A new definition - community calling

What I really enjoyed about this group of friends is that we can talk with depth to our conversations as well.  We talked about Lent and the entire giving up thing - as well as the what are we doing.  We can be honest about how hard it is to "prioritize" doing the "spiritual" stuff like praying.  

As we chatted over brunch, there was one dialogue that I found really interesting and resounded.  One friend talked about how he was talking to a missions admissions person.  He and his wife felt like they were called to a people but not necessarily a place.  So the missions admin person talked about how sometimes it's not really a place either, btu sometimes people are called more to a "team."  There was the idea of how God places you to work with certain people - the team dynamics.  Supposedly 50% of attrition from missions comes from people not interacting well with their team.

So admin said that they have a candidacy program, where people interact with various teams - working various places, various strategies, various places, etc - and then some times people just find others intriguing and they invite them to their team or they want to be mentored or learn in one of those environments.  

There's this thought that calling was something of a God whispering to you thing.  My friends and I have never had a burning bush or God whispering at us in the middle of the night experience.  But what I found interesting about this other idea of calling is that sometimes God calls you to a community or a vision.  Things are always easier to describe or correlate looking backwards.  I think for me - there was this community aspect of Vox.  Or maybe pre-Vox.  I'm not one of those cool indie music on the cutting edge of culture people, but I knew that I wanted to stay in Austin after I graduated.  I can't believe I've been here for 10 yrs now.  But I would say that there is calling to be part of my community - the families (esp kids) that I love, the tough decisions we've had to make, the amazing ways we've looked back and seen God provide in the short and long term - pretty much every location we've landed at in these 10 yrs.  There's something cool about this concept of a community calling - the affirmation comes with how you connect with you and your personal vision/goal/direction.  The affirmation comes from people asking you to partner with them or be their friends.  Truly a sense of God using the community around you to speak that purpose.  

I know I'm really not communicating this as well as my friend put it, but there were all these ideas flowing through my head - the calling of the people I've gotten to work with at various stages of my working career, etc.  It's really beautiful.  A true sense of knowing why I am where I am and feeling good about it.  In a sense then, there's this connection to calling and your personal community.  Like maybe if you're not gelling with a certain group of people, then maybe you shouldn't be there - be it your job, your church, etc.  I think about how Peter and Paul went various ways.  I think about how Barnabas and Titus were asked to be partners with certain people instead of others - it's not necessarily right/wrong, but more of how we're wired to best help those around us.  It's an amazing idea.  A community calling.