Definitions

In our class, we’ve been looking at defining terms, spending the first week listing terms and concepts, and the second week trying on some definitions. These are big concepts, like an old cedar tree and we’re trying just to get a sense of the dimensions!

Good discussion around what we mean by calling and vocation continues. I hope to further refine with some theological appropriateness the relationship between primary and secondary callings, with the understanding that the world and God’s Kingdom (present yet coming in its fullness) are distinct. The world (including ourselves who inhabit the world) is infused by sin and brokenness and it is only Christ Jesus who is the world’s redeemer. We cannot attain to the kingdom and made its citizens without his invitation and adoption into it! And yet, as citizens of the Kingdom we can bear witness to the King in every aspect of our lives … This is what the class is concerned to stress.

Here are two of the definitions we’ve used:

Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service. – Os Guinness, The Call

The word vocation is a rich one, having to do with the wholeness of life, the range of relationships and responsibilities. Work, yes, but also families, and neighbors, and citizenship, locally and globally — all of this and more is seen as vocation, that to which I am called as a human being, living my life before the face of God. It is never the same as occupation, just as calling is never the same word as career. Sometimes, by grace, the words and the realities they represent do overlap, even significantly; sometimes, in the incompleteness of life in a fallen world, there is not much overlap at all. – Steven Garber, http://www.Washingtoninst.org

In our class, we’ve been looking at defining terms, spending the first week listing terms and concepts, and the second week trying on some definitions. These are big concepts, and we’ve not enough time to make a good ascent, but we should not be anxious about that; we just want to see the lay of the land here in our class.

Good discussion around what we mean by calling and vocation continues. I hope to further refine with some theological appropriateness the relationship between primary and secondary callings, with the understanding that the world and God’s Kingdom (present yet coming in its fullness) are distinct. The world (including ourselves who inhabit the world) is infused by sin and brokenness and it is only Christ Jesus who is the world’s redeemer. We cannot attain to the kingdom and made its citizens without his invitation and adoption into it! And yet, as citizens of the Kingdom we can bear witness to the King in every aspect of our lives … This is what the class is concerned to stress.

Here are two of the definitions we’ve used:

Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service. – Os Guinness, The Call

The word vocation is a rich one, having to do with the wholeness of life, the range of relationships and responsibilities. Work, yes, but also families, and neighbors, and citizenship, locally and globally — all of this and more is seen as vocation, that to which I am called as a human being, living my life before the face of God. It is never the same as occupation, just as calling is never the same word as career. Sometimes, by grace, the words and the realities they represent do overlap, even significantly; sometimes, in the incompleteness of life in a fallen world, there is not much overlap at all. – Steven Garber, http://www.Washingtoninst.org

Work Matters: Work as worship till the Kingdom Comes, Sunday’s this fall at St. Gabriel

Sunday – Adult Formation, Fall 2012
Tentative Schedule

September 16 – Definitions: calling, work, vocation, stewardship
September 23 – Essay: Mission, Rethinking Vocation by John Stott
September 30 – Issues Related to Faith, Work, and Un (Under)-Employment: David Lee
October 7 – Can Women Have it All?: A Discussion with Lauren Sveen and Mom Corps
October 14 – The Work Alive Institute at Denver First Church of the Nazarene: A Discussion with Lynne Bell
October 21 – The Grand Narrative: Creation
October 28 – The Grand Narrative: Fall
November 4 – The Grand Narrative: Redemption
November 11 -The Grand Narrative: New Creation
November 18 – (Consecration Sunday, no adult Forum)
November 25 – Issues Related to Retirement: Marilyn Schneider