The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life

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The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 702 ratings · 74 reviews

"The Call" continues to stand as a classic, reflective work on life's purpose. Best-selling author Os Guinness goes beyond our surface understanding of God's call and addresses the fact that God has a specific calling for our individual lives.

"Why am I here? What is God's call in my life? How do I fit God's call with my own individuality? How should God's calling affect my...more

Paperback, 292 pages

Published October 9th 2003 by W Publishing Group (first published 1998)

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May 20, 2009 Robin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: devotional

Guiness is one of the most literate writers I've read. His erudition in philosophy, literature, history and contemporary socio-cultural issues are used with great insight into what it is to be called by the Lord God and within that call to be who we are uniquely called to be corporately and individually. Vocation is only one aspect of that. His clarity of thought and prose style reveal all the subtle assumptions we live with that are faulty and disconnect us from God, ourselves, and each other....more

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Apr 18, 2009 Michael Brown rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have been reading "The Call" by Os Guinness; a 26 day devotional has taken me from Saturday, August 19, 2006 to Tuesday, November 20, 2008 to finish. I know it should have never taken me so long to read and yet it is a very thought provoking and challenging book.
The main point and question of this book is this... "Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life." In which in a nut shell living for Christ and serving him in whichever way he has called you to do. There is no division of...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Nathan added it

If you're a fan of Os Guinness (or if you've never read him before), this is the one to read. Guinness himself says that over 25 years, "no book has burned within me longer or more fiercely than this one" (5).

What am I called to? This is one of the bigger questions of life. Guinness helps us digest this, dividing calling into two categories: Primary (the calling to Christ) and Secondary (that in which "everyone, everywhere, and in everything should think, speak, live, and act entirely for him")....more

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Mar 03, 2013 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've had this book for several years, but never quite got into it until a couple of weeks ago. I'm sorry I waited so long.

I've read many books and articles by Os Guinness. His books are thoughtful, convicting and rare in their sharpness. Though many Christian books try to articulate the callouses the culture builds up around our faith, Guinness does it more deeply. This book is no exception.

The Call is a gift for Christians living in a age of transition and increasingly anti-Christian biases. He...more

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Dec 28, 2011 Renalto Wijaya rated it 4 of 5 stars

untuk apa kita hidup??
apa tujuan utama dari kehidupan ini??
semua itu ternyata telah dipanggil untuk sebuah tujuan pribadi yang unik oleh sang Pemanggil Agung...
ingat! kata dipanggillah yang digunakan, bukan ditentukan ataupun dipaksakan. hal ini karena Sang Pemanggil Kehidupan kita menghendaki adanya respon dari diri kita..

membaca buku ini tidak serta merta membuat kita menjadi tahu segala-segalanya tentang panggilan pribadi kita.. tetapi melalui buku ini secara pribadi saya mendapatkan konsep...more

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Aug 18, 2011 Audrey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a fantastic book and a must read for every Christ follower!!
It seems I've recently been beseiged by the notion of "calling." It began with David Benner's book, "The Gift of Being Yourself" in which he leads us to understand calling "in terms of our mission in the world, the way of living out our uniqueness within the more general call to become fully human as we follow Jesus toward union with God." It was Benner's inspiring discussion of calling that led me to pull out of my library a pr...more This is a fantastic book and a must read for every Christ follower!!
It seems I've recently been beseiged by the notion of "calling." It began with David Benner's book, "The Gift of Being Yourself" in which he leads us to understand calling "in terms of our mission in the world, the way of living out our uniqueness within the more general call to become fully human as we follow Jesus toward union with God." It was Benner's inspiring discussion of calling that led me to pull out of my library a previousy read book, "The Call" by Os Guinness. Calling next popped up in my devotional book, "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young and then, most recently, in a message by Pastor Keith entitled, "Inside Out: A Fresh Look At Our Calling. It seems to me that when God wants to reach deep into our souls and we're ready to receive, He overwhelms us with glorious truth.

