Video Transcript: What about the external calling?

What about the External Calling

Henry Reyenga: Welcome back to this Getting Started class on Christian Leaders.

Steve Elzinga: When we're still on the calling, Calling part two.

Henry Reyenga: Very good.

Steve Elzinga: All right, so the external call, we're going to continue. So, interests.

Henry Reyenga: Interests. Colossians 3:23 - 24, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ, you are serving."

Steve Elzinga: All right. So, sort of the assessment of yourself to figure out what track you should take here at Christian Leaders. Part of assessing who God made you to be and what God may be calling you to is related to your interests. 

Henry Reyenga: Right. What are you interested in?

Steve Elzinga: And that could be hobbies. Both of us are interested in golf. By the way, we have a mini course. 

Henry Reyenga: Golf evangelism.

Steve Elzinga: Golf evangelism. 

Henry Reyenga: Right. 

Steve Elzinga: Is that a thing? 

Henry Reyenga: Yeah, it is now. some of you are caretaker types; you're interested in the science of it. Maybe you even become a nurse or a doctor. One of the things that I've noticed is that many of the nurses here have actually gone into hospice ministry, chaplain ministry. One nurse who became a ministry chaplain recently wrote, "My career as the nurse, I can never talk about God. But now as a ministry chaplain, I can talk about the Lord all the time. In fact, the hospital I worked at hired me to be a ministry chaplain on staff. And I know the nurses, I know the doctors, and now I'm called to minister to people, because I'm interested in that." Obviously, she's gifted in some of these areas too. But her interest is that.

Steve Elzinga: Right. My wife and I do this Bible thing, where we print Bibles and then put covers on for different ministries. There are thousands of them. There are people that are into horseshoes. And then they print these Bibles with their little cover on it, because they have a ministry to people who do horseshoes or policemen or firemen or people that train horses, or on and on.

Henry Reyenga: Or the interest in the topic of marriage and want to help newlyweds get married. So, they're not only officiants, but they're also helping pre-marriage counseling, because they're interested in that topic. They're not interested in horse ministry. They're interested in marriage ministry. And that's all wonderful. That’s all part of the calling. 

Steve Elzinga: So, we have an interest worksheet where if you go through it, you'll get a little sense of where your interests lie. And one of the questions after you've sort of filled out what your interests are, is, how might these interests develop into some kind of ministry? So, there's a little thinking for you to do. In our church, we had a program where we got people to teach a class on something, everyone, each one, teach one. And we said, whatever you're into, maybe you're into gardening, maybe you're into, quilting, or whatever it might be, teach a class and then find some verses and have kind of a spiritual connection to it. And people taught all kinds of things and related it to ministry. 

Henry Reyenga: I love that. Wow, that’s really good. 

Steve Elzinga: All right, so next one, leadership style.

Henry Reyenga: Yeah, I mean, think about Paul, Barnabas, Gaius, and Epaphras. If you study each of them, each of them is different. You have the Paul who's like the strategic thinker, well trained, out there, has strong opinions about where he's going to go.

Steve Elzinga: Bold entrepreneur. He could be very confrontational with people. He got beat, he got whipped, he got thrown in jail because he was that kind of a bold, here I am leader. Now on the other hand, especially in the book of Philemon, he was very tactful. 

Henry Reyenga: He really had a lot of leadership style. 

Steve Elzinga: Yeah, he could be all things to all people.

Henry Reyenga: Yeah. But there’s Barnabas. In a lot of ways, he was the opposite of Paul, the encourager. Even when there was a conflict between Barnabas and Paul, it was over an encouragement issue where Barnabas said, "Let's give him another shot; let’s try." 

Steve Elzinga: John Mark. Yeah. So maybe you're not the one that take the whistle and blow and tell people what to do. You're more, "Hey, you really do a good job there." You can lead as an encourager. Not everyone has to be the guy with the baton and leading everything. They can lead from the encouragement side, because what you recognize gets reproduced. One of our mentors taught us that.

