When Jesus Calls: Finding a simpler, humbler, bolder vocation
()
About this ebook
Related to When Jesus Calls
Related ebooks
The Parish Handbook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGenerous Ecclesiology: Church, World and the Kingdom of God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHospitality, Service, Proclamation: Interfaith engagement as Christian discipleship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiving Faithfully: Following Christ in everyday life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLife Events: Mission and ministry at baptisms, weddings and funerals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA House Divided: Ways Forward for North American Anglicans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Minister as Entrepreneur: Leading and Growing the Church in an Age of Rapid Change Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFaithful Living: Discipleship, Creed, and Ethics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFive Events that Made Christianity: Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSteel Angels: The personal qualities of a priest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChurch Representation Rules 2020: With an introduction to the new simplified rules Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Year of Grace: Exploring the Christian seasons Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWe Welcome You Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Rite on the Edge: The Language of Baptism and Christening in the Church of England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe DNA of Pioneer Ministry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVicar: Celebrating the Renewal of Parish Ministry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pattern of Our Calling: Ministry Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sound of the Liturgy: How Words Work In Worship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFor This I Came: Spiritual wisdom for priesthood and ministry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Church Weddings Handbook: The Seven Pastoral Moments That Matter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne Unfolding Story: Biblical reflections through the Christian Year Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReflections for Lent 2021: 17 February - 3 April 2021 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReconciliation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReignite: Seeing God rekindle life and purpose in your church Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInside Grief Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLifelines: Wrestling the Word, Gathering up Grace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLentwise Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlanet Protectors: 52 Ways to Look After God's World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure in the Wilderness: Desert Spirituality for Uncertain Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSkills for Collaborative Ministry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Christianity For You
Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table: It's Time to Win the Battle of Your Mind... Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Enoch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Holy Bible (World English Bible, Easy Navigation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Girl's Guide to Great Sex: Creating a Marriage That's Both Holy and Hot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bible Recap: A One-Year Guide to Reading and Understanding the Entire Bible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Your Brain's Not Broken: Strategies for Navigating Your Emotions and Life with ADHD Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mere Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'll Start Again Monday: Break the Cycle of Unhealthy Eating Habits with Lasting Spiritual Satisfaction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Law of Connection: Lesson 10 from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Boundaries Workbook: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild at Heart Expanded Edition: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Undistracted: Capture Your Purpose. Rediscover Your Joy. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Changes That Heal: Four Practical Steps to a Happier, Healthier You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: Fourth Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Lead When You're Not in Charge: Leveraging Influence When You Lack Authority Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for When Jesus Calls
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
When Jesus Calls - Marcus Throup
When Jesus Calls
Finding a Simpler, Humbler, Bolder Vocation
Marcus Throup
Canterbury_logo_fmt.gif© Marcus Throup 2022
First published in 2022 by the Canterbury Press Norwich
Editorial office
3rd Floor, Invicta House
108–114 Golden Lane
London EC1Y 0TG, UK
www.canterburypress.co.uk
Canterbury Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd (a registered charity)
HAM.jpgHymns Ancient & Modern® is a registered trademark of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd
13A Hellesdon Park Road, Norwich,
Norfolk NR6 5DR, UK
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, Canterbury Press.
