Cory Nikkel: From Seeker to Preacher

This is the follow up post to last Saturday's article by Cory Nikkel. The issue of how a man is called to preach the gospel is central to the beliefs of the Followers of Christ. The FOC has been waiting since 1969 for God to supernaturally call a preacher to lead their church. 

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Cory Nikkel: from my last post , I left you with my “seeking” mentality to find more of Jesus whether it was in or outside of church. Before and after this process of discovery I was uniquely called by God to be a minister of his word for the advancement of his Kingdom, especially within the eighteen- to twenty-nine-year-old generation.

Calling #1

In high school I had a lot of success in athletics. I played varsity sports as a freshman and was scouted by colleges to be a top athlete in basketball, baseball, and football. Sports were my life. My sophomore year I broke my foot for the third time in my life and had to miss an entire football season. I was devastated. I remember being so mad at God I told him to f-off numerous times and didn’t want anything to do with being a Christian—it was his fault that I broke my foot, or so I thought.

One day after chapel I sluggishly crutched my way to Bible class and as I was about to enter, my theology teacher popped out, “Cory, what are you doing?”

“Sorry I’m late.”

This time shouting in my face, “Cory! What are you doing with your life? God has called you to be great among this generation and you are standing here flat-lined on your death bed! Rise! Become who you were meant to be!”

I was immobile, shocked, confused. But I knew then that all these tools that God had given me in my life were meant for a greater purpose, and I felt for some reason that it was for ministry.

Calling #2

For two and a half years in college I was the spiritual leader for many. I led Bible studies, worship services, spoke at churches, youth groups, and evangelized whenever an opportunity arose; but something wasn’t right. I was faking my spiritual life—I could walk the walk and talk the talk but nothing was real for me. I was lost in myself and the personal pleasures behind the scenes that I adored but the spiritual community I lived in couldn’t know about.

Little by little I lost my calling, my heart for ministry, and my spiritual life. It was then that God called me to drop out of college and go to Australia to do mission work. I battled with this for a long time. This meant I had to leave my football team which I was captain of, school where all my friends were, and the comfortable life I knew. But the persistence of God was unbearable, so I went.

While in Australia I found myself in the middle of a Eucalyptus forest, in front of a group of thirty-seven believers from seventeen different nations, being questioned by a man I just met about my life’s calling.

“Will you really let go of your desires to pursue God’s will, Cory?”

“I’m not sure if I can do that. How do I know what’s his idea and what’s mine?”

“It’s simple, will you stay here and do missions for the rest of your life if that’s what the Lord has called you to do?”

My mind raced as I thought of all the things back in Iowa that I wanted, needed, and didn’t want to leave. How could I give that up for life in missions? The inner battle continued and then God spoke to me, “If you have submitted your heart to me and only me, you will do whatever I ask you to do.”

It all made sense now, “Yes, I’ll stay and do missions if that is what God wants me to do.”

A big grin crossed the man’s face, “Good. The Lord told me this morning if you’d submit your life to him and deny what you want for yourself, he’d bless you to return home and equip you with gifts to rise you up as a leader in your generation.

Present Day

It wasn’t a pretty process, but I’ve accepted the call. These two instances bring weight to God pulling me towards a ministerial vocation, but I also can’t deny the set of skills he’s blessed me with either. I have a natural ability for speaking, writing, and being creative. I thrive under pressure and being in front of crowds of people and the Lord has blessed me in those moments, too, almost as if to say, “Thank you for doing what I asked you to do.”

Os Guinness once wrote, “The secret of seeking is not in our human ascent to God, but in God’s descent to us. We start out searching, but we end up being discovered. We think we are looking for something; we realize we are found by Someone.”

This is exactly what happened to me. I searched for God and answers to the big questions of my life, but in that search he found me and planted me exactly where I need to be—preaching, writing, and equipping the children of God, especially the eighteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds.

I am twenty-three years old and being a minister is what makes sense to me. God called me to it and preaching as well as studying the Bible is what gives me the most joy; it is what fills me up and I long to do it day after day. I don’t always get it right and I’m learning a lot in this journey, but God’s unique call in my life is one that I will never be able to deny.