In his book, "The Call," Os Guinness portrays calling as the most important aspect of our journey of faith experience. He defines calling as: "the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, dynamism, and direction lived out as a response to his summons and service." I'm coming to understand that as we allow the dynamic power of calling to reach deep into our minds and hearts and souls, it impacts every area of our lives and produces a passion that changes and transforms us in ways we never dreamed possible. Guinness says that as followers of Christ, "we are called to be before we are called to do and our calling both to be and do is fulfilled only in being called to him. So calling should not only precede career but outlast it too. Vocations never end, even when occupations do. We may retire from our jobs but never from our calling. We may at times be unemployed, but no one ever becomes uncalled. The Last Call of death is a termination from the secular perspective, but from the spiritual perspective it is the culmination of life. After a lifetime of journeying, we are arriving home." Guinness says that "people forget the mystery at the heart of calling as well as identity. God calls and, just as we hear him but don't see him on this earth, so we grow to become what he calls, even though we don't see until heaven what he is calling us to become." In his closing chapter, and in reference to Revelation 22:17, Guinness includes a powerful quote from George MacDonald: "It is only when the man has become his name that God gives him the stone with the name upon it, for then first can he understand what his name signifies. Such a name cannot be given until the man is the name. God's name for the man must be the expression of His own idea of the man, that being whom He had in His thought when He began to make the child, and whom He keeps in His thought through the long process of creation that went to realize the idea. To tell the name is to seal the success -- to say, "In you also I am well pleased."
What a great message of Christ's calling!(less)

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Glen Grunau Yes, good point. I agree with recommending books to people based on a specific identified need or interest, but whenever I hear the term "must read" (...more
Aug 30, 2011 10:28pm

Audrey Hey, great thoughts! Perhaps, strangely, the words "must read" have never hit me in that same way, as my reaction has most often been -- well, maybe a...more
Aug 31, 2011 12:28pm

May 24, 2012 John Gardner rated it 4 of 5 stars

Originally posted at Honey and Locusts.

What is the ultimate meaning of life? Does each of us have a specific purpose for our lives? If so, how do we find it?

Many volumes have been written seeking to address these questions, but rarely does an author arrive at any meaningful or definitive answer (apart from Douglas Adams, who wrote that the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything was "42"). InThe Call,Os Guiness seeks to help readers explore these questions for thems...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Joshua Reitano rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: pastors, students

I finished this about a month ago and fully intended to write a lengthy review. And then time got away from me. So a few sentences will have to suffice.

I read this book with a bunch of guys and it generated some good discussion on the nature of calling, vocation, and work. At times the book was frustrating because the connections between one chapter and the next were not obvious and didn't seem to build. It reads more like a collection of essays than a coherent argument, and probably works bette...more

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May 23, 2008 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars

It is not uncommon to hear Christians refer to their vocational calling, or to hear of things like a Biblical work ethic, but surprisingly little has been written about what work individuals are called to in their lives. Os Guinness, an Irish social critic and Christian writer, who lives in northern Virginia, has written a wonderful book, more than accessible to general audiences, that explores meaning in life. In this case, meaning for Guinness is not something self-directed, but something one...more It is not uncommon to hear Christians refer to their vocational calling, or to hear of things like a Biblical work ethic, but surprisingly little has been written about what work individuals are called to in their lives. Os Guinness, an Irish social critic and Christian writer, who lives in northern Virginia, has written a wonderful book, more than accessible to general audiences, that explores meaning in life. In this case, meaning for Guinness is not something self-directed, but something one is called to from God, as a maker directs and leads his created beings.

This book, at nearly 250 pages, is probably best read a chapter a day or so; because it is as much a meditation on calling, as it is a directed narrative for the reader to study. The reason for this method becomes obvious, as Guinness wants the reader to join with him and more importantly, with the God who created them, in thinking and working out daily what it means to have meaning and calling in whatever the reader has, is and will do in life. As such, this most definitely is not a self-help book, or a list of things to do. It is a meditation on how to live and what the good life looks like. There is a tension between life as a Christian believer and as someone living in a world with different expectations, and Guinness encourages thought, that as people live with these tensions, that the remember their first calling.

