In Purpose

STAND BY ME
IN PURPOSE
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 17:15-16
OCTOBER 4, 2009

Vocation. Have you ever wondered about that word? The word vocation, you hear it here and there. You hear it many times in the course of your life. Every high school has vocational counselors. Colleges and universities: vocational counselors. And even graduate schools and schools of theology have vocational counselors. People speak of vocation and avocation and normally when they speak of vocation, they are thinking of their job. They’re thinking of their career. When they speak of avocation, they’re thinking of some interest they have outside of their job or their career. But we have this word vocation and it’s an ancient word and it comes from a time when people had a different worldview. This word vocation comes from a time when most people in the world thought differently, and so, this word vocation, which comes from the Latin vocatio literally means to call and it meant the call of God. So, your vocation was the call of God. Your vocation was the summons of God so people thought of their vocations as something to which God had called them. People thought of their vocations as something to which God had summoned them. Vocation.

As we talk about mentors in the area of vocation, I’d like to share my vocational testimony. I’ve shared bits and pieces of this through the years and I will admit that in my youth, as I was growing up, I was vocationally conflicted, very confused, not sure what I wanted to do with my life, not sure what God wanted me to do with my life. And there was a time where I thought I would be a coach, someday. I loved sports. I still love sports, and there was a dream I had for many years of becoming a coach. And then there was a period of time when I thought maybe someday, I would become a scientist or an astronomer, maybe even an astrophysicist because I had this fascination with the cosmos, with the universe, even what today is called the multi-verse. And then there was a time in my life where I thought maybe someday I would want to be a zoologist because I always loved animals. Even now Barb and I every year go to the zoo and you’d think we’d be bored because we’ve done it so often, but we’re fascinated because I really do love animals.

Now when I went to college, at some point you know you have to pick a major and so I picked psychology. Now for my dad this was a real bummer because my dad didn’t like psychologists. He thought they were all very strange and very weird. In fact, he thought all psychologists need a psychologist. My dad was an old-school guy, very old fashioned. The thought that I would major in psychology just really bummed him out. One of my brothers, Greg, also majored in psychology. In fact, we both graduated from the same college in the same year with the same major. My brother Greg is two years older than me, but he left college for two years to sing on the Lawrence Welk Show. So, he sang there for two years, he came back and now when he came back, we were both juniors. We majored in psychology and we graduated together—a double bummer for my dad.

Now you’ve got to understand, my dad was an accountant. He worked as a CPA for the State Board of Equalization in California and he progressed through the ranks, through the hierarchy, in the State Board of Equalization and he did really well and was quite successful. In fact, my brothers and I, jokingly, often called my dad, “the wallet.” We would say to Mom, “Hey, Mom, come on over and bring ‘the wallet’ with you.” Now when my dad would hear us say this, he’d start laughing cause he really liked it. He liked being “the wallet.” He liked feeling like a provider, and he was a very, very generous man. So, my dad paid for my college education and beyond, and he did the same with my brothers, but he was really bummed out that I was majoring in psychology. He said, “What are you going to do with that?’ I said, “I don’t know,” and I really didn’t know.

So, when I graduated, I had this psychology major, but you can’t do much with one. You can’t become a counselor. You can’t become a therapist. That’s just not a sufficient degree, and I didn’t really want to be a therapist anyway. I kind of lingered for a while and then I called my dad and I said, “Dad, I think I’ve got a new direction here. I think I want to be a teacher. I’ve had many teachers through the years that I’ve appreciated and enjoyed and I think it would be really great to be a teacher.” My dad was kind of silent. He said, “Well, what would that mean?” I said, “Well, I need to go a fifth year because in the state of California you need to do a teaching credential, which takes a fifth year,” and so, he said, “Well, you know if you really feel good about this, okay, let’s do it.” So, I went a fifth year and I did my teaching credential in history. When I was done with all my course work, I did my student teaching and I hated it. I absolutely hated it. I taught at a junior high school, a middle school in Santa Barbara, and it just seemed like total chaos and very, very stressful.

