Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good

by Steven Garber

Publisher:

IVP

, 2014

Overview

Foreword Review’s Annual INDIEFAB Book of the Year Finalist

Outreach Resource of the Year

Christianity Today Award of Merit

Leadership Journal Best Books for Church Leaders

Book of the Year from Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Bookstore

Is it possible to know the world and still love the world?

Of all the questions we ask about our calling, this is the most difficult. From marriages to international relations, the more we know, the harder it is to love. We become cynics or stoics, protecting our hearts from the implications of what we know. But what if the vision of vocation can be recovered—allowing us to step into the wounds of the world and for love’s sake take up our responsibility for the way the world turns out?

For decades Steve Garber has come alongside a wide range of people as they seek to make sense of the world and their lives. With him we meet leaders from the Tiananmen Square protest who want a good reason to still care about China. We also meet with many ordinary people in ordinary places who long for their lives to matter:

• Jonathan who learned he would rather build houses than study history
• Todd and Maria who adopted creative schedules so they could parent better and practice medicine
• D.J. who helped Congress move into the Internet Age
• Robin who spends her life on behalf of urban justice
• Hans who makes hamburgers the way they are meant to be made
• Susan who built a home business of hand-printing stationary using a letterpress
• Santiago who works with majority-world nations in need of capital
• George who has given years to teaching students to learn things that matter most
• Claudius and Deirdre whose openhearted home has always been a place for people
• Dan who loves Wyoming, the place, its people and its cows

Vocation is when we come to know the world in all its joy and pain and still love it. Vocation is following our calling to seek the welfare of the world we live in. And in helping the world to flourish, strangely, mysteriously, we find that we flourish too. Garber offers a book for everyone everywhere—for students, for parents, for those in the arts, in the academy, in public service, in the trades and in commerce—for all who want to discover the virtue of vocation.

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Contents

Introduction. On Learning to Be Implicated
1. To Know the World and Still Love It?
2. If You Have Eyes, Then See
3. The Landscape of our Lives
4. Knowing Is Doing
5. Come and See
6. Vocation as Implication
7. The Great Temptations
8. Learning to Live Proximately
Epilogue. But Are You Happy?
Prayer for Vocations
Acknowledgments
Notes

Praise for Visions of Vocation

”Every generation wonders at its place in the world. Every adolescent agonizes over the ‘purpose of my life.’ But in such a time as ours—with the world at our fingertips and seemingly endless opportunities to choose from—such questions are particularly fraught. Into these questions of calling and vocation, Steven Garber steps with characteristic grace. Part prophet, part pastor and part teacher, Garber reminds the reader that to be alive on this earth is to be called—to be implicated in the common good of your time and place. Now that you know what you know, what will you do? he asks. Garber helps Christians—young and old—press into their vocation as a response to the wounds and burdens of their particular context. This compelling and convicting book does not give easy answers but instead offers a robust definition of vocation to which Christians can cling no matter their age, location or circumstance."

"Many Christians struggle with envisioning what it is to be and to work in the world. Garber offers stories and wisdom that affirm the goodness and rightness of Christians pursuing callings in areas not traditionally considered ministry but that may be missional nonetheless."

"Visions of Vocation will be considered a classic of our time, inspiring many to care more deeply and live out their own passions with vitality and integrity."

"Garber fills in the fuzzy ideas about vocation and calling with stories of friends who have thoroughly and thoughtfully discerned how loving God’s world plays out in real life. As a preacher I benefited from this vision of vocation that extends to every person in the pew."

"American Christians regularly emphasize the roles of faith and piety in our personal interactions over the actions of care and love we can perform for the cities and towns in which we do our daily work. When Garber quotes Jeremiah 29:7, ‘Seek the well-being of the city—when it flourishes, you will flourish,’ he advocates a position that will likely prove counter-cultural and unpopular—and thought-worthy—in such times of division as these."

"Garber’s breadth of knowledge, his ability to integrate ideas, and his beautiful and engaging writing make this book well worth reading, but his honesty and his concrete evidence of every person’s ability to love the world and take responsibility for it hold the reader accountable. The book should come with a warning: You won’t walk away unchanged."

"Visions of Vocation asks the most compelling and human questions about how to love the world once you come to truly know it. These pages are packed with stories of wisdom and grace, serving as a vocational compass for anyone seeking true guidance in the midst of a complex world. I am grateful for the mentorship of Steve Garber’s words, and I know you will be too."

"If you have ever heard Garber speak in public, you know that he does so with a soothing, lyrical style that tips his audience to his fondness for music and poetry. He often notes that ‘the artists get there first,’ and his writing reflects this inclination, weaving in stories that begin as seemingly separate strands. Yet in Garber’s chapters they are woven together to form a tapestry that reveals how vocation is integral to the mission of God."This book is not for the faint of heart. Despite Garber’s poetic style, his words pack a punch, challenging the reader to consider what it means to be ’implicated.’. . . Living with a full understanding of vocation means choosing to see the wounds of the world and responding with a heart of flesh rather than a heart of stone. It means choosing the better but not the easier. . . . "Visions of Vocation invites readers into what feels like a fireside chat with poets, musicians, and artists of all kinds on living a life of significance. It is a chat that feels preliminary but substantive; the kind of conversation you leave looking forward to the next one. . . . “If angst-filled young adults are looking for a formula to discern their future, it cannot be found in this book. Likewise, if theologians are looking for a systematic treatise on vocation, they too will soon be disappointed. However, what they will find is probably more valuable: a book that causes readers to think about their lives in new and challenging ways, exploring questions which, when answered in good conscience, comprise a fabric of faithfulness."

"Steve Garber is one of the few consistent sources of wisdom that I rely on personally for my journey as an artist and as a Christ-follower. Like Magi’s stars to the weary travelers in faith and culture, Visions of Vocation is a clear manifestation in the dark skies of our complex times that points to an integrated source of wisdom, delight and hope."

"Steve Garber has a way of making me feel spiritually rich. What he thinks and says is what I need. I realize this because he does both sowell. His exceptional biblical insight and profound humanity increase my hunger for God and the ways of God. I am left seeking God?s calling into a more genuine human life and believing God intends this as part of the common good for which we are made and redeemed. Feast on this book and be fed."

Product Details

• Title : Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good
• Author: Garber, Steven
• Publisher: IVP Books
• Publication Date: 2014
• ISBN: 9780830896264

About Steven Garber

Steven Garber is professor of marketplace theology and leadership at Regent College, Vancouver, and the principal of The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture. A consultant to foundations, corporations, and schools, he is a teacher of many people in many places. His books include Visions of Vocation and The Fabric of Faithfulness.