Rediscovering Calling
Calling. The word flows easily in and out of our conversations, said and accepted as if it is a normative part of our Christian experience. Experience tells me that when asked, however, few, if any, can articulate their calling or the calling of the Church. Some will come back with a question. What do you mean by calling? My job? Others claim they are not called since calling is defined as a professionally trained and set apart office within the Church, a missionary sent overseas, or the founder of a non-profit. So, while it is normative in our language, it is well in our periphery in practice.
This was reinforced this week as a local church team has begun to take the premise of Calling more seriously. They reoriented their discipleship pathway around three pillars: Living the Way of Jesus, Calling, and Gifting. Over the last few months, as they have looked for pathways, they have found resources and tools for two of the three, but not Calling. We decided to create what we think we need. Co-creation is a better word, as responsible ministry staff invited congregants to design the pilot so that people might engage in it. They desire to break the cycle of programs being created by professionals in hopes that people will align their lives to participate in them. Instead, align the tools and resources to work in the people’s reality. And the only people that can do that are those living it. The response by those invited was enthusiastic, much to the delight of the staff.
The Orientation meeting was a series of questions after the backdrop of why the team was formed was set. Not surprisingly, one theme again emerged: no one knew what their calling was. A second theme emerged, which was ‘but I really want to. That’s why I said yes to this.” A twenty-four-year-old team member was the most adamant and succinct. “Me and the people I know need a purpose. It seems like we are supposed to make and chase money and hope to find some happiness along the way. It can’t be that. There must be a greater purpose, right?” The starkness of the assessment reverberated through the older members with their twenty-something kids. It felt like some understanding set in.
As we set off as a team to discover how to rediscover calls, we listed the factors we must consider. “Why is calling important?” is on the list. That immediately brought two responses to mind. The first is so we can overcome the inertia of our lives as they are. What will give us the desire, courage, and persistence to allow our minds and relationships to be changed and adopt atomic habits? Embracing the call on our lives by the creator of life who loves beyond all comprehension; literally, to become who we were created to be and do what we were created to do. There is joy and peace unattainable any other way; it is the freedom that Jesus promised if we follow Him.
The second is that the voice of the one calling will not disappear. Whether it is that distant niggling feeling of unease when all seems well or the ear-splitting siren of life publicly collapsing, we are needed as part of God’s redemptive plan. As Gordon Cosby reminded the people of the Church of the Saviour, “There is no way out of the Call. It is not alterable — it is the nature of Call.”
This work is essential. So we can say yes.
