
Is This the Perfect Motto for Co-Vocational Ministry?
We live in an age of the sound byte, catchy little comments that capture the essence of something as well as our attention. We used to call some of these mottos – pithy statements that say a lot about us in very few words.
Ones that immediately come to mind might be “Carpe Diem” or “Veni, Vidi, Vici” (if you love Latin), “All for one and one for all (the Three Musketeers), “Knowledge is power” (Francis Bacon), or even “To infinity and beyond!” (Buzz Lightyear).
There is a reason mottos are not twenty pages long and in 10-point font. They are there at the ready to help us remain true to our deepest values when we’re battered or bored. They help us stay true to our calling.
Ministry in general, and co-vocational ministry in particular, seem to cry out for mottos. Where can we go for help? I’m certainly not the one to ask. The best I can come up with is “Ministry loves company” or “I suppose it could have been worse.”
So, who are we going to call? (Any similarity to the motto of Ghostbusters here is purely accidental.)
John Wesley on Mottos
Let’s look back to the 18th century to a man small in stature but mighty in mottos: John Wesley.
For someone of his era to have accomplished as much as he did without the benefit of mass transit or mass media is a marvel indeed. Wesley is remembered by what might have served as his motto: “The world is my parish.” That is quite a motto! It sounds a bit grandiose to my tastes, but no one is going to name a denomination after me, so what do I know?
The world is my parish.
It does capture the immensity of the mission of God and Wesley’s role in it, and maybe even the audacity to claim that each of us has an indispensable role in that global calling. It is better to shoot too high than too low. If he had said, “I’ll do what I can,” I doubt that would have been much of an inspiration to those of us who came after him.
It’s good to have something so lofty to spur us on in faithfulness to our calling.
Yes, the mission is global, even cosmic in scope, and eschatological in nature as it moves us in a great hope. But maybe we need a motto that keeps us a bit more grounded in humility when we’re up to our ears in ministry, especially co-vocational ministry.
A Modest Motto
Inspired by Wesley and yet a bit more planted in the contextual soil of ministry, I would suggest a modified version of this famous motto for co-vocational ministers of all varieties.
How does “My world is my parish” sound? It’s got less of the “shoot for the moon” flavour but still spurs us on to see the spectacular calling God has for his co-vocational servants. It reminds us that our ministries are not bound by the walls of a particular church building or by the tasks dictated by one congregation’s expectations.
We are planted in a larger world that transcends complete preoccupation with bodies, buildings, and budgets and into a space where God’s global mission gives us opportunities to serve those who may never darken the door of any worship space.
That is a calling deserving of a suitable motto. Hopefully, “My world is my parish” is large enough to set us free from myopic expectations and to animate us with hope while still contextual enough to ground us in a humility that infuses a sense of sacred mission into every task and conversation.
And who knows? Maybe even Wesley would approve.
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