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Conversations about Calling: Vocare Evenings
By Steve Garber
We call them Vocare evenings. Month by month we invite people for a meal, sometimes in a home, sometimes in a restaurant or club, for “conversations about calling.” The themes have ranged across the spectrum of human responsibilities and relationships: human rights, the new urbanism, medicine and healthcare, the arts, business, congregational life and the vocation of pastor, national security, law, and reflection on a recent film and its meaning for life in the world.
Mostly these are here in Washington, in and around the city. Sometimes not, though. And sometimes these are not “just us,” The Washington Institute; but more a collaborative effort with the Christian Legal Society, or a businessperson committed to China who hosts a meal and wants our presence, or a meeting of people committed to working for the renewal of the culture, a project to which we are committed as well. A Vocare evening has an identity with a mission, but its look and feel can be quite diverse. We see that as a strength.
For example, not so long ago a table-full of folk gathered together in New York City for a very late-night conversation about “investing in the culture." Around the table were people who have given their lives to working at this vision. Charlie Peacock of Nashville and the Art House, author of At the Crossroads and producer of much good music; Steve Turner of London, my very favorite poet and author of many books which in different ways explore the meaning of the popular arts, from Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts to A Man Called Cash: The Authorized Biography of Johnny Cash to Amazing Grace: The Story of the Song to The Gospel According to the Beatles; Jon Foreman of the band Switchfoot; Joe King and Isaac Slade of the band The Fray; Dave Kiersznowski, a wonderful friend to all and CEO of The DEMDACO Corporation in Kansas City; Chris Hansen of the Piko Fellowship, an imaginative and long-term vision to grow a guild of gifted screenwriters; Mark Rodgers, my neighbor and friend, who for years has been a political leader on Capitol Hill; myself, and a few others.
It went late, but it was very good. As I looked around, I found myself reflecting one more time on the meaning of “table” for those who live in the now-but-not-yet of the kingdom. We live eschatologically, don’t we? Between “the last supper” and “the great supper, we are commanded to meet at a table week by week to remember to remember who God is and who we are as we take up another six days of being the people of God in the world. We laughed and listened and learned until way past midnight, thinking through together the vision of caring for history, of what it would mean for us to “light candles rather than curse the darkness” in our diverse vocations and common calling.
These are meant to be conversations with consequences, not ends-in-themselves. Since that night, relationships that were begun have deepened, responsibilities have been shared. Some of that has taken folk back to NYC, but others have pursued this in Washington, and some in London and LA. But wherever and whenever, the point is always to keep praying and working towards the kingdom coming, in and through our vocations. In Walker Percy’s image, being “signposts in a strange land” of the world that will someday be.
Last night another group met at the Union Street Public House in Old Town Alexandria. In the Washington Room, appropriately, a large table accommodated 20 of us for a conversation brought into being by the recent film, “Amazing Grace.” The story is not small for us in The Washington Institute. For 25 years it has been the historical ballast for my own life and work; when I have been tempted to walk away, I have not—remembering one more time that Wilberforce and his friends kept at it. And for Ray Blunt the story is central in his thinking and teaching and writing; see his three-part essay comparing and contrasting the lives of Wilberforce and Jefferson on our website.
But the story and the film echo across our board too. As the project coordinator for the film, Erik Lokkesmoe gave substantial energy and time to the story now beautifully told in cinematic glory of Wilberforce and the Clapham community as they spent themselves on behalf of “the abolition of slavery and the reformation of manners.” Heidi Metcalf serves as the vice-president for Geneva Global; through her office here a coordinated effort called “The Amazing Change” came into being as a way of rippling out the story of the film into social and political action to address 21 st-century slavery. (See The Amazing Change Fund: http://www.theamazingchange.com/fund.html.) And Mark Rodgers served as a catalyst, connecting Heidi and Geneva Global, with Erik and Walden Media. His new work with the Clapham Group will be catalytic like that in everything they do—yes, all day long, conversations with consequences.
We decided to open the evening up for anyone who wanted to come, rather than as is our habit invite particular people into a conversation. We had to turn people away. Not because we could not find a room to hold everyone; there are banquet rooms aplenty. But more because we want a true conversation, with everyone at the table invested. We are still learning to do that well, but from looking around everyone seemed honestly interested in what others were saying, even as we made our way through soup and salad and onto the main course. Our hope is to have a conversation about calling as we eat together. As one participant at last night’s dinner put it: “It is fascinating to see that people are hungry for this kind of conversation.” Simply said.
One way we have done that is to ask for a common conversation. Not that someone will be penalized by whispering to a neighbor at the table, but more to encourage all of us to listen to all of us. And so we begin with this question: what has called you here tonight? what about you, your commitments and cares, has brought you to this table tonight? You can imagine that the answers are varied, and rightly so. Men and women, older and younger, spanning the spectrum of vocations, but all willing to spend an evening talking about a good story, and what that good story means for life in our time and place.
After the first question, we went onto the “launcher,” as Wilberforce and his friends called their questions which served to begin their own “conversations with consequences.” They met week by week for decades to pray and eat, talk and think, about their “great objects,” viz. the abolition of slavery and the renewal of the social fabric of English society (what they called “the reformation of manners”). We asked, “So what of this story for us, for our stories, for our lives, 200 years later?” We spent an hour-and-a-half thinking aloud and together. No sermons were given, no speeches made, but lots of words went round the room as we pondered together what the film and its subject might mean for us.
One reason we have been drawn to this practice is that it is simple. It does not require a large staff or a big budget or a complex program; rather ordinary people in ordinary places can open up heart and home for a conversation about things that matter. For us it is the dynamic interaction between faith and vocation and culture that matters. We are finding that that “matters” to many people. Sons of Adam and daughters of Eve ache to live lives of consequence. We yearn for coherent lives, where what we believe honestly forms what we do, and that what we do has consequence in history. We sometimes put it this way: faith shapes vocation shapes culture.
We hope you enjoy the additional resources to our website. We are glad to offer again another of Ray Blunt’s meditations on servant leadership. As is plain to see, his wisdom grows out of his life. And we are glad to offer Micheal Flaherty’s important statement on the meaning of stories; his work through Walden Media is an honest effort to tell stories that are rooted in the truest truths of the universe, and yet in language that the whole world can understand. And we are glad to announce a new partnership with the Work Research Foundation in Toronto and the Center for Faith and Work in New York City. And finally we are glad that a new edition of The Fabric of Faithfulness is out and about, as of this last month. In many ways, its vision is our vision.
We welcome you again to our life, and hope that you find our website useful to you as you continue to live into the way that faith, vocation, and culture are integrally connected in your community, among your people and in your place. There is not one way for that to happen, but it does need to happen. Otherwise we left with cursing the darkness, which is a strange response for people of faith and hope and love—anytime or anywhere.
One more time, we invite you to come and see.
WASHINGTON INSTITUTE RESOURCES
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