Pastor's Midweek Message

October 7, 2026

Beloved,

Last week, I mentioned that we’re engaging in a conversation this autumn around the question of, What is God calling us into for our Next Seven Decades? That strategic visioning session will be in 10 days, on October 17, at Chester UMC from 9am to 1pm. I hope you’ll attend and share how God is speaking through you!

Thinking of that, though, raises the broader question of looking at “calling.” What comes to mind when I say that word? Or when it gets personal–what is YOUR calling? Do you automatically jump to the idea of being called into pastoral ministry, like I was? Or can we understand “calling” to mean something very much broader?

I like how the author Os Guinness puts it: Every one of us has TWO callings in our life. The first is simply the call that Jesus gave to the very first disciples on the seashore: “Follow me.” That first call is a call to follow God, to be a disciple of Jesus, to say Yes to Jesus and to be a fruitful Christian in a world of barren deserts. This call we hear through God’s prevenient grace, which draws us in and leads us to confess our faith in Jesus, and go on in deepening our faith in sanctification. This is what we were speaking of in worship last weekend, when we explored our fruitfulness and heard the urging to bear fruit for Jesus.

The second calling–well, that’s the one that’s uniquely yours. My dad was called to be an electrical engineer, to design computer chips and the like. That isn’t me: I could barely pass physics in high school. It used to drive him nuts, that his son couldn’t grasp basic electrical concepts. But, to use an electrical engineering pun, I’m just not wired that way. Words came easier to me than ohms and volts. And so my first professional jobs were ones where I was using words. I guess I still am.

The thing is, that second or “vocational” calling doesn’t have to be in the church. Your calling might be to teach, or to help people whose cars have broken down, or to lead others to make a vision come true. Your calling might be in medicine, or sales, or any of an infinite number of fields unrelated to the church. 

And, your vocational calling may change over time. Mine certainly did. What you’re called to do at 20 might be very different at 40, or 60, or 80. But we all share in that same fundamental calling: to follow Jesus.

This year, BHUMC is taking part in a challenge across the Virginia Annual Conference to become a Congregation of Call. In conjunction with our Lay Leader, Jessica Mathis, we’ll be working this year to educate about “call,” to help us explore our calls, and to build a culture where we all understand the two calls and help one another lean into our vocational calling. I encourage you to take part in the various events and activities we’ll do to help earn that designation next spring.

So let’s go.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Eric