VOCATIONAL DISCIPLESHIP

As a young Christian, I remember coming across a book titled The Fight by John White.  It appeared to be a volume on basic discipleship with chapters on the importance of Scripture, prayer, holiness, and other matters of what we would call personal piety.  But the final chapter caught my attention.  It was titled Deliverance from Drudgery and addressed the topic of work from a biblical perspective.  This was a new idea to me as my thoughts about discipleship seemed to focus on a rather narrow slice of my “spiritual life.”

Think of it this way, every person has 168 hours in a week.  Even if we allow a generous 8 hours each week for so-called spiritual activities (church services, small group, personal devotions, and prayer), that still leaves 160 hours in your week.  Allow another block of 56 hours a week for sleep and I am left with 109 waking hours for work, marriage, family, and recreation.  Doing the math, I was awakened to what we call whole-life discipleship.  God is not just interested in a narrow spiritual piece of my life, he wants all of my life.  That means a whole-life discipleship that penetrates every part of my existence both inside and outside the walls of the church.

This week we’re looking at the vocational side of whole-life discipleship and what the Bible teaches about work.  Here are three foundational principles to guide us.

1) REALIZE YOUR WORK MATTERS TO GOD

Unfortunately, many Christians operate under the mistaken notion that God’s work is focused in the church or in the family.  When they step into the workplace they feel as if they’re in an arena foreign to God’s purposes.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  If God created the world and is engaged in redeeming it, then God is interested in all spheres of life, not just home or church.  As Abraham Kuyper put it so memorably, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all does not cry, ‘Mine!’”1

Most of us are familiar with the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), but how many of us are familiar with the Original commission (Genesis 1:26-28)?  Here in the opening chapters of Genesis, Yahweh gives his original mandate to the human race.

“Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves. They will be masters over all life…God blessed them and told them, ‘Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.’”           
– Genesis 1:26-28 NLT

What does it mean to “be masters over all life?” It means that God is delegating the care and cultivation of creation to the human race!  He is calling them into a partnership as “co-workers/co-regents” to unlock the resources of creation and to develop and maintain God’s world. You see the same idea in the next chapter.

“The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it.”        
– Genesis 2:15 NLT

We need to make an important distinction at this point between nature and culture.  Nature is what God gives us; culture is what we make of it.  Nature is the raw material; culture is the commodities prepared for market.  Nature is divine creation; culture is human cultivation.  Nature is the coffee bean; culture is Starbucks!

When we realize that God has invited us to share in his work with the ongoing of creation, this mindset begins to transform our experience of work.  Our work becomes a privilege when we see it as a partnership with God.

I love the story of the English gardener who was strolling through the garden with his pastor, proudly pointing out the magnificent flowers in full bloom.  The pastor breaks into praise at the beauty of God’s creation until the gardener was offended that he was receiving no credit.  “You should have seen this garden when God had it all to himself!”

The gardener’s theology was entirely correct.  Without the human worker, the garden would have been a wilderness.  So, when we work we are participating with God in continuing and completing creation.  We are co-workers with God in the building up of culture.

That’s why the work of a garbage collector is every bit as spiritual as the work of a pastor.  A pastor cares for souls, a garbage collector cares for the earth and the people on it.  His work makes the world a cleaner and safer place.

2) DISCOVER YOUR CALLING

In his book, Habits of the Heart, author Robert Bellah outlines three approaches people bring to work.2 

APPROACH #1: WORK AS A JOB

These folks approach their work as a way to pay their bills and put bread on the table. Their mantra is “I owe, I owe, it’s off to work I go.”

But this is the lowest form of work motivation.  It breeds sentiments expressed by the hit country song of the 70’s, “Take This Job and Shove It,” recorded by none other than Johnny Paycheck!

APPROACH #2: WORK AS A CAREER

The focus is now on prestige and personal advancement.  Your feelings about work are based upon how much success it creates for you.

Notice that these first two approaches are very “me” focused.  Those who approach work in these ways are often very dissatisfied people because it goes against the grain of how you were created.

APPROACH #3: WORK AS A CALLING

The language of “calling” comes from the Latin vocatio (hear the word vocal) and is rooted in the life of faith. And if there is a “calling,” then there is someone making the call.  That someone is God!

Now, how do you find your calling?  Biblical teaching down through church history has been to look at your gifts, talents, interests, and capacities.  What are the things you do well and love to do? The guiding principle is this—your calling will flow from your gifting.  The things you’re attracted to and do well are not an accident, it’s your call.  Your Maker is calling you into work that fits the way he made you. “For we are God’s masterpiece.  He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10 NLT).

While one side of vocational calling is giftedness, the other is other-centeredness or service.  Jesus’ calling on our life is always focused around the service of others. “For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others…” (Mark 10:45 NLT).

Dorothy Sayers, the English essayist, writing in post WWII noted that many who fought in the British army found themselves happier and more satisfied than at any other time in their lives.  Why?  Because it was the first time they found themselves working not for pay (minimal), nor for status (everyone was on equal footing), but for the larger community (i.e., others).  Sayers wondered how much better the world would be if people worked to serve others.  That’s precisely the kind of world Jesus envisioned!3

Both Scripture and human experience suggest that when we don’t work, our soul atrophies. When we work for ourselves, we become dissatisfied.  When we work to serve others, we set ourselves up to experience fulfillment and satisfaction.

3) GIVE YOUR BEST

You see this theme of whole-hearted, passionate service in both testaments.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…” 
– Ecclesiastes 9:10 NIV

“Don’t just do the minimum that will get you by.  Do your best.  Work from the heart for your real Master, for God. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ.  The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible.  Being Christian doesn’t cover up bad work.” 
– Colossians 3:22-25 The Message

A FINAL WORD

Vocational discipleship has been described as “when Jesus goes from being a piece of my life to being the centerpiece of my life.”4 You can start right now by embracing Jesus as King over all your life, realize that your work matters to God, discover your calling, and give your best.

That’s just the beginning, but it’s a good foundation to build on.  When you do, you’ll discover that work not only becomes an adventure of partnering with God, but work becomes a wonderful laboratory for real life discipleship.  The most significant discipleship we engage in is not the printed curriculums we complete but the relational tensions and personal challenges we encounter in the workplace.  It is when we respond to these opportunities in trust and obedience that life change is maximized.

This post originally appeared at: Vocational Discipleship — The Bonhoeffer Project

1 Seven Abraham Kuyper Quotes on Faith and Culture, Center for Faith and Culture, Wikipedia
2 Robert Bellah, Habits of the Heart (Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press), 1985, p. 66.
3  Dorothy L. Sayers, Letters to the Diminished Church (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group), 2004.
4 Dave Buehring, Breakout Session at The National Discipleship Forum, Nashville, TN