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Calling Out the Called with Pastor Scott Yirka · The Don't Pastor Alone Podcast

• Bob Bumgarner: Welcome to the Don't Pastor Alone podcast, where we connect pastors and churches with trusted people and practical resources, because his mission is too important to do alone. I'm Bob Bumgarner, and today I'm joined with, uh, by Jimbo Stewart and our guest, Scott Yerke. JimBo Stewart: Hey, I'm excited to be on here with you guys today. Uh, Bob, what we're gonna talk about today, is calling out the called. How, how do we, how do we discover the people that God may be calling into vocational ministry that are already in our churches, and how do we equip them well for whatever God is calling them to do? And I'm super excited to have, my pastor, our guest, Scott Yerke. he and I go way back, and I'm grateful for his impact into my life and ministry as he's helped develop me. the next generation of pastors, missionaries, church planters, replanters, ministry leaders, and support staff likely is sitting in a church, and they might be sitting in your church. So how do we recognize God's call? How do we help them test it? How do we g- have them take their first step? We're gonna talk about all that today. but first let me introduce our guest, Scott Yerke, senior pastor of Hibernia Baptist Church. Scott and Hibernia recently hosted a lunch after worship service for anybody who sensed that God might be calling them to vocational ministry. That's why we wanted to bring him on and learn from, from that experience. Scott, welcome to the Don't Pastor Alone podcast. Scott Yirka: Hey, Jimbo, thank you, and Bob, g- good to be here with you guys, and really- Yeah ... um, grateful, humbled as well. Thank you. JimBo Stewart: Scott, how long have you been the pastor at Hibernia? Scott Yirka: 25 years. Uh- Man ... going into... Yeah, 26 in May. JimBo Stewart: That's incredible. talk to us about, this, this lunch that you recently had. Scott Yirka: Yeah. It was, encouraging. first the number. We had 32, guys and ladies show up to this luncheon where we just call people out that might be feeling a stir in their spirit towards ministry, whether that's by vocational, co-vocational, full-time. And so some of those that came or were couples that were thinking about, the possibility of leaving their career, vocational career, and going into full-time ministry. We have, uh, so we, we just simply for a couple of months asked everyone to consider coming to a luncheon where they could hear next steps if they were feeling that call. And at the end of a service had a, had a lunch purveyed, and then, shared some vision with them and, uh, and then to help them take the next step. We have met with each of them since that time. JimBo Stewart: What, what motivated you to... Like, where, where did you see, like, the urgency, the need- Yeah ... to do something like that? Scott Yirka: Yeah, several places. So, y- you know, one is there's a need for ministry leaders in our church, and I think every church. So when we are ... You know, right now we're even trying to fill some spots, ministry staff positions, and it sure is, is wonderful when you can raise up leaders within your own church. And I think that's the right way to do it. you know, we have seminaries and they, you know, do an outstanding job of educating our, our ministers, pastors, missionaries. But in, in some sense, the church should be the seminary. Yeah. Uh, we're raising up leaders and training them. And certainly even if they're getting a formal education, they have a place to do the practical work. And, uh, I think seminaries have done a, a great job of that recently, partnering with churches, and we've done some of that. But w- man, first off, we just have a need. And the other is, you know, we were reading Scott Pace's and Shane Pruitt's book, Calling Out the Called, and some others. Our staff has been talking about this together, what if we just did, we're more, more intentional about calling people out? And it's like, uh, why aren't we? Well, you know, why, why haven't I done a better job of that? Bob Bumgarner: Hmm. Scott Yirka: And I think back, um, the church that I grew up in was a wonderful church, Westside Jacksonville, Florida. And in a short amount of time, there were 52 guys called to ministry, full-time ministry- Wow ... that went into- Wow. It was, it was... Yeah. I mean, and you can't explain it. Like, you can't go back and say, "Was there a strategy there?" Bob Bumgarner: Yeah. Scott Yirka: But I do think there was some intentionality when I look back at it at just a- actually making a public call to ministry. I can remember being in those services hearing that call. Like, "Some of you are called. Some of you could step