Blake Patty #4

     For this final post I'm just going to share a bit where I am at with thoughts I have regarding my career path that I have been discussing with family members including my dad.
     I grew up as a missionary kid with an organization that trains youth pastors through the local church in 13 countries in Eastern Europe. Growing up in this context has really given me heart for missions and I would be very happy to return to that work. However, I am aware that it would be very easy to just chose this career path just because it's what I'm familiar. When coming to Wheaton I really wanted to broaden my horixens and really get insight into what doing other things would look like. After coming to Wheaton I really experienced ways people serve God through whatever there career path may be. However, despite coming into contact with all of these options I found that I was still primarily interested in ministry. I became very interested in bussiness as ministry. I enjoyed the idea of using my analytical and strategic strengths to help people in a missional context. I shared my thoughts with my parents and they were very encouraging of the idea. As I continued to take more classes in bussiness econ I found that their were definately aspects that I really enjoy and others that I bare through. One thing that I really find interesting is something Dr. Howard really emphasized in his principles of micro class. Economics is the science of allocating resources in order to achieve human flourishing. I think this is something that can really be applied to ministry. How can we best allocate resources so that more people may come to a saving knowledge of God and become disciples who make disciples? The part I'm not  particularly interested in is the more financial and beurocratic aspects of the major. I brought these up to my dad and my uncle as I was looking for an internship this summer and they provided some helpful information. One thing was that they both confirmed they didn't really see me going into some financial advising or market analyzing. I'm too fascinated with people to just focus on numbers. One of the things my uncle brought up was the idea of trying get experience in project management. He thought that based on what he has observed in me up to this point, working on something that has an official beginnign point and final destination with a distinct purpose could really be something that I perform well in.
     I still find that I have a strong desire to return to ministry, but I continue to keep my eyes open to others making sure not to close any doors on what God may desire for me. I hope to sometime intern with the project manager of our missions organization in hopes to see what it means to combine a bussiness/strategic style of thinking to ministry.