Just Be Faithful

Shannan Painter: In our day, speakers and teachers can become influencers. Do you ever find yourself dreaming of building a platform and gaining an audience through Bible teaching? How can you know if God's calling you or if you're just trying to draw attention to yourself? Erin Davis is going to touch on these questions on this bonus episode of The Deep Well podcast. I'm Shannan Painter.

Usually, Erin teaches through a Bible passage or a biblical topic, but occasionally, we'd like to bring you a bonus episode like this one. In one of Erin's teaching segments, a woman in the audience asked Erin how she began teaching the Bible. What followed was a discussion about learning how to teach others, discerning God's calling, and being faithful in whatever step God wants you to take next.

Erin Davis:I grew up in a home with a mama who loved and believed in Jesus and a daddy who didn't. And so those verses about don't be yoked with unbelievers (see 2 Cor. 6:14), I can be a poster child for that. I can tell you how that story goes. We just had that conversation with our sons last night. 

My mom, I mean, she just prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed for me and my sister, my brother; and our family fell apart when I was a little girl. 

And so, I was a brokenhearted girl from a broken home, looking for my identity anywhere, with anyone who I thought might stay for a little while. And the Lord in His kindness, when I was heading into my sophomore year of high school . . . It was truly the Lord. I wasn't seeking. I mean, my heart was, but He just grabbed me. I surrendered my life to Him as a fifteen-year-old. 

I couldn't have articulated it then, but immediately there was a calling in my life to know and teach the Bible. I went to my youth pastor the next week and said, “I think I could teach youth group next week.” He very graciously shepherded me and put me under some good leadership and honed that in me. But yeah, it's just something the Lord did almost immediately. 

Then I married a man named Jason. He was a youth pastor. We're still married. He's just not a youth pastor anymore. He serves on the ministry team Revive Our Hearts. He said, “Erin, I can teach the boys the Bible, but I'm having trouble teaching the girls. Would you?” I’d never been to Bible college and only had been learning the Bible a few years. But I loved those girls, and I love my man. And so, that began this pattern of diving deep into the Word for the sake of others. 

I remember that first time. I became kind of manic. I just dove into God's Word for weeks. I was like, “Can you believe God's Word says this?” I would wake Jason up in the middle of the night. I taught what became my first book years later. 

God's just been so kind. I am a teacher at the cellular level. I mean, if I'm not teaching here, I'll be teaching at the grocery store, teaching wherever I go. Like, that's just how God's wired me. He's been very kind to grow my love for His Word, at the same pace that He's grown my opportunities to teach it. 

So, I don't ever want to serve past my sanctification. I still have a lot to learn about His Word. I don't ever want to teach something I haven't lived. But He's been really kind to let me be a true speaker in my generation, and I'm grateful.

Any other thoughts on body stewardship and ministry? This might be a kind of a new vein of thinking for you. It was for me. 

Shannan: So, Erin, Kimberly asked how you ended up getting into Bible teaching? Maybe there are women in here that also feel a little bit of that nudging. What would you offer as next steps to follow up on that prompting that she may feel?

Erin: Oh, man, we should do a whole season of The Deep Well on this idea of calling, because it can be tricky. I will affirm this: you do have a calling on your life. It is this, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. “Then there's the Great Commission, which is that all of us who are in Christ are supposed to go therefore and make disciples. All of us are supposed to remind each other what Jesus has said, and where that is in Scripture. 

So, there are some things that all followers of Jesus are called to. But Paul also introduced us to this idea of spiritual giftings. One of the amazing things the Lord has done in the Church, certainly post-Pentecost is that we are individuals of one body, but He's given us unique giftings, and we're supposed to use those to serve each other. 

So, I like to lead with the gifts. And women are a little bit funny about this, either. We don't know what our gifts are, or we are afraid that acknowledging our gifts is somehow prideful. 

So, I would love to ask women, what's your gift? What's God's gift to you? I don't know. I'll say, “Oh, I know what mine is. It's teaching, and it's gathering people.” That is a gift. I didn't earn it. God gave it to me, so it's fun to give Him a lot of glory in that. So I would start with your gifts. If you're not able to discern those, of course we always want to start with the Lord. “Help me see what is true by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Help me see what is true.” 

