Do you feel called? Two things prompt this question: 1) As I’ve talked with both clergy and everyday Christians (my preferred term to lay people), I’ve been struck by a deep divide over the issue of vocation. Not about whether vocation is a great idea – who could argue that all Christians are called by God in Baptism to participate with God in caring for the world. Rather, the divide is two-fold. First, most pastors feel called by God to what they do, while most everyday Christians do not. Second, most pastors assume their people feel called, in part because they preach and teach about vocation, while most everyday Christians...

Vocation – the belief that all of God’s people are called to lives of purpose, service, and meaning – has always been one of the most important theological convictions to me. But, as I’ve learned through several years of research funded by the Lilly Endowment, it is also one of the least understood or actualized. Many, many of our people who listen to teaching and preaching about vocation regularly nevertheless report that they do not feel called. That is, they do not see their work and play and volunteering and everyday relationships as things of particular concern to God and the church, let alone view them as arenas of God’s...

I’m fascinated by the process of making things: making art, making bread, making a guitar or a violin. You name it, and I’m probably curious about how it came into being. Part of that is simply an interest with how things work and, even more, where they came from. Part of it is a fascination with the creative process. And part of it – maybe the biggest part – is that I’m interested not simply in the mechanics – the how – of making something, but in the who – that is, who has brought this thing into being, why, and what does it mean to them. All of this is to say that whenever I come across a story or video about how people...

“Vocation” is one of my favorite concepts in theology. Stemming from the Latin word vocare, “to call,” it means the calling of God to all Christians (and, some would say, all people) to participate in the care of the world and people God loves so much. Often when we talk about vocation, we are referring to someone’s job or profession. I know a great real estate agent, for instance, who feels her calling is to help people find a home in which they can flourish. But as this very example indicates, even when we talk about a job as one’s vocation, it’s never just the job or even what the job accomplishes. It’s about...

For the last four years I have the pleasure of overseeing a grant project that seeks to help seminaries train pastors to better equip their people to recognize God’s calling in everyday life. The grant arose, in part, because of a peculiar and somewhat troubling inconsistency in two groups of research. In the first survey, we discovered that the graduates of five seminaries from five different Christian traditions all highly value vocation and name it as a central theological category in their preaching and teaching. In a second study, composed of surveys and literature reviews, we discovered that most of the people in congregations served...