notions of the parameters of ‘ministry’. I had thought that only a few people were actually called to ministry, a label I reserved for missionaries, pastors and perhaps some pivotal Christian thinkers. However, as Christina and I sat in her office in the back of the tutoring center one afternoon, she changed my mind. As we discussed the formidable demands of her work, she paused and smiled at me, saying, “You know, you can’t define ministry by who gives you your paycheck. Even if a church doesn’t write your paychecks or you do not raise support in your community, you are still doing ministry. If you are living for Christ, whatever you happen to do is ministry.” In this moment, my understanding of vocation and the nature of God’s will was transformed. I began to grasp the truth that while I might not be able to predict what projects or places God would lead me to over the course of my life, or even during the next week, I could walk in the center of His will without this knowledge. Paul writes, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”1 As Christina suggested, I came to believe that if I lived each day following this command, wanting to bring glory to God and desiring to further His Kingdom, I would be living out His will for my life.
“I realized I had no idea how to control a classroom of rambunctious sixthgraders, I had trouble empathizing with the lives of the students who lived in the under-served community around the tutoring center, and I struggled to see how my two semesters at Duke had prepared me to show God’s love in a raw, real world.”
1. 1 Cor. 10:31 (ESV).
2. 1 Cor. 12:4-6.
6 Religio Spring 2011
Also, while I believe that God calls every Christian to minister with his or her life, He gives each person specific strengths, passions, and experiences which contribute to shaping members of the body of Christ for certain roles and tasks, career-oriented or otherwise. Again, Paul aptly explains, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.”2 Because we are differently gifted, reflecting upon how God might be molding us or encouraging certain character qualities or desires is critical to the process of vocational discernment. I find Paul’s exhortation to “do all to the glory of God” as foundational to my understanding that calling encompasses all moments,
Oswald Chambers (born 1874) rose to prominence as one of the most influential Protestant teachers and ministers of the 20th century only after his death in 1917. Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Chambers originally studied at London’s Royal Academy of Art. He began study for the ministry after an intense inner struggle, a decision which would lead him to teach at numerous Bible colleges, write multiple books, and author the immensely popular devotional, “My Utmost for His Highest.”*