out." And so just like, man, we should have been doing a lot more of this a lot more often. Frankly, it's, it's not complicated. It's just like, wait a minute. We call people to repentance, we call them to be faithful, we call them- Mm ... certainly to decide upon parking and decide to consider, God, are you calling me? And what are you calling me to? Bob Bumgarner: Yeah, Scott, one of the things when I heard about this that was am- amazing to me was the simplicity of this. Uh, I mean, uh, it just captured my heart that it was as simple as a pastor saying, "Hey, has God called some people? Let's have lunch and talk about it." And then to see what, what God did. So, thank you for following that sense of obedience, but is it really that, was it really that simple? I mean, I'm trying to help our listeners understand- Great Scott Yirka: question ... Bob Bumgarner: that, that any church... Is this an any church tool? Yeah. Scott Yirka: Can any church do it? It's a any church. Yeah, you know, it, it, it was that simple. It was, uh, "Hey, we're gonna eat lunch together. We're gonna talk about it. What's God doing in your heart?" And then we have those follow-up conversations to find out where some of those stirrings were. You know, there were a, a few surprises. typically, you know, you kind of see where God's working in people and you have those conversations along the way. Our staff does. But we did have some people show up that we weren't... You know, we didn't... W- we saw them sign up and we're like, "Wow, okay, what's going on with them?" So you just never know who out there is really praying about ministry. that- that's one thing that the light came on is, yeah, we do have these conversations with people. We know who's preaching, teaching. We have them on our teaching team or training them up, but there's people out there that we've never talked to, have never talked to us, that God's stirring. Yeah. So that, that was good. So yeah, simple. Simple. Just- Bob Bumgarner: What were those, what were the follow-up meetings like? Scott Yirka: Well, I'm glad you asked that question because, you know, as we're thinking through this luncheon, we had been thinking for a long time about, you know, more formal, training for these people going into ministry. We, we're setting up a residency, that starts in January for some of these. But those conversations are just relational. You know, what, you know, where, where, where are you in your walk with the Lord? Uh, what, what are, what do you feel like God's calling you to? And where can we right now begin, uh, giving you opportunities so that you can grow, whether that's preaching, teaching, administration, serving or what- whatnot. Bob Bumgarner: That's awesome. That's very helpful. Scott Yirka: It's simple. So yeah, so from the, from one end we're, you know, we're trying to be very formal in the way we train people, but the other is just like getting to know what, you know, what these, what, what, what's, do you feel like God's calling you? Do you feel like God's calling you to preach? Okay. Well, we can help you with that. We can begin working with, you and, uh, doing some training. You can be part of some of our pr- our preaching meetings, which we brought some of the guys into our preaching meetings, giving them opportunities to preach, to do some, uh, you know, follow-up and critiques with them and help them to grow. Everything from that to, to children's workers who are like, "Man, I'm really maybe called children's ministry." JimBo Stewart: So when we talk about calling, let's, let's just clarify a little bit, cause that can mean different things to, to different people, and there's kind of maybe different types of calling. what do you, what do you mean when you say somebody feels called to, uh, vocational ministry? Yeah, I mean, great, good question because... And we were trying to-- even in the invitation, just keeping it pretty, pretty open, pretty general. If you have a-- If you feel that God may be calling you into ministry in any way, come to the launch. Scott Yirka: So for that, we would then qualify. That might mean you're really considering leaving your full-time vocation to go into ministry to train for that. It may mean that you wanna take a step into bivocational ministry. You don't wanna leave your career, but you wanna step into ministry where you're on a staff or where you're working in the church, at least in a part-time capacity. Others of you, you don't know, but you're, you just sense this stirring in you to something more, come. So we opened it up that way. And what we discovered is that the people who came to our lunch typically were more in that first or second tier, like, uh, we're really thinking about vocational or bivocational ministry. So in the