Missional Vocation: Missional Living and Faith

by Natalie McLaury

For the past few weeks, Ryan and I have been sharing our thoughts on Missional Vocation. We’ve applied the idea to the workplace, the community, and the home. The idea of Missional Vocation in the various realms in which we interact is a good one; as Christians, we are called to live out our faith. As Christ’s disciples in the year 2011, we are compelled to follow the Great Commission that was laid out thousands of years ago.

Now that we have considered a few different ideas about missional living, however, we need to take a step back. Ultimately, we cannot be missional in our actions with our co-workers, our neighbors, and our family members, unless we have a right relationship with our Lord and Savior.

If the coaches of the Green Bay Packers were using the same plays season after season, with the same players in the same positions, they probably wouldn’t be very effective. In order to better their team and win games, they have to be continuously learning. The coaches must research new plays, study lineups, and have an understanding of the game that is always growing and evolving. A stagnant team will never be a successful team.

The same could be said about our faith. A stagnant faith has the power to hinder missional living. To be effective missionaries, wherever we are and whomever we encounter, we have to be continuously growing in our own faith journeys. Much like the Packers study the playbooks, we must study our playbook: the Bible. A deeper understanding of the Word will better equip us to live it out. A more consistent prayer life will better equip us to use it as a tool. A disciplined devotional practice will better equip us to keep missional living a priority.

I encourage you, and myself, to be missional. Be missional in your occupation. Be missional in your community. Be missional in your home. But first, be diligent and intentional about your faith, your beliefs, and your relationship with Jesus Christ. Sharpen this and watch God teach you, grow you, and use you.

Hebrews 12:11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Faith and Work :: Michelle's Story

I think I was born a perfectionist or, at least, I was raised to be one.  Anyone who has a mom or dad that used toothbrushes to clean and has ever brought home an A- only to be told to try for an A or A+ next time, knows what I mean.  Not that I had a horrible upbringing at all, just one that always encouraged me to be better, do more, and never settle.

Luckily for my sometimes messy husband, I am a reformed perfectionist in the area of cleaning and organizing.  I’ve taught myself to manage those overwhelming impulses to clean and organize.  I am happy to report that I have a much higher tolerance for messes than ever before.

Unfortunately, I am not a reformed perfectionist in all areas of my life, especially work.  The same impulse that drives me to clean light switches with a toothbrush (have you ever noticed how dirty those things get!?), drives me to excel at work.  I am an art and art history teacher; and I have high expectations for my students.  I really do expect my students to learn how to draw or learn about Greek mythology, depending on the class.

Even more, I have high expectations for myself as a teacher.  I believe a skilled teacher can teach in most circumstances.  Makes sense, no?

And here in lies my dilemma: if students are not learning and excelling at the pace I expect, then I need to plan more, do more, be more.  I end up making new assignments, new presentations, new lessons, new essay prompts, and so on.  All in all, I end up being true to my perfectionist roots. 
And when all my hard work does not produce the results I want – when students do not learn and my evaluating administrator does not notice – I question my profession.  Maybe, I am not meant to be a teacher?  I try too hard and achieve too little, because this job does not ‘fit’ me.

Or, perhaps, I have to confront an even harder reality.  Something I would never say aloud and might drive me more than I would ever admit.  I am not perfect and I have not found the perfect job.
Some girls grow up dreaming about their wedding.  In high school, I decided that I wanted to travel, earn multiple degrees, live in a downtown area, and get married when I was thirty.  That was my dream.  And in this fantasy, I was driven, successful, and had a boss who loved me.  In high school, I would have never seen any similarities between my dream and girls who dreamed about beach weddings where they looked like Malibu Barbie. 

Now, I think I have a lot in common with those girls.  We were both overly idealistic.  Just like every beach wedding will have sand that gets stuck between your toes, every job has things that can irritate you to the point of giving up.

I think I’m slowly beginning to understand that this side of Heaven we are not perfect and situations are not ideal.  One day I may even be a reformed-idealist: someone who does not exchange idealism for cynicism, but a person who knows when to leave well enough alone.

-Michelle

Faith and Work :: Ryan's Story

Like so many others, especially those in their early twenties, I have undergone a vocational crisis (and am still working through it), so I thought I would share my experience and insights on it all:

I went through four years of college under the delusion that I wanted to be a physical therapist. I never changed majors, I never outwardly second-guessed my career choice, yet I never felt fully confident in my plan. I was just going with the flow. It was easier to just tell people that I knew what I wanted to do with the rest of my life than actually try to figure it out.

