Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 9
He uses examples of different callings—Tibet, Lancaster County, a student’s vow of poverty—and says “it’s not every man for himself…it’s every man for Christ”; how should a church community discern and test “what God calls us to” without sliding into either rigid uniformity or isolated individualism?
Another way to ask: How can a church figure out what God is calling people to do without forcing everyone to live the same way, and without everyone just doing their own thing? What helps a community test callings wisely?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The transcript doesn’t outline a step-by-step church process for discernment, but it implies a community should test callings by Christ-centered discipleship: a yielded, cross-bearing commitment to follow Jesus and live out Scripture, rather than enforcing one uniform lifestyle or letting each person justify anything. The key guardrail is “every man for Christ,” not self and not mere tradition.
- Cliff says God may call one person to “Tibet” and another to “Lancaster County,” and “the simple life is to follow his call.”
- He gives a concrete example: a student took “a vow of poverty,” sold everything, and lived with homeless people “for a period of time in ministry.”
- Yet he also affirms God may call others “into business and farming… normal life.”
- Regardless of calling, it must be “undergirded by a yieldedness… brokenness… to follow wherever he calls.”
- When concerned about subjectivity, Cliff responds: “No, it’s not every man for himself. It’s every man for Christ.”
- He anchors discernment in Scripture’s “vision… for what the kingdom citizen should look like.”