We Are Called

Dear Pastor: What, if any, other career you were interested in growing up? Did you know the ministry was your calling or was it always a dream of yours to be a teacher, professional golfer?? Not such an in depth question—just something I think is interesting about people- How you get to where you are- do you know what I mean? Sarah

Dear Sarah: Yes, I do know what you mean…and thanks for the softball! I am so glad that you asked this question, because it gives us the opportunity to discuss a really important issue, the issue of vocation. “Vocation”…probably not a word that we use very often in our day to day lives. We use words like “job” or “work” a lot more often. However, I think that we would all do well to think about our “jobs” and our “work” as vocations. The word vocation comes from the latin word vocatio, which means literally a call, or summons. I think it’s really important for all of us, especially Christian folks, to ask the following question: in what way is the job that I do a vocation, or a call from God? Some of you may be thinking to yourselves, or saying out loud, “yeah right, not my job!” If that’s you then ponder the following quote from Mark Kolden, professor at Luther Seminary, “when one is ‘called’ to follow Christ one’s occupation becomes the ‘calling’ in which one serves God.”* The point here is that because we are Christians we must try to see all parts of our lives (jobs included) as an arena in which to serve God and to shine the light of Christ. I invite you all to think and pray about what that means for you.

Getting back to your original question…yes, there are other things that I considered doing with my life. From the age of 5 to about 10, I was certain that I wanted to be a Paleontologist (a digger-upper of Dinosaur bones, for the lay person). I never would have had the patience for that. When I was about nine years old I got my first set of golf clubs and fell in love with the game (okay, it was a love-hate relationship, but it’s all I wanted to do). So, yes, for a time I wanted to be a professional golfer. Unfortunately, I never enjoyed practicing very much. By the time I was a Junior in High School, 17 years old, I had long since given up the dream of joining the PGA tour. I really had no idea what I wanted to do…I was thinking about business because, well, my Dad was in business and that’s just what a lot of guys think about doing when they have no idea what they want to do. The one thing that I did know was that I wanted to serve God, in some way. I had never, I repeat NEVER, considered being a pastor. One Christmas I was on a vacation with my parents in Colorado, skiing. I was alone on a Ski lift, high in the Rockies, it was a beautiful day and I had nothing to do but think about what I was going to do with my life…that’s when it happened. It’s so hard to talk about in words, I didn’t hear a voice or anything, but God spoke…and I knew in an instant that I was supposed to be a pastor…I said, “Okay God.” It’s as simple as that. I still get goose bumps thinking about it.

This moment in my life was truly a gift; not everyone has a “call experience” like I had. That being said, the plumber, doctor, businessman, or teacher is no less called to do what they do than I am called to do what I do. Again, as Christians, our occupations—that is, whatever we do for eight-hours-a-day or perhaps more—becomes the calling in which we serve God, it becomes our ministry. So how is your job your ministry, your vocation?

There is an awesome hymn in the ELW (new hymnal) entitled, “We are Called.” The Chorus of this song reminds us of how all Christians are called to live in all arenas of our life, it goes like this: “We are called to act with justice, we are called to love tenderly, we are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God.” Thanks again for the question Sarah, it turns out that it was even deeper than you thought!

Grace and peace, Pastor

ps: I have a question for you all. It is the responsibility of all congregations to raise up leaders for the church (pastors, chaplains, associates in ministry, etc…). What are some intentional things that we can do to be more intentional to encourage young and old to consider a call to rostered ministry? Send your ideas/reflections to pr.tonymetz@gmail.com

*The entire article by Mark Kolden entitled “Luther on Vocation” can be found at this web address: http://www.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/3-4_Luther/3-4_Kolden.pdf