenges to faith that many families and professionals experience when confronting these difficult experiences, and the role of the Christian SLP in such situations. I often share examples from my own experiences with such challenges. When professional ethics is the topic, it is helpful for the students to realize that having a foundation of Christian ethics provides a safeguard for the professional—ethical behavior (honesty, legal compliance, holding the welfare of the client paramount) comes much more easily when a strong sense of right/wrong is already in place. I use reflection papers/blogs in several courses (ComP 330; ComP 471; ComP 670) to provide a space and time for students to think about these ideas.
Sample Assignment_Christian Faith and the SLP
Student paper_Christian Faith and the SLP
When I began teaching, although I desired to incorporate my faith into my instruction, I found it awkward to do so overtly in structured ways (prayer requests, scheduled Bible readings), as I realized that a number of my students were not believers or were tentative in their faith. However, as I noticed “teachable” or “sharable” moments in the curriculum such as those described above I found it easier to make clear faith connections. As I did so, I found that my students were more likely to approach me with similar comments, examples, and prayer requests. I have been blessed to pray with students at pivotal moments in their lives. It is important to me to be approachable so that students can share these moments with me. I think that in my classes faith is an ongoing conversation, where we use the content of the courses as opportunities to notice and point out God at work. My prayer is that by integrating topics related to faith in this way I am emphasizing the point that our faith is about who we are, as much or more than the acts of faith we do.
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