MEET NATHAN
AAIV UW
What has God shown you about who you are?
Growing up, I never thought of myself as a leader—certainly not one in a Christian community. But during my freshman year of college, as I began to follow Jesus seriously, He called me to lead a small group.
And I said, “NOPE!”
Doubts filled my head. You don’t know enough about the Bible. You don’t pray enough. You’re not spiritual enough. You’re not good enough.
I’ll forever be thankful that my small group leader at the time, Angela Li, who encouraged me and removed these lies from my head. She saw something in me that I never saw in myself. God used her to push me out of my comfort zone and take a risk: become a small group leader.
Since that moment, I’ve never looked back.
The following year, God blessed me with an amazing small group. There was so much fruit and joy that came out of it; not because of anything that I did, but because God was faithful and was next to me every step of the way.
God showed me that I could be a leader in His church—that I had gifts meant to glorify Him and serve others. I learned that being a leader in God’s community is not about being confident and extroverted. It’s not about being a good public speaker. It’s not about having Biblical knowledge. It’s certainly not about having it all figured it out.
When you follow Jesus, He’ll call you into things that are uncomfortable and even scary. And I feel that we often make excuses as to why we we’re not cut out for these things. And we allow these lies to dictate our lives. And we remain comfortable to the point of complacency.
But in the Gospels, Jesus calls the most ordinary fishermen to be His disciples. He didn’t go find the best public speakers or the most knowledgeable teachers. He called some average Joes to be the foundation of His church.
I used to believe that there’s all these prerequisites to serving God, like when you apply to a major. But Jesus never says, “Come, follow me… if you meet my requirements."
He says, “Come, follow me, and let me handle the rest." That’s the only prerequisite – to say YES to Jesus.
I hope that each of us in AAIV will say YES to Jesus too, in whatever way that may be. Because in God’s Kingdom, we all have something to offer.