Henry Reyenga: Yeah, well, I was going to say that one of our mentors-- it's funny that we both thought that at the same time. So, Rich DeVos I always had the question, was he Barnabas? Yes. But he was also Gaius. He was a person, Rich DeVos, who helped found Christian Leaders. And founded Amway. We were never much into the Amway selling or anything like that, but he was a godly man, who really loved to spread the Kingdom. And that was our connection with him. But anyway, he was somebody who was like Barnabas, but also like Gaius. He would have people over to his house. 

Steve Elzinga: So, Gaius was sort of a hospitality leader. Lead through hospitality. 

Henry Reyenga: Yeah, and have us over to eat, let's get together, all of that. That was a Gaius to me. 

Steve Elzinga: Right. Creating places for people to be encouraging, uplifting, and sort of helping them go in a certain direction. So, all leadership is really trying to help move people towards a great goal. And yeah, Rich was very good at that.

Henry Reyenga: And then I met the Epaphras people, and it says about Epaphras that he was faithful in prayer. I picture him sort of quiet, unassuming, let's pray about that young man. And what happened in his leadership is amazing.

Steve Elzinga: Yeah. I, I was spent a year in the Philippines and there was an older missionary who had been a missionary in Japan for many years. And that's what he was. He was like, let's pray. But he was leading the whole time. In fact, of the whole mission, he started the most successful church in Manila - or helped. But he was always behind the scenes, propping everybody up. And his main mode of operation was prayer.

Henry Reyenga: That's so powerful.

Steve Elzinga: Okay, then we have passion and energy.

Henry Reyenga: Okay, so what do you really believe in your heart for passion, where you wake up in the morning? For me, I know that too. Like, I can't wait for the morning. I want to get here and get back into it.

Steve Elzinga: Yeah, we were up late last night. And then we got up early, went to a Bible study.

Henry Reyenga: Prayed this morning. 

Steve Elzinga: Yeah. And boom, we got right back at this. We had a little spiritual issue. We looked at what we had recorded. It was going like, 10 times the speed.

Henry Reyenga: The taping of this course, I think we mentioned the last session, could not be more attacked by spiritual warfare, and a ladder fell on his head. Yesterday, we had hacking going on in four independent sectors to Christian Leaders yesterday.

Steve Elzinga: This class must be really good.

Henry Reyenga: But most importantly, it was about you. In fact, again, what are you passionate and energetic about? Philippians 3:12 - 13, "I press on to take hold," - yeah, Paul's in it to win it - "of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me."

Steve Elzinga: Again, that relates to the vision, right? God gives you this vision, he takes hold of you, and then you take hold of it.

Henry Reyenga: Yes. Right. I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. It’s always out there. We wake up every morning. "But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind, straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize to which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Steve Elzinga: When I read this verse, it almost energizes me.

Henry Reyenga: Yes, just reading it. 

Steve Elzinga: I remember a pastor once said, "If you don't have this sense of straining or this thing that you want to win, what are you doing with your life?" 

Henry Reyenga: Yeah, and do people really want to win anything either if the leader is not wanting to win. 

Steve Elzinga: Yes. If you don't want it, it's going to be difficult to get people to follow. People follow people who are going in a direction enthusiastically.

Henry Reyenga: Yes. Really that’s what it is - enthusiasm. Are you enthusiastic? Do you feel the fire? That one passage when Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy, "Fan the flame, the gift that was laid on you, when the elders laid their hands on you." See that’s leadership stuff. So, where's the fire in you, and how does that fire translate into effort and energy?

Steve Elzinga: And it has to be something internal. Because, for example, when you preach sometimes at a church, sometimes people got up early; they're just sitting there. And if you reflect the energy of the crowd, the whole thing is going to spiral down. You need to go, "Okay, you guys are dead, but I am going to be so alive that I'm going to pull you out of your deadness." 

Henry Reyenga: Actually, they are not dead. We get that. But we're trying to make that point. In the end, a leader is internally connected in their walk. But why we call, this, still external is because what are you willing to wake up early in the morning to do in ministry?

Steve Elzinga: So, the more you can figure out the things that fit you, fit your interests, fit your gifts, fit your experience - if you could find ministry and find the training that you need for that ministry that really fits you, then you're more likely to have energy and passion in that direction.

Henry Reyenga: That's beautiful.