I just decided, “I don’t want to go this direction,” so I called my dad. I said, “You know, Dad, change of plans.” There was just silence. I said, “I don’t think the teaching deal is right for me. I tried it, and boy, it doesn’t seem like me.” Dad said, “What are you thinking son?” and I said, “Well, I think maybe I’ll do graduate school in psychology. I’ll go back to psychology to graduate school, get my PhD in psych and maybe have a career in psychology.” He was just silent because that was just a nightmare for him that I would go that direction and he knew I was calling him as “the wallet.” I was in some sense I was hoping he would not only pray for me, but offer some money. He said, “Well, son, if you’ve really thought this through, okay.”

But then later that year, it was wintertime, and I’m in Santa Barbara and I’m walking down the beach and I’m the only one there because it was a really, really, cold day, and I’m feeling lonely, and maybe a little down because I had had seven really good friends in college and they were all married now. I look back on it now and I realize, “Man, they got married really young!” because they were all married when they were in college, but still I felt like the one leftover, kind of the loser. I really had no idea what to do with my life. And so, I’m walking along the beach in Santa Barbara just listening to the waves break and I began to pray. I was a Christian, but I rarely prayed at that point in my life, but I began to pray that day.

As I prayed, I began to sense and feel the presence of God. As I prayed, I began to cry. It’s really hard for me to explain. I just teared up and the tears started running down my cheek and pretty soon I’m just crying. I’m walking down the beach and I’m crying and I knew that this was some kind of a turning point in my life. And it was, it was a moment for me as I prayed, of relinquishment to God. And I remember exactly what I said, “Lord Jesus, I’ll go where you want me to go and I’ll do what you want me to do, no matter what it is.” And then I said, “Lord Jesus, I’ll be single for the rest of my life if you want me to. I can live without a girl. I cannot live without you.” I knew in my heart that I meant it. Well, that night I felt really up. I mean I still had no clue what I was going to do with my life, but I felt really up, unloaded and lifted. And I felt like I had relinquished it to God. Then in the days that followed, he called me. I mean he summoned me and I knew he was calling me to the fulltime ministry. I didn’t know what kind of ministry. I didn’t know whether it would involve the local church, but I knew he was asking me to give my life in his service.

So, I called my dad. I said, “Dad, change of plans. I know this sounds really strange, but in my heart, in my soul, I know now God is calling me to the ministry and I need to go to theological seminary.” There was just silence on the phone. Just silence. I lost my dad 13 years ago when he went to be with the Lord, but I really miss him and love him. He said, “Well, son, if God is calling you to do this, we’ve got to do it.” My dad had friends at Fuller Theological Seminary, one of the great theological schools. And indeed it is the largest independent seminary in the world.

George Eldon Ladd, Dr. Ladd, who was the head of Biblical Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, was a good friend of my dad’s. My dad played him in handball every week. And Paul King Jewett, Dr. Jewett, who was head of Systematic Theology at the seminary, was also a good friend of my dad’s. And the head of the language department, William Sanford LeSor, Dr. LeSor, headed up the Hebrew and the Greek, but he spoke 26 languages and had written textbooks in 7 languages. He was a good friend of my dad’s. And my dad said one thing: “You’ve got to go to Fuller Theological Seminary.” I said, “Dad, that’s great.” And so he helped pay for that. My church helped pay for that. And I helped pay for that as I was working at the YMCA.

I went to Fuller, and I did not know what ministry God was calling me to, I just knew he wanted me to serve him in my lifetime. So, I did the three-year Master of Divinity and after receiving my Master of Divinity, I still had no clue what I was supposed to do. Dad was getting pretty frustrated. I went on and did a ThM and as I was in the ThM program, went into a doctoral program, but I still did not know. I thought maybe I would be a teacher at a Christian college or maybe at a seminary. I called a university in Southern California, they had an opening in New Testament theology, and Barb and I were newly married then and I said, “I’d like to apply for the job. Can I submit my resume?” They said, “Sure, and we’ll schedule an appointment.” I said, “How many people have applied for this position?” They said, “117, so far.” I said, “Well, how many of them have doctorates?” They waited, and then they came back and said, “103.” I looked at Barb. We said, “Oops. This doesn’t look that good.”

