Q&A on Calling w/Pastors Justin & Freda
Armchair Chats: Q&A on Calling
Q. You talked about a person’s “being” call and their “doing” call, what is the difference?
Your “being” call is what you are born with. It is baked into you, it’s in your DNA and the reason that you are put on the earth. God gave you something unique that only you can give to the world. This is our Who and How.
Your “doing” call is simply what you do. “Doing” calls will change with different seasons of your life such as child-rearing, a job versus retirement, being paid to do ministry, or working in the secular job market. “Being” calls don’t change but how they are expressed, “doing”, will. This is our What and Where. Obviously, God is the Why. (Below is a graphic to help explain this concept)
Q. Would God take away a calling if one chooses not to live out that calling?
In short, no. As your “being” call is a part of who you are, you were born with it and will die with it. You can ignore, deny, or choose not to live it out, but it will remain. You can however mess up your “doing” call, or your assignment in a season. For example, you can mess up being a good parent, so you missed this calling, however, God will look for someone else to fulfill that assignment such as an adoptive or foster parent for your child. Another example, you can 'miss' a significant relationship, or a certain job, but in reality, God would recalculate us back to us fulfilling our purpose. We don't think there is a 'perfect will' in the vastness of life, but there is fulfilling our purpose.
Q. Can you explain more about exploring your “being” call using the “What do you love? What do you hate?”, questions?
Many times, you can discover more about your “being” call by asking yourself, “What do I love? “What do I hate?”. I (Justin) personally hate bad theology. The kind that limits our faith in God or even ourselves and stops us from stepping out for Him. Conversely, I love to explain, biblically who God is and who we are because of Jesus. Through these questions, I can see that at least part of my “being” call is around learning and teaching good theology to set people free. Freedom is another part of my being call, I bring that atmosphere wherever I go. I don't like Pharisee religion!
Q. How do you pursue your calling if it doesn’t pay money for a while and your day job, which pays all your bills, prevents you from ever having time to pursue your calling?
God asked me (Freda) to lay down my “doing” call of ministry for about 16 years. In the moment when God called me to change my “doing” from ministry to raising children, He promised that if I would give it to Him, He would give it back to me tenfold when it was time to pick it back up. God doesn’t waste anything you are doing. One time I was reupholstering a couch. While sewing, God said, “Because you are figuring out how to recover this couch, I will give you the knowledge for how to counsel people as if you had studied for it”. The next time I sat down to counsel someone, I had wisdom that I should not have had on how to set the person free.
Q. What do you think about different mission fields like being called to your neighborhood or other countries?
Each of us has different “callings” from the Lord that include assignments. The key is valuing each other even when someone’s calling/assignment is so different from your own. When we move to judge someone’s call or assignment we limit ourselves. Most of our pain comes from our judgments of others, or ourselves, or our expectations that aren’t God’s expectations. Staying in our lane (what God has called us to do) while valuing others’ lanes is key.
Q. Talk a bit about Joseph’s calling journey in the Bible, what was his “being” call versus “doing” call?
Joseph’s “doing” call changed over the course of his lifetime and in fact, it seemed like his life call was stunted and thwarted in many ways. He was sold into slavery, rose to the top in Potiphar’s household, then lied about and thrown into prison, rose to the top there, and finally was placed as second in command of the Pharoah of Egypt. Ultimately, he saved his family from starvation and ensured that it became the great nation of Israel.
But Joseph’s “being” call was found in the line he spoke to his brothers, “What you meant for evil, God meant for good". No matter what tragedy Joseph experienced, his being call spoke out, “This might look bad but God will change it for the good!”. Joseph’s “being” call is still speaking to us today. We take heart from his “being” message!
Q. What are “Valley Seasons” and what role do they play in a believer’s life?
Tony Stoltzfus wrote a book called The Calling Journey. He found from coaching over 50 leaders (in ministry and secular) and through a study of the heroes of the Bible, that most people go through three significant “Valley Seasons” in their lives. “Valley Seasons” are times when God is doing a lot of inward work in our lives versus the outward productivity of “Mountain Top Seasons”. The three “Valley Seasons” are:
-The Valley of Dependence (usually in your 20’s) – “I can’t do anything without Jesus.”
-The Valley of Wholeness (usually in your 30’s to 40’s)– “I must get healthy emotionally & relationally.”
-The Valley of Identity (in late 40’s to 60’s) – “I am loved apart from what I do.”
Enjoyed this snippet of Sunday’s Armchair Chat? Watch more here:
Q. You talked about a person’s “being” call and their “doing” call, what is the difference?
Your “being” call is what you are born with. It is baked into you, it’s in your DNA and the reason that you are put on the earth. God gave you something unique that only you can give to the world. This is our Who and How.
