As a missionary, one of the questions I frequently get asked is, \u201cHow did God call you to France?\u201d<\/p>\n
Everyone loves a good \u201ccall\u201d story.<\/p>\n
Indeed, most missionaries can point to a moment when they sensed either a pull towards a particular people group or an inclination towards a particular type of ministry. Whether through AWANAS to a young a child, through Urbana to an idealistic university student, or through a vacation to a foreign country (as was the case for me), God finds the means to impress His passion for the lost on the hearts of His own. The testimony of one\u2019s call is often fraught with a combination of the mundane and the divine and represents a holy culmination of past circumstances, present longings, and future aspirations spurring one on to meet her destiny.<\/p>\n
With respect to calling, Andy McCullough suggests, \u201cThe question isn\u2019t What do I want to do? <\/em>or What do I want to do for God?<\/em> but What does God want me to do?\u201d[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em>Anyone who has had the sense of calling knows that \u201cI\u201d moves from subject to object, becoming a willing pawn in the hand of the Great Player. We are His, and eager to do His bidding.<\/p>\n \u201cExperiencing a calling is perhaps the single most important phenomenon that takes place in an individual\u2019s life and has many positive consequences for the individual and organizations.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I wonder if this idea of \u201ccalling\u201d is one type of what Tina Seelig, author of Insight Out<\/em>, refers to as \u201cinternal motivation.\u201d[3]<\/a> Citing the work of Wrzesniewski and Schwarts, Seelig explains that when people depend exclusively on external drivers\u2014such as financial rewards or pleasing people\u2014performance actually suffers. It is those whose work is rooted in a deep sense of meaning, who \u201cdesire to make the world a better place,\u201d that tend to succeed in the end.<\/p>\n If a calling becomes a missionary\u2019s \u201cinternal motivation,\u201d then shouldn\u2019t that missionary be more effective in his or her work? Unfortunately, it\u2019s hard for missionaries to hold tight to their sense of calling. As is true of secular professionals, \u201cmost of us are instructed to blindly follow the path someone else has set, given predetermined assignments with one right answer.\u201d[4]<\/a> Mission agencies, having prayerfully determined their own \u201ccalling,\u201d recruit field workers and train them to accomplish organizational goals. They welcome the energy of a starry-eyed new recruit, but then indoctrinate the novice with their preferred means of evangelization, discipleship, and church planting. Seelig notes, \u201cThe problem with following someone else\u2019s plan is that it doesn\u2019t tap into your own internal motivation.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n I think this is why God gives us calling stories to tell. Perhaps it is even a gift that missionaries are often asked to tell and retell the story of their call. We need to hear it ourselves, to remind ourselves, to PREACH to ourselves, the truth of call we have received. When sending agencies, urgent needs, or the whims of supporters pull and prod us away from that call, we must go back to where we started. The ability to stay the course is a quality that has become known as \u201chardiness\u201d or \u201cgrit.\u201d<\/p>\n In a TED Talk entitled, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance<\/em>, Angela Lee Duckworth explains, \u201cGrit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n While \u201cgrit\u201d is emerging as a key contributor to success in many arenas, my experience is that \u201cgrit\u201d often upsets or disturbs the powers that be. Perhaps that it why it is so named, for just as the sand irritates the oyster, so those with grit tend to offend the organizational structures in which they operate. Critics don\u2019t deter those with grit; in fact, gritty people allow conflict and criticism to make them stronger. Seeling observes, \u201cThose who do not seek out \u2018universal approval,\u2019 but welcome \u2018objective critics\u2019 are building grit and likely to persevere.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n Furthermore, while \u201cgrit\u201d seems to epitomize the missionary heroes of old\u2014such as Hudson Taylor and Amy Carmichael, some might question the grittiness of millennials. Fritz Kling, author of The Meeting of the Waters<\/em>, asks, \u201cBeyond the hip clothes and cool gadgets, will they bring enough depth and commitment to very difficult cross-cultural assignments?\u201d[8]<\/a> Missions researcher Detlef Bl\u00f6echer echoes this concern, stating, \u201cStamina and self discipline are not their strengths.\u201d[9]<\/a><\/p>\n Since organizational structures appear adverse to grittiness and the emerging generation is judged to be lacking in it, what can possibly be done? The good news is that Duckworth believes that grit is something that can be learned.[10]<\/a> Perhaps instead of training and developing missionaries towards a pre-programed, one-size-fits-all approach to ministry, better results would be obtained by focusing on individual calling and the building of grit. In marrying these two ideas, missions may be able to survive the challenges of the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Andy McCullough, Global Humility: Attitudes for Mission<\/em> (UK: Malcolm Down Publishing, 2018).90.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Fred Wantaat, \u201cSpirituality in the Workplace: Source of a Calling, Levels of Living a Calling, Job Satisfaction, and Life Satisfaction Among Indian and Ugandan Leaders,\u201d Theology of Leadership Journal<\/em> 1, no. 1 (2018): 49\u201366.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Tina Lynn Seelig, Insight out: Get Ideas out of Your Head and into the World<\/em>, First edition (New York, NY: HarperOne, An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2015). 68.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Seelig. 67.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Seelig. 68.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Angela Lee Duckworth, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance<\/em>, accessed September 13, 2018, https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance?language=en.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Seelig, Insight Out<\/em>.153.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Fritz Kling, The Meeting of the Waters: 7 Global Currents That Will Propel the Future Church<\/em>, 1st ed (Colorado Springs, Colo: David C. Cook, 2010). 20.<\/p>\n