We thought maybe, just maybe God wants us to look at the local church. At the placement office at the seminary, they had vocational counselors and they had people who would come in. Pastors from churches all over the world and you could interview with them. I interviewed with Dr. Dean Wolfe who was pastor at Faith Presbyterian Church out in Aurora. It was like the spirit of God came down and I knew and Dean knew when we interviewed, this was my call. I knew it. Barb and I flew out to Colorado here. I met with the folks at Faith Presbyterian Church, and we knew this was God’s call for us, and so we came.

I know first of all it was an answer to my mother’s dreams and prayers. My mom, when I came along, was wanting a daughter because she had nothing but boys and she really wanted a daughter. Didn’t happen, she got me. But I know the second thing she wanted was a pastor. She had wanted to marry a pastor. She ended up marrying an accountant, but then she prayed that one of her kids would be a pastor. I can look now and can say her prayers were answered three-fold because not only did God call me to be a pastor, but my brother Greg, at age 52 after working at Lockheed and working in Human Resources at JD Edwards, he got the call of God to the ministry. He’s a pastor to pastors down in Central America and a member of this church. My brother Gary, in his 40s, left the banking industry and received the call of God to be a pastor, administrative executive pastor, at Glendale Presbyterian Church, which he did. So, my mom’s prayers were answered many times over. When you pray for your kids, just know that’s powerful.

I’ve had many mentors through the years as a pastor who helped me in that call and who taught me how to do the work of the ministry. I remember my first pastor was Dr. Louis H. Evans at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. I was really too young to get to know him, but I did get to know him later in life. I got to know him quite well as we had him do conferences and seminars.

Then my second pastor was Clarence W. Kerr at Glendale Presbyterian Church, but again I kind of admired him from afar. My family pastor was Joseph Stephens, Joe and his wife Doris. In those days, Joe was the associate pastor. He was not the senior pastor, but Joe was so close to my family, and we just hung out together. Joe and Doris went with us to UCLA football games. My dad had graduated from UCLA. We’d go down to Exposition Park, have a picnic, go to the LA Memorial Coliseum for the Bruins game, and afterwards we’d go out and get Mexican food. Joe and Doris, the pastor and his wife, were with us all the time. Joe counseled me as a kid growing up and he told me again and again and again, “Jimmy, I think God’s calling you to the ministry. I think God is going to call you to the church,” and I’d always say, “There’s no way.” But he’d say that to me. He just passed away a couple years ago. His wife Doris wrote me just recently a nice letter just saying how she misses Joe and how confident she is that Joe is up there with my dad and mom and they’re having a lot of fun together, and I believe that.

I remember when I brought Joe out when we were on Colorado Blvd in Cherry Hills Village just south of Hampden when our church was located there. The second Sunday we had increased by 1,000 people in one week and it was crazy. I’d asked Joe to come out and say the prayer that second week in that new facility and Joe and Doris came out. I was so nervous that Joe was going to be there and I was going to preach in front of my former pastor. I was so nervous. That morning I got up. It was early in the morning and it was dark. I didn’t want to wake Barb. I got dressed in the dark, came to church.

In those days, we used to sit up on the stage during the singing and everything and I would sit up there. And Bob Beltz, who was our associate teaching pastor, would sit up there with me. We’re just sitting there and the service is going on and Joe is out in the crowd and I’m going to call him up soon, but Bob turns to me. He says, “Doix,” (and to this day Bob still sometimes calls me Doix). He took Dixon, shortened it to Dix and then went to Doix, and I don’t know why. He either calls me Doix or he calls me Jimbo. In any event, Bob turns to me and says, “Doix, what’s with the shoes?” I look down and I have on one brown shoe and one black shoe, and one is a loafer and the other’s a wingtip. I was really nervous about Joe being there. Joe had been my mentor in the ministry and now I was going to preach in front of him, but what a loving man. I’m just blessed with guys like that in my life that mentored me.

Ultimately, when I came to work here in Colorado, for eight and a half years I worked with Dean Wolfe. Dean was not only my boss; he was my friend and he really believed in me and encouraged me in Christ. It was Dean who taught me to memorize the Bible and gave me that love of memorization. And it was Dean who showed me the joy of the ministry: that it’s not all just a drudgery. There’s great joy in ministry, and it’s really fun to be called by God to do this. So, much came from Dean. So, I look back on my call, on my vocation, and I have so many mentors and so, much to thank God for.

