Everything is God’s
One of the core values that shapes everything we do here at Restoration is this:
The Gospel calls us to lives of coherence and responsibility.
Coherence means that we are to be the same people 7 days a week. It means that following Jesus as our leader and forgiver infuses every dimension of our life. Responsibility means that everything matters– how we behave, what we believe, how we treat people. There is never a time we are not salt, light, and catalysts of transformation.
On Sunday, we took a pause to think about our labor– to have a conversation about vocation. One of the things I love about our church and about this area, is that we think at a fairly high level about our jobs and our calling. Most of us are doing what we do because our ‘job’ uses our gifts and our ‘work’ results in good (and goods) for which we are proud. To be cliche, most of us at Restoration get up in the morning because we want to change the world… (disagree? post a comment)
A definition of calling was proposed (from an essay by Frederich Buechner): it is finding the intersection of
the work you NEED to do [because of the way God made you]
and the work the world needs done [because it is a broken place on a journey of restoration]
I’m curious as to how many of you out there feel like the job you wake up to is fulfilling the vocational calling that this describes? Are you doing the work God has made you to do? Do you believe that the work you are doing, matters?
I believe that everyone at Restoration can honor God with their work— they can do their job at a high level of quality with integrity– from politicians to intelligence analysts to teachers to parents to attorneys.
I also believe that God has called you to the work you are doing. He doesn’t just call pastors and preachers. He also calls lawyers and teachers (but only a preacher can get that to rhyme like that… or maybe a rapper). Do you believe that you are living out your calling from God? What impact does that belief have on your interaction with clients, supervisors, and customers?
This is such an important conversation. I am excited to dwell on some of the themes that emerged this weekend during my fall sermon series on Philippians. I also invite you to continue the conversation with Nate and Ray on Mondays at lunch. You can sign up here.
September 7, 2010 @ 1:45 pm
I appreciated the recommended reading list that Nate Mouttet offered on Sunday. In case you missed it, here’s the list:
Christ and Culture, by H. Richard Niebuhr
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, by Parker J. Palmer
Oh the Places You’ll Go, by Dr. Seuss
Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose: Vocation and the Ethics of Ambition, by Brian J. Mahan
ReWork, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purposes in Your Life, by Os Guinness
Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, by Andy Crouch
Who Needs Theology? An Invitation to the Study of God, by Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson
September 8, 2010 @ 5:26 pm
I think what David has said here has so much wisdom and is such an advanced understanding for a fledgling church. God IS a worker from the beginning of creation until now; we are his co-workers and he is our “boss.” What we do Monday-Friday we not only do for his glory we do it by him and in him. Christ came to redeem “every square inch” said Abraham Kuyper and once we begin to “know” this we begin to act on our calling and our responsibilities. To have this perspective embedded into the culture of Restoration at an early age is not only mature but of fruit-bearing potential. Nate and I welcome talking to others who are, like us, seeking to work out Christ’s call 24-7.