Seminary 101: take your vocation with you
Work and vocation can feel like wrestling matches. When do we get to call ourselves a writer? Are we really “just” a mom, or “just” a janitor, or “just” a ________? What happens when we are called to something and that something still hasn’t materialized? What if it’s starting to look like we will never end up where we wanted to be?
I do believe that we are designed to do good work. This is not the same thing as work for the machine that insists rest and play are inefficient and unnecessary. But God created. That is the first thing we learned about God. We also create because we are made in God's image. We make homes. We design airplanes. We write kindergarten lesson plans. We are wired, most of the time, to take some of the stuff God made and make other stuff from it.
I also believe that we live in “a fatal, fallen, and unfair world,” to quote the pastor at church. The condition of the world affects our work. I know that the world has been a different experience for the generations of people who have lived on it. Some people do a certain job because their families have always done that job. Some people have been denied the possibility of certain work because they were women or they were not white or they were “too poor.” Work becomes complicated really fast. So does calling. So does vocation.
It has been tricky for me to consider vocation, my own calling to pastor and preach, while being in churches that have not wanted women to do either of those. It’s been a long process, but I eventually decided that I will answer to God one day for my life and I won’t be answering to these other people. They might be able to block a position or a title, but they cannot veto God’s call.
I’ve taken my calling with me. That character that I believe a pastor should display? I work at cultivating that in my own life as a mother, as a substitute teacher, as a person who uses Instagram. This means deep spiritual disciplines for myself so God is someone I know and not just someone I talk about. It means learning to hold confidences and refusing to gossip. It means paying attention to God and paying attention to the world.
That posture I believe a pastor has as she walks with someone else and God? I’ve practiced doing that with the people around me. The way a pastor prays for their congregation? I’ve grown there. The quiet listening, knowing that God is already at work in a life and I’m not starting something new? I’m cultivating that.
I lived these practices when I lead a community Bible study back in Kentucky, when I held an online discipleship group in fall of 2020. I try to practice these ways of being with people in my writing and on Instagram, when I sub, and when I run into strangers in the bathroom, when I disciple two women in their twenties, when I live with my family.
Pastoring is not something that I’m waiting on a job to do (though, really, I hope to one day do that as well). A pastor is something I want to be now.
Some of you may be flinching, considering spiritual authority and who gets to represent God. Pastor is actually mentioned in the Bible as a spiritual gift and not a job title (Ephesians 4:11). Even the elders-and an elder is a position in the church-have a long list of personal qualifications that I certainly hope are being practiced before they are appointed. I think we would be better off if we found people who already display character and Christlikeness to serve the church instead of looking for leaders who can bring in more numbers or are popular or have power to protect.
Maybe you aren’t doing what you want to. Maybe you are blocked from your dream. Look for ways to take that calling with you. I can’t tell you how because I don’t know you. I don’t know your calling. I don’t know your circumstances. But you have the Spirit. You have imagination. You have the stories of Scripture and of believers who have lived before us that have approached their work and calling in unique and powerful ways.
God is mighty in you.
Always,
Lisa
Links I Love:
My nine-year-old listened The Hobbit on Audible and now we’re watching Peter Jackson’s trilogy.
We interviewed Sharon Miller for The Order of Junia and her book Nice is worth your time.
I’m halfway through this book and you should read it. Chances are high that someone in your life is autistic, even if you don’t know it.