Vocation and Call
| Site: | URC Learning Hub |
| Course: | Conversation Starters |
| Book: | Vocation and Call |
| Printed by: | Guest user |
| Date: | Friday, 18 October 2024, 9:19 AM |
1. Please start here
Welcome to this Conversation Starter exploring Vocation and Call.
The aim of this conversation starter is to get you thinking and talking. How you use it is up to you. This might be in a church meeting or a small group setting; perhaps during worship or cafè church; even just to prompt you to have deeper conversations with a friend about how you feel God is calling you, or to encourage them to explore God's call for themselves.
Each page begins with a short introduction followed by three or four questions to get you started. There's some short video clips of people telling their own stories about call and vocation, some material for worship, a bit of theology and links to other useful resources around this subject.
You are invited to use the material flexibly but intentionally - and please let us know how you have used it and whether you have found it helpful. There's a link to a feedback form on page 7.So welcome! Come along and jump in and see where God might be calling you or those with whom you walk through life!
Video:
To begin, watch this short video which introduces this Conversation Starter
Click here for a transcript of this video
2. Follow me...
Jesus said: ‘Follow me’. This call is addressed to each of us.
Over the past few years there has been a lot of talk about call and vocation in the United Reformed Church (URC). These are well-known and widely used words in a faith-based context.
Through this Conversation Starter, we aim to enable conversations about vocational journeys of faith, lived out through our work, church, social and family contexts. And then to consider how each of us talks about call and vocation in the URC, how we encourage each other, how we support each other, how we learn and develop and how we serve.
We are all called by God and, as followers of Jesus, we have responded to that call. Our vocation is how we respond to that call on our lives, where we are. It can change over time and be different things, in different settings, alongside different people. Many of us are in particular places, roles or responsibilities because of the call we have discerned from God. And many of us would not be the person we are today without someone having approached us or encouraged us or raised our awareness, or without us listening to the Spirit’s prompting internally or externally.
‘As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.’ (Matthew 9:9)
Activity:
- Pause to think about God's call on your life. Reflect on how you experienced that call. What was your response?
- Invite people to share their stories around their call, how it happened and how they responded.
Video:
In this short video, the Revd Jenny Mills, Secretary for Education and Learning for the United Reformed Church explains some of the background of this resource and introduces the theme of Call and Vocation.3. Enabling conversations
So, have you ever had anyone tap you on the shoulder, ask for 5 minutes of your time, and then tell you that they have noticed a gift or talent in you that they think you should use? Or has someone called you to say that there’s a role going, and they think that you would be good at it? Or point out that they see you as someone who would be ideal for a particular position?
We believe that God calls us all and we all have something to offer. Too often, however, we are slow to name to others what we see in them or reluctant to believe that what we have to offer is enough. Opening up conversations enables God to be seen, heard, experienced and believed in new, exciting, mundane, and different ways.
Jesus said ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him’. (Luke 8:39)
The man was freed by Jesus and responded by sharing the news of what had happened.
Activity:
- Can you remember a time when someone 'tapped you on the shoulder', or encouraged you to explore a particular role, task or area of service. How did you feel? How did you respond?
- Think about how you might enable others to recognise or hear a call from God. What action can you take?
- Maybe you have seen a gift or talent in someone else that you think they could use in response to a call from God. How might you tell them? Would this be an easy conversation? What might be the things that prevent you from saying something?
- Draw, write or discuss the feelings that arise when you consider these questions.
N.B. If you are facilitating this conversation with a group, give people some time to consider these questions for themselves then invite them to share their thoughts and feelings with other as appropriate.
4. Thinking about vocation
As people seeking to Walk the Way of Jesus, we know ourselves called to faith. And we also know that this call prompts, encourages, compels us to respond. Vocation is the response to a call.
Activity:
- Name as many different vocations as you can.
- Remember that God calls us beyond the church, so be sure to include non-church roles too.
- The call of Abram (Genesis 12)
- The call of Moses (Exodus 3)
- The call of Samuel (1 Samuel 3: 1 - 10)
- The call of David (1 Samuel 16: 1 - 13)
- The call of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1: 4 - 9)
- Esther's vocation (Esther 4: 1 - 14)
- The call of Mary (Luke 1: 26 - 38)
- The call Ananias and the conversion of Paul (Acts 9: 1 - 22)
- The call and conversion of Lydia (Acts 16: 11 - 15)
- God's calling to all Christians (Ephesians 1: 3 - 14)
Videos:
Going further and deeper:
5. Opening up
Now you have heard some stories of God's call and shared conversations with others about call and vocation, watch and listen to some more people talking about their own call and how they responded to God in their lives.