Guinness chapters follow a pattern of a narrative of a historical story, even from his family's Guinness Irish heritage, where he then makes points that build on the story for the sake of the reader to ponder and act on their place in God's world. He is at his strongest when he encourages readers to develop an awareness of the difference between the certainty of a call and the mystery of calling in life; and he carefully evaluates the seeming tight line between a spiritual work and a day to day, secular work. Mystery, gratitude, patience and understanding the reader's place in the world are vital things that Guinness wants the reader to dwell on. If there is a major theme of the book, it is that the reader is to live and work for an audience of one in life, the God who made them; and because of that audience much of the meaning soon will follow.

For Guinness, the path of calling is God to meaning to call to callings, otherwise life is described as mere drudgery work, and empty in its results. As a work of meditation and thinking, the reader should be encouraged and challenged to evaluate their lives and occupations in light of their audience of one. This is not a definitive work on vocational callings, and it has little in the way of direct answers for life in the post modern world. But what it will do, is to encourage the reader to think of the first things of life and dwell in those, for the eventual sake of their individual callings. Fewer things probably occupy people more than what they are about in their work. Guinness calls the reader to consider a higher view of their occupations as callings, given meaning by a creator, who wants us to interact with him in the midst of what he made us for. (less)

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Feb 26, 2013 Meepspeeps rated it 3 of 5 stars

A friend recommended this to me and I found it to be a quick read. There were times I felt he was saying "I'm right about 'the call' and everyone else (Luther, the Roman Catholics, etc.) is wrong," which I didn't like. I liked the questions at the end of each chapter. In fact, one could have a discussion each week just using the chapter end questions. This is a good book, but if you only have time for one, I recommend Forty Days of Purpose by Rick Warren more highly.

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May 03, 2012 Tim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Os Guinness is one of those guys who make you proud to be a Christian. He is a thinker, but with the soul of a poet.

This book is on calling - sort of says it all in the title doesn't it. A very well reasoned and laid out book.

It's not a book you skip through. Requires some time and thought for any meaningful application. Os advises only reading a chapter per day at most and I have read it a good deal slower than that.

Very much worth the time

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Jul 23, 2011 Jerry Fultz rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book with great interest. I completed all the Q&A at the end of the book and came away with a satisfying, but VERY challenging understanding of my vocational role. This book stirred me to think deeply about how all areas of my life are integrated - or should be - and how my vocation carries out the continually creative nature of God.

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Jun 07, 2011 David Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, religion-spirituality

Inspiring and wise. This book highlights the bright spots and pitfalls of calling for those of us who feels its tug (or wish they did) on our lives. Grounded in the life and teachings of Jesus the Christ, The Call is a must read for anyone who longs to be great, thinks he/she is great or fears greatness is never to be (or shouldn't be) attained. Good stuff.

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Jun 05, 2012 J. rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've got a few quibbles, but overall this does a great job of presenting some key principles that will be very useful in helping you think more Christianly about the world (less "what to think" than "how to think"). We usually try to have a few extra on hand to give as graduation presents.

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Jan 28, 2009 Rach rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this without realizing until the end that I was supposed to read it as a daily devotional rather than a cohesive book. This might have accounted for some of my frustration in the rather "haphazard" way it was written. If taken as an inspirational, it accomplishes its task.

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Sep 26, 2011 Robert Murphy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, own

A fair book, "The Call" starts off very confusing. I could not tell for several chapters if it was aimed at Christians or heathens. Finally, I it became clear it was for Christians, but the same schizophrenic quality continued in other ways. Guinness has lots of good cautions and summons for believers in the modern world, but it didn't need to be a book. If you read it, start in chapter 5 and stop at 22.

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Sep 04, 2012 Meghann rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was disappointed with this one. I enjoyed the parts of the book the writer wrote himself but unfortunately that was only about 20% of the book (and I may be generous with that estimation). Most of the book was quotes and stories of and by other people. There were some great quotes by people I respect like Bonhoeffer, Chambers, Wilberforce, Edwards, etc... but a string of good quotes does not a good book make.

In his defense, this was designed to be a devotional apparently and I read it as a no...more

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Feb 28, 2013 C. Tilden rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was surprising impressed. the subtitle just seemed so trite, but the text is always relevant and often profound. I kept waiting for him to define 'calling', but then I realized that we was doing just that all along.

