WE ARE ALL CALLED

If someone is ‘called’ it also means someone heard the voice that was calling him or her. How else could one be called? It is not unlike when I was a little mean kid growing up with my brothers and our mother would call us for supper. We knew who was calling and where and when and how we should respond. It seems to me all callings are like that.

William Messenger wrote, “The calling to belong to Christ is God’s only indispensable calling.
Many Christians have the impression that church workers—especially evangelists, missionaries, pastors, priests, ministers, and the like—have a higher calling than other workers. While there is little in the Bible to support this impression, by the Middle Ages, “religious” life—as a monk or nun—was widely considered holier than ordinary life. Regrettably, this distortion remains influential in churches of all traditions, even though the doctrine of virtually every church today affirms the equal value of the work of lay people. In the Bible, God calls individuals both to church-related and non-church-related work.

Therefore, it would be inaccurate to think that God calls church workers but not other types of workers. Some confusion arises because many churches require that their individuals be “called” to be ordained or to serve as pastors, priests, or other ministers. Often the word “call” is used to describe the process of selecting a minister or the decision to enter church work full-time.

However, as in the Bible itself, these situations are rarely direct, unmistakable, personal calls from God. Rather, they may describe a strong sense of guidance by God. As we have seen, God’s guidance can occur just as strongly in non-church-related jobs and professions.
We also affirm that non-church work is as much “full-time Christian service” as church work. All Christians are called (that is, commanded) to conduct everything they do, round the clock, as full-time service to Christ.”
“Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters.”
(Book of Colossians 3:23)

Getting rid of professional religious language and traditions can be very valuable.

“You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” Jesus