Video Transcript: Curious Doing

Hi, I'm Henry Reyenga. And with me is Steve Elzinga. And we're your professors for this class called MinistryBiz skills. MinistryBiz skills. What is that?  It's a new thing. But we're not going to talk about it yet. Why not? Because we're going to talk about this. Okay, curious doing, curious doing. So, what is curious  doing? Well, I like the word curious, because curious, has the idea of like, green  lighting thinking of ideas, connecting to who you are as a creative person, and  that might relate to ministry biz. All right, I'm going to share a verse Henry, okay.  Ecclesiastes 11:6, says, sow your seed in the morning. And that evening, let  your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed whether this or  that, or whether both will do equally, as well. That's one of my favorite. passages in the book of Ecclesiastes. You tend to think of Ecclesiastes is a book that's  kind of the vanity, Vanity, vanity chasing after the wind. Yeah, but this one is  incredibly positive. It's Try this. Try that. And usually people say, try this and try  that. And maybe one of them will succeed. But this person says, maybe both will succeed. Maybe you're one who is raised to color in the lines, someone who  your father or mother pointed out the wrong things or the things that didn't go  right. And made you feel bad about it. It's critical, critical. And so maybe because of that, you don't dare try things. Or you're or you're not curious, because  curiosity is there's a saying in America. Curiosity killed the cat. Right? So maybe some people and maybe that's you you're afraid to be curious, but we're going  to give you permission to be curious. So curious, in ministry biz skills, right? So  curious, doing doing something. So we're going to be obviously, in this ministry,  biz class, we're going to be talking about ministry, and probably maybe  business. And we're going to be talking about you attempting to do something.  But before you do anything like that, you have to be you have to have the right  mindset. You know, one of our mentors made a big point about doing and he  when he would meet us Rich DeVos. Early on, he goes, You guys are doers.  Doers. What do you think he meant by that? I think, because there's so many  people that talk but never do. In other words, you can be a curious person. Yes.  But you never do anything. Right. I think the trick is putting the two together, be  curious about possibilities. And actually try out a few. I want to go back to that  Bible passage is that actually in that passage? Sow your seed in the morning  and at evening, let your hands not be idle, for you did not know which will  succeed, whether this or that, whether both will do equally. Well. Right? Exactly.  So it's extremely positive. I mean, it's maybe more positive than what you've  experienced in your life. But the point is, try something, think about things and  then try things. Let's go to another verse. Okay. All right. Matthew 28:18-19.  These are Jesus last words to His disciples, his marching orders to us. Then  Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been  given to me, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. That's interesting.  Go and make. So you need to go, you can't just sit on the couch. You can't just  sit in your house, you need to go you need to try something and make things 

happen. Like that's what God the Creator did, right? And he, I suppose he could  just sit back and I don't know whatever God would did before. He created the  world, but he wanted to do something and he created us in that image to do  something is a very ambitious commission. So Jesus has ministry, he dies on  the cross, He rises from the dead, he's with his disciples, and it's not what would on iytbe common for a rabbi back then would be start a school of thought.  Right? And let's just contemplate things, right? And think about things rather  than do things. I think you're taking this class because you have a thought that it might help you actually do something, something creative, something that would help you, with your ministry, something that maybe can help you in the business. Can we define MinistryBiz now or are we still waiting on it? Because no, are we  still waiting. Still waiting, I thought it was gonna come as a go in do and make  disciples. All we want to do right now is motivate you to want to do something.  Okay. So we're not at ministrybiz yet. We're going to the great reveal is going to  come in the next lecture. Oh, so we have to wait the whole lecture. Okay. We're  just trying to motivate you to get in the right frame of mind before the curious  doing the frame of mind. Curious doing frame of mind. I mean, if you think about your, your own ministry, right. Can you think about how you did that? Yeah, you  know, we started together in 1990, really meant to nine to 90. And one of the  things I liked about you right away is we're talking about church planting. But we  were curious about how to reach more people right away. And, and I was  interested to hear your ideas that we had met at seminars and everything like  that. And what I want to do right away is to apply some of these things to reach  more people. But I remember I had to, I remember some of the early days, too, I was sort of stuck on some of the thoughts I had in our relationship. And then in  our membership, it meant I had to sort of back off from some of my like. I think it  should be done this way. And move into a curious type of thinking. And being  open minded. Yeah, I think that's, you know, we met when did we need 1990?  We started like, it was in 1990. I put I've been quoted to say both. Honestly, I'm  not 100% positive, but it's right around in that era. Right. And we were both  church planting. I was in Vancouver you're in Chicago. And we were trying this.  Yeah. It is true. And, and, you know, we used each other sound boards, and we  tried a lot of things, and probably half of them just didn't work out. Maybe more  than half didn't work out. But we see a lot of wouldn't exist if we hadn't tried all  those things. Right. It seemed like every single thing that tried even the failures,  were a stepping stone to launching Christian leaders in 2001 2006. CLI,  Alliance, the college, I mean, it seems like there's lots of failure along the way to  that journey. But if you don't, one of my favorite sayings, is God cannot steer a  parked car. And I think a lot of people are sitting in the driveway holding the  steering wheel going, Okay, God, I'm really willing to give you my life, I  surrender my life to you. So, you know, just point me in the right direction. And  God is waiting for you to get going out of the driveway. And, you know, maybe 

