What is Christian
vocation?
In Baptism we are “claimed by God and marked as Christ’s
own forever” (Book of Common Worship). In Baptism
we are adopted by God as children of the covenant and shown
the promise of God’s grace and salvation in Jesus Christ.
We are called out and given our identity in the community of
faith. In The Lord’s Supper, we remember Christ’s
life, death and resurrection and celebrate the presence of the
living God, looking forward with hope to Christ’s return
and the fulfillment of the Kingdom Christ proclaimed (Directory
for Worship). We are nourished and sustained in our Christian
identity. In Baptism we receive our traveling orders; in The
Lord’s Supper we receive our food for the journey.
As travelers journeying on the way of Christ, we all share
in the responsibility of ministry. In our Reformed understanding
of the priesthood of all believers, everyone shares the priestly
role, no person or office mediates our relationship with God
except Jesus Christ, and he is Immanuel, God with us, God incarnate.
In Jesus we all stand equally before God. Each of us shares
in the priestly role, which makes each of us a minister. Our
vocation — from the Latin verb meaning to call —
is to be a believer, a Christian.
Each of us is a Christian minister, and we are to Glorify
God or demonstrate the gospel in whatever we do and say. Christian
Vocation is about living into our baptismal identity in all
aspects of our lives, declaring that “I am, ‘Jane
Smith,’ child of the covenant, and I live my life as a
new creation,” so that whatever we do, in public life
and in private life, in work and at play, in our family and
with our friends, in compassion and in obligation, we do in
service to our Lord and to glorify God.
This website is intended to provide ideas, resources and connections
on discernment of Christian Vocation and is for young people
involved in searching their vocational identity, as well as
for those who are involved with young people in their vocational
journey.
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