Monday, February 1, 2010

What I’m Reading Today: Galatians 6 & Mark 1:1-20

Yesterday was my service of installation as senior pastor at Woodland Hills Community Church. What an amazing celebration it was! It would have been impossible for the experience to be any more meaningful for me.

As I sat through the service, there was one thought that stayed with me throughout the day. That thought was this: ordained clergy aren’t the only ones who have a call. Each and every one of us has a call. In fact, I believe a huge piece of my call as an ordained clergy person is to help others find their call.

What gives me reason to believe everyone has a call?

Well, when I look at the call stories contained in the Gospels – stories such as contained in the passage from the first chapter of Mark that I’m sitting with today – I realize two things about calls. I’ll let you read the language of the call stories for yourself and then share the two learnings I pull out of them.

“Passing along the beach of Lake Galilee, [Jesus] saw Simon and his brother Andrew net-fishing. Fishing was their regular work. Jesus said to them, ‘Come with me.’”

And a few verses later:

“A dozen yards or so down the beach, he saw the brothers James and John, Zebedee’s sons. They were in the boat, mending their fishnets. Right off, [Jesus] made the same offer.”

Two things stand out for me in those stories. First, the calls were issued to regular folks like you and I. None of them had advanced degrees. None of them were particularly prominent. Second, the calls didn’t come in some special moment set apart from the rest of their lives. The calls came within the context of their daily lives.

So what are the implications for us?

The first is to open yourself to the radical possibility that you – like those first disciples and like ordained folks – have a call. And second, be open to experiencing that call within the context of your day-to-day life. In fact, your call might not be to drop everything and hit the road as it was in the case of the first disciples. It might be as simple as re-conceptualizing your current job/life circumstance so that you honor your role for what it is: a call.

Don’t hesitate to let me know if you’d like to explore the notion of call a bit further. I’d love to be one of the resources available to you as you come to embrace your call.

Til next time…