Work, vocation and service

Ages 13 to 17 Read alone · about 40 minutes

Read together

Work can be a job, a career or a calling. Many Christians understand vocation as the many ways we serve God and neighbour, in jobs, families, churches and communities.

Skills, interests and needs around you can all guide your choices.

Do it

1. List your strengths, interests and values.
2. Interview two adults about their work: what do they enjoy, what is hard, whom do they serve?
3. Find one way to serve now, such as helping a neighbour or volunteering with a trusted group.
4. Write a first draft of a short budget or plan for a first job or training.

Talk about it

• What problem in the world moves you?
• How could your skills help someone?

For the grown-up

THEOLOGY NOTE. Traditions teach vocation differently: the Reformation emphasised ordinary work as calling, while Catholic and Orthodox traditions also speak of vocations to marriage, single life, priesthood and monastic life. Give your teen room to explore. Check any volunteering is with a safeguarded organisation. Follow local rules on working age and hours.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• Wingren, G., Luther on Vocation (Muhlenberg Press, 1957)
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, sections on the vocation of the lay faithful and on human work
• Placher, W. C. (ed.), Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation (Eerdmans, 2005)

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.