future we'll do... We, we wanna see more, you know, we need, we need as many lay staff as possible, cause we are all the time trying to do more with less. So, uh, we wanna make sure we're, we're clear about calling out even the folks that feel like, "You know, I'm not gonna go to work on a staff, but I, I do need to serve the ministry." Bob Bumgarner: Scott, you, you talked about you think that training people in, in the church is the right place. and I think theologically you're certainly correct, but there's a practical side to that, too. Jacksonville, the First Coast area's become one of the most expensive places in America to live. And so, uh, I saw something the other day that we've broke the top 25 as far as cost of living. So h- c- if, if God would call pe- if we could develop people here that stay here, that would be a helpful, solution to some real practical needs as, as well. Scott Yirka: Hey, Bob, you're, you know, our county, we, we just did this study on our county. We're in Clay County, which is, if anyone knows about Florida, North Florida, it's a conservative area, and then Clay County's gonna be conservative, you know, relative to even that. In a, in a conservative county we have found that 60% of the people who live here now are unaffiliated with any church. JimBo Stewart: Hmm. Why? Scott Yirka: And whereas, you know, there are other places in the United States of America, you know, 40% affiliated with church would be high. Here that's, that's, that, that should ring the alarm. Bob Bumgarner: It should. Yeah. Scott Yirka: It's not always been the case here, and so y- we have, what, a lot of areas are experiencing people moving in from different, uh, parts of the, the country and, and they are driving prices of houses up and things like that. And so it does make it a little more difficult to, to live here. If you're young starting off in ministry, that's pra- that's right. I mean, that's just a practical issue. And then, too, yeah, you have people who are already here, Yeah ... and, the grass is not always greener just because someone comes- ... from somewhere else. you have people here that are gifted, called. God's stirring. He's working. He's gonna f- he's gonna give us the workers. He's gonna give us the people to go into, to the, the harvest if we pray. Uh, we just need to be on the lookout for 'em. Bob Bumgarner: That's cool. Very cool. JimBo Stewart: So how do you, how do you help, how do you help somebody take that first step? They, they come to the launch. They say they feel like God's calling them to some version of vocational or bi-vocational ministry. Scott Yirka: Yeah ... JimBo Stewart: you know, how, how, what, what is, what is that next step? What's a clear next step that you offer? Scott Yirka: Yeah, we're learning from a lot of people who have done this well, you know, over the years. But, um, for us, it, it would start with connecting them to the ministry leader that, is in that a- affinity. If they feel called to children's ministry, connecting them there. in music ministry, connecting them there and, and preaching the, and so on. So that's, that's first. we've helped some guys get in, in school that need some theological education 'cause they wanna preach. And then, uh, like I said, we're gonna-- we're developing and working on have a staff member over the Trellis part of our residency program, putting it all together. In, in January we kick it off formally. So, people that are, you know, maybe later in life, they're not ready to go back to seminary, but 'cause they, they, they're ready to get going in ministry. we wanna make sure that we can train them here where they're not having to go, you know, three years to school. let's go, we'll train you, put you in, you know, in place. So just depending on, you know, where they are in their age, life, where they are in the life stage and all that kind of stuff, working with every individual and trying to figure out what will work to help you to get involved in ministry quickly without setting them up for failure so they're not, you know, going untrained Bob Bumgarner: Yeah, for our listeners, I wanna, uh, again, I'm just trying to put this on the bottom shelf, because that's what it- that to me, that's the power of what you're doing. In other words, what is the infrastructure you already have that people are leading in particular areas of ministry? If you have those, go ahead and start there. If you need to, I mean, if you wanna start a residency or other more robust things, that's certainly a possibility, but, but you don't have to have a completed development system in order to have a launch where you're trying to help people discover their next step. Is that what I'm hearing you say, Scott? Scott Yirka: 100%, Bob. The, reality