The Co-vocational Calling
The whole idea of a vocation or calling (since both these words mean the same thing) might seem a little antiquated in these days of accelerating fluidity, artificial intelligence and the gig economy.
Vocation brings to mind simpler days when people worked at the same job or at least in the same profession for the majority of their working lives. Today our lives are lived constantly in fast-forward with both time and money in relatively short supply. Can we afford the time even to contemplate something as old school as our calling?
The short answer is we can, and we must. One reason for this is relatively simple. Our calling is primarily about the One doing the calling, not us.
Divine Directions
How we carry out our callings is important enough that God has taken the time to give us some directions. These were originally given to his first century people in the backwaters of what is now northern Türkiye. To believers surrounded like resident aliens in a rather hostile host culture (sound familiar?), Peter writes:
God has given each one of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen (1 Peter 4:10, 11 NLT).
Peter is writing to the entire church here, not just to those we think of as the ordained leaders. They are all referred to as God’s chosen people (1 Pet 1:1) and now he is showing them how to act like it. But you will notice it all starts with God giving these gifts to all his people and ends with him receiving the glory. We care about our vocation because it comes from God and is supposed to bring him glory.
Our Response
The implications of this text seem clear enough. All God’s people are called to serve, and all are gifted to serve in some way.
There is a takeaway here for those we term co-vocational pastors. Co-vocational pastors aren’t the only ones that have what Elton Trueblood called our “other vocation.” Maybe we think Trueblood was pulling our legs, right? Didn’t he write a book about Jesus’s sense of humour? Surely he can’t be serious, can he? I’m afraid this is no joke. He’s right. We all have an “other vocation”!
That’s what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It’s a call to everyone to exercise our gifts to the glory of God. And we can do that as a butcher, baker or candlestick maker, just like the pastors who work at another job along with working in the church. In the end, being co-vocational is not just a pastor thing, it’s a congregational thing – entire congregations coming alive to the glorious calling God has placed on each and all of us. Yes, it’s true – we’re all co-vocational and that just seems to be the way God likes it!
If you are in co-vocational ministry, I invite you to connect with Co-Vocational Canada to access complimentary counselling, coaching, and resources designed to support you through the challenges of ministry.
