One outreach theme that resonates powerfully with today’s secularists is the doctrine of vocation. The success of that approach is evident in Silicon Valley.
We’ve been blogging about the comeback of religion in what used to be secularist circles. The New York Times, no less, has a recent article on how this is happening in Silicon Valley. The news story, without a byline, is entitled Seeking God, or Peter Thiel, in Silicon Valley.
It starts by describing the 40th birthday party of Trae Stephens, one of the founders of the high tech defense company Anduril Industries, who is also a venture capital partner with the tech mogul Peter Thiel. At the party, Thiel “delivered a talk about miracles, forgiveness and Jesus Christ,” according to the article. “The guests were enthralled.”
“The room of over 220 people, mostly in technology and venture capital, were coming up to us saying, ‘Oh, my goodness, I didn’t know Peter Thiel was a Christian,’” recalled Michelle Stephens, Mr. Stephens’s wife. “‘He’s gay and a billionaire. How can he be Christian?’”
I don’t fully understand the answer to that question either, but it turns out, according to the article,
Mr. Thiel has long been an exception to the atheism and agnosticism of his peers. He has said his Christian faith is at the center of his worldview, which he expounds upon with a heterodox approach — fusing references to Scripture and conservative political theory, parsing ancient signs and wonders for their connection to tech wonders today.
The Stephens are both devout Christians, and the party gave Mrs. Stephens the idea of forming a ministry called ACTS 17, an acronym for “Acknowledging Christ in Technology and Society” and also a reference to Acts 17, which records Paul’s sermon at the Areopagus in Athens.
ACTS 17 has been putting on well-attended programs featuring other tech luminaries speaking about their faith.
The article is interesting on its own terms and well-worth reading. (Here it is, not behind a paywall.) But what struck my attention the most is a theme that keeps recurring in the accounts of successful outreach to denizens of the tech world: the doctrine of vocation.
The Stephens attend Epic Church, a San Francisco megachurch of some 1,000 members that is part of a network of congregations planted in “spiritually hard to reach” parts of the country. As reported in the Times:
Ben Pilgreen, Epic’s pastor, preaches a message that has resonated with San Francisco locals: He believes that any job someone does — ad sales, software engineering, H.R. — can be sacred. It’s not just clergy doing the Lord’s work. This is an appealing notion to those members of his congregation who want to believe the time they’re pouring into their careers has a higher purpose.
“If you’ve been called to be a graphic designer,” Mr. Pilgreen said, “that’s a sacred vocation.”
Sure enough, the website of Epic Church lists its values, and #7 is “Vocation is sacred.”
The reporter writes about this as if it’s some new, unique idea. But, as readers of this blog know full well, it’s simply a version of Luther’s doctrine of vocation.
The article says that what the Stephens learned at their church about vocation “sharpened their own thinking of how Christian faith should inform their Silicon Valley endeavors.” The couple hosted a “Faith and Work” group on the subject, which Thiel and tech startup tycoon Garry Tan sometimes attended.
This is not the only outreach effort in Silicon Valley to emphasize vocation. The article also quotes technologist-turned pastor Paul Taylor, who heads the Bay Area Center for Faith, Work & Tech. He brings out the purpose of vocation, which as Luther said is to love and serve your neighbor. “We really feel a burden to help people consider how the model of Christ might help them think about how they change technology,” he says in the article. “How do they think about technology for the sake of the good of the world, for the sake of people who might not have a voice?”
Silicon Valley is not the only place where people today are consumed with their work while struggling to find its meaning. This mindset is pervasive throughout the developed world. Its toxic form breeds workaholics, neglect of families, greed, pressure to succeed, and despair at failures. The doctrine of vocation orders not only work but also relationships, daily life, and a sense of oneself in accord with the love of God and the love of our neighbors.
Vocation is not the gospel, of course, and there is no substitute for the message of Christ crucified for sinners. But vocation is a dimension of Christianity that is highly relevant to people today that is little known outside Lutheran circles. That seems to be changing, though.
I’d like to think that my books on vocation have had something to do with that. By the way, in addition to God at Work, Family Vocation, and Working for Your Neighbor, I’ve just finished with my co-author Trevor Sutton, an LCMS pastor and techno-whiz, a book for Lexham Press about vocation and technology!
Illustration: Busy Tech Office via StockCake, AI generated, Public Domain
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