is, and I told... I think, Bob, you and I talked about this some time ago. We're putting the plane together in the air and we, we don't, we didn't have all the pieces in place. And we wanna do things well for everyone. We, we certainly wanna make sure that if someone feels called to ministry, that we're helping them to take the right next steps, and we're walking alongside them. But we don't wanna wait either till we have all the pieces in place, or we'll never do it. Right. So, just the first step for us was, you know, w- you know, well, this was first kind of more public step is, is to say, "Come, come... Yeah, come and hear what ministry can look like for you." And then if you still feel like, "Man, God's stirring this in me," then let's have a conversation of what the next step would be. And that's gonna look, again, a little bit differently for each person, depending on, you know, where they are in their maturity, what they're being called to, uh, what their experience has been. Bob Bumgarner: Yeah, so I wanna say to my AMS friends that are listening to this, this really gives me an opportunity, yeah, when I hear of somebody called to ministry, if they're in a church that might not have this attitude, of development, that I actually can say, "Hey, we have a church that if, if you'll go there, they can, they can help you take a, take a, a step to that." In addition to that, it allows me to have a conversation with Scott to say, "Is there anything the local association can do that would actually add value to what you're doing so that it's not all on, on you?" And I, I do think that's part of the, the don't pastor alone motif of this- Yeah ... is that we really can help each other develop people in our- Scott Yirka: Yeah. Yeah. The, the... there's, all churches have needs. I mean, we, we... we're looking, uh, you know, five, 10 years down the road as to, you know, what, where we're going to maybe have ministries launched, and we're gonna have a need for lots of pastors, lots of, people that are in ministry on staff. And so we have to train them because I think all of us are realizing, you know, across the United States, man, there, there's not enough staff, there's not enough pastors, there's not enough leaders. And why not? And I think that's, you know, I look itself in the mirror and say, "Well, it's 'cause we're, we've gotta do a good job of raising them up, and I've gotta do a better job of that." And calling out the called and then giving them training and, where it becomes really normal in the church where people are watching their friends actually say yes to ministry and then stirring in them to think, "Maybe God might be calling me." Yeah. Because I think people look at me all the time and go, "If that guy can do it, I can do it." So that's what we need more of. I don't think anybody, looks at you and says that, Scott. But I, I wanna s- I wanna camp for a second on you, you know, you said that you want it to be normal for somebody to... JimBo Stewart: Like, this is just a normal thing. So I think the lunch was a fantastic idea and then the residency, but what are you thinking through on, like, how to, how to continue a, a culture of calling out the called beyond the lunch and the residency? Scott Yirka: yeah, it's a good, good question. And, and one, I mean, and not in any particular order, but putting these people out in front, so the folks that have called to ministry to give them chances to actually serve in ministry and be able to celebrate with the church. "Hey, this is someone who you remember we asked this question who's called, and this, this, you know, this guy, uh, this gal," whatever the ministry call is, "they have, uh, answered, you know, yes. And so here they are serving. Here they are leading." So make sure they're up front, and then be clear that they stepped out and are trusting God. The other is to continually, even on, on the Lord's day when we're asking people to respond to the message that's preached, to think through, "What's my next step? What's God calling me to?" you know, we're... So actually just simply and boldly asking people to step into ministry. and then, you know, where we're, we're seeing people, be successful or success would be being faithful, you know, to the Lord, where we see that, again, celebrating that, pointing that out. and again, I like the word normalize. Normalize the call to ministry. This is normal. This isn't just for the elite class. Mm-hmm. God calls people who, you know, verse Corinthians one. Man, they just love, they love the Lord. It's, it's not the wise always. It's not the most noble. It, it's the ones who are willing to serve Christ, put their yes on the, on the altar and say, "Here I am. I'm available." And so just to, to make people aware, like, God