Maybe they think that the nobler calling is something spiritual -
and what they are doing for living is not spiritual at all.
We Christians have developed a "Pyramid of Christ", -
in which the missionaries, pastors, evangelists etc. are on top.
In that situation I was nothing, -
but he upgraded me and showed me that I was important.
Let's try to understand how You Jesus work best in me.
Welcome. The main character of the film Chariots of Fire says: -
"God made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure."
How often do we encourage the kids and young people -
with whom we live or who we meet for their gifts or dreams?
Do we want to harness their gifts and passion only to be used in the church -
or would we be ready to equip them and send them to serve -
and make difference at their work and roles also outside the church building?
UPDATED AND ONBOARD
PART 5: CALLING Pathway to the right careers
God told us to build the world according to His good creation will.
How do the youth relate to this unique calling that is for everyone?
Almost all young people with a strong and persistent faith want to use -
their gifts, talents, personality and experience for the glory of God, -
but how does the church help people recognize gifts, talents, -
interests, expertise, personal characteristics and spiritual gifts?
Do we encourage people to use them in everyday relationships?
Do we help the youth to find a job that suits their characteristics -
and that allows them to build the society according to God's will?
How do we raise our kids, young people and each other -
to be disciples with a calling, who find their place -
and are able to submit their ambitions to God?
Ambition can be either a strength or a burden.
Raising people to be disciples with a calling doesn’t mean -
helping the youth to find a well-paid or respected job -
to make their lives superficially satisfying or easy.
Instead they need ability to connect the ambition -
rising from their personalities to the purposes of God, -
and the skills to cope with failures and disappointments they experience -
in the working life and to handle controversies making peace.
Do we as churches equip young people to flourish in their calling -
serving people, the world and God at their work?
Jussi, you are a father and work as the secretary-general of IFES Finland.
What do you think are critical phases in the life of a young person -
who is studying or entering into working life in finding their calling?
Well, the first critical phase -
is precisely when they have graduated from high school.
Then they continue their studies often in a different place and setting.
Perhaps they go to university -
and encounter all kinds of values and beliefs, -
and don’t really have the capacity to reconcile their faith -
with the world views they encounter for example at classes.
That is a point of crisis that can end up badly -
unless they find their way to church.
Another crisis point is often when the studies are over -
and people enter the working life. Many are involved in business -
and wonder how they can reconcile their faith with their work.
Maybe they think -
that the nobler calling is something spiritual -
and what they are doing for living is not spiritual at all.
Elina, you have studied calling and written two books on this topic.
You're also a doctor of Educational Science. What do you think calling is?
From the Christian point of view? When I was young I learned -
that it's a function or profession, but from the Biblical perspective -
I think calling is above all a way of life.
If I have to mention just one passage in the Bible I'd say Ephesians 2:10.
"For we are God’s handiwork, -
Created in Christ Jesus to do good works, -
which God prepared in advance for us to do."
So it talks about works prepared in advance. There are two things: -
to be the way God has created us and to live connected to Jesus.
If we do that we kind of automatically complete the good works -
He has prepared in advance for each of us every day.
At church we often narrow the view of calling -
to the spiritual field or work. Why is that?
Maybe it's because we somehow think we have two separate worlds, -
the spiritual world and the so-called secular world.
We follow the so-called Greek division and separate these two.
It also affects the way we see the calling, too, -
so we think it's only a part of one of these worlds, -
into the spiritual category but not into the secular one.
This might be an unhealthy division, and we shouldn’t see -
the world and ourselves this way. After all we only have one life.
I also remember from my own youth that in the church culture -
people sometimes asked me how was my spiritual life doing -
as if it were a separate island from the rest of our lives.
As God's creation we are physical- psychical-social-spiritual people.
But when it comes to "spirituality" of different professions, -
I've heard a metaphor of the "Pyramid of Christ" we Christians have created, -
where on top are those involved in the spiritual work -
such as missionaries, pastors, evangelists etc.
On the next level are maybe nurses, doctors and teachers, -
and then you go down a little. Those who work in the business world -
are so low that they can hardly fit into the pyramid at all.
Instead we should follow Paul's metaphor of body -
that I think is an extremely wise and wonderful picture -
of how different are the functions we have in the Body of Christ.
Some of them are visible and others hidden but they are not less important.
And also this idea of Paul: "So whether you eat or drink -
or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."
So the Biblical view of life with calling is much wider -
than this "Pyramid of Christ" created by us believers.
This metaphor of pyramid was good.
It made me think of the times of Luther a few centuries back, -
so nothing new under the sun. Even then people thought -
that a monk living in a monastery was on top of his calling.
