"The Nature of Vocation & Calling,
...Listening & Working with God”
Section II - Vocational Guidance for Collegians: Helping Young Adults Discover Their Missions in the Marketplace v2.0
By P. Daniel Curran, MCS
Lead Catalyst, GradCru Networks at UC Berkeley
There is much confusion in evangelical Christianity concerning the use of the words vocation and calling. Some Biblical words used in common everyday conversations related to vocation/calling are: preparation, works, service, purpose, mission, task, ministry, labor, task, labor, call, calling, called, calls, cry, guide, appoint, choose and chosen. In Greek vocation/calling are usually coming from “kaleo” and “klesis” which commonly mean “calling” or “invited”. The word calling implies a “caller” and a respondent person who is “called”. Calling is thus highly relational and personal.
The usage of these terms has been influenced by both Catholic and Protestant distortions of the meaning of calling. Traditional Catholic theology has traditionally relegated the use of the term calling or vocation to service in the church alone (i.e. as a priest or nun in a convent or monastery setting). The Protestant tradition emerged through the abolition of a limited priesthood and by discontinuing monastery systems, -so vocation was thus imparted to the common person and focused on the kind work they did and on the office in life they held.
This is unfortunate because while both views are partially true, neither view is adequate without integrating complementary strengths of the other. Whatever the case, you get a sacred/secular split by embracing either institution their ensuing traditions. R. Paul Stevens states that, “Calling is to someone, not to something or somewhere” (Banks, 97). He argues that there actually are things and places that we are called to, …but the supremacy of the primary call to “Someone” overshadows them, and they can’t possibly be understood without the context of a Primary Call. Lee Hardy states that, “Work and vocation are not the same thing. Work may be a part of my vocation, but it is not the whole of my vocation; work may be one thing that I am called to do, but it is not the only thing I am called to do. (Hardy, 111,112).
Os Guinness says that, “we cannot afford fuzzy thinking and half-hearted living. In today’s world, differences can be seen to make a difference. Beliefs have consequences. …calling, as we shall see in a score of ways, is indispensable to the integrity and effectiveness of the church in this momentous hour” (Guinness, 59). He goes on to weave an effective picture how we only really have one true calling, and that is to the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Jesus (our manager) calls us into our secondary callings and He alone is the author and manager of those calls. These secondary calls are primarily to roles or offices in life: father, mother, brother, pastor, merchant, artist, poet, ambassador, etc. One may take up or put down these roles depending on the relational and physical realities that God ordains (i.e. the death of a child will change the role of a mother, the loss of a job will change ones role as an employee, students graduate from their studies, missionaries are called to and from people groups).
Gordon T. Smith takes the primary and secondary calling one step further and argues for a third category of “tertiary callings” which one could also label as tasks: homework assignments, duties of a coach at a game, business deals, preparation of meals, etc.. All which have a sense of call because they flow from the primary and secondary callings. (Smith, 10). Parker Palmer relates the seriousness of getting calling wrong in saying that, “A vocation that is not mine, no matter how externally valued, does violence to the self –in the precise sense that it violates my identity and integrity on behalf some abstract norm. When I violate myself, I invariably end up violating the people I work with.” (Palmer, 30). He cites the tragedy of those involved in the teaching profession who violate their students years after their calling to teach has vanished (see also the book The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life by Parker Palmer).
Calling is mysterious. It is relational. It has to do with inter-personality. It is quite appropriate, when you think about it, for a triune God to “call”. To call amongst Himself, …and to call to His creatures. It is interesting to consider that God called the world into existence. At creation, words were spoken by God and human beings materialized. We were called “man” and “woman”, and called personal names, “Adam” and “Eve”.
Vocatio in Latin means “work”. When you think about it, in a very real sense we are God’s vocatio, God’s workmanship, …God’s voicemanship. And, as God’s workmanship we work by calling. We use imperatives in our speech to make things happen, “Do this”, “Give me that”, “have this on my desk first thing in the morning!” The power of the spoken work is striking. It has the power to generate and create things that did not exist before. On the dark side, the power of voice or calling in the form of a lie can kill, steal and destroy. It is sobering to note the language of Satan (lies) has the power to enslave and ruin individuals and entire cultures simply by language and voice, …an evil kind of “calling” whispered by the Prince Darkness that reaps destruction, fear and death.
Our call to be princes, priests and prophets, to be sons, daughters and new creations in Christ is eternal. This primary call to Jesus is an eternal calling that we can’t loose. Our secondary callings may last for years (mother, student, farmer, surfer) –they will come and go in due time. Our tertiary calls may but last for a moment (to say an arrow prayer, cheer at a game, to give flowers, to teach a Bible Study, to listen to a story).
God calls us into “fellowship with His Son”, God called the boy “Samuel”, Paul was called to be “an apostle”, Jesus called the “little children”, God called Isaiah to Himself (and Isaiah called himself “unclean”), Jesus called “James and John”, and “the twelve”, and “the women”; in Colossians we are called according to “one purpose” and in Ephesians “to live a life worthy of the calling for which we were called”. The book of Romans says “all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose”. We have in our possession the Holy Scriptures, which are the very breath of God, God’s Words, God’s Calling/s to us. Calling is mystical and mysterious because it involves discourse with the Living God.
God in His infinite wisdom has not left us as orphans. God has breathed on us and given us His Holy Spirit and invited us to preach and teach His words (His call) “in season and out”. Collegians and other young adults may not be able to fully grasp the deep metaphysical meaning of calling, but they can gain a holy sobriety for what it is and humbly consider the grave consequences of getting it wrong. Calling at its best, flows from a dynamic relationship between the practice of personal spiritual disciplines (i.e. solitude, silence, scripture) and corporate community life and spiritual friendships amongst the Saints. The dynamic of vocation, of working with God is available to the little child, the young adult and the senior citizen. But, because a collegians hunger and aptitude for learning is so high, and because the young adult stage of human development is so formative, college students and other twenty-somethings are able to hear and remember their calls to "good works" from God louder, and embrace their calls more earnestly, than during any other season of their lives. “He who has ears, let him hear!” –Jesus.
Banks, Robert & R. Paul Stevens, ed., The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity.
“Vocational Guidance”, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997.
Hardy, Lee, The Fabric of this World. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.
Guinness, Os, The Call. Nashville: Word, 1998.
Smith, Gordon T., Courage & Calling. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1999.
Palmer, Palmer, The Courage to Teach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998
Copyright © 2010 | P. Daniel Curran, B.A. Biola University; M.C.S. Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.| This sssay comes from a paper written for R. Paul Stevens' Marketplace Ministry Seminar | Daniel has taught UC Berkeley's DeCal course "Finding Your Purpose & Calling", sections for "Bible Study Methods" at The Institute of Biblical Studies , presented his "Purpose & Calling", "Decoding the Campus" & "Praying for Spiritual Revival" seminars at CCC's Dallas & San Diego Winter Conferences, Ivy Jungle College Ministry Conferences, Asbury Seminary, and in a variety of college & university settings | http://www.linkedin.com/in/curranevents | reprint permission granted for entire article to be republished unedited (includes title, sub-title, author, references, copyright, mini-bio, LinkedIn URL, and reprint permission terms).