During my senior year at Truman, I applied to the only Doctor of Physical Therapy program in St. Louis (where my then-fiance Natalie had accepted a job) that was taking students from other schools--Wash U. While I was waiting to hear whether I had been accepted or not, I began assuming the worst and actually started thinking about what I would do if I didn't get in. Part of me hoped that I would be rejected so that I wouldn't have to make the choice between paying a ton of money to attend or finding a different career path. However, despite my fantasies of rejection, I got my acceptance call: I was in. Then I got excited. Yes, it would cost an arm and a leg and would take up three years of my life, but I felt very proud to tell people that I had my life figured out, that I would get a doctorate at a top-ranked program. I had my career path lined out, I was soon to be married, life was good.

I made it through my first semester just fine. The excitement of the October wedding and busyness of school kept me preoccupied. I did notice that some of the other students seemed a bit more excited about the field than I did, but I just wrote that off as my innate laid-back demeanor. However, starting back after Christmas break, I began to have second thoughts. They popped up here and there at first but started coming with force at the end of January. Things intensified drastically when I came down with a mystery stomach illness. I felt miserable being in class. Nausea came and went, so it was very discomforting trying to make it through eight hours of class everyday. This caused me to dread going to school, and I began to think heavily about whether I even wanted to continue with the program.

I was a mess on the inside, but I told no one for awhile, not even my wife. I thought I could tough it out. However, my stomach wasn't getting any better, and I wasn't feeling any more confident in my career choice. I hit a breaking point. I decided that I had to tell Natalie what I was thinking. I felt so ashamed that it took me three days to finally write her a long email about it. I struggled to click "send." Naturally, we had a very emotional talk when we got home that evening. We were both scared and had no idea what to do.

In the end, after much prayer and discussion with those close to me, I decided it was best to leave the program. It felt weird. I didn't know if I was quitting for the right reasons or if I was just taking the "easy" way out. I was confused, and most of all, I was ashamed. I knew that almost everyone went through something similar at some point, but I always thought I was better than that. It was the first time in my life that I was truly faced with something difficult. I had no clue what to do. It was the first time that I felt truly at God's mercy, instead of being in control of everything.

Needless to say, I went through a very difficult period for a number of months. I was applying for jobs, not knowing if I truly wanted them, but knowing that I needed to contribute financially. Nothing was happening. I felt a lot of pressure  to get a job. I tried to maintain my pride on the outside, but inside I still felt like a failure for being unemployed. I drew closer to God in ways and tried to trust His plan, but part of me still thought that I should be able to fix the situation on my own.

I eventually got a job at a coffee shop and started working on an MBA, which gave me something to occupy my time. Recently, I got a job at Boeing and am settling in there. These positive steps have relieved much of the stress and pressure, but I still don't know where my career is heading. I know that I am not alone in this feeling. So the question is, how do we know if we are heading down the right path professionally? Why does God not make it clear to everyone where they should be and why? Is it okay to grind it out in unfulfilling jobs as long as we are able to pay the bills or should we be looking elsewhere? Unfortunately, God does not always provide clear answers, but He does offer us contentment in a relationship with Him. I need to rely on this relationship more, and then I won't feel as though I need to have everything figured out for myself. This is easier said than done, but it does give us hope and encouragement to make it through these tough periods in life.

Ryan McLaury

Work and Rest

On this Labor Day weekend, we pause to ponder work and rest.  Our culture has distorted both of these, resulting in an unhealthy, burned out, and over-medicated people.  Today we stop, listen to God’s Word, and rest in him.  A proper understanding of work and rest is the catalyst to escape the rat race, and offer meaningful and God-pleasing service. 

“Society as a whole and individuals are dying because they do not have the revolutionary old Biblical doctrine of work. The modern doctrine of work, which has replaced the old Biblical doctrine of work, is working so that you earn a living. You make money so that you can do what you really want to do…. The result of the work is only a byproduct…. the real aim is money or status.”  -Dorothy Sayers, “Why Work?”

For Further Reading:
Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives by Wayne Muller.
Walking on Water by Madeline L’Engle
Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva J. Dawn.

Pastor Jeff Cloeter
jeff@reliantchurch.org