Calling Theory

I've been reading Stephen Covey's The 8th Habit recently. It's not a book I would class as particularly religious or spiritual, but I'm a firm believer in general revelation - and that we can learn truth and wisdom from the "secular" world.

And there is indeed a bit of wisdom in Covey that relates to our vision at Connections to be a community forming people to be and do what Christ has intended. At the core of that vision is an impetus to help people to grasp their "calling" in life.

Before I get on to Covey, let me say that the word "calling" is a word that some people have strong views about. Some people say that God does not "call" people to anything except salvation - that asserting that you are "called by God" to something is simply a way of manipulating or, at the least, putting your own goals and framework ahead of the ordinary day-to-day commands of Holy Scripture. Some people, at the other end of the spectrum, spend so much time trying to find their "call" and asking the question "what does God want me to do" that they fail to do anything.

I use "calling" in terms of understanding of how God, a follower of God, and God's purposes applied in the real world, interact. God very certainly does call us to salvation, and part of that salvation (or at least an integral outworking of it) is the "good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Eph 2:10b).

Covey talks about "the fire within" or "discovering one's voice" or "unique, personal significance." And the gem he has to offer us is this analysis:

Covey sees the whole person as an interaction of body, mind, heart and spirit relating to four human needs - "to live, to learn, to love, to leave a legacy" - and four aspects of "voice" - "need, talent, passion, conscience." I'll let him explain it:

...I suggested that voice... lies at the nexus of talent (your natural gifts and strengths), passion (those things that naturally energize, excite, motivate and inspire you), need (including what the world needs enough to pay you for), and conscience (that still, small voice that assures you of what is right and that prompts you to actually do it). I also said that when you engage in work (professional, community, family) that taps your talent and fuels your passion - that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet - therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul's code." Stephen Covey, The 8th Habit (Free Press, New York: 2004), pp84-85

There is much to like in what Covey says. At Connections we often talk about doing things from one's calling - because it's when you are a square peg in a round hole that you get burned out and disillusioned. But we need to do more than make simplistic statements.

Covey helps us to see that to help people find their calling means to help them bring together their talents and passions with a need that they can see, motivated by a deep spirit of conviction about how that aligns with God's purposes.

In our context I think we often get hung up on the "need" aspect - we see the need and get frustrated that we can't meet it - as church or as individuals. This is exacerbated by emerging church rhetoric about considering "target groups" and the like - it's need focussed and so sometimes leads to imbalance and disillusionment in the real world where things are holistic and where we, the ones who are called to achieve that target, have to live.

The need needs to be considered, but in line with other questions - What is my/our passion? What talents do we/I have or want to get? What is God driving us/me toward or has placed in front of me/us? and To what need has God called us/me to be a part of the solution?

This matches with my theology of the spiritual (charismatic) gifts. I'll blog about that some other time - but the gist is this: God's grace is administered through the gifts of his people to a situation he wishes to touch. God aligns us with his purpose, raising our passions, engaging our talents, to achieve what he wishes to achieve.