He lived in chastity and separated from the world and could serve God fully.
Everyone else was a bit lower in rank, but Luther said -
that for example someone changing diapers fully fulfills God's calling.
He turned it exactly to the same direction you were saying.
And it also made me think of another Luther, Martin Luther King.
There is an excellent quote from him: -
"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, -
he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, -
or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry.
He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth -
will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'"
This made me think of Brother Lawrence.
Maybe you know his book The Practice of the Presence of God.
He also said that it's not important what we do but why we do it.
Do we do everything out of love towards God and other people?
This was my own addition, he talked of love towards God.
So our motivations do matter.
In churches and also elsewhere we often emphasize making a career, -
what can I achieve and what can I become, -
which is partly a good thing, but the other side of the coin -
is that in the Biblical model it's about what we can give, -
how we can serve and in a way show our greatness -
through investing into other people and being there for them.
There is a tension between these two things.
They have a tense relationship with each other.
I'd like to add one more view to the discussion.
One dimension of the Biblical calling is the growth of character.
God is interested in what we will be like, -
not just in what we do, just as I was talking about motives.
The motives of doing things and growing as human beings -
are important, so we should see a person as a whole.
Next Katri and Naomi who are studying to become medical doctors -
share us their views on calling.
Another doctor said well that though we can't evangelize the patient -
we can always pray for them in our own minds -
and do ordinary things that then have God's hand in them.
The Bible encourages us to do our work well -
and to be goal-oriented and hard-working.
If a researcher praises God by researching things, -
could it be for a doctor that even though many become cynical -
as the patients are sometimes difficult and cases hopeless, -
but even though we might not always have enough love, God has?
It should never be so that this is just my job -
and I have to force myself to be friendly to others, -
but it comes from spending time with God. He is the source of love.
The work identity cannot be your only identity.
Often when an athlete gets the Olympic medal, -
the moment feels awesome but after that there is nothing left.
Indeed. It's dangerous if your whole identity is related to your work -
because it can break anytime if you get sick and can't work anymore.
Who are you then? You can be in your dream profession -
and love your job but it's not who you ultimately are.
I love being a medical doctor, it's my dream job, -
but it isn't everything I am.
What has been important and helped me go through -
difficult situations and disappointments has been my self-esteem -
that is built at church, with my loved ones and in faith.
I value myself as creation of God -
and know what is the most important thing.
And even if everything goes wrong -
I have the foundation that helps me through everything.
The truth about me is that I'm fully loved and valuable, -
perfect in the eyes of God. That is a good basis to go into the world.
Not that if I now fail in this, my whole identity is in stake.
I'm not a failure, because my identity is not whether or not I'm a good doctor.
In my opinion ambition is not wrong to begin with, -
even though it sounds bad and may also manifest in a bad way, -
but we get excited of having done something very well.
Someone must have created us the way the we feel good about it.
Humility is not thinking that I'm bad and small and can't do anything, -
it's that God is great and can do anything through me.
And we work to get better in those things -
we are good at and we get excited about, -
and then God can use it.
What did the insert make you think?
I was touched by the wisdom of these young women.
I think it was a good example of how for example a doctor -
can bring forth God's reality and work for God and people.
They also said they hope they won't become cynical.
When years go by and there might be difficult patients, -
God is the source of love so they don’t have to force it from themselves.
I thought it was awesome. We need it for this time.
This is such a cold and hard time that it's amazing when a Christian -
who is interacting with people, can draw love from God.
It's an awesome influence of God in this world.
They also said wisely -
that as doctors they can't evangelize but they can pray quietly for patients.
They reflected positive thinking in this, -
that even though evangelism is verbal witnessing of Jesus, -
evangelism and being a witness of Christ is more than just verbal words.
It includes our whole being and our way to related to people, -
our surroundings and the world. I think it came well through in this.
Someone has said that every Christian should be involved in healing work.
It doesn’t mean only doctors but the way we encounter people -
and exist. It's all a part of serving Christ.
Jussi, you are a secretary-general but also a mentor and work advisor.
Do you think that in churches there should be a possibility -
to get mentoring, coaching or work advising in one form or another?
Absolutely, but I think first it would be important to define -
what these terms mean.
I think mentoring is mainly teaching some skills, -
whereas coaching can be defined in quite a few different ways.
The International Coaching Federation defines coaching as asking questions.
We learn best when someone makes us good and skillful questions.
A good coach is good at making questions.
If we think of Jesus, He was brilliant in making questions.
And work advising is related to work as the term suggests.