may be calling you. And I think, there are some guys and gals who are, who are older in, in ministry. I was just in an area where some of the most successful church planters they, I was told, were retirees. JimBo Stewart: Hmm. Scott Yirka: I was like, "Okay. Okay." I mean, they're guys that have retired with pensions. JimBo Stewart: Yeah. Scott Yirka: And they're putting all their effort into church planting. And I say, "Okay, that's good." So I mean, something to think about. I hadn't really thought- Yeah ... much in that direction. JimBo Stewart: We've got a lot of retirees in Florida, so take that. Scott Yirka: We do. Right. I- and a lot of them frankly, I just left a... You know, we had a senior deal this morning. Well, some of these retirees are, are young guys- Mm-hmm ... young families. Yeah. They're retiring, you know, from, from, uh, a good position where they actually have some sort of income coming in, in retirement, a pension or, you know, government, uh, military. We have quite a few of those. And who knows what God might be doing there? JimBo Stewart: Hmm. Bob Bumgarner: Scott, has there been any, need for, so you lead a church that has a staff. And so when you now tell staff members, hey, when people are called, we're going to send them to you if their affinity for ministry is your area. So I need you to walk with them in that process. Have you done anything to standardize that, to help them know how that's a value to you and the church, and that's now an expectation that they're not just doers of ministry, but developers of ministers? Scott Yirka: Yeah, that's easy for these guys, I feel like, because they all want to make disciples. And so it just encourages them that there are people who are saying, you know, in my discipleship, I want to be, I'm feeling called to do what you do. Can you help me do what you do? Because I want to make disciples. Man, that encourages any pastor because we know the call Jesus gave us was make disciples, you know. And so you see people saved. That's really awesome. And you see them step into faithfulness. And then all of a sudden, here's somebody that you knew before they were saved. Now they're being called, God's calling them to ministry. That's what it's about. I mean, there's a lot that it's about, but boy, that's awesome. So I think it's not a hard, your staff loves it. Like our staff loves it. Bob Bumgarner: I think that I think that's another bottom shelf kind of learning that it's actually energized like this isn't more work to do. This is actually energizing. Like in other words, this is something that will actually give you energy as you're doing as you're trying to as you're pouring into potential ministerial candidates. Scott Yirka: Yeah. It, stretches our staff, but then that grows us too. Bob Bumgarner: Yeah. Scott Yirka: Because now we're, you know, we're, we're, we're walking with someone, but at the same time, it's what we've been called to do. It's, you know, 2 Timothy 2:2 and following. But we, are- you used the word energize, but it does. It energizes you when you see other people saying, "I, I wanna, I wanna serve the Lord and step into ministry." I th- I think, and maybe here it might be helpful to say this too, because we've been trying to have this language and we're not, you know, we're working on it. Everyone's called to ministry. Bob Bumgarner: Yeah. Scott Yirka: And there aren't classes. So even, uh, even though there are- we're calling people out that might be called a full-time or vocational ministry in some way, hopefully, you know, the tide rises, you know, raises all ships. Mm-hmm. And everyone in this, in the seat says, "You know what? I'm called to ministry. Everyone's called to ministry. Where am I gonna serve?" Bob Bumgarner: Yeah. Scott Yirka: Everyone is a 10 in some area and gifted, so we wanna help them. Bob Bumgarner: Yeah, that's good. JimBo Stewart: I think, I think we've talked a lot about some really good reasons why every church should consider this and some, I think, e- accessible, easy first steps for any church to take, to really begin to think about this. But let's be honest, most churches aren't doing this, and, you know, there's 100 reasons why, they, they don't do it. I think one, one is for, for a lot of guys there, there is a little bit of a fear of like, if I start calling out some of these guys, they, they're, they're probably gonna get called somewhere else. and so what would either of you guys say to- Yeah ... to a guy that, that... I, I mean, and I, if we're honest, I mean, that's an honest fear for, for a pastor as he considers something like this. Yeah, I, I think it, it, nobody likes losing anyone for any reason, but we're really not. You know, the, you know, the, we're, we're stewards of everything