I grew up in a tight-nit, blue-collar, small church of about 200 where faithful people attended week-in and week-out. Sure there was drama, sure there were problems. But what left an indelible impression on me were the hard-working, honest, faithful people who provided the backbone to the church. These were my heroes, among them my father, who gave significantly to the church, and quietly worked away Monday to Friday, pleased and content with his work. He was not a minister as I am. He owned a telecom business.
To me, this was true spirituality. Almost to a point that I begrudged the thought of ever entering ministry myself; why should “spiritual” work only be done on Sundays by professionally trained clergy? It didn’t jibe with the holistic view I was developing from my own study of Scripture. Unfortunately, I didn’t find many who understood this, and I searched far and wide for those who shared these views on faith and work.
I finally found it when I landed at Regent College, ironically, a seminary, in Vancouver, BC. The neat thing however, was that I wasn’t studying alongside students for the ministry only; I was studying alongside professionals, laypersons in fields ranging from law to medicine to social work to art. I thought, “if we could just distill this perspective on vocation, and make it accessible to people who cannot afford to take 2-years off to study at a seminary in beautiful Vancouver… then more would understand that there is spiritual significance to what they do Mon – Fri – and that thus, their lives have meaning, spiritual significance, difference.”
Which is why when I heard about the Reframe Course I was blown away – thrilled. The Reframe Course offered by Regent College (my alma mater) is a 10-week film-based study about what it means to follow Christ in the context of work, vocation, and calling. In the intro video, one puts it well; “God is not just concerned about lawyers, but about law; he cares about engineers, but also about engineering“:
This holistic view of spirituality is what drew me to Regent College in the first place; the recognition that all of life is spiritual, and the rethinking of the sacred / secular divide. Spiritual vocation is not just reserved for those in Christian ministry, but those who actively view their work as spiritual and sanctify not just their private lives on Sunday, but their fields from Mon to Fri. This, I believe, is the right theological perspective.
This Fall Season, Woven will be going through the Reframe course in groups based around Houston. Hit me up if interested in learning about more!
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