But what about you? What about you? Do you feel, as you sit there now, like you have been called by God? Do you feel summoned to what you’re doing? Do you feel like what you are doing is his call in your life? Do you feel like your career, do you feel like the job you go to, that you’ll probably go to tomorrow, do you feel like that is his call? Do you feel like that was his summons? Do you feel like you were crafted for this, designed for this, made for this? Or is it just a job? I want you to see a little clip from a movie called The Legend of Bagger Vance. This movie started Matt Damon and Will Smith and the movie really tells the story of a mythical golf match in Savannah, Georgia, right after the year 1930. Bobby Jones, one of the most famous golfers in the world, and Walter Hagen, another one of the most famous golfers in the world, are in Savannah, Georgia, and they have this match with this homegrown boy called Rannulph Junah. Rannulph Junah is this kid who as a kid was a golfing savant, just a brilliant golfer, but he went off to WWI and was traumatized and impacted psychologically and he came home broken and he became an alcoholic and then addicted to gambling. He lost everything and his whole life was broken and in ruins. Some friends, including a girlfriend, talked him into doing this match with Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen as they were in Savannah. So, in the midst of this match, he hits a bad shot into the woods and he’s just reminded of what a broken loser he is and he’s about to give it all up again and just return to alcoholism. But he has a mentor, almost a mystical mentor, played by Will Smith.

I know you’re thinking probably that you don’t have anything like Will Smith as a mystical mentor. I would submit to you that God is crafting you, that God has design and purpose for you that will fit you like a glove. I don’t know what your job is right now and whether you view it as a career. I don’t know what age you are. I don’t think your age matters because the call of God can come at any point in life. But I want you to be open to the possibility that God is crafting you for something very, very special in this world.

Now I think part of the problem for many of us even within the church and the Christian community is the Protestant work ethic. The Protestant work ethic is kind of good news/bad news. Some people trace the Protestant work ethic back to Mac Weber, the German sociologist who in 1904 wrote that famous book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. But that’s ridiculous to trace it back to Max Weber. That was 1904 and the Protestant work ethic goes way, way, way further than that and it really goes back to the Protestant Reformation—not so much to Martin Luther, but to John Calvin who developed this theology of work. It’s based on the Bible, Genesis 3, “By the sweat of your brow,” but even before that, Genesis 1-2 and how we were given dominion over the earth and told to subdue it and to work and to till it, this is the plan of God: the beauty, the glory, the dignity of work. This is God’s call that we work, and there’s truth to that. There’s truth to that that God has his “vocation.” His summons is that we work. There’s no doubt about that and so, there is a dignity as in the Protestant Work Ethic just in the act of working. But I want you to be open to a greater possibility. That it’s not just that God wants you to have a job, but that God might actually have designed you for something, crafted you for something and there might be something that really fits you like a glove. There might be something that would be so anointed and so, from him.

Maybe you feel that way already and that’s wonderful. Maybe you’re a teacher and you feel like you were made to teach. Maybe you’re teaching across the street at Valor. Maybe you’re teaching in one of Cherry Hills Christian schools. Maybe you’re teaching out at Colorado Christian University, or maybe you’re a public-school teacher, but you just know that God crafted you to teach. This is what he made you to do. There is something that is very divine and supernatural about the doing of it. Maybe you’re a counselor and you feel like that’s what he made you to do. You just know that this is what he’s crafted you to do is to help people through counseling. Here at the church, we have this wonderful program for interns in counseling, so we have interns that come from Colorado Christian University, interns that come from Denver Seminary and interns that come from the University of Northern Colorado and they intern here in our counseling program. As you go to counseling here at the church, 75 hours a week of our counseling is done by our interns. Seventy-five hours a week. A lot of these young people are asking the question, “Is this what God crafted me to do? Is this what God shaped me to do? Is this his call, his vocatio, is this his summons for me?”

