Extending Discipleship Exploring Vocation: A Developing Model

Rev Caroline Wickens

1. Roots

The Methodist Conference of 2006 received a report entitled 'Extending Discipleship Exploring Vocation', which set out a new model for resourcing people in developing their sense of God's call. It identified four strands as key to this model: vocational exploration, theological reflection, developing a sense of Methodist identity and engagement with the learning church. It offered various suggestions as to how this model might be delivered and its possible content, and, crucially, emphasised several times that this was intended as a route to ministry of many different kinds, not merely ordination.

This outline has many strengths. It ties together discipleship and vocation, suggesting that vocation is an integral part of all Christian discipleship rather than an optional add-on for the chosen few. It offers a holistic picture of how to achieve vocational discernment, combining resources relating to personality and gifts, the church's tradition and current scholarship, and Methodist identity with opportunities for practical engagement. In particular, in terms of the aims of this conference, it encourages all participants to see theology as a natural, normal activity which every Christian can and should engage in. In defining outcomes in terms of greater engagement with the missio Dei, the nature and activity of God which embraces both church and world (Bosch 1991:10), it has a clear mission focus.

However, the outline has an implicit but strong focus on the church as the primary context where vocation may be explored. This is in my view problematic because it suggests an unexamined assumption that the church is also the primary location of God's action; the process demands a stronger awareness of the interface between God's presence in the world and in the church. This correlates with a more practical difficulty. Although the report emphasises in principle that EDEV is intended to lead into a range of ministry, lay and ordained, its detailed proposals seem primarily to be concerned with resourcing those who wish to candidate for ordained ministry...

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