Mark Labberton on Vocation

Mark Labberton, Called: The Crisis and Promise of Following Jesus Today (Downers Grove: IVP, 2014).

I’m looking forward to seeing this forthcoming book from Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Seminary.

There is a pdf excerpt available from this page.

There’s an early review of it here by Marcus Goodyear, who writes:

‘This little book calls the entire faith and work movement to task, reminding Christians to focus on the First Thing. My career, my success, and my productivity are not elements of my primary calling. A Christian’s calling is not a personal one, but a shared calling with other Christians to something very simple and straightforward: love God and love your neighbor.’

And a little later, and better parsed in my opinion:

‘The calling we share is more important than the manifestation of that general calling in any specific context. In short, your calling to Christ must be the First Thing. Everything else in life must serve that one calling.’

He cites Labberton himself:

‘The vocation of every Christian is to live as a follower of Jesus today. In every aspect of life, in small and large acts, with family, neighbors and enemies, we are to seek to live out the grace and truth of Jesus. This is our vocation, our calling. Today.’

At the bottom of the page is a short video with Labberton, profiling the book.

Fuller also have a page devoted to the book, which includes another video and a downloadable discussion guide.