The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the Author of this Work
Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
978-1-78622-451-4
Typeset by Regent Typesetting
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd
Contents
Introduction
Part 1: Simpler
1. Called into Life
2. Feeling Called – But to What Exactly?
3. Ministry and Ministries
4. To Be or Not to Be (Ordained)
Part 2: Humbler
5. How Can I Be Sure?
6. Counting the Cost
7. Rhythms, Routines and Holy Habits
8. Getting Real (About Myself)
Part 3: Bolder
9. Offering for Ministry
10. When the Church Says ‘Yes’ … and When it Says ‘No’
11. Embracing Ministerial Formation
12. Becoming the Church God Wants Us to Be
Essential Sources
Our Blessed Acronyms
The Ordinal on the Ordination Service of a Deacon (‘Declarations’ Section)
The Ordinal on the Ordination Service of a Priest (‘Declarations’ Section)
The Licensing Service of Lay Ministers (Excerpt)
Bibliography
References and Notes
For Rebekah and Mateus
when the time comes to work out what God
is calling you to be and do
Introduction
Our word ‘vocation’, from the Latin vocare ‘to call’, has a range of meanings and crops up in a range of contexts. We say that someone who is doing well in a particular activity or profession has ‘found their vocation’. In education, you might take a ‘vocational course’ and gain a ‘vocational qualification’. Some professions such as medicine, teaching and law have long been thought of as ‘vocations’, but these days tattoo artists, chefs and a variety of key workers proudly see their work as a calling. On Mother’s Day people rightly talk of motherhood as a vocation and the same goes for fatherhood. Then, of course, there is the rather more specific and traditional use of the term in a religious sense, ‘Christian vocation’, especially a ‘vocation to ministry’ or a particular ‘religious order’.
While this book is largely concerned with vocation to church ministry, Chapter 1 takes a broader approach, making the point that our primary vocation flows from and is symbolized by baptism. For Christians, true life is found in the source of all life and we come alive fully when we abide truly in Jesus through that daily and tenacious ‘living in him and he in us’. Discipleship is that lifelong commitment to follow Jesus, anchored in the day-to-day habitus of prayer and the reading of Scripture. All other forms of vocation we may experience on our journey – to be a spouse or parent, to live a celibate life, to take up a particular profession or line of work, to become a minister in the Church or to join a monastic community – are rightly seen as the blossoming and flowering of that primary vocation.
Recent (re)thinking on vocation in the Church of England confirms the primacy and urgency of an all-embracing call to discipleship. Kingdom Calling, a report by the Faith and Order Commission, picks up on earlier attempts to shift the focus of the vocation conversation.¹ For donkey’s years ‘vocation’ has been a virtual synonym of ordained ministry and few would deny that a kind of privileging of the dog collar has been perpetuated across the traditions of the Church of England. But this tacit elitism and quasi-glamourization of Christian calling is ultimately unchristian and needs calling out insofar as it detracts from the discipleship of all God’s people.²
Gradually, we are waking up to the fact that gospel proclamation cannot be the preserve of a professional caste operating in one tiny corner of society, sometimes out of touch with the whole. Rather, mission and ministry involve everyone who professes Christ as Saviour since our collective identity and self-understanding is that of ‘a church sent into the world to represent the reign (kingdom) of God’.³ Thus, Christian vocation is relevant to every one of us, because, in God’s way of going about things, every one of us is relevant. Indeed, every one of us is called and in some way sent.
Moreover, vocation and ministry must be located not in some cloistered backwater but within life as a whole, because God is about the whole of life. It’s not, as they say, rocket science. But it is about true inclusivity, indeed the very antithesis of a narrowly conceived clerical paradigm characterized by the painfully wrongheaded notion that only the vicar does ‘real ministry’ (audible groan). It’s about everyone being empowered to play a full part in the life of the Church in their day-to-day lives, sustained and equipped by the Spirit. In other words, ‘we are called to be faithful followers of Jesus as we take our part in families, educational institutions, healthcare organizations, enterprises, charities, job centres, housing associations, trade unions, political parties, retirement communities and all kinds of other forms of human relationship within society’.⁴
This deliberate reframing of vocation on a broader canvas encourages us to view the occupations, activities and roles we take up in society, whether paid or voluntary, not as extrinsic to our Christian faith, i.e. outside and separate from our spiritual life, but as intrinsic expressions of our Christian identity: the fruit, if you will, of our baptismal vows. There is, therefore, welcome applicability to the thesis which subdivides ‘vocation’ within three interconnected spheres, namely, ‘social vocation’, ‘relational vocation’ and ‘ministerial vocation’.⁵ I explore this further in Chapter 3.
As we grow into our relational and social vocations we will begin to make a difference to the people in our lives, the people in our neighbourhood and those in our workplace and wider society. Our love of God and neighbour begins to gain traction and bear fruit when enacted in these overlapping spaces. So, while this book is designed to help those exploring a ‘vocation to ministry’ in the narrow sense of church ministry, it rejects the sort of deference culture which would restrict the ‘what?’ of Christian vocation to the priestly domain. Rather, it honours and values those called to exercise licensed or authorized church ministry, while simultaneously valuing and honouring the vocations of those whose discipleship and calling finds expression in more mainstream ways.
