Reflections on A Gospel Vision for Your Vocation

October 9th, 2013

On Sunday, September 29th the Young Adults gathered at the Willeman’s home for a cookout, a time of fellowship, and a discussion about “A Gospel Vision for your Vocation” led by Pastor Don Willeman. Over 35 young adults attended the time. Below you’ll find personal reflections from a few of those who attended the event.

“During the discussion time, Don referenced Colossians 3:23 where it says “whatever you do work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord not for men.” He went on to explain that our work and doing our jobs well glorifies God. That was really helpful to me because it reminded me that the time I spend at work is not time away from serving God – it’s part of serving God.”

~Becca Wistrom

“I was very much encouraged by Pastor Don’s reminder that our spiritual purpose in our vocation is first and foremost to glorify God by working as if serving the Lord and not men. So often I am caught up in my work because of it’s earthly ends, typically success or self satisfaction; if work is going poorly, sometimes I will spiritualize it by thinking of my vocation as only an opportunity to minister the gospel to those around me (which it most certainly is). This is incorrect thinking. Everything we do as Christians should be in response to the powerful work of the gospel. This holds true particularly in our vocations because God has given us work to do.

I was also struck by the phrasing of the word vocation to mean a calling rather than simply a job. I rather enjoy this definition because as a student (and possibly a student for a very long time), studying and research seems to fit better with the idea of a vocation than it does an occupation. This calling also extends to the entirety of or lives: our family, our spouse, our church etc. It appears to me more biblically sound to say that the entirety of our lives constitutes our vocation from God though I get caught up differentiating between the spiritual and the secular all of the time. Again, very encouraging time.”

~Drew Wong

First of all, I am encouraged that are so many young professionals who are believers in the Upper Valley now as evidenced by the 35 attendees of the YAM cookout and discussion time. When I first moved here, I think there were about five young professionals attending CRC so it’s exploded in the 4 1/2 years I’ve been here!

In Don’s teaching, I was challenged by a question posed on how we prioritize work and ministry balance in our lives. Don’s answer was to take a look at our heart motivations to assess whether we are looking to either our job or ministry as a source of security or significance. Either of those things, while good in and of themselves, cannot take the place of God. They are good things but we ought not to turn them into god things.

Don shared with us that work is not just a means to an end to fund our life, nor merely to fund missions, but work as a ministry and that we should be doing all things for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31). He pointed out the challenges that we find in the workplace with misplaced expectations that we put on our job for significance and security as well as incorrectly looking to our co-workers to validate us in work and thus significance. I was left with many things to ponder as I approach my job, not merely as a job but as a vocation, as a calling.

As you can tell it was a very encouraging time of fellowship and teaching!

~Stephanie Nelson