But from there, take the next baby step. Don't take a giant leap into “I think I'm called do . . .” in my example, teach Bible. I don't think, I'm going to launch a ministry in my name, and write a bunch of books, and I should probably start a women's ministry at my church. 

No, lean into the Body. Start with some people who know you well, love the Lord, and are obsessed with the kingdom. We want to see the kingdom built. Ask them, “What gifts do you see in me?”

And then, they can help you build a trajectory. I've had so many people do that for me. I'm so grateful that youth pastor that I mentioned wasn’t like, “You’re not ready to lead the youth group. And by the way, you're not ever going to be ready to lead the youth group.” He didn't take me to complementarian theology. I wasn't ready. But he just wanted to make sure that I understood there's a training ground and the stakes are high. “Let me invest in you, and let me connect you with some other women at church who are teachers.” So, I leaned hard into the body. 

I read this somewhere, it is not original to me, but it's so good. “We always want to be more in love with the God who called us than the calling itself.” And sometimes I think we can be like, “This is my calling; I am going to do it.” That's part of I think running the race well, submitting your calling to the Lord. 

So will I always be called to be a Bible teacher? I don't know. I really hope that around age eighty-two the Lord sends me into a remote village where the gospel has never been brought, and I just am wrung out there. That would be the dream for me. So, I don't know that it's a now and forever calling, but it's a calling, and I want to be faithful in it. 

Shannan: I would double down on that leaning into people who are in your life, who will walk alongside you and encourage you. I was very fortunate when I was younger, probably close to fifteen years ago, I shared my testimony at a women's event. I had an older woman come up to me after the event and said, “I just want to affirm that I see you as being gifted in speaking and teaching, and be patient. It might be some number of years as God cultivates that in you and gives you more and more opportunity.” 

I was so grateful that she said that, because there were times in my life where I would feel a little bit restless. 

Erin: Yeah.

Shannan: “I just I want to do more for You, Lord. I want You to use me.” And there was a season of life where the Lord said, “Yeah, you have four children here. I'm using you here.” 

Erin: Yeah.

Shannan: It gave me sort of a long-term vision to see that there was an affirmation of a gifting there. But to have patience while God developed it and brought it out in the right time. 

Erin: I think there's such a thing as sanctified ambition. I am ambitious. I mean that my ambition is sometimes white hot. I've always been that way. I don't apologize for it, because that's part of the wiring that the Lord has given me. But also, part of submitting my life to His is that becomes ambition for His glory, not my glory. He often is pulling back on the reins. 

One of the fun things about The Deep Well is I get to bring my actual friends to be cohosts. Shannan is one of my actual friends. And one of the ways that we sharpen each other is in reminding each other of the first and foremost calling of loving God, and the second calling of loving and serving our own families. You need those other eyes; you need those women. I've had those same women that have said, “Okay, Erin, I'm not going to discount the gifting. But you need to do it in the Lord's timing.” One of my mantras is, “God's plan, God's way, in God's timing, or not at all.”

Because if we step outside that, disaster strikes. So yeah, I'm thankful for those women. Be those women for each other.

Shannan: Erin, I have one more follow-up question. We hear all kinds of messages about discerning our calling, making life count, doing exactly what God wants us to do. It's a very popular topic, both outside the Church and self-help circles. But we can also put a churchy spin on it. 

When are those messages helpful? And when are they not? 

Erin: Well, every single one of us has something inside of us that wants to find our purpose. And that's a good thing because our purpose is to glorify God.

And so, it is that quest which can feel so strong at times, to understand what am I here for, and what am I supposed to be doing with my life, and is there something unique about me that I'm supposed to be showcasing or honing in some way. 

So, I would never throw that whole idea out and say, “Stop trying to find your purpose or that ambition is bad.” I wouldn't. I don't think Scripture gives us that idea at all. 

But motive, it so often comes down to motive. This is not a once and for all. The bottom-line question is, “Am I being driven by my desire to glorify God?” Or the alternative, “Is my desire to glorify myself?” And I can tell you as somebody who's been in ministry for a long time, you can definitely start out as a desire to glorify God and somewhere along the way, that desire for self-glorification takes back over. So, this is why we have to be in God's Word. It's why we have to be surrounded by God's people. 

