As graduates of Manna University, my wife and I have experienced firsthand the difficulty discerning the difference between our careers and our callings. What does it mean as a Christian to walk into one’s calling, and does your job or career affect whether or not you can fulfill it? These are questions that we’ve wrestled with, and to some extent, we still do!
What we’ve found is that there’s peace in knowing that God is God, and that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus. We can’t divorce faith from the equation here. Our reliance on God to walk into the “right” opportunities is reflected in Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.”
So, in and of itself, knowing the path forward and walking into our calling shouldn’t be our primary motivation. It’s certainly important, and we all should strive to walk in a godly direction, but [in] everything we do, an acknowledgement of the lordship of Jesus Christ is our primary concern. What Katelyn and I have found is that we can worship Jesus as King regardless of our title or responsibility.
Perhaps this helps to differentiate between the two – Calling is eternal, and career is seasonal. We’ll be worshipping Jesus as Lord and Savior in heaven for all of eternity, and a sneak peek of that can be experienced here on earth by being obedient to Him and cultivating a relationship with Him. In Numbers 8:24-26, we read that God called the priests to serve at the Tent of Meeting from the age of twenty-five till they were fifty. Once they had served for that period of time, they retired and began to mentor the priests who came after them.
Vocations and assignments are seasonal. David was a shepherd as a boy; then he was crowned king. Paul was a tentmaker and a full-time evangelist! Peter, who was once a fisherman, became a fisher of men. Katelyn and I both work in full-time vocational ministry at our local church. I am the NextGen Pastor, overseeing the ministries focused on the ages of 0–25-year-olds. My beautiful wife, Katelyn, is our Marketing Coordinator as well as several other non-staff positions! We serve together and are part of the same small groups. We would be what Christian couples would picture as leading “Christian Leadership Careers,” but we don’t see it like that. We feel God has aligned our individual assignments closely together, and if He were to shift those assignments, we would follow! Our reasoning is simple – We’d rather be in the center of God’s will for our lives than to work toward an idealized self who works a “holy” job. Can I just be totally straight-up with you, dear reader? There are no holy jobs; there’s just holy people.
Katelyn and I take our careers very seriously – We want to be faithful with what we’re given. We know our careers are seasonal, so we choose to put our focus on acknowledging Jesus as Lord in everything to which we put our hands. This not only keeps our focus and intentions on the eternal, but it also helps us maintain an even higher standard for our work than if we were focused on our next promotion. Our encouragement – Focus on the eternal, and the seasonal things will be free to pass with time.
Samuel Fletcher (NextGen Pastor, Manna Church – Fayetteville/Ft. Bragg)
Katelyn Fletcher (Marketing Coordinator, Manna Church – Fayetteville/Ft. Bragg)