You support someone to act according to their responsibilities, -
and the work advisor might use both mentoring and coaching in it.
And one more term is making disciples -
that has been discussed in this show. The Bible also uses it a lot.
It can be found for example in the familiar passage, Matthew 28, -
where Jesus gives us one goal, to make disciples, -
and three participles on how it's done: -
by going, baptizing and teaching.
That was Jesus' method, people were His method.
He invested in people and the result was -
that the Christian faith spread to almost all the earth.
Today we are called to do the same, to invest in human relationships.
Elina, you have a 2-year-old son. Have you had time to think about -
how you could support him to grow towards his own calling?
I do see that parents play a crucial role in it.
I think that key issues here are to love, pray and encourage.
I'd like to start from loving -
also because it's one of the Biblical definitions of calling -
that is meant for all Christians, if we think of the highest command.
Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.
So loving is already the calling all of us have.
If we want to raise our kids into that calling, -
you cannot give love if you haven't received it.
So I want to teach him to love by loving him.
And I think that prayer is included in loving, -
so I bring him in front of God because I love him, -
and so God can work in his life.
And then the encouragement, helping him find the strengths, -
gifts and passions that have been put into him.
So we can help others find their calling -
by looking for God's beautiful creation in them -
and encouraging them to go towards it.
I have personal experience of what you were talking about.
In my 20s I had big crises -
on who I really are and what I should do with this life.
There were then other people who started to say to me -
that maybe you could do something like this or try this out.
The most important factor was -
that I was given a chance to do things and try things out -
even though I had no skills, expertise or even gifts to do them, -
or that was at least what I thought.
However, through that I have learned to discover my own gifts and talents.
Unfortunately I must say that all this didn’t start from my home church.
Maybe I hadn't found anything like this there, -
or I didn't have right relationships. Perhaps that was the biggest reason -
why it was lacking, but by the grace of God I've found them elsewhere.
People who believe in you are worth their weight in gold.
I think such people are quite hard to find.
I remember some situations where I have encountered a person -
who has an exceptional gift to lift others up. I give you one example.
As a young Christian I was at a world evangelism conference in Korea.
I was sitting at the doorstep of a church during the break.
Some men in their fine suits were walking towards me.
They were passing by, but one of them stopped, -
shook my hand and asked me who I was. He was Bill Bright, -
leader of the biggest student evangelism organisation in the world.
In that situation I was nothing, but he upgraded me -
and showed me I was an important person.
And I think this is something -
mentoring, coaching and making disciples should be like.
Someone believes in you and is there for you in that moment.
Yeah, we absolutely need other people.
Soul-searching alone in a vacuum doesn’t lead into finding your calling.
The late American philosopher and theologian Dallas Willard -
has defined discipleship as growth process -
in which we become like Jesus would be if He was us.
So we're not trying to find one single model to be Christian or serve God, -
but we're trying to understand how You Jesus can best work in me.
We can encourage each other into that -
when we see gifts the others have and encourage them to use them.
When we try to encourage the kids and the youth towards their calling, -
what are the things that challenge us in that process?
If I think of myself as a father and an educator, I have learned -
that the school and our children's friends challenge in many ways -
almost everything me and my wife have tried to teach them about faith.
Maybe the world is in a way always bad, -
as the Bible defines it, -
but it is a fact that this society and the time we're living -
don't sustain Christian education or Christian values.
That's why I have also started to realize in a new way -
the importance of the Christian schools. They really are needed.
Helping them recognize self-knowledge from all the noise.
As some professions are more valued than others, -
they might easily take on a career that others respect, -
but we as parents and people working with the youth and kids -
should try to get to know them. What do they really like?
So let's try and get to know them and help them to know themselves -
so that they would distinguish the calling or passion -
God has put inside of them from all other noises.
This obviously requires time. - Yes, and creating a relationship, too.
Thank you Elina, Arno and Jussi for this interesting conversation -
and time we spent together.
In a dissertation concerning Adventist youth it was found -
that children chose their parents' values more certainly -
if they were valued, they were allowed to do critical thinking -
and the parents' way of life offered them a meaningful model for life.
The way of life isn't limited only in spiritual practices or to church, -
but it encompasses all the diversity and richness of life.
Let's help kids and young people to flourish now and in the future -
in their surroundings and equip them to do their work well and love people.
Let's get our understanding of calling up-to-date.
In the next video we ask, do we teach to choose differently.
If the video inspired you, please click Like and subscribe the channel, -
and you'll help us to spread the videos. Bye bye!
English translation: Anni Lähteenmäki / TV7