Who Cares?

Just as subtle as the distinction between pantheism and panentheism is that between occupation and vocation. As has already been established, Dad’s way of doing things at his church was significantly different from others. This was perhaps nowhere better seen than in his approach to membership training. Yes, if you wanted to become a member of Dad’s church, you had to go through membership training. The novitiate version of this process was confirmation, something that I did concurrently with earning my God and Country award through the Boy Scouts (that was a rather intense year). One of the concepts that most impressed me from that instruction is that there is difference between an occupation (a job) and a vocation (a calling). As best as I was able to understand it at the time, the ideal was to strive for an occupation that was consistent with and supportive of one’s vocation. In other words, pursuing the occupation of minister was a reasonable response to God’s call to be of service to others. Again, as I burst my bubble and entered the real world I discovered that such a distinction was not regarded as an especially important one, even to the church.