Career

A career is an occupation for which people train and in which people expect to earn their living for most of their working years. It is part of one’s calling but must not be equated with vocation. A calling, or vocation, is the summons of God to live our whole lives for his glory; a career is part of that but not the whole. A job is work that is simple toil out of necessity. In one sense Joseph could think of himself as having the career of a shepherd (following in his father’s path), a job as a slave in Potiphar’s house (something he did for survival) and the vocation or calling of saving the lives of God’s family of promise and the Egyptians (Genesis 45:5).

In the modern Western world the idea of a career is profoundly challenged on several fronts: (1) The possibility of spending one’s whole life doing one kind of work has been eroded except perhaps for the professions. Even there, people make career changes within their profession or into other professions. (2) Often one trains for an occupation but must learn to transfer the skills to other occupations. In-service training and lifelong learning are replacing the idea of up-front education for a lifetime career. (3) The notion of stability and security implied in a career is increasingly threatened by the exponential change taking place in the modern world largely fueled by the technological revolution. Workers in the Western societies are scrambling to stay on top of this change.

In a penetrating reflection, Walter Kiechel III asks three questions about the emerging trend: “Can technology help make service jobs as productive as manufacturing jobs have been, in ways that are high-paying to the worker and enriching to society? How many Americans have the basic education and the flexibility to become technical workers or new-style service workers? How many of us are ready for the changes in the very nature of work that the emerging economy will bring with it?” (p. 52). His last question hints at the coming redefinition of work from repetitive task to intervention in a programmed process, a relocation of the workplace from factory/office to multiple locations including the home, a rescheduling of the workday from regular to adjustable hours and a rethinking of work life from dealing with tangibles to dealing with intangibles.

Change is something Christians should especially welcome because of their conviction of the sovereignty of God, the certainty of our identity as children of God (not just plumbers or university professors) and the biblical insight that Christians live at the intersection of the kingdom of God and fallen human society—always a place of ferment and change. Because Christians have a sense of vocation, they are able to encompass several career changes within the larger purpose of their lives to serve God and God’s purposes in the church and the world. The shift in modern society from producing products to offering services provides new career opportunities for Christians who are called to be servants (Matthew 20:26). The challenge to be a lifelong learner fits perfectly the vocation of being a disciple, for the education of a disciple never ends.

With the escalation of information and communication capabilities, and careers associated with them, the deeper questions of what we are communicating will surface. Over a century ago Henry David Thoreau wrote: “We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.” Speaking to this, Kiechel asks, “Information for what purpose? Knowledge to serve what human aim or itch? Where’s the juice?” (p. 48). Followers of Christ will have many opportunities to bring meaning to the secular world as they take their place in so-called secular careers. Pastoral ministry may offer new opportunities to address the soul needs of human beings, though it is debatable whether in the strictest sense the ministry should ever be a career (see Financial Support; Tentmaking). With escalating stress levels, antistress professions (including counselors, therapists and exercise advisers) will take on a new importance. Christians will not be immune to the anxiety-producing dimensions of postmodern society, but they have resources to find rest within the pressures (Matthew 11:28).

As free time becomes more important than pay as the currency in negotiating lifestyle, Christians will need a theology and spirituality of leisure. Sabbath, the threefold rest of God, humankind and creation, is fundamental to gaining perspective on life, to discovering each day and each week why one is working and for whom, and to learning to approach our work as justified by faith rather than performance. Without a spirituality of careers, and sabbath in particular, we could miss the opportunities afforded by information technology and find ourselves deeply enslaved to our own technological creations. Our identities all too easily become attached exclusively to our careers when they should be founded more deeply (and with more freedom and personal health) on our God. Years ago Augustine said that if you want to know who people are, do not ask them what they do for a living. Ask them whom they love.

» See also: Ambition

» See also: Calling

» See also: Ministry

» See also: Service

» See also: Success

» See also: Vocational Guidance

References and Resources

J. A. Bernbaum and S. M. Steer, Why Work? Careers and Employment from a Biblical Perspective (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986); W. Diehl, Thank God It’s Monday (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982); R. M. Grant, Early Christianity and Society (New York: Harper & Row, 1977); L. Hardy, The Fabric of This World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990); W. Kiechel III, “How We Will Work in the Year 2000,” Fortune 127, no. 10 (1993) 39-52; P. Marshall, “Calling, Work and Rest,” in Christian Faith and Practice in the Modern World, ed. M. Noll and D. Wells (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988) 199-217; R. Slocum, Ordinary Christians in a High-Tech World (Waco, Tex.: Word, 1986); R. P. Stevens, Disciplines of the Hungry Heart: Christian Living Seven Days a Week (Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, 1993); R. P. Stevens, Liberating the Laity (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1985).

—R. Paul Stevens