Judging by your comments (16) and emails (about double that amount) to the short piece I wrote on vocation last week, I’d say that we all, at the very least, want to feel called. And so I wanted to continue sharing some thoughts on vocation as well as continue inviting your conversation (especially in the comments so all can hear what you’re thinking). In this post, then, three observations I have about vocation in relation to the comments, emails, and dozens of conversations I’ve been privileged to have with folks over the years about their sense of calling. 1) No matter how hard we try, we still often tend to think of “calling”...

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...