you make a few wrong turns. But you know, God can correct you. Right? You  know, we're so worried about turning the wrong way. Right. But if you turn the  wrong way, God can correct you. Right? Step one is to just try. Get out there and try. Have you been in a situation where you tried something and failed? Just  think about that a moment? So how did you feel? Some of you may be felt like  I'm not trying that again. Have you been in a situation where you failed, and then tried something, and all of a sudden, you realize that you know what it's not  personal failure is just an event. It's not personal to you, you tried something,  you dared something and this class is going to be in that mindset. You have to  have the mindset of trying and learning. Knowing gets up here right away. It's  always a process to get there. But if you don't try, then you can never get there.  That's right. So what we want you to have a curious, open mind. And maybe I  can do it with the help of God. Attitude. We have one more verse. Genesis 1:26,  this is right in the beginning, then God said, Let us make mankind in our image  in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds in  the sky over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that  move along the ground. So God, what do you make of this? Well I think of like,  the 1000s of things that can be said after God created. And, you know, kind of  said a lot of things. But he points out the crown of creation, you and me. And he  says that our essence is about having dominion, about ruling being Victor  stewards. That's our essence, creativity is right there, at the core of our design,  that that's very powerful to me. So really, we're just saying, have the attitude that God created you to have. Right, and sin in some ways, has put a damper on  that, sin comes and says, You're gonna make a mistake, right? You're going to  disappoint people, you're going to disappoint yourself, you're going to let people  down, you're gonna let yourself down. So just keep playing it safe. I have a  question for you, Steve. So the blocks to curious doing, let's talk about some  you just started mentioning a list. What would you say? Are the five blocks of  curious in doing? Number one, I think is a lot of people would say I'm just  curious, I'm not creative? Oh, they would just say I'm not creative. You know, so  sit down and think about some curious thing to do. I can't think of anything.  Right, and that's what people do. Right? They right away, say they can't think of  anything. And then they, they, they don't go any farther. Okay, so that's one is  just the mentality, I can't think of anything, excluding yourself from even  engaging in the process. Okay, and number two probably is past failures. And  you're still sort of self loathing from something that I try, you know, especially if  you haven't, if you're, you're not an outgoing person, you're not a person who  tries all kinds of things. For example, you go to a restaurant and you order a lot  of people just ordered the same old thing that they've always ordered, right? And then sometimes you think, Well, you know, maybe I should order something  different. And then you did, and you hated it. Right? It's like doing that again,  right? So it's like, when we get burned one time, that keeps us going in a certain 

