By Shawn McMullen

 Having reached her support-raising goal, our daughter Kelsey recently moved to Louisville, Kentucky to begin her work as a project fulfillment specialist with the mission organization Team Expansion. She serves as a facilitator for Team Expansion’s PACE program (Pray, Activate, Commit, Enlist), a partnership with local congregations who have a vision to share the gospel and plant churches among the more than 6,700 unreached people groups around the world.

Ree and I couldn’t be more proud of Kelsey and her commitment to global evangelism. I regularly remind her that she is engaged in the most important work in the world.

I feel the same way about my personal involvement in ministry and the church I serve. There is no higher calling, no more vital work, than leading people to faith in Jesus Christ.

These are high callings, but they aren’t the only high callings we can aspire to. In fact, anything a Christian does with the express purpose of exalting Christ and glorifying God should be considered a high calling.

Oliver Wendell Holmes observed, “Every calling is great when greatly pursued.” To put it in a biblical context, the apostle Paul wrote, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31) and “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). Even slaves were instructed to serve their masters as a high calling in Christ: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters” (Colossians 3:23).

The farmer who views the cycles of planting and harvesting as testimonies to the creative and sustaining power of God serves in a high calling. So does the factory worker who assembles automobiles with diligence and integrity so that Christ is honored by his life and example.

The public school teacher who endures long days in the classroom and long nights attending school functions, knowing that each encounter with a student is an opportunity to bless, encourage, and point to Christ, serves in a high calling. The Wall Street stockbroker and the successful business owner show faithfulness to their high callings in Christ when they excel in their craft, use their business and leadership skills to serve the church, and generously give of their resources to support local congregations and kingdom work around the world.

Bible college professors, administrators, and support staff, Christian writers, editors, and publishers—all serve Christ in a high calling as they faithfully teach and communicate God’s truth. So does the stay-at-home mom who devotes herself to her family, nurturing and discipling young souls at life’s most impressionable stages.

Any profession, any occupation can be a high calling, providing it allows a person to conform to the image of Christ and is pursued with a view to God’s glory.

What is—or will be—your high calling?