Individual callings should be valued

Is there a calling on your life?

In my own denominational setting, that question is about two things specifically. Do you feel drawn in some way to pastoral ministry, or do you sense that God is calling you to be a foreign missionary? When Southern Baptists talk about being “called” that’s generally what we mean, and I wish we’d stop it.

I wish we’d expand our vision. Full time Gospel ministry is a thing that God calls people to. But that’s uncommon. What about all the rest of the folks? Has God not called them?

Of course. But here’s the rub, said plainly so that all the right people will know they should be offended: The reason we don’t focus on that wider calling is that it doesn’t tend to benefit our church organizations directly.

If a woman feels called to doctor animals as a veterinarian, that’s great. But we are more excited about the woman who feels called to tend the nursery on Sunday morning. We value the Bible study leader more than we do the carpenter, the lawyer, or the restaurant owner.

In the Declaration of Independence there is a famous list of Creator-given rights. The last one is “the pursuit of happiness.” I did some digging about that phrase years ago and found that it wasn’t original with Thomas Jefferson, but was an idea that was in current discussion, and it had a particular meaning.

We assume it refers to a right to do what we think will make us happy. But, to the writers who used it, the phrase had to do with individuals pursuing their callings under God without hindrance or interference. It meant doing what you were made to do, and the thinking was that if you’re pursuing this wholeheartedly, then everyone benefits. The community will be blessed with a great vet; a competent carpenter; or, a wonderful, new restaurant.

Raising children is a calling. Providing for your family is a calling. Moreover, they are noble pursuits, not to be despised. In fact, the encouragement of the New Testament is to see our everyday activities as service devoted, first, to the Lord.

We, the churchy people, tend to pressure young folks toward more religious work, service directly to the church. We do this with no regard to their individual gifts and talents. We do this without bothering to listen to them as they say what excites them, what they’re interested in pursuing. Then we sit back and wonder how the young ones conclude that church is irrelevant to their lives.

I’m at war with the idea that the church exists as a thing to be served. Christians should seek to out-do one another in service to their brethren and neighbors, sure. But when we see the organization itself as the beneficiary of all the labors of her people, we’ve completely reversed the New Testament order.

The church exists to train up her individual members, so that each one will do what God has called them to do, which benefits the whole community, whatever that individual calling may be. In the end, God is glorified. If this strikes you as a foreign concept, you might take a slow read through Ephesians 4.

Gordan Runyan is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Tucumcari. Contact him at:

[email protected]