King’s Institute for Faith & Culture (IFC) begins its 2025-26 speaker series, “Equipped for Every Good Work,” on Tuesday, Aug. 12 with David Cunningham, Ph.D.

Cunningham is the executive director of the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE), a network of more than 300 colleges and universities in the U.S. that work to enrich vocational discernment and exploration for students. Funding is provided by Lilly Endowment Inc.

A reception will be held at 6 p.m. on campus in Maclellan Hall. Cunningham will then present “To Live is to Change” at 7 p.m. in King’s Memorial Chapel. Both the reception and the presentation are open to the public and free of charge.

“Many times, when we hear the word vocation, we imagine that we’re talking about a career,” said Martin Dotterweich, Ph.D., director of the IFC. “In reality, vocation has much more to do with calling, and with finding the place where, as Frederick Buechner put it, our deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. Dr. Cunningham has spent many years encouraging his students and colleagues to explore their individual gifts and talents in furtherance of their vocation, and in this presentation, he turns his attention to the virtues that help us discern our callings, even as they grow and change.”

Cunningham is the author of five books on vocation and theology, including “At This Time and In This Place: Vocation in Higher Education,” and the editor of several additional volumes. He has a faculty appointment as professor of Theology at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he has a focus on Christian theology and ethics, particularly as they relate to rhetoric and drama. Previously, he served on the faculty at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where he was director of the CrossRoads Project, Hope’s Lilly-funded Program for the Theological Exploration of Vocation (PTEV), and on the faculties of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies from Northwestern University, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Theology and Religious Studies from the University of Cambridge, and a doctorate in Religion from Duke University, where he studied under Stanley Hauerwas.

For more information, visit king.edu/events.