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From my application to the Diocese of Niagara... Christian ministry is servant ministry � Our Lord called us very clearly to serve one another and the world. This takes many forms, perhaps the most important of which being the workaday jobs held by the people in the pews. While stewardship is immensely important to me (I feel strongly that joining a church should be more than a Sunday morning commitment) I don't think that volunteering for the Altar Guild is the central act of a Christian's response to God. We talk very freely about the call to ordained ministry, but usually overlook the call to teach, to farm, to clean, to raise a family, to run an office or any of the myriad of callings heard and followed outside the church building. My mother works at a factory, making room partitions for convention centres, and she is most definitely called to be there. It shows in her dedication to her work, the skill with which she does it and the real pleasure she derives from a job well done. I firmly believe that God is as pleased by a well-made partition as a well-preached sermon. The hard part is to remember this from day to day and to dedicate one's work, whatever it is, to God. I consider the work my mother does to be every bit as "church" as what is done around the altar every Sunday. That's not intended to denigrate the altar (which is central to my own vocational vision) but to recognize the legitimacy of "secular" work. If we truly believe that the Kingdom is all around us then surely it doesn't stop at the factory door, or the office door, or the home. I owe a great deal of my work theology to Fr. Larive, an Episcopal priest I interviewed for a Living Church article a while ago. His book, After Sunday, makes an excellent case for the sanctity of work. |