Maybe God’s called you to be a lawyer; maybe you have this great burden for justice and this great concern for oppression and the afflicted. Maybe God has called you to be a police officer and you just know you were made for this and to perform this service and to provide this protection to the public. I know a number of police officers who I believe really were crafted by God to do this very thing, and it’s beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

But maybe you’re sitting there and you’re not sure that what you’re doing has anything to do with the will of God and maybe you’re thinking this might be a new beginning, today. I might start praying that God would speak to me. That I would hear his call, that I would hear his summons. This could be a turning point in my life. I’ve seen people change at any age. We have folks that have been sitting out there in the chair like you and some of them were in different fields of business and it’s great, but for many of them it was just a job. And at the age of 40 or 50, God called them to the mission field. And now we’re supporting them in one of the 70 nations that we have missionaries in. They were just sitting there like you.

I have a friend I talked to this week. He was out there in the congregation like you. He had a business. It was doing well and he was also dabbling in real estate, and he was doing not so well. But he was doing all right and it was a job and maybe more than a job, but God called him. In his 50s he felt the call of God, the summons to the ministry and he went to seminary and now in his 60s he’s been given his first call to a church. He’s gone to Detroit to pastor a church. So, we get on the phone and encourage one another. But you see, it doesn’t matter what your age is. Doesn’t matter what your age is if you just feel like you’re just doing a job, do it faithfully, but then also do this. Start praying, “Lord, I want to hear your voice. I want to know what you’ve crafted me for.” And maybe you need some mentors in your life, maybe you need to be a mentor in the lives of others who are in this process and are struggling with this. God has given us to each other for this purpose.

As we conclude, I want to say something about the church. I want to say something about the church because I believe with all my heart that whatever else you’re called to in terms of God’s vocatio, whatever else you’re summoned to, you are summoned to the church. You are called to the church. Jesus Christ said, “I’ll build my church and the powers of Hell will not prevail against it.” So, here we are. We are the church. There are a number of words in the New Testament for call 13 different Greek words. The primary verb is “kaleo,” the primary noun is “clesis” and the word church is built on that noun clesis. Ecclesia, the biblical word for church, means called out of the world and called into assembly, and so, here we are assembled on the Lord’s Day. We are the assembly; we are the church, the ecclesia, called out. The call, the summons is gone, it’s gone out to you.

But it’s not just a call to attend. It’s a far deeper call. You have this calling to the church of Jesus Christ and it involves your time, your talent and your treasure. It involves your passion. It involves your soul. It involves the struggle against darkness. It’s a struggle for the souls of men, women and children the world over. And you are called to this and you need to give your passion to this. I thank God for parents who mentored me in terms of the church. When they gave me an allowance as a kid, my dad would always come up and say, “Jim, have you tithed that allowance to the church? Have you given the first 10 percent of that? Before you do anything else for yourself, have you given that first 10 percent to the church.” He did the same thing with my brothers, and so, did my mom. As time went by and I began to make a little bit of money and I’d go out into the neighborhood and do yard work and I’d mow lawns and I’m trim hedges and I’d skim pools and dig ditches, whatever people wanted me to do and they’d pay me. Dad would say, “Son, Jim, have you tithed that? Have you taken that first 10 percent and given it to the church?”

As I got a little older into high school and got a real job (my first job was a box boy, a courtesy clerk at Safeway), I got my first paycheck. Dad said, “Jim, have you tithed it to the church? Have you taken the first 10 percent before you spend anything on yourself and have you given it to the church?” This is how he mentored me and how my brothers were mentored. So, in the course of time, and we saw our mom and dad tithing to the church, and then as God blessed them, they began to double tithe and then beyond their tithes they made offerings for special purposes that served heavenly causes. They modeled for us in this way. And they gave their time and they used their talents and their gifts and their abilities to serve the church. My mom and dad were an Elder and a Deacon and they both were Sunday school teachers because they knew that this was part of their vocatio, this was part of their vocation, this was part of their call, this was part of the summons of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Now if you’re just visiting today, God bless you and we’re so glad you’re here. But I’m not really at this point speaking to you. We’re glad you’re visiting. But if you’re part of this church, then the call of Christ is upon you. If you’re part of this church, the summons is upon you and we’re struggling. Just this last month we lost $130,000 against our budget and you just can’t go on without some tragic events. I know that these are hard economic times, but I also know we’re not being faithful. If we really were faithful, if we were anywhere near to tithing as a congregation, we wouldn’t know what to do with the money. The purpose of God would be to go forth in such power it would be unbelievable.

