The Continual Pursuit of Calling
“At this point of my life, I want to do something that makes a difference.”
That is a common refrain that I have been hearing among my fellow Gen-Xers over the past few years. As my friends and colleagues have moved into their forties and fifties, I have watched them shift careers, launch organizations, go back to school, and make significant life changes. Whenever I see someone stepping into something new, especially after decades of working in a particular field or building a career, I get curious and want to hear their story. I want to know, “What is compelling you now, in this season of life?”
So, it didn’t surprise me when I started getting these same questions after I went back to school at age 42 and started working in different industries outside of the local church ministry.
“What are you going to do when you finish your degree?”
“What’s the next step in your plan?”
“Are you burnt out from pastoring?”
“Is this a mid-life career crisis?”
For the past 25 years my entire life has been focused on the work of the local church. When I went off to college my plan was to pursue politics or government work. Growing up outside of Washington, D.C., this was the way I saw people impact the world. In my freshman year at Wheaton College, however, something dramatic happened that suddenly left me with a deep discontent. The vision for my life shifted dramatically as I felt called to serve the local church and to help everyday people discover healing, purpose, and belonging. With this shift in personal calling I began to look at the world differently. I began to discover that the world and the ways I imagined making a difference in it were going to be very different than expected.
My first year at Denver Seminary I was thrust into the terror and cultural earthquake of the Columbine High School shooting. The youth group I served had a half dozen students in the school that day, and I found myself trying to help students and parents wrestle with questions that I had no answers for. A few years later I graduated from seminary, in May of 2001, and unbeknownst to us all this was a moment imminently close to global change. Within months, the fabric of our shared life would be forever altered. In an instant, that terrible September morning, the world that I had spent years preparing to minister to ceased to exist.
These two events are emblematic of the constant social and cultural upheaval that we have experienced over the past 25 years. Through it all I have worked to care for hurting people, create communities of inclusion and belonging, and help people of all ages grow spiritually. This work has led me to many unexpected places. This would include the quaint and lovely town of Chesterton, IN where I have been a senior pastor for the past 15 years; traveling through Russia working with orphans; helping to lead a non-profit serving survivors of sex trafficking on multiple continents; partnering with the most extraordinary people in Romania as they provide safe haven and healing for trafficking survivors; and diving deep into global conversations about God, culture, and justice.
The common thread, through it all, has been people. I love people. I delight in hearing stories, sharing meals, practicing hospitality, receiving hospitality, and serving others. I realized early on in my career that my calling, no matter the context I am in, is caring for and helping people to flourish. As the world changed, and our cultural experiences shifted, new challenges emerged. However, through it all my focus has remained on helping people flourish. I became a student of people, seeking to learn as much as possible from those with different experiences than my own, so I might better understand them, learn from their perspectives, and gain an imagination for what good news would look like for their lives.
After studying, serving alongside of, and living in community with a beautifully diverse group of people from around the U.S. and across the globe, certain convictions have become etched into my soul. They serve as the foundation of my work, and the reason why I have reoriented my life and to pour my energy into Ideos Institute.
These convictions include:
Human flourishing is cultivated through grace, compassion, forgiveness, and empathy.
Wherever there is a lack of these virtues we will find division, brokenness, suffering, and injustice.
We experience personal healing and transformation as we live in mutuality with others, rooted in self-giving love and community.
While humanity continues to display an incredible capacity for evil and selfishness, the world is filled with extraordinary acts of self-giving love and reconciliation that fill me with eternal hopefulness.
The world, in this moment, needs those who will give their lives to embodying this hopefulness by working to transform conflict, confront injustice, and live in solidarity with the suffering.
And so, the lessons I have learned and convictions I have developed over 25 years of serving the local church and working with communities across the globe have led me to this beautiful new chapter of my life with Ideos. Here, in our work to understand Empathic Intelligence, create resources, train leaders, and offer a different imagination for how we can navigate a world of divisions and antagonisms, I have found a deep resonance. Coming on board with Ideos as Vice President and Director of Programs isn’t about career advancement, burnout, or boredom. It is about wanting to give my life to what matters most to me. This is a work I can easily give myself to for the rest of my life. I don’t have a Plan B.
Where do you find yourself at this stage of life? What convictions compel you to do the work you do? Do you have a resonance with the dreams and visions that compel us at Ideos? Do you share our frustrations and pain at watching cultural divides fill our world with such anger and angst? Do you long to live in a world where compassion, grace, and empathy are being lived out in order to bring healing and hope to our world?
If those convictions compel you, then we invite you to be part of the growing Ideos community. We want to hear your stories, learn from your experiences, and find ways to support and equip your work. Reach out, share your stories and passions, and let’s see how we can collaborate. Are you looking for more community or training? If so, you may want to consider joining one of our new Fellowship Programs and be part of a community of fellow practitioners. This year we are creating a number of resources to help us think about how to live in this cultural moment and introduce you to voices that we find particularly helpful and compelling.
It is a great joy to serve Ideos, and hopefully to serve you all as you do this beautiful work of cultivating peace and healing in our world. May the convictions and passions that compel us lead us to a life where we experience in ourselves the healing work we hope to see in the world around us.
