Every Christian’s Vocation as a Child of God
Every Christian’s Vocation as a Child of God
By Rev. Dr. James A. Baneck, Executive Director, LCMS Office of Pastoral Education
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a question children hear all the time. As children grow up, that question becomes “Where do you want to go to college?” or “What do you want to study?” or “What career will you pursue?”
These sorts of conversations are a natural place to bring up vocation — not just the various God-pleasing vocations of nurses and teachers, electricians and firefighters, but vocation in the sense of God’s calling of every Christian in his or her Baptism to be His child and to believe in Him. In our new baptismal life in Christ, God also works through us to love and serve our neighbors. This is every Christian’s vocation.
The following points are intended to help you — and the parents you know and serve (at church, at work, in your family, etc.) — to talk to young people about their vocation as baptized children of God:
Remember your Baptism every day. When you were baptized, all your sins were washed away, and you were given a new identity in Christ. God loves you and has made you His own child. (See Eph. 5:25–26; Rom. 6:3–5; Titus 3:5–7.)
Your identity as a child of God will guide you to best serve Him and your neighbor. All the decisions involved in pursuing a specific vocation, like nursing or teaching, can feel overwhelming. Staying rooted in your baptismal identity in Christ will help you remember that God loves you and will use you to love and serve your neighbor, no matter what godly vocation you pursue. (See Rom. 8:28–29.)
What is a godly vocation? Consider Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.” Every vocation — as doctor or engineer, mother or father, pastor or teacher — is a godly vocation, because Christ Himself lives in us and works through us! We look not to our own works, but to God’s work — most importantly, to His saving work on the cross.
Did you know there is a great need for full-time church workers? Every person needs to hear the Gospel so that they may have saving faith in Jesus. God works through pastors to proclaim the Gospel, and all other church workers, like teachers and deaconesses, support their pastor’s service of the Word. Have you ever thought about serving the Lord in a full-time church work vocation? As you know, this last point is the heart of Set Apart to Serve. Together, we are seeking to build a culture of church work formation and recruitment in every LCMS congregation, family, school, district and entity.
That culture takes root right here, in the conversations you have with children about their baptismal identity in Christ. Helping our young people consider church work begins with raising them in the knowledge of their Baptism and immersing them in the Word of Christ — telling them continually that they are beloved children of God, and that all their sins are washed away and forgiven by the saving work of Jesus on the cross. I pray that you will find these conversation starters helpful and that you will pass them on to the parents you know and serve, so that they can be supported in raising and forming their children in the faith, and possibly for a full-time church work vocation.
Set Apart to Serve (SAS) is building a culture of forming and recruiting pastors and commis-sioned church workers in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). Visit Set Apart to Serve to learn more!
