Pivot, change, move, adjust, adapt

We spent some time at a recent Stronger Facebook live with someone who recently pivoted and has founded a new film ministry. Here are five things we took away from his journey.

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These are some of the words we’ve all heard a lot over the last couple of years. Of course we have, we have been in a global crisis that has affected us all in different ways. We’ve all had to pivot and change.

Whether that’s:

👉 Pivoting with our objectives
👉 Pivoting in our leadership style 
👉 Pivoting to respond to unforeseen challenges
👉 Pivoting in your career or profession

That’s why Bayile Adeoti and I were very interested to ask David Ingall at our recent Facebook live, how in the last couple of years he managed to pivot from being a vicar to launching a new film ministry called ‘Burning Heart’. Here’s a little snippet of the conversation:

Matt: So David, tell us a bit about the transition you made. What you were doing before and how you worked out this change of direction was something that God was leading you into?

David: I suppose I feel that the heart of my ‘calling’ has always been preaching and proclaiming God's word, and there's a verse in Jeremiah, when he talks about the Word of God being ‘shut up within him like fire in his bones’, and it’s like he has to get it out there. I’ve always really resonated with that as a description of what I feel God is asking me to do.

“When I was a student at University about 20 years ago I used to go on walks and just preach at the trees”

When I was a student at University about 20 years ago I used to go on walks and just preach at the trees, but alongside that I've always had a real passion and desire to proclaim God’s word through film, and there was a desire but also a frustration that nobody else was doing it and that we needed people to step forward and do it.

Then just before the pandemic in 2020 I felt like a nudge to move on as vicar of my church in London which was a bit of a surprise actually, and it wasn't an entirely pain free process. I felt God was saying, ‘it's time to move on’, and that I had done all that he asked me to do there, and I was thinking, ‘Okay, well, that wasn't quite what I wanted to do’. So, there was a kind of painful letting go process, but then at the same time, I felt God say to me ‘this vision that you've had for 20 years? that one day you would make films and preach?, well, now is the time’, and I was a bit like, ‘oh, okay, that wasn't what I was expecting!’.

Matt: what would you say to someone who at the beginning of the journey, feeling something is burning inside them, what would you suggest to people in in that category?

David: Well, I suppose the first thing is, is to recognise it, and to thank God for it. And if you're unsure about it, to really pray about it, and speak to other people about it, but I suppose when it comes to calling we need to ask ourselves ‘is this God?’, and ‘is this now?’, 

Often one of the mistakes that we can make, and I've definitely made it in the past, is we try and run into something that God has asked us to wait for, and the timing isn’t right, However, if the answer is, ‘yes, now is the time’, I don't know about you, but I want to be the kind of person who runs after all that God has for me, and if I'm going to fail, I want to fail because I was trying to go where God was leading me, rather than being too cautious that I might get it wrong. 

So that was a little snippet of our conversation this week at the monthly facebook live, and here are a few practical take aways that may be useful if you’re in a time of working out how to respond to God stirring something in you:

1.Pray into key bible verses

David had a passage from Jeremiah that really stood out to him and stirred him. You may have something like that too. It will be a story, or verse or passage that consistently grabs your heart strings time and again over a period of time. Journal about it. Write it down. Pray about it and ask God to keep speaking to you about it.

2.Notice your holy discontent

Did you see where David had some holy discontent? He was frustrated that film wasn’t been used more widely and effectively to communicate God’s word. It was fuel for the fire that went with his passion to proclaim the gospel afresh in our generation. Where are you feeling a holy discontent?

3.Wait for the right time

David worked with the idea and prayed about it for a number of years before actioning anything. There was a lot of behind the scenes and foundational work first before anything changed. He actually had been thinking and praying about this for 20 years. For others it may not be so long, for others it will be less. 

4.Embrace weakness

David was suprised that God was leading him on from church leadership partly because he hadn’t seen the things he wanted to see. God said that he had been faithful with what he had asked him to do. In the process of moving on there was a process of letting go, and embracing weakness. He found Jesus in that place. You can too.

5.Test your ideas

Elsewhere in our conversation we heard that David had been trialling and testing his vision for filmmaking while he was leading a church. It was as though he took some little steps and God met him and provided for him which further encouraged him to keep moving forward.

If you’re in a place of pivoting to new things, some of the practical steps maybe the next step you need to take. As you take a little step forward towards God, certainly my experience has been that God takes a bigger step towards you.