we have, and the people that we're shepherding, they're going to be sent out. Scott Yirka: God is at work, and, and I think it's the right thing to do. We, we make disciples. We see them sent out to ministry, whether it's sent out from us, uh, and they're still part of us, or they're sent out to another location in another church. That, that's a joy. And, you know, whether or not, you know, we could say, "Well, well, you know, if we send them out, God'll, God'll send other people in." He might, and I think He will, but that's really not even an issue. Like, uh, in the same way we're talking about money, we give 'cause it's a joy to give. God may bless us with, something in return, um, that's material, and He may not, 'cause the blessing is in doing and obei- being obedient to Him. So I think the blessing is just watching these guys go, celebrate them, and seeing the kingdom of God impacted and the kingdom of darkness pushed back. And, you know, really the only way we're gonna impact 60% of our county that's unaffiliated with a church is to start more churches and to send people out. And I'd rather have them Sunday morning. I'd rather them be there listening to me preach. I would. I mean, just selfishly. But at the same time, that's not what God's called us to. He's called us to raise up disciples and send them out. JimBo Stewart: Mm. Bob Bumgarner: You know, to, to, Scott is so genuine when he says that, and I believe everything. He's being truthful. I think, I, I think what happens is in the mind of the pastor, we have to ask ourself, are we trying to develop people out of the pain of where we have gaps in our structure? Or are we trying to develop people for the possibilities of the kingdom and what God might want to do in them? It... So, so in other words, what I hear Scott saying is there's something he wants for his people. He wants them to be on God's mission as it relates to, their calling. Yeah. And if, and, and if it's something that, that it's not something he wants from them, he wants for them. And so people feel that. Yeah. And, uh, and so you do have to have an open-handedness as you're developing, folks, to be able to, to, to release them to whatever God wants them, to do. Scott Yirka: Bob, you, you know, we, the gap's there. We, we see the gap, we see the need. That opens our eyes. Bob Bumgarner: Yeah. Scott Yirka: But you, but no, that's not, that's not the only reason and not the main reason- Yeah that we should be developing God leaders. We should be doing it, right, because Jesus said to. And- Yeah ... and, I, I need to do a better job of it all the time. And yes, hopefully some of those folks will fill the gaps we have and needs we have here. That's part of the, you know, the joy. And, and some of them are going to go other places and be sent out. Um, they're gonna go pastor other churches and, uh, but there's a joy in that as well in just walk- walking alongside them. Bob Bumgarner: What I love about the story that's unfolding here is that Hibernia, under your leadership, is not outsourcing ministry development. and you're not saying you're all of ministry development. I mean, you're talking about residencies and seminaries and all this kind of thing. Scott Yirka: Right. Bob Bumgarner: But, but here's the thing, and here's what's your, testimony to you right this minute. You don't need a large program to raise up leaders. You need intentional relationships and meaningful opportunities. So that's a, that's a, that's a neat thing. Scott Yirka: Yeah. JimBo Stewart: Yes, it- Bob, what- Go ahead. Bob, what is, what would you say is First Coast Church's role in this? If, if, if somebody's listening and they think, "Man, we're not- We're not Hibernia. I d- I don't know if we could do this. I, like... Or even if, you know, they are that, that size, that capacity, but what role can First Coast churches play for our churches in helping them do this and not pastor alone while calling out the called? Bob Bumgarner: I think this podcast is one of them. I mean, I just, I, I believe the best way to, multiply, s- kingdom behavior is to show people and talk about people who are doing it. And so that's why I was... I mean, like, literally, when I heard, I randomly heard about this event that Scott did, and my heart just leapt, and I ha- I knew I had to ask him to come and speak at our annual meeting about it and to do this podcast just to get the con- to normalize, the conversation. This isn't about, I mean, it's not about, oh, this church is doing it perfect. It's about, no, this church has, has responded to that. So I think platforming that, celebrating that. I do think there are things that, like it's, it's entirely possible that there'll be people developed through Scott's leadership that he might call