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.