5/22/24 - 2043: Meet Global Ministry's Matchmaker
Jim: You've tuned into iWork4Him, the Voice of Collaboration for the Faith and Work Movement.
Martha: And we are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, and our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.
Jim: For the last 11 years we've told you that your workplace is your mission field. And that in that mission field, that's your assigned place of ministry, that you'll use your job and your job skills to bring glory to God through the excellence of your work and use your love for your workplace neighbors to show them the power of Jesus in your own life.
That you don't need to quit your job and go overseas as a missionary in order to be on the mission field. But what if God is calling you to move your job to a foreign country where typical missionaries and pastors really aren't welcome but people with your job skills, those people are welcome and you can get paid too? We call that here at iWork4Him a fully funded missionary. Both staying here and being on the mission at work and going overseas to be on mission at work are valid ways to live out your faith at work. What is God calling you to do?
Maybe God is calling you to take your work and take it somewhere else. Maybe he's calling you to the foreign mission field of California. You never even know! All right, but today we introduce you to a ministry called Compel Global. And we got Josiah " JJ" Harling here to tell us all about it. Compel Global is there to help you match your job skills with a place not here in the states that needs those skills and your Jesus. JJ, welcome to iWork4Him.
Josiah (JJ) Harling: Hey, thanks so much for letting me hop on the podcast with you guys. It's a pleasure to be here.
Jim: We're always excited to introduce new resources to our listeners. And we've done that a couple thousand different times over the last 11 years. And we're excited to hear all about Compel Global. But before we do, we always start off with, tell us your Jesus story.
Josiah (JJ) Harling: It's a good question, Jim, again, thanks for letting me be on the podcast. And I just want to share a little bit of the history. So I come from a ministry family. My parents were actually missionaries overseas when I was born. And then we came back to the States when I was really young and dad was in the pastorate and pastored tiny churches, major mega churches, everything between. .
Jim: So you're a pastor's kid. You're one of those.
Josiah (JJ) Harling: I have all of the stereotypes, Jim, all of that. Pastor's kid, missionary kid, all of it. But so faith was always a part of my journey, but I remember being in college, there was a particularly challenging season for my parents in ministry. And I just had a front row view where the church was crumbling around, around my dad and he was getting attacked from many different sides and his character was being attacked and slanderous rumors and lies spread about him.
And as a student, as a college student at the time, I concluded I love Jesus, but hate his church. I want nothing to do with church. And I remember actually taking a jog on the beach and telling God that, which is a fun conversation. And almost audibly, he reminded me what he thought of his bride, what he had done for his bride, and specifically called me into serving the bride and helping Christians have their eyes on the harvest.
That was the unique calling that God really put on my life. And that's not just for the nations. That's not just for the neighbors. It's both, and God really burdened me with helping be a catalyst within local churches to get their eyes out.
Martha: Wow, I love that. You can just transparently say, you know that you loved Jesus, but not the church, because I think a lot of our listeners, at one time or another, have had some church hurt. And to see the redemption that can come out of that is a beautiful thing. Tell us, then, about why Compel Global? Why are you working there? What is it that God has you doing, and why are you there?
Josiah (JJ) Harling: Yeah, absolutely. I started working in ministry, and particularly in mobilization. Which if you're not familiar with that term, it's basically helping people figure out where they fit, right? We all know that we have a role within the mission of God, but helping people find the right seat on the right bus. And started doing that about 20 years ago for one organization, and then I worked for another one and I realized pretty quickly that my wiring is to be able to do that for a wide variety of different ministries, many different skill sets. And I don't want to be boxed into one particular niche.
So we actually started Compel Global to kind of function like the eHarmony in the world of global ministry and help people find roles, find opportunities with many different organizations, ministries, all over the world. And I get to be a bit of a matchmaker.
Jim: Do you do 29 compatibility test questions?
Josiah (JJ) Harling: True story. I met my wife on eHarmony. So it all comes full circle.
Jim: We had one of our foster daughters and one of our kids met their spouse on eHarmony. So it's okay. We just just so Compel Global doesn't go woke. That's what we don't want to go. So Compel Global - really lay it out for us.
Josiah (JJ) Harling: Yeah, so we are a organization that coaches individuals to find where they fit and how to use their unique skill sets for kingdom impact all over the world. One of our foundational verses is Ephesians 2 10. This says, we are his handiwork and a better word for handiwork is actually poetry. We are his poetry, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared in advance for us to do.