I just think the overall discussion is helpful, because that drive is to understand why we exist. Where it gets unhelpful is when we think the ultimate aim is to accomplish something for ourselves. 

My friend, Kelly Needham, has a book about this called Purposefooled. Isn't that a great topic? And the idea is this, like this quest, this hunger, sometimes will say, “Find the center of God's will.” That's what I'm in, God's will, but am I in the center of God's will? And is this my God-given purpose as if that's something that you're supposed to discern as really specific to you? That's ultimately going to leave you really unsatisfied. 

So, I would commend Kelly Needham’s book, Purposefooled.  And I would always bring you back to that question, which is, “Who am I doing this for? Ultimately, who am I hoping is most glorified” by whatever you want to call it—purpose, ambition, vision, vocation, those can all be descriptors for the same thing. The Holy Spirit has to help us rightly see our intentions. But He will because He wants to see us living in our purpose too. That's why we were made. 

Shannan: Erin, as you have written books over the years and had so many opportunities to teach, what has kept you grounded in keeping that motive pure, that you mentioned? 

Erin: Well, it's a constant battle. And honestly, there's some pretty big fears in my heart. You know, Scripture describes this moment when will stand before the Lord. I don't have any worry that I will not be welcomed into the kingdom. I know that is settled. 

But there is going to be a weighing of our intentions. There are rewards talked about in Scripture, not rewards for salvation, Christ took care of that. But rewards for the things we've done for God's kingdom. Our heart motives are going to be weighed. I do know there's going to be a lot of things I did that impressed people. There's going to be books that I wrote, messages I gave where people responded, and they're going to get burned up because, ultimately, my heart motive was self and not the Lord. So, I know that's a reality. That makes me fearful, I think in the best possible way. 

But also, no book I'll ever write is going to make it pass the fire. No message I ever teach is eternal. There are three things that are gonna last forever: God, God's people, and God's Word. And so I think anytime I'm investing in those things, I know, I'm investing in something that matters.

The Lord's also given me a husband, children, and a sick mom—things that keep me really tethered to reality. I can assure you that no one who lives at my address is impressed by me, and that's a good thing. 

Now, Jason, my husband, has been an absolute champion. He was telling me I was a Bible teacher long before I thought I was a Bible teacher. And every podcast season I ever teach or book I ever write, he is the one cheering. But he also sees my weaknesses. He would never do it publicly because that's not the kind of man he is, but he's seen me at my worst . . . and at my best. He knows at the end of the day, I'm a sinner who needs Jesus a whole lot. 

So, my advice to a lot of younger teachers and writers is to surround yourself with people you can't impress. I have those people, and God uses them. I've often said there's a reason why humility and humiliation are such similar words. He kind of keeps me in that place of humiliation before the people that don't care that I'm an author and don't care that I'm a teacher. I'm just their mom, or I'm just their friend, or I'm just their daughter. I'm really grateful for those things. 

And at the end of the day, if God took it all away tomorrow; if for whatever reason I could never write another book, I could never host another podcast, I could never teach, it would be okay because I live for Jesus in whatever way He lets me do that. 

I don't know that there's just one way, but this is gonna sound trite. But being grounded in Scripture is going to be the thing that keeps you tethered to reality in a way that nothing else can. It's good advice for everybody. Stay in His Word.

Shannan: Erin, what would you say to the woman who is on the other end of the spectrum and feels called to teach but maybe is held back by fear. More pride?

Erin: Well, that's for good reason. Scripture tells us that not many of us should become teachers, because those of us who teach will be held to a higher standard. So, the stakes are high. We live in an era one of the things that concerns me about this era that we're in is that anybody can be an expert. They don't have to go to school; they don't have to get the PhD. They don't have to have an apprenticeship. They can just decide, “I'm an expert in such and such. I'm going to start a social media channel to support that.” And the Bible would temper that in us. The Bible would say, especially those of us who would claim to be Bible teachers, that that should come with some weight. 

