vocation
The work that begins at retirement
Life's later decades present distinctive virtues—and vices.
by Bob Mink
Poetry that bids us welcome
How is it that the poems of a 17th-century aristocrat still resonate with us?
Death's call and our response
Even in the secular imagination, dying has become a vocation.
Too good for this world
If your mother is drowning in one location and two strangers in another, should you save your mother or the two strangers?
The Finest Traditions of My Calling, by Abraham M. Nussbaum
Nussbaum, a psychiatrist who labels himself a “bad Catholic,” delves with religious fervor into the mystery of his calling to serve people who suffer. Guided by mentors like Basil of Caesarea, Hildegard of Bingen, and Stanley Hauerwas, he envisions medical care as a precious craft honed by the development of virtue.
Cultivating character
Cultivating character is the lifelong work of evaluating and choosing between various virtues. It's difficult, and it’s our calling.
by Grant Wacker
Do No Harm, by Henry Marsh
Reading about Henry Marsh’s vocation to neurosurgery, I thought about my own calling as a minister. I was startled by his depiction of detachment from patients.
reviewed by L. Roger Owens
United in suffering: Martyrdom as Christian vocation
Are the rest of us so different from our brothers and sisters in Libya or in Charleston? Are they heroes with whom we can never identify?
Calling and Clarity, by Doug Koskela
The feast of resources on discipleship, faith and work, and theologies of vocation continues to grow. Doug Koskela provides another serving, this one intended for young adults.
reviewed by Adam Joyce
The most beautiful boat
My brother is nine and I am ten. Wood already obeys his hands when he asks it gently to work with him.
by Brian Doyle
A pastor’s place: All ministry is local
Ministry is incarnationally specific. Pastors are called to see their place and people with God's "lover's eye," and to love them for their particularity.
The pastor as person: Ministry counselor Ross Peterson
"People sometimes come in guarded and defensive. But they want to be understood, and they want to minister well."
by Amy Frykholm
What's so special about a fig tree?
One time at a women’s retreat, I was asked to tell my call story. I told this woman the whole, convoluted story—about serving as a missionary in Japan, about being restless in my work and volunteering for leadership roles in my church, about discovering old journals where I had written about my desire to study theology, about my memory of sitting in church as a teenager and hearing the pastor give the sermon and saying, “If I was a man, that is what I would want to do.” I told her that it had taken me a long time, but I finally realized that God was calling me to be a pastor.
She was not impressed.
By Diane Roth
Healthy Churches, Faithful Pastors, by David Keck
David Keck offers a refreshing addition to the conversation about vocational expectations. Eugene Peterson’s vision of holiness resonates with Keck, but Keck takes a different tack.
reviewed by Phil Waite
Identity in transition
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The thing about preaching and pastoral care is that we often recognize our own problems in everyone else. I suppose that’s why pastors are so often hypocrites—we’re always preaching about our own issues. Then we have to live with the words that we doled out.
Feeling less than alive
I was sitting in a seminary classroom, taking part in an internship program, and the professor was waxing eloquently about calling. It was all good. She was quoting Frederick Buechner and Howard Thurman, and describing vocation as our deepest joy and what makes us come alive.
Does having two jobs make you bivocational?
A few years ago I was interviewing a couple of church planters, and the conversation turned to finances. The husband-and-wife team, Juan and Cirila Lugo, had paid out-of-pocket for many expenses when the congregation began meeting. They were pleased that it had become self-sufficient enough to hire Juan full time. Cirila told me, without a hint of complaint, about writing sermons on her lunch break while she drove a delivery truck six days a week.
But she didn't call herself bivocational, and rightly so.
A call without mystery
The call of Abram is one of my favorite stories in the whole Bible. I have moved quite a lot, and the experience of packing up my life in England to move to the U.S. nearly three years ago is still fresh in my memory. The challenges that face Abram and his family are exciting, probably daunting, but certainly not without their cost. I love the way the call is vague about the destination: it seems that getting moving is more important than knowing the final details.
By Maggi Dawn
Astonished, by Beverly Donofrio
Beverly Donofrio had just been “looking for a monastery to join, for Christ’s sake.” She had closed her laptop, having bookmarked religious communities she might write to, then had fallen into a deep sleep. During the night she was raped at knife point in her home in Mexico.
reviewed by Suzanne Guthrie