Your “doing” call is simply what you do. “Doing” calls will change with different seasons of your life such as child-rearing, a job versus retirement, being paid to do ministry, or working in the secular job market. “Being” calls don’t change but how they are expressed, “doing”, will. This is our What and Where. Obviously, God is the Why. (Below is a graphic to help explain this concept)
Q. Would God take away a calling if one chooses not to live out that calling?
In short, no. As your “being” call is a part of who you are, you were born with it and will die with it. You can ignore, deny, or choose not to live it out, but it will remain. You can however mess up your “doing” call, or your assignment in a season. For example, you can mess up being a good parent, so you missed this calling, however, God will look for someone else to fulfill that assignment such as an adoptive or foster parent for your child. Another example, you can 'miss' a significant relationship, or a certain job, but in reality, God would recalculate us back to us fulfilling our purpose. We don't think there is a 'perfect will' in the vastness of life, but there is fulfilling our purpose.
Q. Can you explain more about exploring your “being” call using the “What do you love? What do you hate?”, questions?
Many times, you can discover more about your “being” call by asking yourself, “What do I love? “What do I hate?”. I (Justin) personally hate bad theology. The kind that limits our faith in God or even ourselves and stops us from stepping out for Him. Conversely, I love to explain, biblically who God is and who we are because of Jesus. Through these questions, I can see that at least part of my “being” call is around learning and teaching good theology to set people free. Freedom is another part of my being call, I bring that atmosphere wherever I go. I don't like Pharisee religion!
Q. How do you pursue your calling if it doesn’t pay money for a while and your day job, which pays all your bills, prevents you from ever having time to pursue your calling?
God asked me (Freda) to lay down my “doing” call of ministry for about 16 years. In the moment when God called me to change my “doing” from ministry to raising children, He promised that if I would give it to Him, He would give it back to me tenfold when it was time to pick it back up. God doesn’t waste anything you are doing. One time I was reupholstering a couch. While sewing, God said, “Because you are figuring out how to recover this couch, I will give you the knowledge for how to counsel people as if you had studied for it”. The next time I sat down to counsel someone, I had wisdom that I should not have had on how to set the person free.
Q. What do you think about different mission fields like being called to your neighborhood or other countries?
Each of us has different “callings” from the Lord that include assignments. The key is valuing each other even when someone’s calling/assignment is so different from your own. When we move to judge someone’s call or assignment we limit ourselves. Most of our pain comes from our judgments of others, or ourselves, or our expectations that aren’t God’s expectations. Staying in our lane (what God has called us to do) while valuing others’ lanes is key.
Q. Talk a bit about Joseph’s calling journey in the Bible, what was his “being” call versus “doing” call?
Joseph’s “doing” call changed over the course of his lifetime and in fact, it seemed like his life call was stunted and thwarted in many ways. He was sold into slavery, rose to the top in Potiphar’s household, then lied about and thrown into prison, rose to the top there, and finally was placed as second in command of the Pharoah of Egypt. Ultimately, he saved his family from starvation and ensured that it became the great nation of Israel.
But Joseph’s “being” call was found in the line he spoke to his brothers, “What you meant for evil, God meant for good". No matter what tragedy Joseph experienced, his being call spoke out, “This might look bad but God will change it for the good!”. Joseph’s “being” call is still speaking to us today. We take heart from his “being” message!
Q. What are “Valley Seasons” and what role do they play in a believer’s life?
Tony Stoltzfus wrote a book called The Calling Journey. He found from coaching over 50 leaders (in ministry and secular) and through a study of the heroes of the Bible, that most people go through three significant “Valley Seasons” in their lives. “Valley Seasons” are times when God is doing a lot of inward work in our lives versus the outward productivity of “Mountain Top Seasons”. The three “Valley Seasons” are:
-The Valley of Dependence (usually in your 20’s) – “I can’t do anything without Jesus.”
-The Valley of Wholeness (usually in your 30’s to 40’s)– “I must get healthy emotionally & relationally.”
-The Valley of Identity (in late 40’s to 60’s) – “I am loved apart from what I do.”
Enjoyed this snippet of Sunday’s Armchair Chat? Watch more here:
Recommended Resources on Calling:
-Map your own Calling Journey for free at http://www.thecallingjourney.com
-A Leader’s Life Purpose Workbook by Tony Stoltzfus
-Courage & Calling by Gordon T. Smith
-The Call by Os Guinness
-Map your own Calling Journey for free at http://www.thecallingjourney.com
-A Leader’s Life Purpose Workbook by Tony Stoltzfus
-Courage & Calling by Gordon T. Smith
-The Call by Os Guinness
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