Michael Thigpen had a successful job at a bank, rising through the ranks of the company to a management position. Yet he had originally planned to be a teacher or a pastor, and after finally graduating from seminary and struggling to find a position in either role, he became frustrated with his banking career.
Now a theology professor at Biola University, Thigpen realizes that his frustrations had to do with an inaccurate vision of vocation and the human person as redeemed by Christ.
“Why had I been so frustrated when an unplanned career was successful?” he now asks. “And why was my sense of identity so tied to the source of my income? …My occupational angst was rooted in a misunderstanding of my identity,” he says.
In a talk for the Oikonomia Network, Thigpen explains the importance of grasping precisely this, arguing that properly understanding our vocation begins with uniting our understanding of economic activity with the “grammar of creation.”
Thigpen reminds us of three distinct truths: (1) economic activity flows directly out of our identity, (2) economic activity is worship, and (3) God intended a flourishing society, not just flourishing individuals.
Taking these together, we see a more complete picture of God’s plan from the beginning:
Created in his image — that is, connected to him and reflective of him — we are supposed to rule the world on behalf of and as a reflection of our Creator….
We’re ambassadors — citizens of heaven living in communities on earth, earnestly representing God in his flourishing society, the Kingdom. We invite everyone who hears to enter through the Gospel. And this Gospel creates not just flourishing individuals, but a new flourishing society, the kingdom, where there is life and there is peace and where “all these things are added.”
Economic activities are not outside the kingdom. They’re placed in the kingdom, in their proper orientation as a necessary result of our identity as newly created ones in the image of Christ. An economically flourishing society is the natural result of what God is doing through his kingdom now.
