When Jesus Calls: Finding a simpler, humbler, bolder vocation

When Jesus Calls

Finding a Simpler, Humbler, Bolder Vocation

Marcus Throup

© Marcus Throup 2022

First published in 2022 by the Canterbury Press Norwich

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978-1-78622-451-4

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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 –