Our pastor is speaking through a series on Calling and the Workplace. This message is important because of the confusion about calling and its affect on the workplace. I want to share what points have impacted me

Calling affects our work-life

Gabriel Chan mentioned about extending Sunday into Monday to Saturday. In fact, Christians spend more time at work than with their family and their church. Like Christ, He spent most of His time outside the temple walls, healing the sick, preaching, discipling His followers, and teaching the masses. Our calling applies not only to our ministry we do at church, but also our ministry in our 9-5 job.

Jesus enlarges our territory and our calling

Jesus met Peter when he was fishing on the sea of Galilee, Peter was working as a fisherman. Christ called Him that day, but did his job really change? I would argue that Peter’s job had enlarged his territory to include humans for the sake of God’s mandate, he didn’t cease to be a fisherman, but became a fisher of men. I find it fascinating that after Christ had died on cross, Peter, who was disenchanted, went back to his original job as a fisherman of fish until Christ redeemed him. What about us? When Jesus grabs hold of us, is our calling enlarged?

Is it all Greek? It’s Hebrew too!

This point may be confusing. Because of North American education we’ve learned to think in the Greek system of thought. Consequently, we’ve made clear and distinct silos between work, family and church. The result is the mindset that ministry is a higher calling then those who in a secular work-place Alternatively, the Hebrew mindset views all of our activities as over-encompassing or holistic. Those entering the mission-field and those entering the workforce are both equal.

Influence is conviction

Christians aren’t influencing culture or communities. Why? Christians have watered down Christ in a way that Christ is politically correct. In doing so we’ve made Christ less then who he is. Are we preaching cultural Christianity or the biblical Christ?

I believe that the 2nd generation has major confusions about the theology of calling. Even talking with some of the teens and young Christians who are deciding on their majors in university, most have no interest in becoming pastors, missionaries, politician, artists or environmentalists. The reason is that there’s no money in those careers and comes back to the point - should I choose a career based on a pay-check or based on faith?

In the 2007 International Outreach Leadership Conference in Paris Thomas Chan said that the first generation needs to give dreams to the 2nd generation. I hope together we can have a larger discussion and embrace a paradigm shift of how we understand calling, career, vocation, ministry, purpose, me and God.
Nathan
In Ottawa

A Christian friend recently asked me whether doing what God is calling us to do is always a matter of doing that for which we are best qualified.  He currently has a job that he feels does not match his skill set or interests, but stays with it because he can’t find another job.  It’s not because of a lack of trying.  God seems to be closing doors on jobs that matches his talents.  That was a really good question, one which I struggled to give a good answer.

Certainly the Bible records instances where this was emphatically not the case.  But are we developing a truly biblical approach to career choices?  After all, a stuttering Moses was called by God to speak before Pharaoh; Jonah was instructed to call the people of Ninevah to repent, a city he himself would have wanted to see destroyed under God’s judgment; and the personnally unimpressive Apostle Paul was prevailed upon to present the gospel to the entire Gentile world.  If those characters were here today, it seems unlikely that a modern vocational counseling agency would have directed them to their respective tasks on the basis of their interests and talents. 

True.  And the point is well taken.  God does sometimes call people to do that for which they are outstandingly unqualified; and sometimes He calls people to do what they are entirely disinclined to do.  But when He does that, it is because He is about to give a special demonstration of His power.   That is, He is about to perform a miracle – which is, by definition, a departure from the normal course of affairs.  As a rule, people are called to do that for which they are qualified.  Of course, there are exceptions to the rule.  When it happens, what are we to do?  How do we handle the situation?  For sure, we must remain open to the possibility of an exception in our own case through prayer and awareness of God’s leading hand.  Is this too simple of an answer?

Blessings and Shalom!

Bill Wong, Vancouver, BC