So the idea is that we want to help people uncover their unique skill sets, their unique perspective, and to find a way to use that for kingdom impact all over the world. And so we've been trained by many different organizations, many different ministries, on all of their opportunities, and we get to help people find where they fit.
Jim: But you're like an outsourcer, though. You're not sending.
Josiah (JJ) Harling: It's an outsourced recruitment.
Jim: But okay and we're gonna get into details, but these are taking people, taking their real job skills and taking those skills to another place where those job skills are necessary, right? Where they're really needed?
Josiah (JJ) Harling: Absolutely. Yeah.
Martha: I love this idea because so many times people feel called to do something, but the something isn't necessarily their gifting. And so we have seen several people over the years, feel like a failure in their calling because they were trying to do something that God had not wired them to do, but they weren't doing the thing that God had wired them to do. So does that make sense?
Jim: What we've seen is a lot of our friends who have gone on the foreign mission field, they have to fundraise, they have to speak, they've got to go be evangelists and then do a job or whatever it may be. And nobody has all those skill sets in one.
It's like we ask pastors to run a business, run a church, to fundraise, to preach, to teach, to run committees. And people don't have all those skill sets in one. So what you're trying to do is help them to do that stuff. We're going to have lots more with JJ Harling, but I would just want to say, our listeners have so many different jobs, just like having the ones that we're learning about.
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Martha: JJ, I have a question. Because our listeners have heard over the years that our workplace right where we are is our mission field. And for most of us, that's already in the United States. So why should someone connect with you at Compel Global and go to a foreign country to do their work? Explain that to us.
Josiah (JJ) Harling: Yeah, no, it's a great question. I think it's very easy for us as followers of Jesus to have this either or mentality, right? And I am either caring about my workplace and my neighbors, or I'm caring about the ends of the earth. And scripturally, I don't see that distinction. I'm reminded of that passage that we talked about this morning that says Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth, and there really is a a place for that holistic burden.
And so I think part of it is just looking at the opportunities where can your skill sets be best used and have the most impact. Many people don't know that there are entrepreneurs internationally that are in desperate need of the wisdom and experience that you've built as an entrepreneur. You might even be able to shepherd them virtually without having to go anywhere, just to share your expertise as a volunteer. It's my job to know about those types of opportunities and help people really get connected because your skill sets, the tangible skill sets you have, can have a tremendous kingdom impact all over the world.
Jim: So when people contact Compel global, you evaluate their skillset and then try to match them up with a sending organization. Are these paying jobs or are these volunteer jobs or are they typical missionary jobs where they go to say, Hey, we've got a place for you, but you've got to go raise 80 grand a year in order to be able to go talk to me about this. How's this working?
Josiah (JJ) Harling: All, any and all. So we have, we've placed people with about 20 different sending agencies at this point. And there are no shortage of opportunities, both to go long term and live and raise your kids overseas, do all of that. There are opportunities to volunteer without ever having to leave your home or your computer and still have a global impact. We have placed people both with support raising roles, as well as volunteer roles, as well as paid to do roles. With international firms it's our job to know who's doing what, where, and to find those opportunities.
Martha: So let's just talk to the listener for a minute. So if somebody's listening, they're going, why does this matter? Like, why would I want to make a change? Talk to me about the people that you are working with when they call you, when they reach out to you, when they connect with you, what's going on in their hearts? What's stirred them to come to you and start this conversation?
Josiah (JJ) Harling: I love that question so much. What I hear a lot is JJ, I feel like I'm made for more. I feel like I'm made for more impact, more. There's this dissatisfaction in my soul with where I'm at now. I feel like God has something else. That's where I want to interject into the story. And I begin my coaching work. Now I've actually developed a coaching framework. It's a six part framework that follows an acronym and the acronym is STRIDE.
All right. So I want to help people find their STRIDE. And so we walk people through this coaching curriculum to do exactly that. All right, real quick. I'm just going to rattle those off. So the S is your story. Okay. Most of us think that our resume qualifies us for the future. Your story is so much more. What have you endured? All right, T is for your triggers. What are the things that make both you and God angry? We want to pay attention to that. R, what are the things you got to release that you're clinging on to that are really not healthy? I, your identity. What are the strengths and gifts that God has given you? D is your sense of direction, and e is your sense of endurance. And through a coaching relationship, we're gonna really get a picture for how God may be designing you for that more, right? Whatever the more is, we're actually gonna help you to realize that and bring that to fruition.