direction for a long, long time. And it makes sense in some ways, but you don't  know what you're missing. Right? And right, you know, if you have to go through  a few bad experiences to get there, well. Okay, so that's two. A failure is the  second one, so what's the third thing that just sort of, like, dampens? Curious  and doing? Probably, you know, I suppose that's related to the failure thing, but  maybe worried about what everyone else thinks, Okay, well, is still a different in  that. If, What would someone think of me? Well, they shame me, if I tried  something, and it failed. And even if it succeeded, right, you might be starting a  new business and people go, that's not gonna work, right? People have you in  pigeonhole, they may see you as what you have been, right, you don't see the  potential you and all of a sudden you get inspired, and you want to try  something, and then you tell a few people, a lot of times, you think you could do  that, right? Number one, you don't have this gift, you're not gonna, you know, on the list out, or you're actually I think getting into the next thing is, number four is  that you don't know how to do it. You don't know how to do something. And then  you don't know where to find out how to do it. And then you're not confident, you don't have the confidence. You feel alone, like there's no support system, there  is no one to tell you what to do next. Like in sports, you know, it's nice to have  somebody who's better than you are. And then they tell you, Hey, this is what  you're doing wrong, or this is what you could work on next. If you're on your  own, and everyone around you is like telling you, you can't do it, or you shouldn't do it or you're incapable of doing it. Then, you know, now you're swimming  upstream. So I'm just getting these straight. So one is, I can't think of anything.  The two is a fear of failure. Three is what people think of my attempt, good or  bad. Four that I just don't know how to do something that's creative. So what's  currently in your nav related to that one is I don't have a mentor. I don't have a  teacher. I have some On a supportive environment, environment inspires me to  succeed are maybe six. You don't know what you're gifted at, you don't know  who you are, you don't know, nobody can relate to one, two that can do  anything. Right. So then it's a vicious cycle, it goes all the way back to I can't do  anything. It was easy to find the problems. So what's the solution to those  problems? So number one, number one, is to bring it before the Lord and pray  about it and say, Lord, I want to be a curious doer. And I want to change some of my negative patterns of thinking, and some of the habits that hold me down. So I would say that's number one. Number two, I'm just gonna go with the numbers  that we said there was a block, and what's the answer to that? So the number  one in our thing was, I can't think of it. So I think prayer, yeah, I think for most  people, they sit down in the first two minutes, they can't think of anything and  they go, I can't think of anything, right? Sit for a half an hour. And don't move  until you think of something, okay, get a piece of paper out and go, I am going to have three things written down on this piece of paper, regardless of how stupid  they might be. And guess what, within 10 minutes, you're going to be writing 

something down, you and I do it if I have something hits me, like, I'm interested  in doing something, but I can't think of like this. Okay, so I know, I even feel it.  Okay, I will go to bed at night and pray that through the night, the Holy Spirit will  give me a dream give this like even me what it is like, like, for instance, we're  talking about something that we're doing with CLI or whatever, or there's a  problem. And I can't think of anything, right. But I know it's a problem, I get an  email from one of the customer service, there's a problem, I have no idea. In  fact, I can't think of anything, no creativity. And and I know that if I go to bed  night and pray. Then in the morning, I'm doing my devotions. It's as if sometimes the Holy Spirit just gives a whole train of thought, like way more. So what I could actually do, but I started opening the door to the Lord, I think God created you a  person in his image, which means you're a creator. Now sin has dampened that. And we allow our negative thoughts. I'm not curious, I'm not creative. I can't do  this, right. And we have all these mental things that are putting a lid on the way  God created us. So I think I think what you said in the beginning, step one, just  praying God, take the lid off. And let me do how you know how you create it. So  number two is failure. So how do I get past some of my past failures in a positive way? In some of these failures, I paid a big price for me value that some of you  have been in jail. Some of you have gone through divorce, some of you have  you lost your family, some of you have been an addict or a drunk, and God  changed your life for that failure. The prophet is not honored in His own town,  her town, and some of you feel that. So you know, he's talking about this curious doing here, and you have no idea what failures look me in the eyes. And he's  here come to this class. And you're raising my hopes when I tried things, and I  have failed before. Sometimes it's easier not to try than to keep hoping and then failing all the time. Right. But the other way to think about it is you only have one life, and there's only so much time. And maybe, maybe part of the goal is to see  how many failures, you can actually I'm on failure 400,022 and I only have 224  of our failures left in my life. You know, maybe maybe, you know, maybe we've  made failure, such a negative thing. Maybe it isn't, it's just failure is just a  measure of how many things you've attempted. Right? I mean, you know,  baseball, people fail and most times they get up to the plate sports is most plays their failures. And then once you know, like, in soccer, they finally after all these  failures, someone kicks it in and everyone goes crazy. So I think, you know, the  way I got over failure was I failed enough times that that it was no longer your  Lord. Yes. avoidance of failure was master number one or number two. We win.  Right? Increasing, we win. So there's no failure. Right? We're here for a  purpose. And, and all we're doing is trying to discover God's will for our life.  Number three is people. Okay, so what people think, yeah, what people think  that is an obstacle to curious doing. You know, and one one way is to get new  people. Right? At least a few supportive people get what you're trying to do  looking for curious doers who love people who curiously do things, right? I 

mean, how, how have we succeeded in doing crazy things, at least because we  had each other our Lives are very positive. Our mentors in there are people and  we can mention names and we won't, that we had to sort of get a boundary and  move out of our lives because they were naysayers. They would be like, we  

