When we hear the word “vocation” we probably think mostly of “job”, but, for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther and the other early Reformers, the term referred chiefly to the “estate” of the family. Of that estate, work, what one did to support the family, was just one part. Properly understanding vocation as the Reformers did can help make our family relationships more precious than ever—not only husband and wife, father and mother, and son and daughter, but also brothers and sisters, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, and other “shirt-tail relatives”. Properly understanding vocation can also help stop the breakdown of the family, evident by rising divorce rates, dysfunctional relationships, and counterproductive parenting.
With those goals in mind, Circuit 14 of the Texas District of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is hosting a Pastor-Lay Leader Retreat with the theme “The Vocation of Family”. The retreat is Saturday, February 2, 2013, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 1515 S. Loop 256 in Palestine. Retreat presenters are the following:
• Dr. Gene Veith is Director of the Cranach Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and Provost of Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia. He has authored many books on Christianity and culture and is a columnist for World Magazine.
• Deaconess Mary Moerbe, Dr. Veith’s daughter, is diaconal writer for the Cranach Institute and is also the wife of a Lutheran pastor and mother of three.
Registration is $15 per person and includes a delicious meal served by the Bethlehem LWML. The registration deadline officially is Sunday, January 27, but registrations will probably be welcome at the door the day of the retreat, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
Based on a solid, comprehensive study of what the Bible says, Veith and Moerbe give practical, down-to-earth guidance. They do not just lay down laws and rules, but they show how the Gospel of God’s forgiveness by grace through faith in Jesus Christ factors in God’s design for marriage, parenting, and even being a child. They show how different vocations bear the cross, and they discuss frankly problems people wrestle with in their callings and what difference Jesus’s cross can make with those problems (even things like sex and other topics that Christians sometimes have a hard time talking about).
Everyone is welcome to attend the retreat! Invite your friends, too! Whether you or they are having problems with a marriage, children, or parents; whether you or they are a couple contemplating marriage or were just married; whether you or they are new parents or just belong to a family, which really includes everyone—come learn how to live out the Christian faith in our everyday, ordinary lives.
Whether or not you can attend the retreat, you may still want to check out Veith and Moerbe’s book that is the basis for the retreat. Family Vocation: God’s Calling in Marriage, Parenting, and Childhood was published in 2012 by Crossway books and is available from the publisher in paperback and as an eBook, as well as on Amazon.com, where you can also take a free “Look Inside”.
The front-page slider graphic uses the stick-people family found here.