But we’re not faithful and we’re not faithful with our time and our talent either. So, I’m out talking to Sheila this week and we just don’t have enough Sunday School teachers. We don’t have enough volunteers in our children’s ministry. We don’t have enough volunteers in our student ministry, in Liquid. We just don’t have enough volunteers. We need hundreds more because we have a couple thousand kids and they are all precious. I’m talking to Luis Villarreal and Jack LaPietra downtown with our inner-city partners and they don’t have enough volunteers. They don’t have enough mentors in their mentoring program. Their volunteerism, Jack and Luis told me, has never been this low. They’ve got all kinds of wonderful African-American and Hispanic kids who need mentors from the suburbs who would come with the love of Christ and they don’t have enough. It’s never been so low. I said, “Jack and Luis, how about our church? How are the numbers from our church?” “It’s down, Jim. It’s not what it’s been. Not as many people are coming.” So, this burdens me, and I hope it burdens you because to me it has to do with the call. It has to do with the vocatio. It has to do with the summons. I promise you: it’s clear. God’s called you to serve the church in your lifetime.

As we close, I want to mention something I just recently read. Maybe you’ve heard of Karen Armstrong. Karen Armstrong has recently written a book called The Case for God. Karen Armstrong was a Catholic nun and she had a crisis of faith and she left the ministry and she left the Catholic Church and she rejected her faith and she rejected her worldview. She moved into what might be called atheism, at least agnosticism, and she’s come back to believing in God again. Although she does no longer call herself a Christian, yet she has great affection for Jesus. She’s more of a pluralist or a syncretist, but she’s written this book called The Case for God and it’s kind of a reaction to Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and those books that are out there at Barnes and Noble, and Borders, those books that are written by atheists that are so popular today.

She’s written a book called The Case for God. In her book she says the reason that atheists are atheists, the reason that Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins are reacting as they are is because they are reacting to a Newtonian God, a rational God, God in a box, God that’s defined perfectly by doctrines and dogma. They are reacting to a Newtonian God. She says this is the problem because in the Bible and she says in fact in the Hellenized Greek world God was not viewed as “logos.” Logos is the Greek word for logic. Logos is the word from which we get the English word logic and it’s a word that has diverse translations, but it means logic, reason, of the faculty of the mind. She says in the Hellenized world, God wasn’t viewed so much as logos (as reason, logic, or mind) as mythos. God was the one who, in the midst of your pain, in the midst of your suffering, in the midst of all the uncertainty of life, you just sense he was there. Mystery. God is mystery. Mythos.

As I was reading, I’m thinking to myself, “this is a false polarity.” This is a totally false polarity. God is both logos and mythos and in the Bible Jesus is called the logos. In the beginning, was the logos. The logos was with God. The logos was God. The logos became flesh and dwelled among us. He is the mind of God, the logic of God, the reason of God. God is linear, but he’s also mystical. So, God is both logos and mythos. You don’t have to choose one or the other and you can find in the Bible the word mysterion and certainly there is great mystery to God. You can’t put God in a box. He keeps breaking out. What I’m talking about today, what I’m telling you today, this is logos. This isn’t mystery. What I’m telling you today, this is logos, this is linear, it’s rational, it’s logical, it’s clear. I don’t have to stand up here and say, “I want you to think about this possibility.” I don’t have to stand up here and say, “Maybe God’s calling you to help the church.” It’s not mystery. It’s not mythos. It’s logos. I know. This is made clear. “I’ll build my church. The gates of Hell will not prevail against it. The powers of death will not prevail against it.” Every single person in the church is called out of the world and called to serve the church with time, talent and treasure. This isn’t mystery. This is clear, and it’s logical. It’s logical because Christ knows that as we give of time, talent and treasure the church goes forth and light goes forth on the earth, and the Church of Jesus Christ impacts the world. So, he’s placed this call upon you, and upon me. This summons is upon you—is upon me.

So, I pray that as you leave today, you’ll not only think about what God’s call and summons might be in terms of life vocation and how he’s crafted you and molded you for something very wonderful, but you’ll also think about the church, this church, and his call upon you with regard to faithfulness. Let’s close with a word of prayer.