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Jan 27, 2013 Victor Samuel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: christianity, calling

It's a mind-blasting and heart-stirring book which covers most aspects of Christian calling. However, it might be a bit unreadable for those who are not familiar with Western literature. Still, it's a must re-read!

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Apr 05, 2013 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: spirituality

A good book overall. I found it interesting that the author takes the time to establish the concept of a Divine Caller rarer than using the term God right off. It was very apologetic a la C.S. Lewis at first. Some chapters were a little slow but the were worth getting through in my opinion.

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Aug 26, 2012 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

This one probably also suffers from the timing of when I read it--right after my daughter was born. I don't really remember anything about it, but that's probably not the book's fault.

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Feb 26, 2012 Rion Jacobs rated it 4 of 5 stars

Amazing guideline for finding and understanding your own personal calling in life. Perfect for the searching Christian. Should be read with Transforming Vision by Walsh and Midleton.

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Oct 08, 2007 Kristin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed both reading this book and the discussions about it at book club. It's not a book I probably would have read on my own without some sort of recommendation, but I am glad that I read it!
The book is divided into short chapters that each focus on a central thought about God's call on our lives. The chapters are meant to be read one per day so that you can think about what you read and let it weave its way into your mind, and I really enjoyed doing that as well.
Some chapters I like...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was extremely influential as I was continuing to determine my call into pastoral ministry. I recommend it to anyone in search of their calling in any type of ministry.

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Nov 16, 2011 Karla rated it 4 of 5 stars

The prime call is to be transformed into the image of Christ. Any other calling on one's life is secondary. Guinness emphasizes this throughout and the message is compelling.

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Feb 02, 2009 Bruce A. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: christian

Excellent! I have given away many copies of this book. The various quotes from Winston Churchill so piqued my curiosity that I read Martin Gilbert's biography.

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May 14, 2009 Taylor rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book should have been shorter, because 6 or 7 of the last 8 chapters were really not worth it. Otherwise it has some good thoughts and comments about living under God's call.

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Feb 26, 2008 Joel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Joel by: Matthew Elliott

A most thorough examination of everything to do with calling. Guinness is a disciplined writer, which would be a distraction if he didn't write so well, choose his illustrations and examples flawlessly, research so fully. And he doesn't shy a bit away from intertwining a biblical worldview into the subject; without Christ there would be no book on calling, He would argue. An important book for anyone thinking through what to do with their life. Might not give you the answer, but will give you th...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Dan Griffiths rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

very thought provoking, Dr. Guinness clarifies what the call to ministry is--that "the call" is not just for the clergy

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May 16, 2011 Joy Schwarz rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the most influential books I have ever read, definitely changed my life. Please read!

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About Os Guinness

Os Guinness (D.Phil., Oxford) is the author or editor of more than twenty-five books, including The American Hour, Time for Truth and The Case for Civility. A frequent speaker and prominent social critic, he was the founder of the Trinity Forum and has been a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a guest scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies. He lives near Washi...more

More about Os Guinness...

Books by Os Guinness

Fit Bodies, Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don't Think and What to Do about It

Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype & Spin

Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance

Unspeakable: Facing Up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror

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Quotes from The Call

“We are not wise enough, pure enough, or strong enough to aim and sustain such a single motive over a lifetime. That way lies fanaticism or failure. But if the single motive is the master motivation of God's calling, the answer is yes. In any and all situations, both today and tomorrow's tomorrow, God's call to us is the unchanging and ultimate whence, what, why, and whither of our lives. Calling is a 'yes' to God that carries a 'no' to the chaos of modern demands. Calling is the key to tracing the story line of our lives and unriddling the meaning of our existence in a chaotic world.” — 1 person liked it

“Modern life assaults us with an infinite range of things we could do, we would love to do, or some people tell us we should do. But we are not God and we are neither infinite nor eternal. We are quite simply finite. We have only so many years, so much energy, so many gray cells, and so many bank notes in our wallets. 'Life is too short to...' eventually shortens to 'life is too short.” — 1 person liked it

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