Religious Calling

Career-conscious Christians, listen up! Is Jesus calling us to re-evaluate how we are spending our time, our lives and our careers? Is he challenging us to break down and bust up the barrier between office and vocation?

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." --Matthew 13:44

God birthed a cause in me that has not only transformed my life over these years but has reached millions. God has also birthed a cause inside of you that he wants you to embrace.

A calling is more than a job; it's something that matters to you, drives you, inspires you. It's what gets you out of bed in the morning.

The Calling follows seven emerging religious leaders as they embark on their journeys as pastors, preachers, priests, chaplains, imams and rabbis.

We've gone throughout the country, exploring the subtleties of calling. We started with one question: What does calling mean to you? From there conversations went far afield.

When I began to work on The Calling, my PBS documentary series on clergy students, I set out to look at faith in the U.S. with a keen eye and a warm heart.

As the great theologian Howard Thurman put it, "Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

The word "calling" is a noun that, not so long ago, referred to the singling out of an individual who'd been "chosen" for divine service. But that context is too small.