Calling and Vocation

Rev. Ann Rosendale, an alumna of the program and Campus Pastor at Augustana University Sioux Falls, just sent the staff a note about some of her current work

Rev. Ann Rosendale, an alumna of the program and Campus Pastor at Augustana University Sioux Falls, just sent the staff a note about some of her current work. She is engaged in a project on the topic of vocation across the human life span. The book they are basing their discussions on is Calling All Years Good: Christian Vocation Throughout Life's Seasons by Cahalan and McLemore. The authors raise really good questions about how we view calling and vocation. From the book's introduction:

"What does it mean to talk about God's calling in relationship to the duration of our lives...not only from the experiences of young adulthood but also in the play of children, the transition into assisted living.. and the middle years of calling?" At a very foundational level our calling is to service within our community or communities "to do good".

The process of how we live out our calling/vocation, how we grow to know and understand our calling/vocation better, and how our calling/vocation may change over our lives is not easy or simple. It depends on our gifts and talents, the community or communities within which we live, our experiences, those who influence us, and where we are in our faith walk. Cahalan and McLemore point out that calling and vocation are much more than living with purpose:

"The Christian tradition gives us a much broader framework that honors the deeply personal and individual character of calling but claims this human quest as fundamentally communal and divine."

One of the great joys in being a part of the LECNA Fellows Program staff is to walk with Fellows as we intentionally explore their callings.

Rev. Rosendale expects they will have their work available in podcasts by the end of the summer.

Stay tuned!!!!