Jim: All right. Hang on. Okay. Watch out for the soap box! Alright, so here's the deal. 95 or 96 percent of believers who are working today have this angst inside of them that they just want to make a difference. And most of them think they need to quit their jobs and go to work in a church or go on the foreign mission field in order to make a difference. When you get those people, do you ever have the conversation saying, where does God have you right now? Are you sure He wants you to leave? Are you sure that you're not called to where you are, but just need to shift the paradigm in your mind to recognize that your workplace already is a mission field, but you're not treating it like a place of ministry? Do you ever have those conversations?
Do I need to go on staff at Compel Global to help you out?
Josiah (JJ) Harling: We have those conversations all the time, but you're welcome, Jim.
(laughter)
Jim: I don't want to raise, I don't have to raise my funds to do it though. Okay.
Josiah (JJ) Harling: No, I think it really is about helping people figure out those key opportunities for impact. And we tend to think about, we tend to think about destination, and I don't think that's necessarily how God leads. The image that comes to mind is a path, and we think about God's word being a light unto our path, and we imagine this floodlight where the whole thing is illuminated, and we have clarity on exactly what our, final destination is. But I think a better picture is a lantern where God illuminates the next step and it's Intentional because it requires our trust for everything after that. So your next step is the immediate impact you're gonna have in your workplace today, right?
You may end up moving to Tajikistan and doing something, you know, beyond your wildest imaginations down the road, but God is leading you one step at a time. Always with the invitation to trust him deeper and to be more courageous with your steps.
Martha: I love the way you articulated that. I think historically people have been doing a job, feel a call to something more, and then just jump in and this whole idea of coaching and saying, let's actually find out where God wants you to be and what he wants you to be doing.
And knowing that applies in their daily life before they ever get to the end of the coaching time is going to have such an impact on life. I just, I'm very excited to hear this, and I hope our listeners are too, because I think that even if they end up just saying, Okay, I now understand that my gifting as a CPA is a gift from God. Some people might think it's a curse, right? And say, I want to do something. Oh, okay. But, I just I love this approach because you really are dealing with their heart and identifying how God's wired them and then helping them in that process. I'm so excited that we're sharing this with our listeners.
Jim: Do you have Seasons where you have, you have a whole bunch of people come in and you're working them through that whole STRIDE process and then you're trying to figure, you're weeding them out? Do you have a season like a group comes in and they start and you weed them out.
And some of them, you send them, some of them you just place. Maybe iWork4Him should be part of that process to make sure that we're activating every one of them. Because God says in the scriptures that first, you have to prove that you're trustworthy with little before you can be trustworthy with much. And being trustworthy with your own workplace where God's had you already, that's a starting place. And if you can't live out your faith vibrantly there as an excellent worker and loving on the neighbors and sharing the gospel when you're given that opportunity, you're never going to be able to do it overseas if you can't do it in your own place.
Josiah (JJ) Harling: Absolutely. Wholeheartedly.
Jim: Just one of those conversations you might want to consider, we might want to consider a deeper partnership. I know I'm pushing myself right now. All right. So I know, JJ, that some countries are just closed. They're closed to gospel missionaries, period. End of story. If you're a white person coming here to preach a gospel, we're not interested. Go somewhere else. Why is the mission of Compel Global online at compelglobal. org so unique and so necessary?
Josiah (JJ) Harling: So what we do is we are committed to helping the individual figure that out. A case study, just a few weeks ago, someone came to me and said, JJ, I've got a really particular unique skill, said I'm a helicopter pilot and my wife's a nurse. And I feel like God has uniquely equipped me with that skillset and wants me to use it. Now that is not an easy skill set to place. Because, there's one organization that does aviation, and it's flying planes, it's not helicopters. So I said let me see what we can do. Long story short, and I'll spare some of the security details, but we actually found him an opportunity to serve in a for profit company training helicopter pilots in a country where it is extremely illegal to be a missionary. He's readily able to disciple these other helicopter pilots who are all coming from a Muslim faith, and he's getting paid to do it. All right, pretty cool.
Jim: What about his nurse wife? Wait a minute, you missed out the wife.
