The winter issue of Leadership Journal is on vocation and callings. In the lead editorial, managing editor Drew Dyck reminds us that while it’s important to affirm the calling of lawyers, journalists, and plumbers, we need to remember that being a pastor is a calling too:
I applaud this move toward a more holistic understanding of vocation. I’ve seen numerous books on the topic published in the past few years. Conferences are springing up. What’s most heartening is to see some churches, like Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, launching programs to help parishioners think theologically about their vocations. We still have a long way to go, but things are changing. And I’m thankful. Yet amid the excitement to affirm all vocations, I want to offer this caveat. Let’s not forget to also honor the call to full-time ministry.
Since graduating from seminary six years ago, I can’t think of one former classmate who is now a pastor. For many young Christians today, going into missions or the pastorate is now the second-class option. Doing social work, starting a charity, or working for an NGO—those are the cool vocations. Next to such endeavors the ancient, plodding work of shepherding a congregation seems passé to many. That worries me. If the Christians of yesteryear exalted ministry vocations to unhealthy heights, I fear the pendulum may now be swinging too far in the opposite direction.