Videos:
In these four videos we asked six people to share their own stories of call and vocation and how this plays out in their daily life, work and ministry.
- Victoria is a Head Teacher of a Primary School.
- Esme is an advocate for Brain Tumour awareness.
- Ursula is a retired nurse.
- Nathaneal is training to be an Assembly Accredited Lay Preacher.
- Azeem is training for ordained ministry.
- Tessa is a Minister of the Word and Sacraments.
1. What do you feel called to?
Click Here for a transcript of this video
2. What draws you to your vocation?
Click Here for a transcript of this video
3. What keeps you going?
Click Here for a transcript of this video
Looking backwards, forwards and outwards.
Click Here for a transcript of this video
6. Why, How and What..?
So, to recap, this Conversation Starter is asking us to talk about WHY we feel call and vocation are important; prompting us to think about HOW we identify call and vocation; and encouraging us to ask WHAT we can do to nurture our own and other people’s vocations.
Activity:
Before moving on to the next page, take a few minutes to think about these questions - why are call and vocation important; how do you identity call and vocation and what you can you do to nuture this in yourself or others?
N.B. If you are facilitating this conversation with a group, use some flipchart paper or a whiteboard to gather ideas and thoughts around these questions of WHY, HOW and WHAT.
6.1. Unpacking these questions
Why are call and vocation important?
- Vocation and call are intrinsic to our faith. God calls us and we respond by seeking ways to use our God-given gifts, talents, abilities and opportunities to be faithful followers of Jesus and God’s presence in the world. It can be argued that every moment of every day for every follower is a response to the call on our lives; and that all people are called by God - whether they are believers or not.
How do we indentify call and vocation?
- We can identify gifts in ourselves or recognize them in others and then use them to make the world a better place, seek justice, or carry out a specific role. Or there may be a task that needs doing that we respond to and apply ourselves to. It can be a spiritual or practical response. It can be paid or voluntary. We can equip everyone to see God at work in the world and their contribution to this as part of the people of God.
What can we do to nurture call and vocation?
We can:
- ask those alongside whom we worship and serve ‘have you thought that God might be calling you to….?’
- encourage people to name what they see in others and where God might be calling them or equipping them, whatever age or stage of life they might be.
- offer support with discerning and validating a call.
- pose these questions:
- How do you live out your faith every day?
- How might the Holy Spirit be prompting you to grow?
- Have you thought about what God might be calling you to (or away from)?
- help people to reflect on what they are doing in service to God and response to their faith, whatever age or stage of life they might be. And seeing if anything is changing or developing.
7. All are called
We hope this Conversation Starter has encouraged you and people in your local congregation to think and talk about call and vocation - in their widest senses. We hope it has allowed space for people to consider the wide variety of vocations that exist within the URC and beyond, and to realise that God's call extends to all.
Activity:
As we come to the end of this Conversation Starter spend a few minutes to think and respond to these further questions:
- How has this Conversation Starter prompted your thinking? Personally? In a Church context?
- Has it changed your thinking or encouraged you to do something/stop doing something or invite someone else to do something?
- What will you do next as a result of engaging in this Conversation Starter about Call and Vocation?
N.B. If you are facilitating this conversation, invite the group to share their thinking about these three questions. As well as individual actions, what are the collective actions that the group might take as a result of working through this Conversation Starter.
Tell us what you thought:
We hope you have enjoyed using this Conversation Starter. We'd be really interested to find out how you have used it and what we could have done to make it even better. Please spare us five minutes of your time to fill in this evalation and feedback form. Thank you.
Click here to access the form (opens in new window)
8. Going further
Other resources and links:
Here is a collection of other resources and links which will help you to take your conversations forward:
- Taking a role in your church
- Discovering more about Pioneering Ministry
- Exploring a call to Ministry in the URC
- More about Church Related Community Work ministry (CRCW)
- Worship Leading in the URC
- An excellent vocations resource from the Student Christian Movement
- Organisations for church community engagement