Called and Equipped: Ministry Beyond Traditional Boundaries
God is still calling people to His service. The Church needs pastors and preachers and teachers and worship leaders, but sometimes those callings don’t look quite like you might expect.
About 2% of the 70 million deaf people worldwide know the Gospel*. This is one of the most unreached people groups for Jesus!
When Jeannette Gatz’s twins were born profoundly deaf, she did not know how difficult attending church would become. What began as a mother’s desire to communicate with her Deaf** children became a lifelong calling to serve the Deaf community with the Gospel. The family spent years struggling to make church accessible for their oldest children. Then someone invited them to the local Nazarene church. During services, Jeannette started interpreting the worship into American Sign Language (ASL) so her twins could participate alongside the rest of the congregation, but she was interrupted – by someone volunteering to do it for her! Suddenly, the twins were being ministered to and she could soak in the message, too.
Eventually, Jeannette started attending a step study called Dangerous Discipleship, and she sensed God calling her into Deaf ministry. Although she had already been serving as an interpreter, Jeannette realized God was calling her to something deeper than interpreting alone. He was calling her to shepherd and disciple Deaf believers while helping the church become a place where Deaf people are seen, known, valued, and fully included as members of the Body of Christ.
While praying over her four teenage children one night, Jeannette sensed the Lord asking, “How do you expect your children to obey My calling if you’re not obeying My calling on your life?” In that moment, she realized it was time to surrender and begin preparing for the ministry God was calling her to.
Jeannette started her ministry training at NBC, then paused to pursue associate degrees in ASL-English Interpreting and Deaf Studies.
American Sign Language is not a visual representation of spoken English. It is an entirely distinct language with its own structure and grammar. Interpreting from English to ASL does not mean each spoken word becomes a sign. Instead, each thought or concept can become a sign.
After completing associate degrees in ASL-English Interpreting and Deaf Studies, Jeannette returned to NBC to continue preparing for ministry through the Ministry Preparation Program.
Most people who are born deaf in the US do not understand English as their first language, making even written Christian resources out of reach. While Jeannette has served in Deaf ministry for many years, NBC courses such as Biblical Interpretation will deepen her theological training and strengthen her ability to faithfully communicate Scripture in American Sign Language. Through these courses at NBC, Jeannette is continuing to prepare herself to shepherd the people God has already called her to serve and wherever He may lead in the future.
"I don't know exactly where God is leading, but I know He's called me to be faithful. Every class is helping prepare me to handle His Word rightly and to serve the Deaf community wherever He leads." Jeannette is in the Pastoral Leadership program at NBC.
*According to the Deaf Bible Society.
**Deaf is capitalized when referring to the Deaf community as a cultural and linguistic group.
God’s call to ministry is not always born out of a family need. For Regis Campbell, it grew through three decades of work in the federal prison system.
Regis spent 30 years working in the electronics division of a federal prison, building electronics for the US military. As a Christian, he knew two things about every inmate he encountered: “They were people before they were inmates, and if anyone needs God’s grace, it’s them.” With this guiding philosophy, he built a reputation within his teams of always treating inmates with respect and kindness. This was the basis of his early ministry.
One day, while teaching his team to build and test electronics, a clerk mentioned an inmate Regis had not yet met who wanted to talk to him. Regis went to find him.
“I understand you are a Christian,” the man started.
“I am.”
“I don’t want you to preach to me!” the inmate declared. Then he explained that his wife was also in prison, and they only got to talk once each month. But something had changed with her. “She says she is ‘born again’, but I don’t know what that means.” God had opened a door to share the Gospel, and Regis was ready to step through it.
For decades, Regis and his wife Florence had taught Sunday school, led Bible studies and home fellowships, and cultivated reputations that led to encounters like this one. At retirement, they knew God was still calling them to be faithful witnesses, but now it would be in a different way. God was calling Regis to pastor.
Regis chose NBC when he went back to college at age 60. He had spent his adulthood reading and studying the Bible, but he had not learned the depths of research required for true exegetical study. Studying at NBC “opened a whole new realm for me as far as understanding the deep things of God instead of just the surface knowledge.”
Three years ago, Regis graduated from NBC with a Bachelor of Arts in Ministry majoring in Bible and Theology. Now, he and Florence continue to be faithful witnesses through pastoring, chaplain work, home visitations, delivering mercy meals, serving with hospice, supporting local food banks, and showing Jesus to the people they meet on the street.
First, God called her to ministry. Then she married a preacher and they worked together spreading God’s Word. Then the preacher lost his voice. Sometimes the call to ministry means accepting God’s will “for such a time as this.”
Jennifer Brewer-Wilkerson grew up in the parsonage and never knew anything other than being in ministry, so she wasn’t surprised when the Lord clearly spoke to her during district kids’ camp, calling her to music ministry. “I will never have to talk publicly,” she told herself at the time. Leading worship and singing “was my hope and goal.”
She grew up knowing she would follow this call. When she married a pastor, Bob Wilkerson, she stepped eagerly into the role of pastor’s wife, leading worship and serving in the church. After several years of working together this way, the couple felt God calling them to full-time evangelism, and again, they willingly answered yes.
“I thought, This is awesome!” she says now. “We’ll go places. You’ll preach. We’ll sing together, and I’ll sing and lead worship.” It was the perfect fit.
Then she got a phone call from a church planning a ladies’ retreat and inviting her to be the main speaker. She thought they had called the wrong person, but she did agree to pray about it and talk to her husband before giving her decision. By the time she called the church back to accept the invitation, she told God, “This is still crazy, but if You’re in this, I’ll do it.” She hasn’t stopped speaking and preaching since.
God had first given her a love for worshipping through song, and now He let her fall in love with proclaiming the Word in a spoken way. She built her confidence and skills by speaking at women’s events, but God did not put restrictions on her call. During one revival where her husband had been called to preach and she to sing, Bob had to have emergency oral surgery. He suggested that Jennifer could preach that evening, and the pastor immediately agreed. She was stunned but again responded, “Lord, if You are in this, I will do it.” She preached, and God blessed.
Over the next few years, Bob began to struggle with his health. He lost his voice completely for a time, and though they worked together to find the right treatment for him, he never fully regained his voice. Then he suffered a stroke, and Jennifer spent a few months as his primary caregiver. Yet God did not seem ready to release Jennifer from the call to preach. Instead, it seemed God had been preparing her for just this situation.
Jennifer’s husband, other family members, and people at church began encouraging her to get properly trained for the work God had clearly called her to do. “I knew NBC was the route I would go because everyone that I know have all come through NBC better and stronger and more equipped for ministry and spiritually in their own personal development than when they started. I wanted what they had!”
Jennifer Brewer-Wilkerson is in the Ministry Preparation Program at NBC, and she received her district license earlier this month.
Jesus has compassion for all the people of our world and has invited us to participate in reaching them with the Gospel! Are you ready to answer His call? You can start your preparation this semester at NBC!