New Work, First Call, and the Ever-Looming Future

It seems fitting that as I’m still in limbo about my future/calling/career and coming to the end of a semester studying the Interwebs for a class, I’m reading Cory Doctorow’s novel Makers. I only wish I was getting some type of course credit for it.

Set sometime in the next decade or so, Makers describes an America a lot like the one you know, but a little bit different. Protagonist Suzanne Church sets out to profile the “New Work” movement, where small teams of inventors who are kind-of-independent but kind-of-financed-by-huge-corporations use Horatio-Alger ingenuity and 3D printers to dream up and create techy little tchotchkes. These include everything from a system that will tell you where any item in your house is located (cool) to a linked group of Boogie Woogie Elmo dolls that can drive a car for you (even cooler).

Church is so enamored with the New Work movement and all of its freewheeling, freethinking techno-creative inventors that she leaves her job for a major newspaper to cover the movement full-time as an independent blogger. She transitions so seamlessly from the steady income of a corporate paycheck to a steady income from banner ads on her blog that it makes you think you could do it, too.

It would seem that this is a world where everyone is richer than you and smarter than you and cooler than you, but, y’know, cool enough that they don’t make a big deal out of it.

But it’s not really that kind of world that Docotow is describing. (I guess he’s left that to the likes of Seth Godin and Clay Shirky.)

There’s also a shantytown of Dr. Seuss-ish houses filled with junkies, criminals and the working poor, a wonder drug that lets formerly-obese “fatkins” eat 10,000 calories a day and maintain a supermodel physique... and a Goth Disneyworld.

I’m still in the middle of the book so I won’t attempt an in-depth critique (and please don’t tell me how it ends). I’m mostly just intrigued by the “New Work” landscape Doctorow describes… In a world where regular jobs are in increasingly short supply, this ragtag bunch of smart, creative misfits creates a counterculture where people can do work they’re excited about, make enough money to live decently, and live in communities built around mutual interest where people are in charge of their own life and destiny.

It’s not a rushing river by any means, but there is a trickle of conversation on campus and in the church in general that if you are a senior in the MDiv program, after graduation you are quickly and gracefully escorted into a call with an eagerly waiting congregation with whom you will live happily ever after.

(This trickle, of course, coming mostly from those outside the MDiv program and the assignment process, and not from those of us who are watching the calendar days slip by frighteningly fast and still have no idea what we’ll be doing with ourselves after graduation.)

The Lutheran even printed an article about the increasing difficulty and complexity of the first call process this month... an article that didn’t exactly fill me with hope or joy, but I suppose it’s good in a general sort of way so people know what it’s like right now for those of us awaiting first call.

Anyway. New Work. The future. Possibilities, not panic. Those are the things I’ve been thinking about lately.

I try to think about ways to put together a resume that downplays the fact that I’ve spent four years outside CubicleLand and plays up the fact that I have plenty of relevant and useful gifts and skills for doing many different things.

I try to think about ways I might be able to use those gifts and passions outside the path I’ve assumed I would take for the last four years, and also outside the career paths I've taken in the past that inevitably led to frustration.

I also continue to believe and hope that a call will open up – one that I can be excited about and one where the people will be excited to have me as a pastor.

I’ve been praying that God would show me God’s will for my future and my work… and if you’re the praying kind and you’re reading this, honestly, maybe throw a little prayer for me into your own prayers. Hey, it couldn’t hurt.

Because I do still panic. Maybe more than a little. I believe and hope there’s something awesome around the corner for me. But as I sit here and write this, I have no idea what it is.

I know, I know.

One day at a time. God is in charge. That Buechner quote about the world’s deep need and your deep gladness and all that. (Here it is, if you’ve never heard it.)

But seriously. Two months is not a very long time at all. And I am terribly impatient. And not terribly optimistic.

But that doesn't mean that I'm not also full of hope. And I am daily sustained in faith. And also aware of how terribly blessed I am in so many ways, not the least of which is my relationships with all of y'all who are on this walk with me.

Comments

[Ben Worley]

For what it's worth, here is my experience (short version.) I was blessed to know that the call process wasn't really about me, it was about God providing for a church full of his people. That freed me to be absolutely honest and just have a good time with the interviews. When I arrived here to start the call, it allowed me to focus on getting to know them for who they are and join in with what they are doing without worrying too much about my gifts or anything like that. Those things will happen naturally. All in all, the whole experience has been one of getting taken care of while honoring people as the beloved children of God that they are.

Of course you're a totally different person, with a different history, and a whole host of "differents," but God is bringing you someplace. It's just a question of where. Kick back and enjoy it.