Calling

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August 16, 2009

Discerning Our Vocation Everyday (DOVE)

Time and time again, I watched the knit eyebrows and tight lips of a focused, concentrated expression descend upon the face of a teen. It is the same focused expression to the same question adults generally ask, “So, what are your plans for college?” Adults seek to be interested in this stage of a teen's life and the teen knows that he or she should have an answer. The problem is that the teen knows the answer an adult anticipates and the answer the teen has to offer do not match. While adults seek an answer with direction and interests, teens seek discovery and exploration. While adults seek purpose, teens are still wondering what they want to develop and what they are good at. So, the eyebrows knit and the lips tighten as the teen once again realizes that she or he does not have an answer to the caring question posed by the supportive and friendly adult.

Yes, today's teens have lots of opportunity for exploration and discovery in high school. They participate in many activities, discovering if they have a musical talent or athletic ability, or both. They are challenged by courses and teachers as well as by the mastering of a high school curriculum. They serve in their communities, take mission trips, and form powerful peer friendships. Based on this variety of experiences and achievements, teens are asked to choose a college or course of study that launches them on their path into adulthood.

Yet, at ages 15, 16, 17, and 18, teens are just beginning to know their own building blocks of gifts. Some gifts they do discover in high school, among family, friends, and faith communities and some are treasures waiting for the young person to uncover. Setting this discovery in the context of the faith community of St. John's Episcopal Church is what Discerning Our Vocation Everyday (DOVE) is all about.

DOVE raises the awareness of teens so that their path of discovery and exploration is an integral part of their faith journey. The theological foundation is that God calls all of us to use our gifts to bring the love of Christ to the world. DOVE changes the question from, “Where do want to go to college?” to “What do you believe God is calling you to do?” DOVE offers a forward look at emerging talents as the building blocks for a life that answers God's call. Vocation is expanded beyond a singular dedication of intentionally ‘religious' people to an integration of talents that bring one close to God. Perhaps musical talent will lead a young person to teaching music or to be a researcher in neurological pathways for thinking. For a teen, vocation is the process of this discovery.

DOVE raises the awareness of adults that their conversations can be about discovery rather than a specific direction. Adults in the congregation are indentified and trained as mentors for the teens. The adults create a place and a space for the mentee to express in his or her own words, wishes, dreams and questions. While the conversation need not be specifically theological, the adult mentor is encouraged to offer observations to the teen about the ways the adult notices God active in the teen's life. The purpose is to give permission from the adult faith community to the teen for theological reflection about the emerging and unfinished part of the teen's life.

In the process of raising vocational awareness in teens, adults, often for the first time, reflect on their own lives as a response to God's call. They realize that their teen years were also about discerning their vocations. The awareness of the adults also expands to ask their own questions about how God is active in their lives. Reflecting on their vocations, adults can offer teens the reassurance that a pathway chosen in early adulthood may take several twists and turns before one's gifts are deeply integrated into one's life with God.

Raising awareness about our vocations, creating partnerships among youth and adult mentors, and setting this discovery in the context of a faith community is a process that builds upon my experience of the Transition in Ministry Program (TiM) at Christ Church, Alexandria, VA. At Christ Church and more than 30 other congregations and church institutions nationwide, TiM supports new clergy in the first two years of their vocation as they integrate academic learning with parish experience. The experienced clergy who serve as TiM mentors listen as the new clergy reflect on their experiences and expectations, discerning how God is now shaping them for a life time of ministry. TiM also shapes the process of the congregation as a ‘teaching congregation,' a safe place to learn with a congregation that celebrates as new clergy build the foundation for leadership. While the learning process in TiM is intentional and modeled on a curriculum for experiential learning, these concepts were translated into DOVE. Reflecting on vocation in TiM translates as raising that awareness in DOVE; the mentoring by experienced clergy in TiM is mirrored in the adult mentors in DOVE; the teaching congregation is adult and youth faith community of DOVE. And the experiential dimension comes through service by young people with older adult mentors and other opportunities of pilgrimage that take young people further out of their own comfort zones and deeper into their quest for fullness of life promised by following the way of disciples of Jesus.

DOVE and TiM bring to our conversations that God calls all of us to use our talents to bring Christ's reconciling love to the world. The discovery begins in the teen years. Adults can shape the questions and their own awareness so that teens identify their building blocks of vocation. Whether we are a teen just beginning this process or an experienced clergy listening to reflections of a new colleague, we are all Discerning Our Vocations Everyday.