Pursuing God's Call

By Tom Lin

What happens when God calls you to follow him? Where might Jesus take you? What might it cost? And what kind of surprising blessings could it bring you and the world around you? Through sharing his own personal story, Urbana director Tom Lin shows how pursuing God?s call can take us in unexpected directions. As a success-driven Harvard student, Tom figured he was headed for a lucrative career in corporate business. But then God called him to a life he never expected. Despite painful resistance from his family, he followed Jesus, eventually going halfway around the world to pioneer Christian campus ministry in the virtually unreached nation of Mongolia. Along the way he saw how God had been guiding his journey all along. Our challenge today is that we too easily settle for less than God intends for us. We prefer comfort and avoid risks. But we live in an era of unprecedented opportunities for God's global mission. If we are willing to embrace a life of adventure, we too can discover the radical ways God can use us to bless the nations. So step up and answer the call. And God will surprise you beyond all imagination.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IVP
• Release date: Sep 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9780830866007

Tom Lin

Tom Lin is the president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He previously served as vice president and director of missions and the director of the Urbana Student Mission Conference. He also spent several years in Mongolia pioneering campus student ministry with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. He is the author of Pursuing God's Call and Losing Face Finding Grace. Lin has pioneered new Asian American Christian Fellowships at Harvard and Boston University, and served as an IVCF staff trainer, fund development specialist, and missions department consultant. He has leadership experience with a number of Christian ministries, serving the Lausanne Movement as the international deputy director for North America, and serving as a board member for Missio Nexus and The Crowell Trust. He has also served as vice chairperson for the board of Wycliffe Bible Translators. A second-generation Taiwanese American, Lin has developed networks in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Brunei. He has also served as a human resources director of a Fortune 500 company and was leadership pastor at Wellspring Covenant Community Church. He and his wife Nancy live in Madison, Wisconsin, with their two daughters.

Book preview

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Pursuing God's Call Cover

Pursuing God's Call

Tom Lin

Series editors:

Nikki A. Toyama-Szeto and Tom Lin

IVP Books Imprint

www.IVPress.com/books

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InterVarsity Press

P.O. Box 1400

Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426

World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com

E-mail: [e-mail]

© 2012 by Tom Lin

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at www.intervarsity.org.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version®, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.tm Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

While all stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information in this book have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple

Images: abstract background: © Matthew Hertel/iStockphoto

housing icon: © Matthew Hertel/iStockphoto

ISBN 978-0-8308-6600-7

In honor and living memory of Sue Lin

Contents

Pursuing God's Call

Letting Go of the Dream

Embracing a Global Vision

A Costly Choice

Obstacles to Obedience

Saying Yes to God’s Global Mission

God’s Unexpected Blessings

Unprecedented Opportunities

Four Ways to Bless the Nations

A Dream Transformed

Questions for Reflection

Aknowledgments

Notes

About the Author

About Urbana

Urbana Onward Series

Spiritual Warfare in Mission

Pursuing God's Call

Partnering with the Global Church

The Mission of Worship

Your Mind's Mission

Deepening the Soul for Justice

Pursuing God's Call

It was the summer of 1991, and I was a high school graduate, ready and eager to begin the next phase of my life. The news from around the globe in the decade prior had been dramatic and world-changing, from the fall of communism, to the unrest in the Middle East, to the revolution in Tiananmen Square. But I still remember feeling distant from what was happening outside the borders of the United States; global events were interesting but not relevant to my daily life as an American teenager.

I was looking forward to college as the next step in my quest to turn my future hopes into reality. My plans were to study as hard as I did in high school, then attend a top-notch law school and become a top-notch corporate attorney, pursuing the prestige, salary and benefits that accompany such a career. It was my personal version of the American Dream.

We’re proud of you, Tommy, my parents would tell me whenever I mentioned my life goals, and their affirmation would send waves of joy inside me, confirming that I was on the right path. They were big supporters of my dream, as immigrants from Taiwan who had high hopes for me, their firstborn son. I was to fulfill all their reasons for coming to America in the first place. College, graduate school, a well-paying job and eventually settling down somewhere with a wife and family—this was the future narrative that I was supposed to follow.

Nothing I learned through my days and years in