me and say, "Hey, we don't have a place for this person to preach here, but do you have a, a church in town that needs a, an interim pastor or whatever?" And that's where we can, you know, that's where we can help with that. Another thing we're gonna do is at our second collective in 2027, we're hoping to have Scott Pace here and, to have a, a Calling Out The Called collective where we elevate this, even to a higher, uh, level of, of awareness. And what I see is every church that's doing something like what Scott's doing, and Darren and I talked about this yesterday, how do we get them in a round table every six months- Mm-hmm and say, "Hey, what are we learning? Who can we share? What did... What's working well?" So all I know to do is to listen to what the field's doing and respond to that. we're not gonna try to be a seminary. Seminaries are good at being seminaries. what, what we're good is, at is connecting the mission force to the mission field. And so that's what we're trying to do. JimBo Stewart: Yeah. Scott, let me just hit you with a couple of rapid fire questions as we come to a close. Uh, you mentioned the, the book by Scott Pace and Shane Claiborne, uh, Calling Out The Called. What other book would you say has helped you think about calling or ministry leadership that should be considered in this conversation? Bob Bumgarner: For me, many years ago, Os Guinness' book, The Call- Mm-hmm was a, was a, a, a formation kind of book for me on, on that. So that's a book that I would recommend. And the whole idea of that book is it's the calling starts with the caller, not a position. And so we're training people to listen to the caller. JimBo Stewart: Yeah. Scott, what's one characteristic you're looking for, when you're having that conversation with somebody that says that they're called? Scott Yirka: The one characteristic would be where, where... There's one, but character's gotta be, you know, at the top of the list. Where, you know, what, where are they, are they walking it right now? Hmm. Are they evidencing that, you know, there is a call on my life? And, you know, the other is, is going to be, w- where is... Are they passionate about making disciples now? so, you know, are you... Because ministry, and we, we also wanna make sure that people are aware, and I think they are. It's, it's, it's a spiritual effort. there's a spiritual warfare that goes along with it. there are a lot of difficulties in it. As rewarding as ministry is, it's, it, it, there, there are people who wash out because they weren't called. JimBo Stewart: Hmm. Scott Yirka: So we wanna, we wanna ask that question, are, you know, why, what, you know, why are you thinking this? What are you thinking? To see if they're thinking in the right directions. If they're not, w- doesn't mean they're not called. We just wanna make sure that we're, we're shaping their thinking a little bit about what ministry is and the reality of it. Bob Bumgarner: That's good. Scott Yirka: Yeah. JimBo Stewart: What's, what's one warning you would give somebody that is entering into vocational ministry? Scott Yirka: not to go too fast. You know, to be faithful where they are, and that's where we've been working with, with, with guys. And depending on where they are. You know, I think all of us when we're called, we're chomping at the bits. What's next? Be faithful in what you're doing. God knows where you are. He will absolutely open the doors. So whatever God's given you to be faithful over, those talents, be faithful with those talents, and He will trust you with more. And that's where, uh, we, we're walking with guys and, and through their ministry call who, you know, right now, what's next, what's next, what's next? Remember to be faithful today. Yeah. Um, we wanna plan for the future. We're gonna plan for the future by training, by equipping, by making opportunities, but don't miss what you're doing right now. And that's where- All right, Bob, close us out with a, with a, with a kingdom practice challenge. Bob Bumgarner: Okay. Here's my challenge. This week, pray this prayer, and it's right from Jesus. Pray to the Lord of the harvest that He will send workers out into His harvest. Scott Yirka: Amen. Bob Bumgarner: Then ask this question of yourself, "Lord, who have you placed in our church, in my circumference, that I could encourage to explore a call to ministry this week?" and, and then do this. see them, hear them, value them, and care for them. That's what Scott's been talking about. Those are four basic things that we all can do for anybody who feels called, to ministry. JimBo Stewart: All right. Thanks for being on with us today, Scott. Scott Yirka: Thanks- You guys- Thanks for all the support y'all give us. We are super grateful for First Coast churches.