So, I would affirm. Good, I'm glad there's a level of fear. But also, if God has given you the gift, it's for you to use. It's not for you to bury it in the backyard, as we talked about in this series. Now, scale in Georgia scale, you're not in charge of scale. So how big is that? How many people?

Shannan: Erin, what would you say to the woman who is listening to this, and is on the other end of the spectrum where they believe they are called to teach, but maybe haven't been able to move forward because of fear?

Erin: Well, not all fear is bad. There's a healthy fear that comes with teaching. Scripture tells us that not many should become teachers, for those of us who are will be held to a higher standard. Why is that? Because people look to us as authority, and they believe what we say. If we are leading sheep astray, that is serious business. One of the things that really concerns me about our culture, and I'm talking about the church culture right now, is that anybody can become sort of a self-described expert. They don't have to have an apprenticeship. They don't have to get the PhD. They can just decide I'm an expert in a book of the Bible or a principle and teach on that a lot. I do think we need the learning, the training. 

But that's not really the woman you're describing. You're talking about the woman that is just paralyzed. To her I would say, “Now's the time to get off the bench.” What was true in the Gospels is true now, ‘The harvest is ready, and the workers are few.”

It can be tempting to look around and go, “There's so many Bible teachers right now.” That doesn't change the fact that the harvest is ready and the workers are few. God didn't give you that gift for you to bury it. God didn't give you that gift for you to cower with it. He gave you that gift for His glory and the good of the Church. 

But just sitting there with that knowledge, “I am a teacher, and I'm not using it because I'm fearful.” I would say, “Come on, we need you. The time is now.” 

It's like so many things. I often heard people say this about having kids, and it applies here. If you wait until you're ready, you're never gonna have kids. If you wait until you're ready to be married, you're never going to be married. And if you wait until you feel 100%, ready to teach the Bible, I assure you, you will never teach the Bible. 

I'll say this publicly, and I hope people will hold me to it. The moment I step up to teach and I say, “I'm totally ready, I feel totally ready for this.” That should be the last time I teach because there needs to be dependence on the Holy Spirit. 

So, part of that tension is good. It's neediness. You want that. You don't ever want to let go of that. But don't let it keep you from serving the Lord. Because here's the bottom line. He's worthy. 

Shannan: There's someone that you can teach. As someone who's married to a pastor who oversees small groups, I know there's a need for leaders for small groups. 

Erin: Yeah. 

Shannan: There's a need for people to serve in children's ministry. There's probably somewhere that you can start teaching and be faithful with what God's put in front of you right now, as a small step. 

Erin: And you know, something I think about and like to talk about often is the women who are hidden in the church, the ones that will never have their names on the cover of a book, the ones that when you and I think about Bible teachers right now, we might be talking about public names that have some sort of platform, but these women are not that kind of teachers. 

They've taught the third-grade girls Sunday school class for fifteen years. They've taught to junior high students in their little community church because that's all that come. They've taught their own grandchildren with no fanfare at all. 

So, when I'm saying step up to the plate, I don't mean you have to be in a major league stadium with a live game and thousands of cheering fans. Maybe you step up to the plate in the little community ballpark in your town. Maybe it means stepping up to the plate in your backyard. The size of the stadium, meaning the number of women you're teaching, is not what ultimately matters. 

What matters is your faithfulness to God's Word. Be faithful where you are. Teach those that God has brought into your world. 

There's something that we say often to Revive Our Hearts, which is, “You take care of the depth of your ministry,” meaning you make sure you're rooted in God's Word and trust the Lord to take care of the breadth of your ministry. 

So, teach whom the Lord has brought to you. Start now. Start with Genesis 1, God made the world. Start with a psalm you love. You don't have to invent some stellar, amazing new curriculum. There's nothing new under the sun. Be faithful, and just give people God's Word. 

I once heard this anecdote and I don't know if it's true or not. But there was this pastor at this big conference. He got up to speak, and he just read a chapter straight out of the Bible and sat down and turned to his neighbor and said, “Best sermon I ever preached.” And that's it. That's how we become good Bible teachers as we give them the Word.

Shannan: The Deep Well with Erin Davis is part of the Revive Our Hearts podcast family, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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