What an honor to be a speaker at a Christian college chapel service. Nerve-wracking, too, I must admit.  Yesterday, I had the privilege to share with the student body at Western Pennsylvania’s Geneva College, at a special service sponsored by the Career Development office.  Perhaps better than many colleges, their office helps students frame their academic work and choice of majors by the Biblical doctrine of calling.  For the collect opening the service, we read responsively from Os Guinness’ famous book The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Nelson; $17.99.)  Did they know it is one of my all-time favorite books?  Did they expect that I would cite it?  It was such a fitting way into a liturgical celebration of God’s call into His kingdom, and the subsequent duties to serve the great King in every zone of life.  Of course we shouldn’t reduce our many callings to only our paid jobs, and, in fact, the director of the Career Development office explained to me that they (ironically) try not to use the word “career” for a variety of reasons, noting the baggage and assumptions such a phrase carries.  So, yes, we are called to a variety of places, various “offices” or tasks, with all sorts of God-given opportunities and obligations.  We are called and sent.  Guinness is still my favorite author on this and it is a book I revist over and over.  If you don’t have it, please, please, consider it. The discussion guide in the back is very strong, too, making it an exceptional resource.

Another book that we often suggest for those pondering this idea of vocation and calling is the exceptional, easy-to-read exploration of the notion of vocation in Here I Am: Now What on Earth Should I Be Doing? by Quentin Schultze (Baker; $14.00.)  What a great little book, wise and helpful, about being stewards of the various gifts God gives us, in the various spheres he calls us to!  One of the best, with reasonable theological foundations and lots of great illustrative stories and anecdotes  Q is a great storyteller—he is the head of the communications department at Calvin College in Michigan and has a remarkable book on virtues needed for our electronic age and another which is the definitive book on communication and mass media from a Christian perspective (and yet another small one on public speaking.)  What a story this guy has, and how wonderfully he’s used his own scholarly vocation to help others with these basics.  Highly recommended.  Check out his amazing blog of comment and reviews, here.

Or, consider the more thoroughly Biblical overview A Journey Worth Taking: Finding Your Purpose in This World by Charles D. Drew (P&R; $12.99.) Some have told me this was the best combination of the Biblical overview of creation-fall-redemption-restoration story of Scripture and the language of purpose (exploring, then, the themes of vocation and call) that they’ve ever read.  Rev. Drew is certainly a solid writer, well crafting mature sentences in wise and wonderful ways.  Endorsements from the likes of Tim Keller remind us that it is highly regarded,  well considered, helpful and theologically rich, without being arcane or abstract.  Yeah.

What Is Vocation Steven J. Nichols (P&R; $3.99) This is a wonderful, small booklet,  similar to the What is A Christian Worldview by Philip Ryken (P&R; $5.00) that we often promote.  It could be used in small groups, a quick adult ed class, or given to high school seniors.  Steve gets it just right; he’s a nearly local guy, by the way, a Lancaster friend, writer of popular level books on church history and several biographies of folks like Luther and Edwards. (Not to mention the spiffy Church History ABC book we’ve touted.) This brief staple-bound booklet is as handsome as it is readable and could be life-changing.  I hope you have something like this )at the bare minimum) on your bookshelf.  Maybe you should order a dozen or so and pass ’em out—at least to youth who are thinking about going off to college, or young students needing to be encouraged to think about calling as they consider their majors, or for adults who may be longing to be affirmed in their line of work. (Oh, if only pastors did this more for their flocks, affirming the life of the laity!)

I told the students at Geneva that one of the good books to read along these lines as they think about calling is simply entitled Your Work Matters to God by Doug Sherman & William Hendricks (NavPress; $15.00.) I recommend it over and over. There are great other titles like Mastering Monday: A Guide to Integrating Faith and Work by John Beckett (IVP; $18.00) and meaty ones like The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work and Ministry by R. Paul Stevens (Eerdmans; $27.00.) Why not google Dorothy Sayers and read her important essay “Why Work” with some friends, for that matter?  Of course, when we come to embrace this whole vision—that vocation is central, not incidental, to the missio dei as my friend Steve Garber puts it—it has vast implications.  Some exciting, some scary.  Yup.  Before digging into the books on the details of work, though, be sure to get this vocation material deep in your bones.  These I’ve mentioned are all great starters.

By the way, for a briefly annotated introductory list of various books arranged by “vocational” area–from engineering to medicine, law to pop culture studies, from psychology to the arts, and more—click on the “Books By Vocation” tab at our home page.  You’ll be surprised to see the handful of recommendations in so many professional occupations and callings.  I need to update this, but it is still well worth seeing or passing on to others.

Although I was preaching at Geneva on a favorite post-exile text (Haggai 2 where God promises peace to a rebuilt city, after a shaking of the nations, and invites us strongly to “take courage and work”) I did observe that the idea of ordinary people finding great purpose in their jobs and mundane work has great historical precedent from throughout church history. Some in the past, of course, have been more helpful than others.  (Is that putting it tactfully, or what?)  Martin Luther famously talked about how those who made the beer barrels and the women milking the cows, were as important to the Kingdom of God as were the priests and nuns.  We all know about Brother Lawrence “practicing the presence of God” as he did the dishes (a la Zechariah 14:21, perhaps?) Read Guinness for other such
inspiring stories and transformational episodes.  These visions of the dignity of labor, the call to work, and the spirituality of the ordinary broke open the medieval ways and helped create a dynamism that shaped the modern world.

Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation edited by William Placher (Eerdmans; $25.00) This fat volume is an anthology that traces primary source readings from throughout church history, showing an amazing depth of serious work on this topic. There is simply nothing like it in print, and we are in debt to the late Dr. Placher.  Not for everyone perhaps, but for those wanting a solid overview of the best writing opn this topic through the ages, this is a must.  Given the vast array of important writings here, the price is a real bargain!  We’ve promoted this before, and trust that theological educators, pastors and others involved in leadership, at least, would find it helpful.

Another anthology that I dip in to from time to time—it is great when one needs inspiration, or a thoughtful reminder during hard times, or for sermon or class illustration—is the huge and diverse collection called Leading Lives That Matter: What We Should Do And Who We Should Be  smartly edited by Mark Schwhehn & Dorothy Bass (Eerdmans; $26.00.)  I’ve written about this before, marveling at the literary breadth of these fine pieces—excerpts from Homer and Milton to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Dorothy Day, Wendell Berry to Robert Frost.  The book offers historic essays arranged around seven key aspects of one’s identity, crucial stuff to be sure about in the search for significance.  Wonderful, wonderful.

Two small hardbacks are both so very handsome to hold that they invite slow reading and
careful reflection.   I told students to be attentive to their lives and the world around us—rousing stories of God’s faithfulness to us as we take up our callings to make a difference preach well, but eventually, we must be reminded to sit in silence a bit, thinking, praying, reflecting, listening. If I’d had opportunity, I would have shown these two: Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer (Jossey Bass; $18.95) and The Echo Within: Finding Your True Calling by Robert Benson (Waterbrook; $14.99 )  These are truly lovely books, inspiring and tenderly written. I have reviewed them in the past, and assume you may know of our fondness for these contemplative authors.  Highly recommended for those discerning vocation, wanting to nurture the habits of being a bit more attentive about one’s life, or for those who guide others.  Nice.