Complicated

I just read an article here that really, really resonated for me.

The title of the piece is "Is Ministry a Job or Vocation?" At one point the writer says that it would be nice to answer the question "What do you do?" with words other than "It's complicated!"

Wow! Is that ever close to home for me, and I venture to guess, to many of you reading this as well. Certainly if you are a bi-vocational minister, a pastor or youth leader or camp director or financial officer, you know that you do tons of real work that you may not get paid for. It isn't your real job, the one that puts food on the table. You don't count the hours or submit regular reports to a supervisor. But you sure work! You work lots!

The writer of that essay compared ministry with art. Artists (actors, writers, poets, dancers, sculptors) almost always need a paying job to support their real work, the work they feel called to do--their vocation. And ministry is similar. We do what we do because we feel called. It's our vocation, not our job.

Well, truly, sometimes it's both; and sometimes it's neither. But it's a distinction worth thinking about. It's complicated.

What work do you do that's more vocation or calling than it is a job? And what would you keep doing even if you didn't get paid for it? Are you blessed to have a job that is also a vocation? If you do, how do you retire? That's a question I'm working on right now. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Posted by Marion