In a word, if it’s a calling to ministry in the Church that the reader is beginning to discern, ‘amen’ to that! By the same token, God might be nudging someone to volunteer locally, seek work in the charity sector, become a school governor, step into a community role or act as someone’s carer – amen, amen and amen! As Graham Cray urges, ‘We need citizens who are as committed to fulfil their obligations as to insist on their rights. We need Christians who will live their faith in public, as the primary way to seeking the well-being of others.’⁶ Whether it’s serving as a key worker, volunteering in a food bank or offering a Christian presence in the office, by promoting the common good in a consciously Christ-shaped way we embody deeply meaningful expressions of discipleship in a disoriented world that is crying out for love, justice, healing and godly order. Such contributions are unquestionably vocational and might justifiably come under the heading of ‘Ministry’ conceived in a broad sense, on which see Chapter 3. By the same token, there is much to be said for just getting on with your life in faithfulness to God wherever you are and whatever you are doing, channelling the light, life and love of Christ as you go about your daily life.
Whatever shape they take, our vocations are as much a response to God’s call as something we receive. The element of response is axiomatic in our primary vocation which is confirmed by baptism and renewed in eucharistic participation. In the first instance, this response is the active ‘turning to Christ’ of which the baptismal liturgy speaks. In Anglican theology, our response includes the intentional remembrance and recalibration of who we are in Christ enacted by and through the eucharistic liturgy. Any vocation which we receive from God will emerge and evolve as response. If our primary vocation is to discipleship, then our primary response is that ongoing ‘daily dying to self’, that Spirit-led re-alignment of my life with and in Christ’s life – something that has to be painstakingly and patiently worked on because we’re so set in our (old sinful) ways. Whatever else it is that God may be calling us into and wherever in the world it is that he may have us serve, a simpler, humbler, bolder vision will begin with the recognition of our primary calling and the multiple ways in which Christian vocation will find its expression as response in our world. And since it is by grace that we have received and indeed been received by God, our response has to be characterized by grace. That is, our vocations will give freely and will love wholly, without seeking a return on that love.
Whatever one makes of the initial diagrams used to introduce it – and it’s fair to say there has been more than a modicum of scepticism – the emerging vision for the Church of England epitomized by the simpler, humbler, bolder tagline is a vision to be embraced. It should be welcomed because it seeks the renewal of the vocational life of the people of God in the holistic and wide-ranging way described above. Like other Anglican provinces around the globe, albeit belatedly, the Church of England hopes to integrate the Five Marks of Mission into its overarching vision of what it means to live as a follower of Jesus Christ today. For readers of this book, perhaps the key questions are ‘how can I best contribute to the renewal of God’s people where I’m at, and how might we contribute to a renewal of our community, our nation, our world?’ as well as the more particular, ‘God, what precisely are you calling me to? What is it that you want me to do?’
Leaders of the present and the next generation will have their work cut out. As the Church of England seeks to become simpler, humbler, bolder it will be fighting on many fronts, three in particular present an immediate and significant challenge. On a macro-level, there is the matter of ecology, something which is as much our problem as it is everyone else’s. It’s hardly necessary to invoke Sir David Attenborough or get into the nitty-gritty here. We are all increasingly aware of the climate emergency and the fine mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. If you haven’t read it yet, I’d recommend Ruth Valerio’s Saying Yes to Life. Just one quote from that book reminds us of the urgency of this challenge for the leaders of today and tomorrow:
The world is way off track from reaching net zero even as late as 2050, and it is increasingly clear that even that goal is too late for millions of people. If we do not reduce our carbon emissions by 45 per cent in the next ten years, it is likely we will see 100 million people being pushed back into poverty, global crop yield losses of as much as five per cent over the next ten years, and the disappearance of our coral reefs.⁷
This, as I say, is sadly nothing new and not a surprise to us. What I would just stress is that from a Christian perspective creation care must be a missional priority since it’s about creation theology properly understood, it’s about theological anthropology – who we are under God –