Cory Nikkel: Leaving Church to Find Jesus

“Woah, woah, woah. You can’t do that! You can’t just skip over the spiritual gifts when it is in the context of the passage.” I gasped as I sat in the church pew at a Christian Reformed Church located in southeast Iowa. “I’ll give him a piece of my mind.”

Squirming with built-up rage I fumed for the rest of the service waiting to burst out of my seat and pursue my prey—the pastor.

“Please tell me how you can justify skipping over the spiritual gifts when you are reading directly from 1 Corinthians 12? Seriously!”

Pastor Ron stumbled over his words and finally spit out, “It’s just not what we believe in our church, no use in reading it if we can’t talk about it or believe it.”

“This is pathetic. I’m leaving and don’t expect me to come back.” I stormed out desperately wanting to give him and the church the middle finger.

This was my departure from what I knew as church. At only 18 years old and considered to be the “church class leader” this did not sit well with the church council, congregation, or my parents. But there had been something stirring inside of me for months while I sat in church—in the same church my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents had gone to—and I needed to figure it out.

To me, the church seemed dead. No one had passion, excitement, or joy. People just showed up and did what they always did—sat in the pew, emotionless. At this point in my life I had already been to Peru and Mexico on mission trips and to numerous different states, and when I was there I felt the Holy Spirit alive in me. But not here, not at my home church.

So I left the church, but I didn’t leave Jesus. I decided to figure out why there were so many denominations of Christianity and why people attended their particular choice. I called the next 4 months a “Denominational Study.” I read 9 different books on denominations and attended a service as well as talked to pastors from Lutheran, Evangelical Free, Pentecostal, Methodist, Catholic, Nazarene, Baptist, Greek Orthodox, and Mormon.

I asked these two questions of the pastors every time: 1) Why do you preach in _______ denomination? and 2) Have you always been here and would you ever switch?

Ultimately I got lots of the same responses which went like this, “I guess I’m a pastor in this denomination because it’s what I was raised in, and I could never see myself leaving.”

You can probably see that this didn’t sit well with me.

If all church was becoming was a place for hermits who go to church because they always have, but don’t really know why they go, then what’s the point? Why even go? You just waste your time sitting there anyways!

My heart burned for an answer to this mess I was unraveling. There had to be a purpose for church. I couldn’t have wasted 18 years of my life in this place and it not be worth something.

For the next 2 years I continued searching. Searched my heart, rode a roller-coaster of a spiritual life, and never returned to my home church. My parents would tell me of the congregation and pastor’s concern but they understood my heart needed more than it was receiving, so they let me carry on.

But here is the interesting thing that happened, God never left me. There were times when I tried to make it happen, but inherently knew it was impossible. I found that when I read my Bible and had a prayer life, joy was evident. When I tried to go my own way and forget about God, I was joyless.

No God, No Joy—Know God, Know Joy.

Here I am now five years later. I’m 23 years old, a traveling preacher and author, and I teach English at a public school, too. I don’t belong to a specific denomination, I don’t go to just one church, I just seek and serve Jesus. And I’m not perfect at it. I’m broken, bruised, battered, and need Jesus now more than ever.

That’s what I’ve figured out through this whole “leaving my home church” experience—I just needed to be real with myself, be alive in my faith. There are deep philosophical answers as to “why” all these denominations exist, but at the core of it all, everyone just wants more of Jesus, and that’s what I want, too. Perhaps a church will give that to me one day, or maybe I’ll start my own, but until then, I just live to find and give a little more Jesus every day.

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Cory Nikkel (@corynikkel) is a 23 year old author, speaker, and creative mind who strives to be an uplifting and influential voice in the 18-29 year old generation. If you can’t find him wearing one of his many hats, he’s probably in front of his computer figuring out the kinks in his website, www.corynikkel.com.

Please return next Saturday to read Cory's second guest blog about his ministerial calling.