During the summers between my years in college, I worked at a steel fabrication business in Phoenix, Arizona. The job was hot, sweaty and largely unsatisfying as I chipped slag off welds and primed the beams with red paint. Working with a dozen rough and mostly nonreligious men, I was using few of the aptitudes or motivations that I would later identify with my vocation. In addition to working responsibly, I wondered how I might be a witness for my faith in that place. And was there any other value to that work from God’s perspective?
When we think about following Jesus, we recognize that our primary call is to be reconciled to God, to worship and love God more than any other person or thing (2 Cor. 5:20; Matt. 22:34-38). But as the Bible makes clear, those who are united with God and God’s community also have a secondary call, or mission, to love people (Matt. 22:39). This call is addressed in groups, such as congregations, but mission also has a personal dimension.
Perhaps the first part of the secondary call that comes to mind is the one designated the “great commission.” Jesus charges his followers to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them . . . and teaching them to obey everything” Jesus commands (Matt. 28:19-20). We can relate this to our involvement with family, friends and neighbors. But what about the job world?
The world of employment
Exploring the Bible on this question reveals that some early believers make disciples while earning money from a part-time job (Paul makes tents during missionary journeys as seen in Acts 18:3), while others do not change professions after following Jesus. We find that Jesus is initially a craftsman (Mark 6:3) and interestingly, the Bible includes very little criticism of specific professions.
The assumption seems to be that there are many diverse and legitimate ways to accomplish what is sometimes called the “creation mandate.” Each description of creation in Genesis presents an important aspect of this purpose for human beings: in 1:26 to “rule over” the creation, and in 2:15 to “serve” and “protect” the creation. In the latter, these are the common meanings of the words often translated “work it” and “take care of it” (NIV). The call to rule, yet also to serve and protect, is carried out, however imperfectly, in most types of employment where Christians and others make their living.
The mix of commission and mandate
I am convinced that the great commission does not replace the creation mandate but is injected into the midst of it. That is, our call to love people includes both of them; each person (and each group) will have a distinctive mix. We are Jesus’ witnesses to the “ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8), not just geographically but also professionally. While we are all called to make disciples, most of us will also do work related to the creation mandate.
The world needs people who raise food, provide medical services, create and perform art, teach, counsel, channel resources of compassion, superintend finances, address ecological stresses, fix leaky faucets, make and distribute clothing—even my small part in constructing steel buildings—and many other ways that honor God by serving people and all creation.
These are part of our assignment as Jesus’ faithful disciples in this tragic and wonderful world. When I trained for and became a college Bible professor, my job focus became primarily disciple making, but my vocation still had creation mandate elements, such as caring for my children and mowing the lawn.
To discern our vocation—that mix of making disciples and engaging creation—we can reflect on experiences that bring us fulfillment while meeting the needs of others. We can consider Bible passages and stories that affect us deeply. Areas in which we are successful may be a clue, but God also uses people despite weaknesses.
Personality inventories can be enlightening, and it is almost always beneficial to discuss with trusted friends, family or mentors the self-understandings that emerge. Learning to recognize personal vocational indicators helps us avoid becoming sidetracked by concern for status and a large income. We gain divine perspective on our value, purpose and identity as we grow in clarity about our vocation.
The mix of vocation and job
Just as we each have a vocation with a particular blend of the great commission and the creation mandate, we have different alignments of our vocation with our job. Many Christians find themselves employed in jobs taken solely for the purpose of staying alive. (I also spent years painting houses in the hot sun.)
While we can be grateful for all opportunities to obtain food and other necessities, much of our joy can come—when and where possible—through serving others in a professional capacity that corresponds with our strengths and motivations.
Some may realize that their calling is fulfilled right on their job, though part of that job might be something for which they are not especially suited. Often pastors are given a wide-ranging job description for which no single person could have all the giftedness required. Most of us will likely find that our vocation overlaps in some form between what we do on the job and off the job. Someone employed in the medical profession, for example, could also serve voluntarily in a clinic for lower-income people.
In other cases, people serve with no income received from a job. Homemakers and most missionaries fit this description as do retirees who offer voluntary service. Sometimes a job essentially provides income so that a person is able to serve God’s kingdom during the off hours, such as taking a position at church, helping neighbors or sharing the gospel. In such cases, they may still find opportunities for witness that arise on their job.
Jesus is Lord of all
Followers of Jesus participate in spiritual conflicts that take many forms. One of the most basic is the tension between Jesus’ kingdom and the “kingdoms” of this world. Whatever we do in the job world—that is, to earn income—is just as subject as any other area to him before whom every knee will one day bow and every tongue acknowledge (Phil. 2:10-11).
The way of life Jesus teaches and models should affect our professional and personal ethics. Those who own or otherwise lead businesses should consider how being a disciple of Jesus may require altering or reshaping the policies by which their company is conducted—and also its goals and achievements.
We might find that as a Jesus follower some professions or business practices are ones we would do better to avoid, such as any that involve duplicity or violence. As employees, we may be summoned to speak prophetically concerning matters that, as a result, cause our positions to be at risk. Fortunately, the community of believers is available to help us deliberate such challenging issues.
Celebrate these calls of God
I hope we can recognize and celebrate the goodness of the diverse ways that Jesus’ disciples live out their vocations in this world. It would be a distortion of this understanding to consider certain callings to be the ones that God “really” wants everyone to embrace, such as being a pastor or a missionary. It would also be a distortion to consider that any job or profession is as good as another for the person whom God is actually calling to be a missionary or a pastor or anything else.
God commissions followers of Jesus to be and to make disciples who participate in ministries of healing and of reconciling people to God and to each other, as well as to sustain God’s wonderful creation, such as by drilling for water and repairing homes damaged by storms.
Douglas B. Miller is professor emeritus of biblical and religious studies at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas.