Steve Elzinga: And we have a worksheet that sort of helps you figure that out too.

Henry Reyenga: So, one more here. 

Steve Elzinga: One more on the external calling - is opportunities. 

Henry Reyenga: That's very important.

Steve Elzinga: Yes. Philippians.

Henry Reyenga: Philippians. We said it at the same time. Go ahead. 

Steve Elzinga: "In those days, when the number of disciples were increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because of their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food." 

Henry Reyenga: So, what has this to do with opportunities? This kind of seems like a place you don't really want to talk too much about how there's another disagreement in the early church. But it does illustrate something.

Steve Elzinga: Right. The Hebraic Jews were the first reached. Then the Hellenistic ones were more people that got scattered all throughout the Roman Empire. And so, they had some other experiences. They were like two different cultures in some ways. They shared a common heritage, but they were two different cultures, and there was a problem. Some thought some were being favored. There were famines in Jerusalem and trying to feed them. So, they thought, okay, what are we going to do? And this is really one of the first deacons come from. 

Henry Reyenga: Yeah, the diakonos, the ministers.

Steve Elzinga: Yeah, they chose seven godly men and they got together. This was a big deal. "We've got this problem, and so, we need leaders to address this problem." So, we chose that passage, because what issues are being faced in your community?

Henry Reyenga: Yeah, what problems are you called to solve?

Steve Elzinga: Right. So, it might not be the widow problem in the culture; it might be a family problem. Or it might be too many single moms are trying to do the best they can to raise their kids, or they can't make ends meet? 

Henry Reyenga: Maybe, you're a homeschool mom minister, who had the problem of raising your children in the Lord. 

Steve Elzinga: Right. Or it might be in your workplace and you've discovered that there's problems with conflict. We have several courses--. 

Henry Reyenga: Peace making minister. 

Steve Elzinga: Yeah, peacemaking minister and don't we need that? The world is filled with conflict everywhere. So, taking note of the opportunities, that's really what a problem is. You can look at it negatively, but really, a problem is an opportunity.

Henry Reyenga: So, later on in this class, we're going to talk about the volunteer, the part time, and the full-time career type of minister. But I mentioned a little bit now that if you're called to just offer some volunteer ministry, that's being a minister. If you're called to be part time, that's a minister. Or we often think ministers are career, full time. So, we want to be really clear even now, before we explain it in depth, that you are here at the right place if you feel that internal call. You sense external factors that are firing that call, that there's an opportunity for you.

Steve Elzinga: Yes, and as high or low. Because God can take the smallest thing. Mother Teresa didn't start out to become Mother Teresa. She saw a problem in Calcutta, that people were dying all alone, and she thought no one should have to die alone. So, she just started doing something, and it became Mother Teresa. That wasn't her vision. Her vision was just to start small and be faithful to God's call in her life. She was wired towards this; she had a lot of compassion. And so, you too, whether it becomes some huge ministry or not, that is God's issue. Not yours.

Henry Reyenga: I put this on because I didn't want us to forget the worksheet thing. Can you talk about that a little bit? 

Steve Elzinga: Yes. We have a worksheet again that you can start looking at, that will help you start thinking. Because a lot of us, we have all these opportunities or problems around us, but we can't put our finger on it, because we've lived with it. So, it's just a worksheet that will help you stop and go, "What are some of the issues in my culture? Am I in any way sort of wired or called do anything about those particular issues?" And maybe you are and maybe you're not.

Henry Reyenga: Interesting. So, let's wrap this all up. So, we've got the internal call. We talked about that in the last session. But then we introduced the external factors that help you discern what you are called to do in this life, while we are still alive, to proclaim the gospel in its various forms. So, there you go. Start praying about it, thinking about it.

Steve Elzinga: Maybe even doing this process, you still don't have total clarity. Just keep going in the rest of this course, and I think little by little by little, maybe you'll the clarity is, "I think I might be," and then you try and then God will finally get you where you need to be.

Henry Reyenga: Yeah. And sometimes it's trial and error. That's what's so great about the volunteer minister track where you just try a little. Put your toe in the water and see what happens. So, let's keep on going in discerning and helping you discern your call and get a great start at Christian Leaders.