The Call and the Pull
Walking through the process of committing to the Berkeley, church planting project, and then through the approval systems at US Missions and the Northern California-Nevada District, Janet and I have seen two forces at work: the call and the pull.
1. The Call: We never compiled a list of “pro’s” and “con’s” about the Berkeley project. Instead of a cost-benefit ratio, we opened ourselves up to a season of discernment. First, I went to Byron Klaus, President of AGTS and my boss at the time, and told him what we were considering. He counseled, prayed, and pastored us through the entire journey. I also asked David Watson, a trusted friend, and professor at North Central University to pray with me one day during a chapel service. He surprised me by affirming our sense of direction on the spot.
But perhaps the most unusual “nudge” we received came from a Starbucks employee in Texas who, with Tony Bennett singing “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in the background, walked up to Janet and started a conversation about the Bay area, which ended with the words, “You have to go and see it.” Which we did. At the end of a two-day trip, Janet said to me, “We have no defenses against this.”
In other words, we have lots of great reasons not to sell our house, give up our income, and abandon our career, but we just can’t think of any of them. The sensation is something like novacaine at the dentist—you know this has got to be hurting, but you just can’t feel it.
All of this began when my friend “Curt Harlow:”http://www.curtharlow.com/ asked me who might be a good candidate to lead a planting project in Berkeley. I replied by asking if they were taking applications from senior citizens. I was joking. He wasn’t. None of this is a commentary on how things will go, just that we’re going.
AGTS confirmed the call by giving us a wonderful send off, immortalized by my friend Joel Triska in his little movie, Earl’s Office.
2. The Pull: Apart from the more mystical “calling” side of things we have come to believe that leaders need to feel a certain “pull” as well. (I’ll spot you that Jonah goes to Ninevah sometimes, too.)
Every context has a certain kind of gravity, and Berkeley has plenty. Check out the Wikipedia article to see what I mean. The citizens of Berkeley believe this with 83% of the residents reporting the quality of their life is either “excellent” or “good.”
Even more important is the presence of U Cal, where over 30,000 students study at the 4th ranked university in the world. In the community itself (around 100,000) 50% of the population (median age 31) are “trend setters,” the people who invent the culture and technology that the rest of us consume.
In other words, Berkeley is the capital of the future, the place where tomorrow is invented. “A high tech Mars Hill,” in Janet’s phrase. To develop a planting project there creates the potential to change things everywhere.
Call + Pull = Plant
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I’ve recently had a affinity toward Berkeley – not sure why, although I’ve been listening to the college courses online.
Gives me a reason to pray for you!
Blessings,
I think I’ll know the feeling you are going through now in the near future.
Earl, I lived and worked in Berkeley back in 1999-2000 helping launch a daily newspaper there. It’s a unique community with a unique hunger for spiritual truth and answers. You’ll encounter challenges you’ve never imagined, yet you’ll discover a depth and need and pain people never could fathom in a city that size. I’ll definitely be praying; I left a little piece of my heart on “that” side of the bay during my own “startup” experience!
Any chance you’re in Indy for General Council? I’d love to buy you a cup of coffee and hear about your passion for Berkeley.
Earl,
I feel your pain, so to speak. My wife and I gave up our church 2 months ago to plant a church in my hometown in NH. We have been through the assessment, approval and bootcamp process and now we are trying to sell our home and buy a home in NH. That process is proving to be harder. It’s my fault we are going back to my hometown. I said “never” to God. Over the past two years I felt the call and ignored it until I couldn’t any longer. It has been like the Twilight Zone ever since with what God has been doing. Hang in there bro.
Thanks for this post. I’m currently wrestling with the call and the pull to NY and am stunned by it considering I despised just about everything NY as recent as a couple of years ago (with the exception of Long Island because my best friend lives there).
I have some sense of security and sameness and could probably switch over to another ministry position with a little more money but none of that really matters at this point to me.
Thanks for your transparency, Earl and God bless the Berkeley church plant you and your wife are starting