Encouraging Vocation, Inspiring the Church

This week we’ve been exploring the relationship between our church lives and our vocational lives and it’s been encouraging to see the many different ways we are approaching this topic.

Over the last decade, there has been much thought into creating an environment where workplace Christians are encouraged to pursue a life in business, the arts, or the trades with the full blessing that what they do is important and matters for the Kingdom of God.

Ideally, the church encourages, trains, and sends out believers into the mission fields of the workplace. While there has been headway, there is much progress still to be made. When I asked our community of writers to weigh in, I was heartened to see the intentionality of both ministry leaders and workplace Christians.

Andrea Emerson was stirred to start working out her faith in the workplace, but faced some disapproval from some who thought her efforts would be better served in the traditional church environment. She retreated from her High Calling - -that is until she bumped into a couple of people who lived the life. She writes about it at The Extraordinary Influence of Example.

Helen Fagan’s military family had several moves in their history, but one in particular made an eternal impact thanks to the kindness of a fellow service member who unloaded boxes, brought over dinner, and ministered through acts of service. In Helen’s article, Moving boxes, Spaghetti and Jesus, she says she was floored by their sincerity. “They weren’t just being neighborly; they genuinely cared about us.”

Bill Grandi pastors a church in Indiana, is a blogger and a great encourager to many in our community. And his article, Now I Know touched many with its symbolism rooted in reality. Bill was laid off a ministry position and he found himself working at a pizza restaurant. His boss was unfair, the employees crude, and the customers not always kind. He left his job and reentered the ministry with an entirely different outlook

As a young man, Floyd Samons tagged along with his dad, who was in the construction industry. His first stop was at the donut shop, where relationships were forged and vocation was lived out in a way that was Sweeter Than Chocolate

Jen Sandbulte was a leading HR professional in her field, yet felt uncomfortable publicly asking for prayer for her workplace among a circle of friends. “Immediately I wished I could rewind. Very few of them understood the magnitude of my professional life.” She feels like many of us do – that asking for professional success seems selfish. But we have no problem asking for help when we fail at work. She advocates community intervention on the front-end of our careers rather than wait for downsizing, difficulties with coworkers, or impossible bosses before supplication.

Jen’s article, Will You Pray for my Success?, is our community feature article this week.

This article is part of a series at The High Calling on "The Local Church Equipping Us in Our Vocations." It seems that in many church contexts, what we do Monday through Friday is the least important thing. But shouldn't Christ be the Lord of our work as much as the Lord of our church's ministry programs, our marriages, and our families? Here at The High Calling we not only want to equip and empower the laity to live out their faith in their vocations, but we want to inspire church leaders toequip their people to do so as well. How can church leaders help their congregants to steward their vocations? How can church communities embrace a discipleship paradigm that includes the workplace? If you want to inspire people in your church community to embrace how the vocations of lay people glorify God, why not encourage them by sharing links to these articles in emails, Facebook posts, or through some other social media?