Josiah (JJ) Harling: Yeah! She's gonna engage too! Right now she wants to prioritize the kids, but she's got a path to engage as well. But I think what we realize is sometimes it's not leading with a particular opportunity that we have to go fill, but rather it's recognizing who is God bringing to us? What are the unique skill sets that are coming to us? And then we're going to do the work of finding how can we use those in kingdom work. God rarely - Actually, God never disappoints in helping us find those opportunities. Somehow they emerge.
Martha: It is absolutely amazing. But what I'm guessing is because of having gone through your coaching process with the STRIDE model and everything, he is now prepared mentally, spiritually, emotionally, to be on alert as a disciple maker in his position. So it's such a beautiful thing.
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All right, JJ, as we close out the show, we got to have a story. You just told us a helicopter one. I want another story. I want a story of somebody came to you and said, I want to quit my job and go on the foreign mission field and where you started off with, are you sure? And then you found a place to put them through Compel Global.
Josiah (JJ) Harling: So good. You know, the one story that comes to mind right now is actually this couple that I connected with a while back, and the wife really wanted to go overseas. They were late career, actually retired. The wife really wanted to go. The husband did not. So this isn't a perfect match for your question, but the husband did not. And I got into a conversation with them and we're talking about all these different things. And he sat down and put his arms like this and a really serious a demeanor.
And he said I used to be a business administrator for a dairy farm, and you're not going to find that in missions. I'm pretty sure God is ruling this out for our future. Two weeks later, I had a job description for a business administrator in a dairy farm in Costa Rica on the mission field with one of our partner organizations. I dropped it in their inbox just with a little bit of a smirk. Now, I think that's, again, that's just the way that God works. Oftentimes our excuse is my skill set is so niche. And we have this narrative of what missions normally looks and so it's our way of weeding ourselves out.
And God's like, no, actually I wanted to use that unique skill set that you have. I want that in the nations.
Jim: And if you have to serve in Costa Rica... the Lord is calling me.
(laughter)
Martha: That's fabulous.
Jim: Suffering for the Lord in a tropical paradise.
Martha: I just one thing that I just really want to emphasize as it's coming to my mind is the fact that there are organizations don't run without the administrative side. So people that are good at administration, at computer work, at IT, there's all these things that help organizations to run. And that every one of those talents that God has gifted us with can be used for his glory, no matter where we work, whether we're working at the local dairy farm or the dairy farm in Costa Rica, our world is full of lost people that need to meet Jesus.
And no matter where we are, this is what I hope our listeners hear today, is that no matter where, we are to be on mission, sharing the gospel, being the light in a very dark place - and looking for those opportunities, Jim, where we can befriend people and eventually lead them to Jesus.
Jim: All right. Perfect candidate that should be dialing up compelglobal. org, compelglobal. org. Who should be checking you out?
Josiah (JJ) Harling: I think it would be anybody who has that heart for making disciples who's already doing it. In the workplace, it certainly could be somebody who's in vocational ministry as well, but if you're in the workplace and in your 9 to 5, you can already tell me stories of those individuals that God is using you to have an impact on. That's the heartbeat that we want to capture.
And then the move overseas is just a change in address. That's all it is. There's nothing magical about the ocean. We've already talked about that. Instead it's just getting you into another pool where the light can continue to shine. You can continue to have an impact.
I think it is just natural we talk about that. What's the reason to go overseas? Why should I do that? For those that God really is calling towards that decision by going overseas, oftentimes these are darker cultures, right? There are less believers and that is a tangible reality. And part of that is your light is going to continue to shine and potentially even illuminate at a greater level just because it is a darker culture. And so we see that for sure.
Jim: You got any final thoughts before we end the show? People dial up Compel Global. org.
Josiah (JJ) Harling: The only thing that I would say as a final insight is that it's easy for us in the world of church and in America to put missionaries on a pedestal, to put international service on a pedestal, and to even say he who suffers the most must be the most spiritual. And I just want to put that to bed.
That is not at all an accurate statement at all. Whether you are in your nine to five as an accountant and you're in Colorado Springs and you're living your faith out loud there, or you're doing it in Indonesia where there's less than 2 percent evangelicals in the country, it doesn't matter. It's literally just a change of address. I want you to live your faith out loud. It's a big deal.
Jim: JJ Harling, thanks so much for being on iWork4Him today.
Josiah (JJ) Harling: Yeah, you got it guys. Thanks for having me.
Jim: Check them out online Compel Global dot org. Compel Global dot org. You've been listening to iWork4Him with your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers, and our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.