have ideas, and we're knocking down another idea, knock it down. And there's a difference between a naysayer and a critical point. My father was extremely  critical. But what I loved about my father is he, his point was to help my ideas  getting better. So there is a fine line between the naysayer and the person. A  real naysayer is someone who just is critical, but offers no support in the  direction you want to go. Right? They just saying That's stupid, you're not good  at that, you can't do that. Critical, helpful person is, I think if you did it this way,  you can succeed. Yes. Like, like, you know, my wife is, you know, writing, editing is always finding ways that what I say is better. And now her critical eye for  words, over this 37 years is amazing. So I have to be careful not to see what  she loves. You could say it this way. Don't take it critically, or don't get offended  by it. Right. Welcome. She's helping you do what you want to do. Right? Now,  some of you have been beat down so long by so many people. All of this could  feel really, I could make new friends. I could get new people. What if I'm married  to that naysayer? Well, you know what we're gonna do another topic. But one  thing is to win. If you want to change somebody, you recognize it when they're  going in the right direction. So the minute they say something nice, you jump on  board with both feet and say, This is so awesome. Thank you for your  encouragement because if you if you're critical of that person talking against  how come you never support me? how can we never and then they get negative and they get grumpy. And I think it's important that we talked about this because  a lot of people close in their life. Have a naysayer. Yes. And that is your excuse  to not be a curious doer anymore, right? Okay, and you have an excuse for a  long time. It's held you back to sort of the uncomfortable decision, an elephant in the room. And you feel like you can't do anything about it. And we're here to say, just possibly by God's grace, and through his help, maybe you can you don't  need to divorce that person. No, never. We're Christians that the apart, but still  putting it away. And sometimes, you the naysayer in your life is maybe part of  your motivation. Okay, I get to prove you wrong. Right. You know, and  sometimes you can win over a naysayer by actually sticking with something.  One reason sometimes we have naysayers in our lives is because we've started things and never finished any of them. Right? So they have heard us get excited about things. And we never followed through. And why didn't we follow through?  maybe we didn't have the support system. Maybe we're that kind of a person  maybe. So we're, we're contracting with you, in some ways in this course, to try  to help you. Maybe get out of some of those negative patterns. We know one  thing I see you've done well over the years, is get input in such a way that  doesn't kill the impulse or the idea. So, you know, if you ask that critical person 

who had times as a naysayer, and maybe it's like here, I remember one exercise we did we have a very complicated branding name to figure out and everybody  disagreed in our staff. So then we we came back and prayed about it. And I  remember you had suggested Well, you know, maybe we should just put five  things down on paper, then have everybody vote. You know, maybe there's  ways through which, without being manipulative of being transparent, like,  there's three ideas about this idea, honey, what one do you think is the best?  Rather than saying, What do you think about that? I don't like it. You know, that's true. I mean, if you present one idea to someone, most people are going to not  like it. Why? I mean, I think it's because you're presenting something. So you're  being creative, and you're offering something, and then the other person in order to feel good about themselves, they have to present something, but they don't  have an idea, one option, and you like it, if it means I have one role to work like  it? Yes. Because what, what role do I have, I can't think of any new thing to put  on the table, you did that you did the creative thing. And I don't have a creative  thing. So my only role is to be critical. So if you come to someone, you have a  creative idea, and you think of another one alongside of it, and you come and  say, Hey, can you help me choose between these two ideas, now you're giving  them a role, a positive role, right? Rather than the other way, there's only a  negative role. In this class, we will talk more about some of these things. Now  the next thing is, is to do something to my brain to my knowledge base, to my to  learn. And that's what this class is about. Right? Right. To help you here. We're  going to help you learn about what it is that you could possibly do with the  ministrybiz are wetalking about ministrybiz into the next presentation. Okay. So  then that the last thing we talked about, what was that again? Well, it was really  good. Go back. We'll make sure that we should we'll touch on that later. So now  you sort of got the idea. Notice how we have failure there. But the negative  way? If it does come to us what it was, we will we will let you know. Well. You  know, the thing about it, is that you're here, because some of the Holy Spirit  prompted you to like just maybe just maybe a ministrybiz. I have a deep need.  Maybe you're a Bi-vocational Minister, you need to get some support. And yet,  you love ministry. And maybe that's why you're here. Maybe you're here  because you're retired. And it's just interesting for you to think about. Ministrybiz. you saw that MinistryBiz skills. And he's like, what is that? I'm curious. Maybe  you're here because you have a deep dream for how ministrybiz to find him  because he won't get into it yet. Like, curious and you've already clicked over,  looked at it and come back. I don't know why you're here. But this class, for I  know, for us, we are pumped about doing this class. We're excited about it. And  we're excited how God is going to take this class and help you figure out your  role, how you can be really efficient to see the birds of the air and go proclaim  the gospel to all nations and cast your bread upon the water and see what 

comes back. So welcome aboard. And we were going to see where this is  gonna go.