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Contact: Marshall Shelley
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Carol Stream, IL January 31,2013 – Leadership Journal tackles a problem churches have struggled with for years. Many Christians feel if they are not called to fulltime ministry, they don't have a calling at all. Without a sense of calling, they fail to see their work as meaningful and holy. At best they regard their jobs as useful for making money to fund missions and church ministry—the "real" work of the Lord. Even worse, churches often reinforce this destructive thinking by the way they run their ministries.

Leadership Journal asks what it would take for churches to affirm and equip Christian businessmen, plumbers, and stay-at-home mothers. In Uncommon Callings Skye Jethani writes, "Imagine a Christian community where followers of Christ are not merely focused upon church-based programs, but where they are taught how to commune with Christ and glorify and serve him wherever the individuals are called—in business, the trades, the arts, medicine, education, or elsewhere."

There's been rising interest in vocation in recent years, with many books being published on the topic and conferences springing up. "There are no second-class Christians or second class callings," says Drew Dyck, Managing Editor of Leadership Journal. "It is essential for pastors to do a better job of affirming everyone's vocation." The latest issue of the journal also examines the pastoral calling. "As important as secular vocations are, we also need to uphold the call to full-time ministry", says Dyck. To gain a better understanding of the pastor's calling, Leadership Journalinterviewed David Platt on how he understands his own calling into ministry.

Visit LeadershipJournal.net to learn more about this issue and to view all the articles dealing with this theme.

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